OUUC Weekly Update

We have guest chefs, Penny Chatfield and Bill Arensmeyer, leading a take over of the Thursday dinner this week. All are welcome for food and fellowship, a donation is accepted to help pay for the food.

We do still need volunteers to help with setting up tables and chairs and with clean up, if you can help email Rev Sara.

Following the Community Dinner at 5:30 pm, there are many activities at 6:30 pm: Action Hour, the Buddhist group, and the Kid Citizens class. At 7:00 pm there is the UU Pagan Group.

Thursday, January 18 at 7:00 pm. The UU Pagan group is a welcoming and open group of folks interested in and practicing a variety of earth centered and pagan spiritual practices. We meet on the 3rd Thursday of each month, 7:00-8:30 pm. In January we will be exploring the question of what it means to be UU, to be Pagan, or to be both.

We will also hold a special Imbolc potluck and gathering on Friday February 2 at 6:30 pm. All are welcome. RSVP to Rev Sara.

How would we respond to various safety scenarios at OUUC? Where are the first aid kits? How do we evacuate the building? What do we do if there is a missing or lost child?

Join Rev Sara and the Safety Team this Sunday at 11:30 am to learn more! This training will be in person and on Zoom, following the worship service.

Each Thursday at 6:30 pm, January 11 through February. Do you find yourself overwhelmed by all the petitions to sign and the bills to comment on during the legislative session? Do you mean to get to it but find your email inbox just too choked up and/or you forget? Well, set a time and do it with us! All are invited to join us at OUUC for this weekly opportunity to engage with faithful advocacy actions in the company of others. Bring your own device if you can: laptop, phone, tablet. We’ll have a menu of actions to take, all experience levels are welcome.

From January 15 to February 15, all UU’s are invited to engage with resources and themes of intersectional love and justice gifted to us by the Side with Love project.

You can find those resources here: 30 Days of Love 2024 — Side With Love

Thursday, January 25, 5:30 pm, we will hold our 2nd annual chili cook off. Dust off your favorite chili recipe and submit a pot of chili to be voted on at the community dinner! There will be prizes to be won.

Let Rev Sara know if you plan to bring a pot of chili, and if it will be veggie or meat based.

We've enjoyed much of award-winning musician, poet, educator, and activist Carrie Newcomer's soulful and spirited work for years at OUUC. And on February 10, we'll welcome both Carrie and her pianist, Gary Walters (a fabulous musician in his own right), into our space for a daytime workshop and an evening concert. They'll also be part of our worship service the following day. Find more information and tickets are available on Eventbrite. Both the workshop and concert may sell out, so consider purchasing your tickets sooner rather than later. If you have questions, or if you want to attend but the cost is a barrier, OUUC member Liz Clement can help. Contact Liz.

Our beloved church administrator, Darlene Sarkela, is retiring! Yes, the day we have been dreading for years is finally upon us. We cannot let Darlene depart us without saying thank you for thirty-three years of devoted service to OUUC and to all of us. Not one for the limelight, Darlene prefers that we minimize the hoopla surrounding this event. So, there will be no band and no fireworks. But there will be cookies and refreshments, and a brief tribute, after service on February 25. We hope that you can attend.

Questions? Want to volunteer to help? Contact Melanie Ransom.

Thanks again to everyone who helped make both of OUUC's 2023 book sale events successful! Our recent Twentieth Annual HUGE Books Brownies and Beans in-person sale – together with our June Summer UU Reading Fun (SUURF) online sale – raised nearly $20,000 to help our community partners build a more loving, just, and healthy world for all of us. Stay tuned for news about our second annual online SUURF Bookstore event, coming up soon, in mid-June 2024. Meanwhile, we once again have storage for your book donations! If you can, please continue to hold on to your books until April 15. However, if you or someone you know needs to donate sooner, you are welcome to bring books, CDs, and DVDs to the covered center section of Susan Dodson’s front deck during any daylight hours from now through mid-October. Susan’s address is in the OUUC directory, or you can contact her at books.ouuc@gmail.com.

Are you interested in serving on the OUUC Board of Trustees or the Leadership Development Committee (LDC)? Or can you suggest a member of the congregation who should be considered for these positions?
The Board of Trustees is responsible to the will of the OUUC membership in setting church policies and overseeing the business, property, and other affairs of the congregation. Members with finance, accounting, data management, or community outreach experience would be especially helpful, though these skills are not essential.
One of the LDC’s main duties is identifying members with the desirable skills and experience for both the Board and the LDC. A vote to confirm the proposed slate of candidates will then take place at the OUUC annual meeting in May-June.
We welcome your aid! Please contact a current LDC member with candidate suggestions: Alice Curtis, Jason Martinelli, Gail Wrede, Anne Kohlbry, and Gary Worthington.

OUUC has amazingly skilled and talented members. In past years, we have collected information from our members regarding their skills and interests in order to provide opportunities that meet their needs and interests. We have not updated this list since 2021, so we are asking you to update your profile in Realm, or if you are a newer member, to create a profile for yourself. We are focusing on collecting this information in January. To update or create a new profile, log in to your Realm account. Onrealm.org/OUUC Choose the Serving tab, then click Select Skills & Interests. Or stop by the church office to fill out a paper form.

All who are new to UU or to OUUC are welcome at these classes (one or all of the series). For those interested in becoming members of OUUC this class is required.

Upcoming classes:

January 20: membership and congregational life

February 3: Q&A with minister

This will conclude this series and those who have been attending will be welcomed into membership if they choose to join. The series will then restart in a hybrid Zoom/in person format still on Saturdays.

For questions or more information contact Rev Sara.

We’re recruiting more volunteers now, in anticipation of some planned staff absences this coming spring. We’ll hold a Tech Team Retreat on the afternoon of Saturday, January 20, for group orientation, training, and team building. So, this would be a great time to join us - see contact info below to express your interest.

We have volunteer roles that require varying levels of tech savvy, so you may be able to help even if you think a lot of what we do is wizardry! Check out these descriptions of what kind of person would be best suited to each role: Read more....

Led by Rev Sara Lewis

6 sessions, February 7-March 13 on Zoom, 6:30-8:00 pm.

While the history of Unitarian Universalism is mostly white, African Americans have always been part of our faith traditions as well. Come explore questions of race in this denomination as we read and discuss Darkening the Doorways, a history written by Mark Morrison Reed.

Register now.

A book study with workbook and discussion (facilitated by Jenee Wolfram). A leader is anyone who takes responsibility for recognizing the potential in people and ideas, and has the courage to develop that potential. Brene Brown writes about owning your fears, choosing courage over comfort and whole hearts over armour, and building an organizational culture (whether it be a family, business, committee, or faith community) based on bravery and vulnerability. When we dare to lead, we don’t pretend to have the right answers; we stay curious and ask the right questions. We don’t see power as finite and hoard it; we know that power becomes infinite when we share it with others. We don’t avoid difficult conversations and situations; we lean into vulnerability when it’s necessary to do good work. Let’s explore Brene’s four courage building skills together and see where it takes us. Tuesday evenings, 6:00-7:30 pm, January 30, February 6, 13 and 20. Register here.