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THE GIFT OF YOU, SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES at UU VISALIA
"Ministry happens wherever individuals embrace the belief that their good works, their volunteerism, their acts, can help serve the mission and vision of their congregation...ministry is something shared by all who are part of a spiritual community; a way to put faith into action for the benefit of the church and the wider community."
The Gift of You, Kathy van Leuwen, UU San Mateo
We need:
Greeters- for people arriving for services, Contact April #738-1965
Hospitality Hosts- for visitors to Sunday Services, Contact April
Co-Leader -"Spirit in Practice" Adult Ed Class, Contact Harold #739-8527
Thank you. Newsletter sender and sign positions filled.
Communications Team- new members to help plan & implement publicity, newsletter, website, etc., Contact Jolene #627-8538
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Please visit our online bookstore!
Anything you buy from Amazon.com after clicking on the
Powered by Amazon.com
logo, will provide a percentage to help support our Fellowship.
Love & Death: My Journey through the Valley of the Shadow
By Forrest ChurchFrom Amazon.com: On February 4, 2008, Forrest Church sent a letter to the members of his congregation, informing them that he had terminal cancer but promising to sum up his thoughts on the topics that had been so pervasive in his work-love and death. The goal of life, Church tells us, "is to live in such a way that our lives will prove worth dying for." This moving book is imbued with ideas and exemplars for achieving that goal.
Use GoodSearch to support our Fellowship!
UU Visalia
Quick Links
Home Page:
uuvisalia.org
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Ongoing Fellowship EventsPlease Use your S.H.A.R.E.S. Card
at Save-Mart, Our Fellowship is participating in the
Save-Mart S.H.A.R.E.S program. If you take one of our S.H.A.R.E.S.
cards and give it to the clerk at the check-out counter, our
Fellowship will receive 3% of your grocery purchases from
Save-Mart, at no extra cost to you. Please get your own
S.H.A.R.E.S. card from Jolene. And... bring your receipts for the
Raffle!
Friday UU Visalia Social Lunch
Group, Join us every Friday at 12:15 p.m.for lunch - we'll
be visiting different locations each week! If you'd like to attend,
contact Harold at 739-8527 or email harold@uuvisalia.org to be added
to our weekly notification list.Join Our Choir The Choir
practices at 4 PM for rehearsal on several designated Sundays each
month. If you are interested in joining the choir, contact Ken
Elias at kelias@prodigy.net or phone: (559) 561-0610.
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Unitarian Universalist Events
UUA General Assembly - online! - Our newly elected President, Marilyn Giese, and her husband David Reid attended the 2010 General Assembly (GA) in Minneapolis in June 23-27. General Assembly is the heart of the democratic way that our faith does business. Actions of social witness are passed at GA, elements that make up future policies are discussed. There were also hundreds of entertaining programs and informative workshops, offering excellent support and learning for leaders in our congregations. Although the event is over you can join the witness for our faith and values at: http://www.uua.org/events/generalassembly/
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The Church of the Larger Fellowship (CLF), our UU church without walls, has about 3,500 members scattered all over the world. We have a military ministry at www.clfuu.org/military and as a result are helping to manage the distribution of a wonderful, new meditation manual for UUs and others in the military. It's called Bless All Who Serve, is pocket-sized, and has readings, prayers, and even hymns from many faith traditions. The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) printed the books with the help of generous donors who paid to have copies printed for military people and their families, military chaplains and UU ministers. The CLF is managing the distribution of these free, individual copies of the book.
If you would like a copy, and are in the military, are a family member, or you are a UU minister, please let me know. If there is someone in your family who is deployed or living in another area who would like a copy, the CLF will be happy to mail this book to them. It might make sense to mail one to a person who is deployed and one to a family member at home. The rules around this are flexible. The idea is to get these wonderful books into the hands of those who need them.
For those who don't quite meet the criteria, Bless All Who Serve is available for $8.00 at the UUA bookstore at
http://www.uuabookstore.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=1263.
For those of you who are members of the Church of the Larger Fellowship (CLF), Bless All Who Serve is also available toborrow from the CLF Library. Contact me with the names of friends and their families in the military who would like a copy. I will need their mailing address(es). Email me if you have any questions. And, thanks. Lorraine Lorraine Dennis
Executive Director
Church of the Larger Fellowship (CLF)
ldennis@clfuu.org
617-948-6166 |
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Worship Service Calendar
10/3 Association Sunday; leaders Bill Lovett and David Reid. A celebration of 50 years and the future of our faith where thousands of UUs across the nation simultaneously celebrate our shared commitment to Unitarian Universalism. A special collection for the UUA will be taken with proceeds going to ensure that our faith thrives for generations to come by supporting the Leap of Faith Initiative. This is a plan that gets underway in November to encourage numerical growth by developing mentoring relationships among congregations. The money will also support events in 2011 in honor of the UUA's 50th Aniversary.
10/10 Musical Service by Ken Elias and Choir; A Service of Music. Come sing some of your favorite hymns, learn one or two new ones, and hear classical piano music from three centuries played by Volunteer Choir Director Ken Elias. Program will include works of Mozart, Brahms, Schubert, and Bach.
10/17 A God We can Believe in; lead by Harold Wood, A GOD WE CAN BELIEVE IN by Rev. Galen Guengerich. This sermon addresses the question of how the belief in God persists, even
in an era when our most certain source of verifiable knowledge comes to us not from divine revelation, but from human experience and the inquiries of science. How can Unitarian Universalists address these dual realities?
10/24 United Nations Sunday Lead by Earl Cruzer - The focus of this service will be on climate change.
10/31 Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) lead by Anna Garcia
The Social Justice Team meets after the potluck on the second Sunday of the month.
The Worship Team after potluck on the third Sunday of the month.
The Communications Team meets on the third Sunday of the month at 10 AM.
Visitors are cordially invited to join us for a buffet supper and fellowship immediately following the 5:00pm Worship Service.
Please Note - Service topics are subject to change
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Community Events
ENVIRONMENTAL WEEKEND 2010
Mona Fox Selph
The Three Rivers Environmental Weekend is getting nearer as summer takes a turn to autumn. For the fourth year, the weekend event is packed with enjoyment and information opportunities. Held on October 2nd and 3rd, it combines a Saturday Green Faire day at the Three Rivers Arts Center with a Green Home Tour on Sunday.
The Green Faire, beginning at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, combines the California Native Plant Society's fall plant sale with speakers and booths sponsored by both the CNPS and the local group which calls itself the TREW CREW. The main theme for the day is food and farming and features several presentations. The first is by Dr. Donald Mosley on grass fed beef and other food animals, with additional information on organic gardening. Paul Buxman, organic farmer from Dinuba, will speak on his years of experiences, and follow up with some music on his viola. Some of his agriculturally themed very beautiful oil paintings will also be on exhibit.
In the afternoon, archaeologists Mary Gorden and Christina Roper Graber will discuss the fascinating subject of the local native people's use of the surrounding landscape's plants and animals before the arrival of European settlers, including examples of some artifacts and their applications.
The Arts Center and surrounding grounds will be full of other things to see, and things to know as well. In addition to the plant sale outside, a solar cooking demonstration will be featured, along with what's new in home solar panels, art from natural and recycled materials, and green home products and practices.
Inside, many books will be available for perusal and purchase. The CNPS and Sequoia Kings Natural History Association will have large displays. Local author Dr. Louise Jackson will be present to autograph her latest book, The Sierra Nevada Before History, Ancient Landscapes, Early Peoples. Also present will be author, painter, and poet Sylvia Ross with two children's books, Lion Singer and Blue Jay Girl.
Master Gardners will be there, and the Arts Alliance will be selling poppy seeds to support their scholarships for area youth. Spotted Owl researcher Lori Werner's Owl display will interest both children and adults. Family Farm Fresh will present some of their home delivery produce, and information on Flora Bella organic items and the local outlet will be on hand. TCCRG and a number of other information booths will fill the Arts Center for the day. At 4:30 p.m., a drawing for free door prizes will take place.
The Green Home Tour of 5 homes in Three Rivers is part of the American Solar Energy Society's annual national solar tour (www.nationalsolartour.org). All of the homes are either active or passive solar powered or assisted, and many incorporate recycled materials, earth forms and other natural materials, as well as green practices during construction and in use. Besides being innovative, they are quite beautiful. One of the homes this year, known locally as "the glass house" was Sunset Magazine's small space winner for 2009-2010. The cost for the afternoon tour is $15 per person or $25 per couple, with the proceeds going to the Sierra Club to fight for responsible growth rather than sprawl in our county. Call 561-4676 to reserve a place with either of the two tour groups.
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UU Visalia Fellowship News
SPIRIT IN PRACTICE WORKSHOPS FOR OCTOBER
Two more workshops in our "Spirit in Practice" series will be held in
October, at 7 PM on October 13 and 27th, at the Friends Meeting house. You need not have attended the first workshop to attend. Please RSVP to:
Harold Wood - harold@uuvisalia.org or 697-3525. To join us at early at 6
PM for soup and salad supper, contact Marilyn Giese at mjgiese2@gmail.com
or 687-1891.
October 13, 2010 - 7 PM WORKSHOP 2
Personal Spiritual Practices - Prayer & Meditation
This workshop will:
- Engage participants in discussing the personal spiritual practices of prayer and meditation
- Introduce participants to forms of prayer and meditation that are compatible with Unitarian Universalist values and a wide variety of theological orientations - theist, humanist, atheist, pantheist, agnostic, and more.
- Build community in the group by encouraging thoughtful speaking, listening, and discussion.
October 27, 2010 - PM WORKSHOP 3
Communal Worship Practices
This workshop will:
- Encourage participants to reflect upon and discuss meaningful experiences of worship. In a Unitarian Universalist context, when we come together in communal worship we remind ourselves that our own lives exist in a wider context, and we join with others in a celebration of life-ourown lives, the life of our community, the lives of other species on our planet, Life itself.
- Explore ways to enhance the experience of communal worship as a spiritual practice
Wonderful Wednesdays will begin again on September 22nd and continue on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month. Homemade soup, salad, and bread will again be available for supper at 6pm with a suggested donation of $4.00 to cover the cost of food.
Reservations are requested for supper. Call Marilyn Giese at 687-1891 and leave a message each week by Tuesday at 9pm. Participants will can choose between Meditation with Rick Meyers or a class from the UU Tapestry of Faith curricula. See Spiritual Practices item above.
Introduction to Ning Workshop for our UU Visalia Social Networking Site
This introductory 1 hour hands-on workshop will teach you the basics for using our new way of "going to church online!" The workshop will teach you how to use our very own private community-building networking and sharing website, powered by Ning.com.
Anyone who has attended our Fellowship regularly for a few weeks can join the site and participate in this online version of our community! Some of
the features of this social networking site allows you to participate in online discussions, share photos, participate in an online (or online version of a real-world) group, make connections with friends, learn more about Unitarian Universalism and our Fellowship, and to write your own blogs or short messages to share with others. We are sponsoring this site to enhance our community, so please join us for one of the introductory workshops!
To learn more about the site, see:
http://uuvisalia.ning.com/page/getting-started
We will have two alternative sessions of this introductory hands-on
Workshop, which will be held at the home of Harold & Janet Wood Please
bring your laptop if you have one.
Please RSVP to Harold Wood (harold@uuvisalia.org or
697-3525) indicating which session you would like to attend:
October 7, 2010 - 7 pm - 8 pm or October 20, 2010 - 7 pm -
8 pm.
New! UU Visalia Podcast!
We have started a new audio podcast of Sermons and Presentations from UU Visalia.
So far, all 7 of Sam Webster's sermons from the past year are
posted. We will plan to update the podcast site with audio from past and
future presentations. You can download these podcasts here or http://podcast.uuvisalia.org Or
just go to the iTunes Store, and search for "Unitarian Visalia".
Audio Recording from UU Visalia President Marilyn Giese
If you missed Marilyn Giese's presentation on May 31, you can listen to her
29 minute presentation on our website. Her topic was: Planning and Maintaining a Garden for The Spirit -
Musings on spiritual development and growth for our congregation. You
can download or listen to the mp3 audio recording of her presentation file
here:
http://www.uuvisalia.org/uuv_multimedia.html
Fellowship History. We would like to write up a history to post on the web and to format as a pamphlet. Do you have old documents, newsletters, photos, news clippings? Please
contact a Board member if you are interested. For more info, see:
A flyer announcing a new project on congregational histories led by the Unitarian Universalist Historical Society.
http://www.uua.org/documents/uuhs/create_cong_histories.pdf
Please Label Ingredients of Potluck Dishes. Some members and visitors have serious food allergies and we want them to enjoy dinner without worry. Please list the ingredients of your potluck dish on a post-it or index card. Particular concerns are meat, dairy products, peppers and wheat gluten. Also, if you are willing to divulge your whole recipe, we will collect the cards to include in the Fellowship Cookbook Version #2.
SHARES 3rd quarter earnings are $184.75 and climbing.
Don't forget that SHARES cards are also good at FoodMaxx and Lucky as well as Save-Mart. Bring your receipt for the quarterly raffle of a Farmer's Market Gift Certificate!
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