Sunday Services

Our Desert Ritual Year (DRY) of shared themes with the Baja 4 intersects with Valentine's Day to make February a month of Love! We will be diving deep into the wisdom of Dr. Cornel West:

Justice is what love looks like in public, just like tenderness is what love feels like in private.

With this as our guide, we will be seeking our mind, body, and spirit connection to Love.

February 4 "Happy Birthday Universe!"

Rev. Matthew Funke Crary

We celebrate ALL our birthdays this Sunday by recognizing the birth of EVERYTHING! Bring apple pie (or similar dessert) to share in celebration after the service. This service invites you to bring your Joys and Sorrows for our open mic ritual.

February 11, "Love and the Mind"

Zsombor Zoltan

How we define Love influences how we love in public and how we love in private. Between our concepts and our consciousness lies our will to love. This service will enjoy a new ritual of sharing roses for Valentine's Day.

February 18, "Love and Justice"

Rev. Matthew Funke Crary

We will dig into Dr. West's wisdom, "Justice is what love looks like in public," to find Love's will to action. 

February 25, "Love and Tenderness"

Rev. Matthew Funke Crary

This Sunday, we seek the embodied blessing in Dr. West's belief, "tenderness is what love feels like in private."

LOVE

This week LOVE has been on my mind. I returned home after being in Pittsburgh for 7 weeks to be greeted by my dog, Blu, with all his unconditional love. Going through the caring sympathy cards I feel the love from friends and family. Enjoying holiday decorations and lights I’m surrounded by in my home. I returned to MVUU and was welcomed back with love from many. February has Valentine’s Day. This Sunday’s service will focus on the theme “Love”.

The theme love, in relation to MVUU, means ‘shaping the structure of MVUU for relationships… for love to grow.’ This resonates with me. You may remember my intentions for the year are relationship related: volunteering in RE and meeting and talking to someone new to me each Sunday. I’ve enjoyed these intentions. I’ve noticed over decades of attending different UU congregations across the country I felt more engaged in the congregation if I was welcomed by members that led to relationships. Over the years I’ve been asked to be on committees, attend workshops and teach RE due to these relationships.

For me, building relationships that are open to the ebb and flow of visitors, new guests, longtime friends returning, strangers, etc entering and leaving is important in a congregation. It helps the congregation grow in number, actions, impact, support…and various other areas. I encourage you this month to behave in ways for love to grow at MVUU.  

As the Beatles sing… ‘All you need is love, love…. Love is all you need.’

Erin Eichelberger

Board President

[email protected]

As many of you have noticed, the Cup of Justice Committee is selling Fair Trade Coffee after services each Sunday (as supplies are available.)

While we can find “Fair Trade” coffee in most supermarkets, this coffee from Cafe Justo is grown in Chiapas, Mexico. It’s even better than “Fair Trade” supermarket coffee, as the proceeds go directly to the cooperative family farmers. The purpose of the Cafe Justo Cooperative is to enable these farmers and their families to earn a living wage and to remain in their native country. This in turn helps to reduce the impetus for people to migrate to the U.S. to flee poverty and exploitation. 

Also, the coffee is rich and delicious, and comes in ground, whole bean, dark and light, and caffeinated and decaf. 

The price per pound is $14, but we are hoping to reduce the price eventually.

Look for the table after services, and sign up if you’d like to get involved in the project. You can contact Melody Luepke for more information at 651-925-6837, or [email protected]; or Claudia Silverman at 760-914-0863 or [email protected].

NOT TO BE MISSED

THE LIBRARY BOOK CART SALE

Sunday, February 4, before and after the service.

For all you readers, our cart will have an excellent selection of books

for sale, both fiction and non-fiction, all at amazing bargain prices.

Be sure to check out the library and see what new books have been

added.

Got Rocks?

It has been a couple years since we moved into our beautifully renovated sanctuary building. In the time since, improvements have been made on the grounds; plants on the patio, replanting and trimming all around, and installing stairs up the hill to the parking area off Orange Grove. Last October, an esteemed group of volunteers cleaned deadwood and trash from the natural area behind the building. Plans are forming for paths, sitting areas, and a labyrinth, among other ideas.

The “grounds group” is planning on creating a labyrinth based on the Chartres model in the “back forty” behind the church. The simplest way to construct a labyrinth is with local rocks. However, the area was graded from river silt as drainage for the orange groves, so there are no rocks. Every one of you can help by bringing some stones that are; as Hobie says, bigger than your fist, but smaller than your head.

Please drop off your best stones, rocks, gems and minerals in the wheelbarrow outside the sanctuary entrance on Sunday mornings on your way in. You can also leave them in back on path behind the dumpster anytime.

Warren Ellis

Please join SAZCUUPS for Imbolc on Saturday, February 3rd, as we celebrate the Celtic Goddess Brigid and the first signs of spring. Druid James will officiate. Ritual will be held at UUCT, 4831 E. 22nd St. To join us online, the Zoom link is https://zoom.us/j/8239364868 and you can also use Zoom ID 823 936 4868. See you there!

Care Card Creation

Feb 11 | 11:30am in social hour | MVUU

Care. Connection. Service.

Join our congregation in creating Care Cards! Make one for someone you know and then make one to leave with the Care Team who will send it to a person in the congregation when one is needed. Supplies will be provided, but if you have paper crafting supplies, feel free to bring them.

Engage in Fellowship by Being a Pen Pal! 

I have participated in the UU Worthy Now Prison Project through the Church of the Larger Fellowship since 2021. I eagerly look forward to each letter from my pen pal. It’s a way to uplift a person in need and to make a small difference in the world. And, it is a way to honor my commitment to our First Principle: Recognizing the inherent worth and dignity of every person. 

Writing to an incarcerated UU takes only a few minutes each month. 

The UU Worthy Now Prison Ministry is a lifeline for over 1,700 incarcerated individuals. These members of our community, often forgotten and marginalized, yearn for a connection to the outside world. Many of them learned about our faith while incarcerated. 

By signing up to be a pen pal, you have the unique opportunity to touch a life, to offer care, and to participate in the power of human connection.

If you have questions about this project, please contact MVUU member Claudia Silverman at [email protected] or 760-914-0863. To be connected with a pen pal, contact the director of the UU Worthy Now Prison Ministry Program, Beth Murray, who can provide you with information and connect you with your new Pen Pal. Beth is reachable at [email protected]. 

You’re especially invited to Worship in the Woods, a hike with interspersed worship elements, a program developed at UUCT. 

Monday morning 2/12 we’ll be meeting at the Sweetwater Preserve Trailhead for our February event. There will be a choice of two hikes (a 2-mile or a 4-mile walk). They each have minimal elevation gain, although there are ups and downs on dirt trails.  The worship elements are the same on both routes. 

If you are interested in participating, please email me at [email protected] to let me know whether you’re interested in the longer or shorter hike.

Since you are new to WitW please go to

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScvi1y_Mf_BpQ2-hnimYrRjP3mV4DtyvdXIwJ5Ly_CdaZfPaw/viewform to complete our interest survey. I’ll get back to you with more details as they become clear!

Please join us for worship in the inspiration of nature!

Rev Lisa McDaniel-Hutchings

Affiliated Minister, Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson

Presenting a Musical Review

On Saturday, February 17 nearly 20 talented MVUU members and their friends will present an eclectic program of lively musical selections, ranging from solos and duets to quartets, and featuring opera, classical, popular, folk, and jazz blues pieces. During staging transitions, our own poets will read selections that they have written directly from their hearts. We are requesting a goodwill donation with proceeds to be used for our music department needs, which may include improved microphones and/or risers for the choir. Wine and non-alcoholic beverages will be served on a voluntary-donation basis. 

Please join us on February 17 at 7:00 pm at the church, and bring a friend! Thank you for your support. 

The Baja 4 is once again sponsoring a table at the Festival of Books March 9 and 10. What a great chance to reach out to other readers and talk about our liberal faith! Steve Bottorff and Melody Luepke are organizing a collection of UU read books to give away to festivalgoers. We think this will show people that we are good readers AND liberal thinkers! To that end, you may start dropping books off at church on Sundays: We will provide white laundry baskets labeled BOOKS FOR THE FESTIVAL. If you want to purchase a book or two at our book sale this week and donate it, we think that would be swell! We will collect books in February and then take them to the festival for distribution. 

We also need volunteers to work in our booth! It is a relatively easy job, chatting with interesting people and passing out books and bookmarks. Each shift is 3 hours with a break.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A094CAAA929A7F49-47633112-tucson

We will have a Zoom planning meeting February 8 at 6:00. All are welcome.

Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2166502034?pwd=S0MwTFZPeUMxY3Noai9HVGt4MUt2Zz09

Meeting ID: 216 650 2034

Passcode: pewter

Please contact Steve [email protected] or Melody  [email protected] if you have questions

Check out the Festival itself at https://tucsonfestivalofbooks.org/.

OWL @ MVUU

As some of you may or may not know we’ve officially had our first parent orientation and our first youth class this month!! Our youth who are between 12-15 years old have 6 youth registered. Some from our congregation, a few friends of a friend, and some from entirely different churches, schools, neighborhoods who found us online. The class is taking place in the Mesquite room every Sunday from 12:30-3:30 til May. We have a great group of facilitators: Samar Adi, Michael Herman, Grace Yelland and Maya Asher.

Our 4-6 grade class starts on January 28th up in the loft 12:30-2:30pm. This class runs until the end of April. So we have a lot going on Sunday afternoons! We have 11 children registered for this class ages 9-11 years old. Most of these children are from outside our congregation but have found us online and are very familiar with the OWL program. Our facilitators are: Michelle Thomas, Stephanie Funke Crary, and Jennifer Martin.  They are working hard to make our space welcoming and informational but fun for our kiddos who will be coming to this class.

All our facilitators have been preparing for this since the teacher training back in March of 2023. So they are ready to knock this out of the park. 

And just a quick ask for our Youth OWL class. We cordially invite 3-5 members who identify as LGBTQ+ who would like to share their life experiences with our youth in our 12-15 year old OWL class. This class will be held on February 18th after service. We are looking for diversity in both sexual orientation and gender identity. As a guest speaker, you would be given an opportunity to say alittle about your journey of self and then answer questions from the youth. These experiences can have a strong impact on youth and may be the first positive role model they meet. Meaningful interactions with people from outside their community who are openly LGBTQ+ gives youth a point of reference as they explore their own sexual orientation or gender identity. If this is something that you would like to participate in please reach out to Stacie Sosa or stop by the RE room. 

Please join me in celebrating and a huge thank you to all our teachers, students, and everyone who supported this program!!