By Donna Johnson The worship team is looking forward to the 2020-2021 church year with our new minister, Dan Lillie.
WUUC subscribes to Soul Matters. The Soul Matters web site says, “The Soul Matters Sharing Circle is a network of Unitarian Universalist congregations who follow the same monthly themes so we can more easily share small group material, as well as worship, sermon, music and children’s religious education resources. We are a web of support and connection. Companions traveling a new journey together each month.”
The themes for 2020-2021 are:
September: Renewal October: Deep Listening November: Healing December: Stillness January: Imagination February: Beloved Community March: Commitment April: Becoming May: Story June: Play
The Minister, Worship Team, and Religious
Education committee use these themes to help plan the focus of each month
during the church year. Each month a
member of the Worship Team writes an article for the WUUC newsletter about the
theme of the month. This month Linda Sherry provides an article on “Renewal”
based on the September Soul Matters materials.
Please let the Worship Team know if you have
contributions for worship based on one of the themes for the upcoming
year. Once a month our minister is not
“in the pulpit,” and we welcome lay speakers and worship leaders to provide sermons
and homilies. We also welcome short reflections, readings, poems, music, and
art based on the Soul Matters themes.
Bloodworks will conduct a pop-up Blood Drive in the WUUC sanctuary Tuesday through Thursday, Sept. 8-10, between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Donations are by appointment only. Face masks are required.
Please avoid visiting the church during this drive, except to donate blood.
For information on how to schedule an appointment, please contact Dewey Millar, 425-867-1781 (call or text).
Join us on Saturday, Oct. 10 at 7 p.m. via Zoom for a meeting of the WUUC Nonfiction Book Club. We will be discussing Daring to Drive by Manal al-Sharif. RSVP to Alaine, alaine.davis@yahoo.com.
“Manal al-Sharif grew up in Mecca the second daughter of a taxi driver, born the year fundamentalism took hold. In her adolescence, she was a religious radical, melting her brother’s boy band cassettes in the oven because music was haram: forbidden by Islamic law. But what a difference an education can make. By her twenties she was a computer security engineer, one of few women working in a desert compound that resembled suburban America. That’s when the Saudi kingdom’s contradictions became too much to bear: she was labeled a slut for chatting with male colleagues, her teenage brother chaperoned her on a business trip, and while she kept a car in her garage, she was forbidden from driving down city streets behind the wheel.
“‘Daring to Drive’ is the fiercely intimate memoir of an accidental activist, a powerfully vivid story of a young Muslim woman who stood up to a kingdom of men — and won. Writing on the cusp of history, Manal offers a rare glimpse into the lives of women in Saudi Arabia today. Her memoir is a remarkable celebration of resilience in the face of tyranny, the extraordinary power of education and female solidarity, and the difficulties, absurdities, and joys of making your voice heard.” –-Bookbrowse.com
Four times a year, the WUUC Book Discussion Group gathers to read and talk about a nonfiction book. You only attend the meetings about books that interest you, so we end up with a different group of participants every time. We meet to connect and talk about a book in depth. Anyone is welcome to suggest a book and/or lead a discussion. Contact Alaine to RSVP, suggest a book, or offer to host a future discussion.
By Rachel Eddy August is approaching and with it, our new settled minister, Dan Lillie and his family will arrive in Washington.
The Lillies plan to spend their first month in an Air B and B near Northgate while they familiarize themselves with the area and look for longer-term housing. They will arrive in Washington on Aug. 9, after a five-day drive from New Mexico.
Minister Dan will start by taking some time to get to know our church, congregation, and lay leaders. He is scheduled to be in the pulpit for the first time for Ingathering on Sept. 13.
There are several opportunities to
get involved in welcoming the Lillies to Washington and WUUC:
>Jane Matthewson is organizing a meal train to provide the family with homemade, frozen dinners that can be easily heated and served while they get settled into their new home. The Lillies do not eat pork, but have no other dietary restrictions that need to be considered. To sign up to provide a meal, contact Jane at jmathewson18919@gmail.com or 425-788-2291.
>Alaine Davis is taking the lead on putting together a welcome basket and cards introducing our congregation to greet the Lillies when they arrive in the new home. To contribute a card sharing a little about yourself and extending welcome, or to help with the gift basket, contact Alaine at alaine.davis@yahoo.com.
>The Building and Grounds Committee (BAG) is working to get our church, and specifically the minister’s office ready for Minister Dan. If you would like to volunteer with BAG, you can contact Tom Richards at tomrchrds@comcast.net.
>There will also likely be a need for help getting the family’s belonging unloaded and moved into their new home. Those interested in helping to meet that need can contact Jane at jmathewson18919@gmail.com or 425-788-2291.
Finally, Minister Dan’s virtual ordination with the First Unitarian Church of Albuquerque is scheduled for Oct. 4. Minister Dan and the Albuquerque congregation have invited us to join them as a co-sponsor of Minister Dan’s ordination, and to share in the ceremony. Ordaining a minister requires a congregational vote, so the board has called for a congregational meeting on Aug. 2, and vote on Aug. 16, recommending that we join in Minister Dan’s ordination. Please plan to attend the virtual meeting immediately following service, and be sure to return your e-mail ballot to Terry Santmann at tasantmann@gmail.com and CC David Simons at djaysimons@comcast.net. To ensure that your vote is counted, both Terry and David need to receive your ballot no later than noon Aug. 17.
Dates to Save:
August 2 – Congregational meeting regarding Minister Dan’s ordination
August 9 – The Lillies arrive in Washington
August 16 – Congregational vote on Minister Dan’s ordination
August 17 – E-mail ballots due by noon
September 13 – Minister Dan’s first Sunday in WUUC’s pulpit
Plans are underway, but not yet
settled for a drive through meet and greet in mid-August – watch for details!
What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath—
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.
And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.
Promise this world your love–
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.
Copyright Lynn Ungar 3/11/20
About the Author
The Rev. Dr. Lynn Ungar is minister for lifespan learning and editor of Quest for the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Larger Fellowship, an online congregation for isolated religious liberals. Her work is included in the anthology What We Share. …
By John Hilke I bet it has been a while since you thought about railroads, but ideas are stirring in Congress and a group called Solutionary Rail has been thinking about the overlaps between transportation, social justice, and environmental issues for several years. This picture conveys many of the key environmental ideas regarding transportation.
The industrialized world already has a vast network of RR rights of way that are underutilized. And maintenance is an issue in some regions of the U.S.
RR rights of way could be used to upgrade the electricity transmission grid to move clean power to population centers now served by coal and natural gas plants that spew carbon. Using RR rights of way for this purpose also avoids the long, messy, and disruptive process of establishing new electricity transmission corridors.
RRs are already more efficient in moving freight, but they can be even more efficient and less polluting if they are electrified, as they are in many parts of the world.
Separate trackage for freight and passenger RRs could be accommodated within many existing RR rights of way as rail traffic grows.
Short-haul passenger RR service can economically, safely, and ecologically replace airline service in many instances, as it often does in Europe.
