50/50 Offering to Benefit LGBT Asylum Support Task Force

“Remmy was a lawyer in Uganda who arrived in the U.S. in January. She attempted to flee to Kenya after her sexuality was discovered by her husband, but he tracked her down and brought her back to Uganda. She managed to make her way to the U.S., but in March her partner who had fled to Ghana was caught and imprisoned by old neighbors. Remmy received numerous threats that if she didn't return to Uganda they would kill her partner.

Hoping it was a bluff, she stayed put. The mob set fire to her partner's home and burned her alive.”                                (Metro West Daily News, May 2, 2016)

This is the kind of horrific threat that many LGBT people around the world live with every day.  More than 80 countries have criminalized homosexuality.  In many countries, mobs harass, threaten, and even murder people for their sexual preference or gender identity. 

            The LGBT Asylum Support Task Force, based at the Hadwen Park Church in Worcester, has offered safe havens and financial assistance to more than 130 people from 16 countries over the past 8 years.  First Unitarian has supported the Task Force though its 50/50 offertory in the past and will do so once again on Sunday, September 25.  We hope that First U members will continue the generosity that they have previously shown to this important organization. 

            In June, the Old South Church honored Task Force co-founder Pastor Judy Hanlon with their Open Door Award (along with Senator Elizabeth Warren).  “I have kind of what you might call a huge crush on you,” the Rev. Anthony Livolsi told the women, “in the way you two go toe-to-toe with evil, the way you square off against injustice.” (Boston Globe, June 11, 2016)  The Open Door Award is presented annually to a person or persons who have worked to kick or pry or elbow doors open for members of the LGBTQ community.

Pastor Judy said, "It's presented to someone who kicks or pries or elbows the door open, but I don't feel like I've done that.  I've just been on the other side of the door. People who have kicked open the door are the asylum seekers themselves. They've experienced things I could never imagine”.

We are all on the other side of that door.  We have the blessings and the resources to help the asylum seekers who have made it through that door, escaping the terror of their home countries.

           The principles of our faith call on us to recognize the inherent worth and dignity of every person, to seek justice, equity and compassion in human relations, to affirm the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.  Your generous financial support of the Task Force and the LGBT asylum seekers they serve is a wonderful way to live out these values.   Please be generous when we ask for your support of the 50/50 offertory on Sunday, September 25.

            For more information on the Task Force, please visit their website at http://www.lgbtasylum.org/ .

                                                Ken Mandile

Art Exhibit - Reflections of Italy

Wiogora Wants Your Help to Make "Mystery: The Order of Phoenix

The Wiogora Council of First U and Headmistress Veralyce Gibbons are excited offer you opportunities to help Wiogora's Summer program.  Being held July 25th to August 5th, our year's them is "Mystery: The Order of the Phoenix."  

·       Loan or donate FANS, 5 gallon water jugs/coolers, and fake trees or garland.  If you want your item back, you must put your name on it!  Anything without a name might be considered a donation (and gratefully accepted)!

·       Attend the Wiogora summer church service on July 31st, to be held in the Sanctuary and presented entirely by the wonder and wisdom of Wiogorans.

·       Sign up to be a Wiogora Guide through our website www.wiogora.org.  You must be age 18+.  You must be able to guide our scholars up and down stairs from class to class, able to get involved, able to use your imagination ,and able to get silly and have fun!  Previous experience not required.  Hours M-F 9am-2pm, with a stipend $100 per week.

·       Contribute to and participate in this year's Wiogora Service Project - Laundry Love!  This is a local Worcester outreach providing free laundry service and childcare once a month.  Sounds simple, right?  Your kids - our scholars - will be able to explain the mystery of why simple is profound.

Yard Sale - Saturday, September 10

We need LOTS of gently-used stuff!  Pick up a box this Sunday at Church and bring it back full of smaller stuff.  And bring in bigger stuff, too.  We're collecting treasures now, and will store them until the yard sale. (You may also drop items off at the church during the week, just call ahead to make sure someone is at the church.)

Toys, sports equipment, dishes, pots and pans, lamps, mirrors, vases, tools, easily-moved furniture such as chairs, bureaus, occasional tables, lawn furniture are all welcome, as well as books (not textbooks or encyclopedias) and clean clothing, particularly children's clothing.  No mattresses or upholstered furniture.  No TVs or computers.

We'll also need volunteers to sort and price the donations, and to staff the sale in shifts.  

Questions about what is appropriate for the yard sale?  Need help to bring things to the Church?  Ideas for the Yard Sale?  Let us know!

John Mirick - jmirick@mirickoconnell.com

Michelle Przekop  -  mbprzekop@gmail.com

Summer 2016 Weekly Events

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.

7:00 p.m. Court Hill Singers Rehearsal
In the Bancroft Room

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

Summer 2016 Garden Tours

Summer 2016 Garden Tours

Sunday tours of church members' and friends' gardens are back! This year the Garden Tours begin on May 22. The tours will be 4 to 6 pm, when gardens aren't quite too wilted, should be really lovely and a nice chance for community. They'll occur any week it isn't storming. Questions? Email Mary McAlister at

maryalmc@gmail.com

Sunday June 26 - James and Linda Tartaglia, 6 Old Colony Road, Worcester. From church, turn right onto State St. then turn right onto Harvard St. Continue onto Tuckerman St. and turn left onto Salisbury St. Old Colony Road is a right off Salisbury St. (heading west) about 3 blocks BEFORE Flagg Street. 

Sunday, July 3- HOLIDAY Weekend.- no Garden Tour.

Sunday, July 10 - Diane and John Mirick, 160 Mirick Rd, Princeton. From church get to Lincoln Sq. and take 290 East briefly to 190 North. Take exit 5 and turn left onto Rt. 140. Follow winding country road to blinking light and turn left onto Rt. 62 and later right into Rt. 130 (before Princeton Ctr.)  Go past Merriam Rd. to 2nd left onto Mirick. Go approx. 1.5 miles, past Beaman Rd. and uphill to house with big red barn on left. Park by barn.

Sunday, July 17 – Huck and Jo Truesdell, 19 Wheeler Ave. Worcester. From church parking lot take right onto State St. then right onto Harvard St. Continue onto Tuckerman St. Turn left onto Salisbury St. Follow Salisbury Street across Park Avenue and bear right on Forest Street after cresting the hill;  turn right on Wheeler Avenue at the crosswalk sign. 19 Wheeler is the first house on the right, at the bottom of the hill.

Sunday, July 24 - Sunday, July 24 - Roselle Patton, 20 Stockholm Street. Get on I-290W from Main St. and Martin Luther King Jr Blvd. Continue on I-290W then take exit 12 to 146S then another exit 12, go right, take left onto Blackstone and then a right onto Whipple St., then third left onto Stockholm St. and 20 Stockholm is on the corner of Cornhill and Stockholm Streets. Please bring a folding lawn chair.

Sunday July 31 - Pre-Rain Date: Saturday, July 30, 1 to 4pm

Garden Tour with freshly picked melodies every half hour

Sherwood-Bershad Residence, Sterling
www.SherwoodPhoto.com/gardens Freewill donation for 1st U Encore Fund & WorcAGO Scholarship Fund RSVP  (See above web page)
RSVP is needed to alert if Pre-Rain Date
 (directions by return email)

Sunday August 7th - Sten and Liz Gustavson, 82 Uncatena Ave., Worcester.  From Church take Lincoln St. and onto Burncoat where it forks to left. Cross 290, pass Burncoat schools to light by convenience store: turn right. Uncatena will be a left a little way downhill, #82 is on left just after you turn.

Sunday, August 14 - CANCELLED

Sunday, August 21 – Rudy Cepko and Alesia Tringale, 33 Lenox St., Worcester.  From church turn right onto Main St., through downtown to right onto Pleasant St. before City Hall.  Go up & downhill, cross Park Ave., through Newton Sq. rotary, Turn right onto Lenox and find #33 near end of block on left.

Sunday, August 28 - Margery Connelly, #30 Sherbrook Ave., Worcester.  From church take Belmont St. up and down hill to just before bridge: turn right onto Lake Ave.  Take second right onto Sherbrook, cross Lake View and find #30 (4th house on right.)

Living in the Tension

LIVING IN THE TENSION
the quest for a spiritualized racial justice

Shelly Tochluk
Shelly is the author of Witnessing Whiteness: The Need to Talk About Race and How to Do It & Chair of the Education Department at Mount Saint Mary's University - Los Angeles. She has been part of the leadership team for AWARE-LA (Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere-Los Angeles) for the last 10 years & co-produces their Unmasking Whiteness Summer Institute
.
About LIVING IN THE TENSION
Connections between spirituality and activism are evident within many social justice movements. Often unconsidered, however, is how race plays a role in our beliefs, actions, and collaborations.
What happens when our spirituality results in a failure to notice racial dynamics? Conversely, what happens when we focus only on race? What tensions arise when we pay attention to race and spirituality simultaneously?

Join us for a book reading and discussion

Thursday, June 23, 2016, 6:30-8:30pm

at the

Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester

90 Holden St, Worcester

This event is co-sponsored by the Witnessing Whiteness study group, the Worcester Partnership for Racial and Ethnic Health Equity. the YWCA Racial Justice Task Force, Abby’s House and the Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester.

Light refreshments at 6:30; talk begins at 7:00