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Week at a Glance UUC Sunday Service What's Happening at UUC
Serve UUC Committees Adult Religious Enrichment UUC and Beyond
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July 3rd, Tuesday
-- UUC Office will be closed on the 3rd AND 4th of July. Happy holidays everyone!
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What a great night for UUC!
Nine months of building, months of preparation and finally the celebration. A dedicated team persevered, held to the vision, and on May 19th they, and their accomplishment were celebrated with a beautiful banquet and an auction that raised thousands of dollars. The Board of Trustees led by outgoing chair, Sandy Hoover and with the help of a willing team of UUC members organized the banquet and auction and even served the over 120 guests who attended.
Rev Patrice was first up and shared some wonderful thoughts about the power of vision. Bob Barnett was applauded for his hard work heading up the fundraising for the project. He also spoke some words of thanks to the donors whose generosity provided the means to carry this ambitious project to fruition. Vasant Surti, the man whose original donation and vision for a new Religious Enrichment Center for UUC youth, almost brought down the house when he stood up to be recognized. UUC teen Maya Ongchangco gave a gracious and poised thank you on behalf of the young people of the church.
There were so many people to recognize and thank: Ned Bellamy and Scotty Scott both got awards and a standing ovation for their tireless oversight and hands on management of the entire building and renovation project.
Susan Gore gets honorable mention for being a fantastic emcee for the evening. Wearing a tuxedo and top hat she got the auction underway and kept the bidding going at a furious pace with her fun and witty descriptions of the items on display. Marie Chapman, Susan Hegner, Cindi Nohe, Bill Norsworthy, and Ann Scott all shared stories-- some thoughtful and some funny. Mary Currey, Bob and Phyllis Barnett, and Mike Metty all spoke and handed out the awards. The Board along with a capable crew worked incredibly hard in the kitchen to serve 3 courses, clear tables and clean up. Absolutely heroic action! Rev Patrice never waivered when members thought the idea of a silent auction wouldn't work. She encouraged Cindi Nohe to take charge and she did a great job.
The feeling in the room was one of relief, jubilation, exhaustion, joy, and gratitude for what such a wonderful, unique community of friends and family can accomplish. Hats off to all, it was indeed a good night!
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UUC WEEK AT A GLANCE
June 16th, Saturday: Puerto Rican Food & Music to celebrate Father’s Day. 6:00-10:00 pm, UUC Community Center.
There will be many evacuees that have left the devastation in Puerto Rico and are now living in Pinellas County. Let’s come together and create a wonderful community. The festivities will be family friendly. Come with your dancing shoes on and be prepared to eat good food and dance your way into happiness. This is a fund raiser event and all proceeds will be used to promote the building a greatly needed Puerto Rican/Hispanic Cultural/Service Center in Pinellas County. Tickets are $10. at the door. For more information:
https://www.facebook.com/events/608585726177585/
June 17th, Sunday -- Happy Fathers Day
Open Issues
: 9:30-10:20, Patio Room
Conversation:
"
Gun Violence in Public Schools”
Our young people 7th to 12th grades (i.e. UUC’s TORCH group) will discuss with attending adults the elimination of gun violence in public places. About four young people will take a few minutes each to tell their experiences and ideas for change, with lots of time for Q&A. The TORCH group is mentored by UUC’s Al Swinyard.
Sunday Service:
10:30-11:45, Octagon
Service Leader: Rev. Katie Culbert "Making Peace With Women's Bodies"
How do we honor a woman's worth and dignity in a culture that emphasizes the beauty of being thin, young and flawless? Some scholars believe there is a connection between spirituality and body image, if so, how does religion impact a woman's self-worth and a culture's influence?
This week's Pastoral Associate: Kathy Krohn
Sunday's Religious Enrichment
Growing Together - Children's Gardening Experience: Composting
'Jungle" Jay Hardman will endeavor to engender a love of nature in a new generation of youth. This serves to acquaint them with Perennial Urban Food Forestry and the abundance that THEY can generate in an Organic Garden.
The children will be outside with Jungle Jay this Sunday learning about what items can be sorted for recycling and what can be composted.
Exhale Every Wednesday at 6:00-6:45 pm, in the Patio Room
By popular demand, Exhale - Mindfulness and Meditation now runs weekly. Come sit or walk with us in a simple format that focuses on breath. We meditate for 10 minutes or so, three or four times. Late-comers welcome, enter softly.
This practice supports your other spiritual practices when you are unable to attend your primary spiritual community. Stay for tea and conversation afterward. Contact Kathy Krohn at:
[email protected]
Sunday, June 17th, Environmental Justice Committee Meeting
:
12:15-2:00 pm, Chorale Room
Pride Events in St. Petersburg
--June 21, Thursday: Pride Interfaith Wordship Service 7-9 PM
First Presbyterian Church, 701 Beach Dr. NE, St. Petersburg
--June 23, Saturday: Pride Parade
Parade kicks off at 7 PM. There is music and fun starting at 2 PM. Come early. UUC is marching with UU St. Petersburg. Wear UUC tee shirts. The parade starts at 5 th Ave. N. (Vinoy Park) and goes down Bayshore Drive to Dali Blvd. (5 th Ave S.) For complete parking details go to:
www.stpetepride.com
--June 24, Sunday: Pride Festival,
11AM-5PM. Free event featuring, live entertainment, community booths, art and food. This will take place on Central Ave between 16th Street and 31st St. in St.Pete.
June 24th, Sunday: Humanist Monthly Meeting
, 12:30-1:30 pm, Octagon,
The UUC Humanist Group is co-sponsoring with the
Center for Inquiry
, a special guest for our next meeting on June 24
th
. Ron Cooper, author of a new novel titled
The Gospel of the Twin,
will be our speaker.
July 3rd, Tuesday
-- UUC Office will be closed on the 3rd AND 4th of July. Happy holidays everyone!
July 5th, Thursday: Women's Lunch Out
2:00 p.m. at Benedict's at Belcher and Old Coachman Road, Clearwater
Please email, text, or call me to reserve a seat at the table. Lunch is a busy time, and we need to let them know how many to expect in order for them to save us enough room so we can all sit together. Marie Chapman
[email protected]
727-647-4089
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Meet with Rev. Patrice Curtis
If you would like to meet with Rev. Patrice contact the office at 727-531-7704. If you wish to contact her, please call
(510) 852-9304.
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This Sunday
June 17th, 2018
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Service
Sunday, 10:30-11:45
Service Leader:
Rev. Katie Culbert
"Making Peace With Women's Bodies"
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Pastoral Care Associates
UUC has a strong team of lay Pastoral Associates who offer confidential, emotional support and spiritual companionship to fellow church members. You can access pastoral care by contacting Rev. Patrice Curtis at 727-531-7704 ext. 5 or
[email protected]
.
Please note that emails sent to the front office are not confidential; emails to Rev. Patrice are.
This week’s pastoral care associate is
Kathy Krohn
and she is
available at
727-531-7704 ext. 5.
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Open Issues
9:30-10:20 am
Patio Room
Conversation:
"
Gun Violence in Public Schools”.
Our young people 7th to 12th grades (i.e. UUC’s TORCH group) will discuss with attending adults the elimination of gun violence in public places. About four young people will take a few minutes each to tell their experiences and ideas for change, with lots of time for Q&A. The TORCH group is mentored UUC’s Al Swinyard.
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Flowers for Sunday Services
If you would like to supply the flowers for an upcoming Sunday service in honor of a special event or person in your life, please email
Laura Daniel
at
[email protected]
. She will help you coordinate your contribution.
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Sunday's Religious Enrichment
Growing Together - Children's Gardening Experience
'Jungle" Jay Hardman will endeavor to engender a love of nature in a new generation of youth. This serves to acquaint them with Perennial Urban Food Forestry and the abundance that THEY can generate in an Organic Garden.
The children will be outside with Jungle Jay this Sunday learning about what items can be sorted for recycling and what can be composted.
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Raina Sparks transitions from RE to the adult UUC community.
A bridging ceremony was held June 10th for Raina Sparks. Raina has grown up in the UUC family and is well prepared to face the challenges and joys of adulthood. The ceremony of shared reading and response
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was an emotional one as Raina walked over the bridge signifying this transformative time in her life supported by her RE friends and greater UUC family. Wishing her all the best.
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Have you signed up for a Covenant Group yet for next year? Go
HERE
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This Saturday --
Puerto Rican Food & Music to celebrate
Father’s Day 6:00-10:00 pm,
UUC Community Center.
There will be many evacuees that have left the devastation in Puerto Rico and are now living in Pinellas County. Let’s come together and create a wonderful community. The festivities will be family friendly. Come with your dancing shoes on and be prepared to eat good food and dance your way into happiness.
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This is a fund raiser event and all proceeds will be used to promote the building a greatly needed Puerto Rican/Hispanic Cultural/Service Center in Pinellas County. Tickets are $10. at the door. For more information:
https://www.facebook.com/events/608585726177585/
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Spring Into Service
UUC is hoping that many of its members are eager to enrich their experience by volunteering on a regular basis. We NEED you at the front desk, at Sunday Service, assisting at member events, or serving on or even leading a committee.
'Everybody' thinks 'Somebody' did it, when in fact, 'Nobody' did.
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Pride Events in St. Petersburg
June 21, Thursday: Pride Interfaith Wordship Service 7-9 PM
First Presbyterian Church, 701 Beach Dr. NE, St. Petersburg
June 23, Saturday: Pride Parade
Parade kicks off at 7 PM. There is music and fun starting at 2 PM. Come early. UUC is marching with UU St. Petersburg. Wear UUC tee shirts. The parade starts at 5 th Ave. N. (Vinoy Park) and goes down Bayshore Drive to Dali Blvd. (5 th Ave S.) For complete parking details go to:
www.stpetepride.com
June 24, Sunday: Pride Festival
11AM-5PM. Free event featuring, live entertainment, community booths, art and food. This will take place on Central Ave between 16th Street and 31 st St. in St.Pete.
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Social Justice Action this Week...
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UUCers joined workers and other groups at the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival in Tallahassee on Monday.
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The theme of this week's demonstration was, "Everybody's Got a Right to Live" and focused on living wages for all people.
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Readers Forum
On Summer Break
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Members Art Show
in the Octagon. As always there is some incredible work by our members and it's worth viewing each and every one. It will be hanging through September so be sure to take the time.
Viewing hours are 9-12 am Mon-Thurs and noon to 1:00 pm on Sundays
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Exhale is Weekly
Thru May
Wednesdays 6-6:45 pm
A Gathering for Sitting and Moving Mindfulness.
Join us weekly in the Patio Room for meditation and some quiet moments of mindfulness and connection. All levels of meditators welcome.
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UUC Committee Meetings and Events
Please get your meeting information to
[email protected]
NO LATER than one week before the next E-Octagram (publishes on Thursdays). If there are
changes,
they must get to the above email NO LATER than the Wednesday before publishing. Thank you.
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End of Life Choices
July 5th, Thursday: 1:30-3:00 pm, Patio Room
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Humanist Meeting
June 24th, Sunday: Humanists Monthly Meeting
12:30-1:30, Octagon
The UUC Humanist Group is co-sponsoring with the
Center for Inquiry
, a special guest for our next meeting on June 24
th
. Ron Cooper, author of a new novel titled
The Gospel of the Twin,
will be our speaker. A brief description from Amazon follows:
An ancient legend claimed that Jesus had a twin brother Thomas. An extra-Biblical text that dates from perhaps as early as the late first century CE (which would make it the same age as the Biblical Gospels) claimed to be the secret teachings of Jesus as recorded by “Judas Didymos Thomas.” The Greek word “Didymos” and the Aramaic word “Thomas” both mean “twin.” While only several Greek fragments of this manuscript, dating to the early second century CE, actually exist, a manuscript written in Coptic from the fourth century was discovered in 1945. This Gospel of Thomas contains 114 purported sayings of Jesus, many of which resemble passages in the New Testament. Drawing upon years of extensive research in early Jewish and Christian history and recent work on the historical Jesus, acclaimed novelist Ron Cooper focuses on Thomas of Nazareth, old and bitter after years of self-imposed exile from his homeland, who returns to Jerusalem to write a book about his identical twin brother Jesus. Disgusted by how others have perverted his brother’s message, Thomas wants to set the record straight. But in doing so, he must try to unravel the enigma that was Jesus. Provocative, inventive, and sure to be controversial, The Gospel of the Twin draws upon scriptural and ancient, non-Biblical sources to present an imaginative version of the founding of Christianity through scenes of violence, tenderness, and mistaken identity that will change the way the world thinks about Jesus.
About the Speaker:
Ron was born in South Carolina. He received a BA in philosophy from the College of Charleston, an MA from the University of South Carolina, and a Ph.D. from Rutgers University. He moved to Florida in 1988 and since 1995 has taught at College of Central Florida in Ocala where he lives with his wife Sandra (also a CF faculty member) and their three children. Ron is a past president of the Florida Philosophical Association, has published philosophical essays, and his fiction has appeared in several publications. His novels
Hume’s Fork
and
Purple Jesus
are available from Bancroft Press
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Environmental Justice Committee
Sunday, June 17th, 12:15-2:00 pm, Chorale Room
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FOOTNOTES FROM THE LIBRARY:
BLACK LIVES MATTER AT UUC!
A new addition:
"When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir"
by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele
...from the Amazon review:
Raised by a single mother in an impoverished neighborhood in Los Angeles, Patrisse Khan-Cullors experienced firsthand the prejudice and persecution Black Americans endure at the hands of law enforcement. For Patrisse, the most vulnerable people in the country are Black people. Deliberately and ruthlessly targeted by a criminal justice system serving a white privilege agenda, Black people are subjected to unjustifiable racial profiling and police brutality. In 2013, when Trayvon Martin’s killer went free, Patrisse’s outrage led her to co-found Black Lives Matter with Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi.
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The Library is also expanding a shelf featuring UUC authors, but we need some help. The section is located just below the Unitarian Universalism section. Please stop by and see if your favorite UUC author is there, and more importantly, if you have copies of these UUC works, consider donating them to the Library.
Let me know about Books, CD's or other material that have had an impact on your Spiritual/Intellectual Journey!
Please let us know what they are because they might also be available to others.
Contact:
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Introducing our new feature from the UUC Librarian Bruce Gotts:
Famous UUs ...
Susan B. Anthony
The parents of Susan B. Anthony, Daniel and Lucy Anthony, were members of the Quaker group. They also attended
Unitarian Church
services
In the 1890's the Rev. Wm. C. Gannett was the minister of the
Rochester Unitarian Church
, which Susan attended. Susan and his wife, Mary, became close friends. Mary Gannett was also a Quaker, even though now a Unitarian minister's wife.
The Unitarians, Universalists and The Reformed Jewish Congregation held an annual joint Thanksgiving Service in Rochester (and still do). In 1890 Dr. Gannett, Rabbi Mansberg and Susan B. Anthony were the speakers at this annual Thanksgiving Day Service.
For fifty-five years of her life, Susan B. Anthony lectured and worked for the right of women to vote, Beginning at the age of 17 she argued for equal pay for teachers, coeducation and college training for girls.
She was a teacher in Canajoharie, N.Y. at the time of the first Woman's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, N.Y. in 1848, which she attended. At that time she was interested in organizing the Daughters of Temperance, but after she talked with Lucy Stone and Elizabeth Stanton in 1851, she saw the need for woman suffrage and joined them in a life-long crusade for the rights of women.
This stamp honors the leaders of the woman suffrage movement with whom Susan worked. Pictured are Elizabeth Stanton, Carrie Chapman Catt and Lucretia Mott. The stamp was issued in 1948 to commemorate a century of progress of American Women.
Susan B. Anthony led a group of women to the polls in Rochester in 1872 to test the right of women to the franchise under the Fourteenth Amendment. Her subsequent arrest, trial and sentence to a fine of $100.00 (which she refused to pay) were a cause celebre; other women followed her example until the case was decided against them by the Supreme Court.
The Book
"Failure is Impossible Susan B. Anthony in her own Words"
is on order for the UUC Library and will be available soon.
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General Assembly (GA) is the annual meeting of our Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA). Attendees worship, witness, learn, connect, and make policy for the Association through democratic process. Anyone may attend; congregations must certify annually to send voting delegates.
General Assembly will be held in Kansas City, MO, June 20 – June 24. To find registration, housing, hotel information go on line to:
https://www.uua.org/ga
Theme - All Are Called
Grounded in a deep belief that we are all prophets, Unitarian Universalists ask, “How can we faithfully meet the demands of our time?” The call to witness and act for justice in our society and in the world is clear. So, too, is the call to examine our structures and practices, dismantling and transforming those which fail to recognize the full humanity of all people and to honor the interdependent web of life. Join us in Kansas City as we dive deeply into questions of mission for our Unitarian Universalist Association, for our congregations and communities, and for each of us as individuals. Together, we’ll ask:
Who and how are we called to be at this time, individually and collectively?
How are we called to act and to live?
How does our Unitarian Universalist legacy strengthen us in living out our mission? In what ways does our legacy present challenges and impediments to answering our call?
The call of our faith has a place for each of us. Join us in Kansas City to build courageous, collective leadership with tools, skills and connections.
Kansas City MO
The City of Fountains is practically overflowing with adventure. Whether it’s the scent of smoldering BBQ luring you to a plate of ribs, the sweet echo of jazz welcoming an evening of entertainment or the spray of fountains inviting you to kick off your shoes and make a splash, you’ll sense inspiration in the air – and find it along every boulevard.
As America's most centrally located major metropolitan area, Kansas City's location is a huge advantage for travelers. In fact, more than 55 million Americans can get to Kansas City in less than a day’s drive. And flying there is even easier—as Kansas City International Airport (KCI) is just a three-hour flight away from each coast. All major U.S. air carriers serve KCI, which offers more than 400 daily flights with nonstop service to 48 destinations.
Volunteering
As a volunteer your registration fee would be waived. You will work eighteen hours. There are volunteer opportunities in a variety of activities. Go to the website for lots of information:
If you’d like to work with Sue Boone as an usher please contact her for more information.
Or for any other questions feel free to contact Sue.
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Spiritual Leadership in Communities of Faith: A Contemplative Retreat
begins on Sunday, July 29th and ends on Friday, August 3rd, 20a8. The retreat will take place at the Transfiguration Spirituality Center near Cincinnati, Ohio and the tuition includes housing and all meals. Ther number of participants is limited to 24 divided into 3 categories: clergy, non-ordained religious professional, and lay leaders. There's still room in all categories. We will explore 4 areas of spiritual direction:
--What is spiritual direction/Guidance/companioning
-- Small group spiritual direction
-- The training and supervision of group leaders, and
-- Justice as a spiritual path.
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Southeast Unitarian Universalist Summer Institute
invites you to explore, build community, make music and have fun this summer at Western Carolina University, in the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains. For more information go to:
http://suusi.org
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