Summer 2017 Weekly Schedule

Church Office Hours:

Monday - Thursday, 9:30  a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Closed on Fridays

Please call the church office in advance
if you need access to the building.
Staff takes vacation during this time. 

Every Monday throughout the summer: 

5:30 p.m. Meditation Group will continue to meet throughout the summer in the Chapel.  

On Wednesdays throughout the summer: 

7:00 p.m. Tibetan Teachings 

In the Bancroft Room.

7:00 p.m. Private Rental
In the Landers Room.

On Thursdays throughout the summer: 

6:30 p.m. Kundalini Yoga

In the Chapel.

Sundays throughout the summer:

9:00 a.m. Court Hill Singers Rehearsal

In the Bancroft Room.

10:30 a.m. Worship

In the Bancroft Room

Goal Setting Update

Wendy Innis

On Sunday, June 4, a committed, hardworking group looked into the future to help us plan for the next year. Based on our mission and our long-term goals, actions can we take to make our church better? These caring members worked thoughtfully in teams and as a whole group.

We began by reflecting on our Mission:

Honor the Sacred

Connect with Each Other

Serve Justice

The next step was a review of the 6 Five Year goals formulate by the Prudential Committee last June.

1. Create a diversity of modalities of spiritual experience for members, friends, children, and youth.
2. Build relationships with diverse mission partners in Worcester
3. Ensure that all participants of our faith development ministries are able to articulate their faith and apply it to their daily lives.
4. Develop ministries which overcome loneliness amount participants
5. Ensure that new comers, new members, and established members report higher levels of welcome and connection
6. Expand and deepen opportunities for charity, service, justice for members, friends, children and youth.

We then divided into the 6 groups with each person choosing the goal they wanted to work on and began the task of prioritizing the actions to make that goal come alive for this church year. Each group discussed their goal for 15 minutes, and then prioritized three most important actions for their goal. From those three actions, each group chose a single, most important action for their goal.

The results were:

1. Engage entire congregation in "Time for all ages."
2. Catalog connections - institutional and personal - skills and interests.
3. To create opportunities to create our own faith statements
4. Develop small groups around interests and/or spirituality
5. Create formalized procedures for welcoming, tracking and communications with newcomers.
6. Become community leaders with governmental officials, policies with ages 12-25

Now came the hard part. We wanted to prioritize these actions to find the one(s) of the six the group thought most important. Each participant chose their top two actions from the 6 actions.

And the action receiving the most votes was:

Develop small groups around common interests and/or spirituality

The runner-ups were pretty evenly split. Each group cared so passionately about their goal and many other great actions were suggested. Thank you to all who came to the goal setting for participating in so caringly and lovingly a manner.

Our church is indeed doing well!

Wendy Innis

Moderator

Guidelines - Book Submissions

Guidelines & Information:

·       From one to 500 words

·       Initially, three items can be submitted at any time before the deadline.  Mark them 1, 2 and 3 indicating your preference in case not all can be published.

·       Use a popular typeface, double space & one inch margins

·       Or handwritten copy that is clearly written (we will type it)

·       Copy MUST use appropriate language for general readership

·       No controversial topics, ie. political issues

·       Submissions limited to members and friends who attend

·       Artwork must be reproducible and reducible to booklet size with high contrast

·       Possible upcoming writers workshop for children & youth also one for adults

·       Tentative deadline June 2017

Voices Among Us - Monday, November 28

“As we recover from the bruises from this year’s Presidential election, perhaps a different perspective on citizenship will speed the healing. “Ken Mandile

Other voices and visions offer ideas that help guide us throughout our lives. Their messages can suggest direction and meaning. Come for the potluck at 6 PM and/or the program from 7-8 PM in the Chapel.

Ken Mandile will discuss some views on what it means to be a good citizen, with particular focus on Teddy Roosevelt’s “Citizenship in a Republic” speech.  An excerpt, “Man in the Arena” quote (“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood…”). 

There was a more important point of Roosevelt’s speech that was lost in the focus on this one powerful quote.  It is not the hero that will determine the success of a republic, “… success or failure will be conditioned upon the way in which the average man, the average woman, does his or her duty, first in the ordinary, every-day affairs of life”.  

Upcoming presenters: January 23, Jay Lavelle; February 27, Steve Knox; March 27, Lee Bona

A "Must-see" CD Release Party

A"Must-see" CD Release Party November 19th

The John Henry’s Hammer Coffeehouse (JHH) concert series is pleased to announce

that on Saturday, November 19, 2016, 7:30-9:30pm, we will host a special CD Release Party for Claudia Schmidt and Sally Rogers featuring their latest collaboration entitled We are Welcome.  Schmidt, who performed at JHH last year expressly promised to return bringing Rogers for this special event. Attendees of last year's concert are still talking about how Claudia touched us by expressing in spoken word and song what we profess in our Seven Principles.

The new CD comprises of seven original tunes by Schmidt, three by Rogers and four more by other songwriters. The two nationally known singer/songwriters have toured and written songs together over a span of thirty-something years even though they’ve lived in different states for the past few decades.  There is a natural chemistry about these two women that makes singing together a very dynamic experience.

Michigan native Schmidt has spent years traveling from across North America to European venues ranging from small clubs to 4,000 seat theaters, and festival stages in front of 25,000 rapt listeners. Having recorded nineteen albums comprising of original songs, exploring folk, blues, and, more currently, jazz idioms, she is known for featuring her acclaimed 12-string guitar and mountain dulcimer performance skills.

Rogers, a nationally renowned recording artist with numerous awards, has fourteen recordings and a music video to her credit.  Her songs have been published in hymnals and national school music textbooks.  She has also composed folk operas, cantatas and has written a children’s picture book published by E.P. Dutton.

JHH is thrilled to have these two powerful performers grace our stage, and hope Worcesterites and more will come out to enjoy what promises to be a highly entertaining evening.  Don't miss it!  Spread the word!

Concert Info:  The doors open at 6:30pm, with a light dinner available; show runs from 7:30-9:30pm. 

Tickets:  $20/door.  Online:   www.brownpapertickets.com

UU Sisterhood Monthly Potluck Dinner and Program

Please join us for the next UU Sisterhood Monthly Potluck Dinner and Program  Friday, October 21.

We will start the evening with our usual potluck dinner starting at 6:00.
All women of the church are encouraged to attend, please bring a dish and drink to share. 

Our own Lorna Pezanelli will bring us a program that she has developed.  She describes it in more detail below.

   

Presentation

Title: "Women of the 18th Century in Colonial America." This past summer, on a full scholarship, I attended a fascinating 5-day George Washington Teacher Institute at Mt. Vernon, VA on this topic. We studied women from the lower-mid classes to the upper classes.We also studied Native American women and female slaves. I will have a slide presentation. handouts, and information for further research. 

Lorna’s Bio

I teach Art in Millbury to grade 4-6 students. I'm creator/coordinator of the annual "Art in the Valley" art show, which features over 400 works of students in grades K-8 throughout the Blackstone Valley schools, both public and private. The show had ~1,500 attendees last year. This April will be the 11th year of the show.

I also work at the Worcester Public Library Foundation. In my spare time, I paint, create fabric art, cook, bake, and read (esp. Colonial American History)  

I was lead vocalist in a band for 30+ years. My 2 grandsons are a joy! As many of you know, after a 50 year hiatus, I'm thrilled to say that I've taken up horseback riding again and have not fallen off . . . yet.

Refugee Circle Update

It was a busy summer for the Refugee Circle!  In July, eight-year old Vanessa had surgery for a cochlear implant, which went well. The Circle is now working with Olive to get her placed in an appropriate educational environment.  We are hoping, with the help of an evaluation from the Boston Children’s Hospital, to have her transferred to the Framingham Learning Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.   Vanessa now has an advocate from the Mass Commission for the Deaf for Vanessa, and we all continue to navigate the various social systems for additional support and resources. Other news: Olive has been working part-time at FedEx, Jordy is now in pre-school, and Angela is still in day care.

Over the summer we realized a need to revisit our goals and role in Olive’s life. Through that process we created a mission statement for ourselves: “We are committing to assisting Olive to meet her own goals, for herself and her family, in a relationship of mutual respect, openness, and honesty, and with an ethic of caring and compassion.”

We have a new member of our team, Stacey Hill, who has signed on through Ascentria Care Alliance, the agency we are working with. We have had so many people from our church community respond and help with time and/or donations. It has truly been remarkable.

How you can help: Olive and the children have enjoyed attending church on the Sundays that we can provide them with transportation.  We would love a few more volunteers to sign up so that we could create a Sunday driving schedule.   You will need to fill out a volunteer form from Ascentria to serve as a driver.

Other needs: winter gear!  We would like to provide the family with winter shoes, boots, and coats. Please contact Lynn Simmons to get information about sizes and to prevent duplicate donations: 774-262-5120, lsimmons@me.com.

 Additional needs: 

- Boys clothing for Jordy, Size 4-5T

- Wet wipes, Kleenex, paper towels,

- Diapers: Size 4 (day and night), Size 5 night

- Mousetraps

- 6-8 volunteers to drive Olive and the children to church

- Volunteers for outings with the children to area parks, playgrounds, etc.

- Saturday morning transportation to ACE starting in mid-October

- Transportation to laundry, groceries

Please bring donated items to church on Sunday and leave them by the welcome table during coffee hour. Again, for winter coats, shoes, and boots please contact Lynn Simmons to get information about sizes before donating.

Thank you and many blessings to all,

Ellen Foley, Stacey Hill, Danna Peterson, Peter Haroutian, and Lynn Simmons (774-262-5120, lsimmons@me.com.)