MVUU Newsletter March 11, 2022

Did you miss Sunday's Financial Plan presentation in February? Click above to see the recording of the presentation and an overview of possibilities for MVUU's financial future.

Contact Pastoral Care Office Hours with Rev. Sam Pledge and Donations Become a Member Mountain Vista YouTube

Weekly Calendar Sunday, Mar 13 Sunday Book Group 8:15 am Email John Clark Multi-Platform Sunday Service Stewardship Sunday, led by Debbie Roberts and Tom Sawyer 10:30 am Pre-register to attend in person or Join on Zoom Monday, Mar 14 Dance for Healing 10 am Email Ann Bowling Tuesday, Mar 15 Chronic Illness & Pain Support Group 3 pm Join Zoom Laughter Yoga 4 pm Email Rev. Matthew Men's Night Out 7 pm Join Zoom Wednesday, Mar 16 MVUU Choir - Virtual 6 pm Choir Join Zoom Baja 4 Book GroUUp 6:30 pm Register HERE Thursday, Mar 17 MVUU & UUCT Picnic 12 pm Himmel Park Map Laughter Yoga 4 pm Email Rev. Matthew *Note: Rev. Samantha will be on vacation from March 11 - March 20, for her wedding and honeymoon. Happy wedding, Rev. Samantha!

MVUU's Current COVID status is High Risk: Our building is open for small group use. Sunday services will be multi-platform beginning in March. Please read our updated COVID Reopening Policy (Feb 2022) for information and details, as well as a letter from Rev. Samantha about reopening. How to join us as an in-person participant: You must pre-register online (and be vaccinated) Pre-registration is limited to 25 people each Sunday in March Young adults, families, and first-time visitors may attend without pre-registering Please sign up for no more than two Sundays in March, allowing all our Friends and Members a chance to attend in person You can sign up to attend by clicking here. Check out our county data at Covid ActNow by clicking here. If you have questions, reach out to Rev. Samantha and she will direct your inquiry to the right team or person.

Welcome to Stewardship Month! It's Stewardship Season at Mountain Vista UU and we would like to invite you to take a moment to review all the materials and videos now available online! Also, make sure to look for your packets arriving by mail over the next week. Someone from the Stewardship Team will be contacting you to go over the materials, our goals as a congregation and to answer any questions you may have. Please make sure to return your completed pledge forms by Friday, April 1. Stewardship Website

Sunday Service: Our Season of Giving Our service this week focuses on our season of giving when we look inward to reflect on how our gifts of time, talent and treasure provide the resources to carry forward our mission and vision.  Richard Kopp will provide a testimonial on receiving and giving in pastoral care. Samar Adi will provide testimony about the importance of religious exploration for her young family. Tom Bunch will talk about our how our resources provide outreach to the community and supports our search for and support for a new minister. We will also share a story for all ages…The Giving Tree.  As hosts for the service, Debbie Roberts and Tom Sawyer will provide a closing reflection on what inspires them to give their time, talent and treasure to this community. Our hope is that you find much of what MVUU offers to inspire your generosity during this season of giving. A fellowship hour will follow. See you there!

MVUU's New LGBTQ+ Affinity Group Discussion  MVUU is a welcoming congregation, where people are embraced and cared about just the way they are. Any gender identity or sexual orientation will be welcomed. For those needing to speak to someone from the church about LGBTQ issues, feel free to contact MVUU's affiliated minister, Email Rev. Christiane Heyde or text (520) 393-9960.

New Mindful Meditation Group “The beginning of freedom is the realization that you are not the thinker. The moment you becomes activated. You then begin to realize that there is a vast realm of intelligence beyond thought, that thought is only a tiny aspect of that intelligence. You also realize that all the things that truly matter – beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace – arise from beyond the mind.” ~ Eckhart Tolle

Sharon Bottorff and I would like to establish a Mindfulness Meditation practice that will be lead by numerous participants. It will consist of fifteen minutes of welcoming, twenty-five minutes of sitting, ten minutes of walking and twenty-five minutes of sitting. The practice will end with a Metta Sutta, Loving Kindness Invocation. Participants are not required to stay for the entire hour but may quietly leave anytime after the first sitting and before the last sitting commences. Mindfulness Meditation sessions will occur weekly at MVUU. No day or time has been chosen at this point. Interested participants will be asked to complete a survey (Doodle Poll) to determine the day and time to best meet. In order to establish the Mindfulness Meditation we will need a minimum of seven full time Tucson area residents. Currently we only have four which may not allow us to initiate our offering Mindfulness Meditation until next Autumn. Varying levels of meditation experience are welcomed and encouraged to attend. For more information, Email Bonnie Grant-Baird or Email Sharon Bottorff.

Woven Basket and March Volunteer Opportunity: MVUU School Partnerships at Laguna Elementary School We have a new opportunity to assist Laguna Elementary in a Campus Beautification Project during the month of March! As a congregation, we have committed $2,000 towards the purchase of trees, the rental of a Bobcat and to volunteer to help plant the trees. We are issuing a call to you, our members and friends, to volunteer time and physical labor to this endeavor.  On Saturday, March 26, we hope to have many of you assist by donating a few hours of your time. Together, along with others from the Flowing Wells community, we will be beautifying and tending the Laguna campus. That weekend, there will be no students, teachers, or staff on campus and all work will be done outdoors. If you can’t come on Saturday, you can join other volunteers on Friday, March 25. Volunteers from our and other organizations will start gathering at Laguna at 8 am each morning. If you have a pickup and/or trailer, they can be utilized to haul debris to the dump. Please also bring garden utensils such as shovels and rakes. Sign up to join us here! You can support the March 26th School Partnerships project in two ways: volunteer for the event and/or make a donation to our Woven Basket collection that will be dedicated to School Partnerships during the month of March. Join the MVUU Team at Laguna! Sign Up for March 26th Here

Come Together for Democracy Join the statewide campaign to end voter suppression and increase democracy in Arizona! Help us to put the Fair Elections measure on the AZ ballot in November. Contact MVUU’s Democracy Project Email Bob Wallace or call (414) 617-3914.

The Sunday Book Group on Zoom Sunday, Mar 13, 8:15 am  On Sunday March 13, we will begin discussing our new book, Why We’re Polarized by Ezra Klein.  This book: "...reveals the structural and psychological forces behind America’s descent into division and dysfunction. Neither a polemic nor a lament, this book offers a clear framework for understanding everything from Trump’s rise to the Democratic Party’s leftward shift to the politicization of everyday culture. America is polarized, first and foremost, by identity. Everyone engaged in American politics is engaged, at some level, in identity politics. Over the past fifty years in America, our partisan identities have merged with our racial, religious, geographic, ideological, and cultural identities. These merged identities have attained a weight that is breaking much in our politics and tearing at the bonds that hold this country together. Klein shows how and why American politics polarized around identity in the 20th century, and what that polarization did to the way we see the world and one another. And he traces the feedback loops between polarized political identities and polarized political institutions that are driving our system toward crisis." We’ll be reading this book until April 17.  For For questions or a Zoom link, Email John Clark

Laughter Yoga During March, Tuesdays & Thursdays, 4 pm Laughter Yoga is a unique concept that invites everyone to laugh without jokes, humor, or comedy. Through laughter exercises, hatha yoga breathing, and playfulness we will laugh into joy, health, and bonds within the Baja 4. Founded in 1995 by Dr. Mandan Kataria, today Laughter Yoga is practiced by thousands in over 115 countries.  Rev. Matthew is a practicing laughter yogi who trained under Dr. Kataria and is a certified Yoga Laughter facilitator. Members and Friends of BUU will be joining Rev. Matthew to assist in demonstrating laughter exercises, yoga breathing, and Bollywood dance! Learn more about Laughter Yoga:  https://laughteryoga.org/ Ages: Everyone who wants to laugh Dates and Times: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4 pm - 4:30 pm Email Rev. Matthew with laughter and questions Join Zoom Meeting ID: 990 7312 9659 Passcode: 574011

Chronic Illness & Pain Support Group Tuesday, Mar 15 & 29, 3 pm Join MVUU's Chronic Pain & Illness Support Group every other Tuesday afternoon on Zoom. Come and be in a space of community where there are fresh ears to hear and experiences to share. Join Zoom

Book GroUUp Spring 2022 Wednesday, Mar 16, 6:30 pm Join UUJAZ each month for a justice-centered book discussion from the perspective of our Unitarian Universalist values. We will be reading Pleasure Activism by Adrienne Marie Brown. Register HERE

Death with Dignity in the Baja 4 During the Month of March **Content Warning** These series will examine frankly and directly death and end of life choices. Please consider the appropriateness of these events for children. Movie Viewing and Discussion: Wit Saturday, Mar 12, 5:00 pm - 7:30 pm As a part of our Death with Dignity Film Series, we will watch together the movie Wit, a fictional film about a renowned professor who is forced to reassess her life when she is diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer. Stay afterward for reflection and discussion with Rev. Karla Stone Brockie and Rev. Linda Bunyard.   Join Zoom Meeting ID: 980 4428 0689 Password: 973902 Living Well; Dying Well Small Group with Rev. Linda Saturday, Mar 26, 10:00 am - 11:30 am Throughout the sessions we will consider forgiveness and gratitude, do some planning for our memorial services and burial, discuss caregiving for our loved ones who have terminal diagnosis or dementia, learn about hospice care and explore other alternatives, and share community resources. The class agenda and resources will be provided through email before each session.   Workshop meets six times on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays March 26, April 9, April 23, May 14, May 28, and June 11 Please RSVP here to get the zoom link Death and the Arts Small Group Ministry with Rev. Karla This is an open circle (drop-in) small group Ministry for the Baja 4 considering death, mortality, and loss through the arts. Each session will include worship, contemplation, and sharing around a different piece of visual art, music, literature, or film. Rev. Karla will welcome you on Zoom twice a month.  Email Karla Brockie if interested, and she will include you in a Doodle poll to determine day and time; meetings will be twice a month on Zoom Join Zoom Meeting ID: 980 4428 0689 Password: 973902

MVUU & UUCT Picnic Thursday, Mar 17, 12 pm MVUU seasonal members, visitors and friends will gather this coming Thursday, March 17 at noon on the east side of Himmel Park across from 2nd St. Set your GPS for 1000 N. Treat Ave, a block south of East Speedway where you will find ample on street parking. All should bring deck chairs along with their lunch to join the circle. Our February gathering brought together an equal number of folks from UUCT and MVUU folks eager to at least one more citywide get together this season and taking advantage of smaller get togethers at the neighborhood. Questions? Contact Howard Tolley (408) 348-1181 Himmel Park Map

Bookaholics Unanimous Mar 29, 2 pm We are a group of enthusiastic readers who select a variety of books and meet the last Tuesday of every month. Our next meeting is on Tuesday, March 29. The book is The Book of Hope by Jane Goodall. If you are interested in learning more about the group and perhaps new to Zoom, Email Anne Leonard or call her at (520) 307-8045.

Camp Connect Workshop UU Principles: How do they go beyond an ideal?  Experience your local UU Camp... online! Join other Unitarian Universalists as we explore UU History and principles in a four-week workshop series hosted by Camp de Benneville Pines. Register Online

REMINDERS

Dance for Healing Mondays at 10 am Join us at the Jewish Community Center on Mondays, 10 am Class is 1 hour long, cost is $15/week. Email Ann Bowling or call (815) 209-9413

Men's Night Out (Virtual) Tuesdays at 7 pm Join us for Men's Night Out, every Tuesday evening via Zoom. Click to Join Zoom For more information Email Phil Troyer

MVUU Choir Wednesdays at 6 pm Would you like to be a part of the choir, perform an instrumental or be a part of an ensemble here at MVUU? You are welcome to join us! Email Chris Tackett

Caring Hearts Circles Join a Caring Hearts Circle to connect, strengthen, and expand ties within our congregation. Circles meet weekly or bi-weekly via Zoom so that we can be together even as we are physically apart. Got Questions? Email Beth Williams or Email Connie Casebolt

Sign Up for Amazon Smile How to Sign Up for Amazon Smile Once you do, make sure you always use www.smile.amazon.com. To support MVUU, you must specify, Mountain Vista Unitarian Universalist.

Support our School Partnerships with Tax Credits! Make your checks out to the Flowing Wells School District. Send your checks to: Chuck Tatum, 530 E. Newport Dr., Tucson, AZ 85704. Questions? Email Chuck Tatum or call (520) 262-3270. The Flowing Wells School District will mail a donation confirmation to use for tax credit on your AZ taxes.

GIVING & SUSTAINING

Woven Basket Partner School Partnerships

Donations Give your pledge or Donate to MVUU online

Send your check to MVUU, P.O. Box 91080, Tucson, AZ 85752, indicating which fund you'd like it to go to (i.e. Pledge, Operating Fund, Capital Campaign, Woven Basket, etc.).

Find your Friends in MVUU's Photo Directory For login directions Email Erin Chadwell, MVUU Administrator

Newsletter Deadlines: The next newsletter will be published Friday, Mar 18. Submit articles to [email protected] by 12 pm, Monday, Mar 14. No Exceptions. Articles may not exceed 250 words. Thank you.