November 19-20, 2022 - 10 Lyons Plains Road Westport, CT 06880 -

Phone: 203.227.7205. visit us at uuwestport.org

CLICK HERE for 2 week calendar PDF. CLICK HERE for past issues of SOUNDINGS.

Saturday 12-4 PM and Sunday 9:30 -9:50 AM: Brown bag lunch donations to support John Street Outreach. Sign up HERE; click HERE for instructions. Contact David Vita.

VOICES CAFE has the fabulous Heather Pierson Jazz Trio coming Sat Dec 3, 4PM. Details can be found HERE and stay tuned for Sunday's SOUNDINGS weekDAY!

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2022

The Thanksgiving Holiday is steeped in colonialism and disparaging myth. How can we re-imagine this holiday as calling us to our better selves?

We will celebrate the season with our cider and cornbread communion, and we're delighted to be recognizing new members as well. The Teen and Children's choirs will be singing.

Please remain after the service to hear from our Financial Sustainability Consultants, Barry Finklestein and Rachel Maxwell. (Scroll below for more.)

Click HERE for the Order of Service. The service will be in person and virtual; attendance guidelines are HERE. Broadcast of the service is available at uuwestport.org/livestream. 

Offering can be made on VENMO ("The Unitarian Church in Westport"), on vop.tucw.org, or feel free to mail in cash or check.

Next Sunday, November 27, 2022 at 10:00 AM

“Change in the Service of Inclusion” – Rev. Dr. John Morehouse

ALL AGES! PLEASE BRING NON-PERISHABLES TO DONATE

This Sunday we will continue to collect food for the Mercy Learning Center in Bridgeport. We have supported Mercy for many years; our gifts to the MLC food pantry - non-perishables and cash -- help to ensure that women can stay in school.

Please bring a can/box or bag of non-perishable food this Sunday. We’ll collect it all and deliver it before Thanksgiving. Thank you! Contact Ruth Fontilla.

Please contact Nate Pawelek with any questions. All are always welcome to be with us. We look forward to getting to know your children better!

Nursery care available for babies and toddlers at 9:45 AM downstairs, in the sanctuary building. Our ushers can help you find your way. 

There are no Faith Formation classes this Sunday. All children and youth are invited to a special multi-generational worship service beginning at 10:00 AM. Please bring a non-perishable with you to donate! We will welcome a few new members into our religious community, the Youth Choir will perform, we will share cornbread and cider, and Nate will sing a Story for All composed by himself.

After the worship service, the youth group will meet as usual at 11:15 AM

BRING-A-FRIEND KIDS HOLIDAY FUN

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3 at 4:00 PM



Stay tuned for details coming about bring-a-friend holiday fun, at the Meeting House, Saturday Dec. 3, 4 PM. Kids will enjoy time together while parents' can go hear Vince Guaraldi's A Charlie Brown's Christmas at Voices Cafe in the sanctuary. And who knows, the kids might bump into Charlie Brown too!

TOWN HALL MEETING AFTER SERVICE TO LOOK AHEAD

All are urged to stay after the service this Sunday, to hear from our consultants Stewardship for Us who have been engaged to help us understand and address the financial needs of our congregation. This initiative, led by the Treasurer, and our heads of Endowment, Stewardship, and our Senior Minister, (Steve Grathwohl, Mark Corcoran, Elena Rockman-Blake and Rev. John respectively) will provide a framework for analyzing and brainstorming ways to both enhance our revenue line and reduce our cost lines. As we know, our congregation, while strong and vibrant, is different from what it was 10 years ago, and we want to examine closely what implications that has for us moving forward.

Rachel Maxwell, a lead consultant on this engagement, will be running the conversation and shepherding a series of breakout group discussions. We look forward to seeing you there. There will be more opportunities to explore this, of course, but this first kick-off is a good one for us all, to get centered. It will be livestreamed.

Light food will be provided to tide us over; bring your own lunch if you prefer.

The first batch of holiday wreaths have arrived (in 12 large boxes)! If you ordered wreaths, please pick yours up this Sunday. Bring cash or check if you haven't yet paid, or you may use Venmo (The Unitarian Church in Westport @TUCW-1). 

NAMING COMMITTEE: VOTE #3 WILL USE RANKED CHOICE VOTING

AND WILL RUN THROUGH THIS SUNDAY 5 PM

The Naming Vote for Vote #3 is still in progress through Sunday November 20 at 5 PM. The three names on the ballot (in alphabetical order) are:

The Unitarian Church in Westport,

The Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Westport,

UU Westport A Unitarian Universalist Community.

In the spirit of building community, the method of voting will be Ranked Choice Voting. Click HERE for a YouTube video about Ranked Choice voting and HERE for a written explanation of this method. Each of the three names MUST be given a preference of 1, 2 or 3 when marking your ballot or the vote will not be accepted for submission.CLICK HERE to vote.

Please contact Ruth Fontilla if you need help voting. All details about the process can be found on the website HERE . Questions/concerns?  namechange@uuwestport.org

UU PLAYERS PRESENT THE LARAMIE PROJECT NOV 18, 19 AND 20

Friday and Saturday Nov 18 and 19 (7:00 PM)

and Sunday Nov 20 (2:00 PM)

TIckets HERE.

The UU Players is pleased to announce its production of The Laramie Project. Based on the brutal 1998 murder of twenty-two year old Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student, the play explores the circumstances around the crime, and the varied - and often shocking - reactions of the people of Laramie. The play becomes the portrait of a town in a soul-searching moment, as it explores issues of morality, religion, and humanity itself.

This uniquely constructed piece pulls from hundreds of interviews with Laramie residents, conducted by the play’s creators, The Tectonic Theater Company under the direction of Moises Kaufman. 

Click HERE to read an informative featured article from The Connecticut Post. Tickets can be purchased at the door, or at uuwestport.org/uuplayers.

TRANSGENDER DAY OF REMEMBRANCE -

THIS SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 4:00-5:00 PM

Join us in community to honor the memory of the transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence. We will be making art as encouragement and inspiration to those who are still here with us.

"Transgender Day of Remembrance seeks to highlight the losses we face due to anti-transgender bigotry and violence. With so many seeking to erase transgender people - sometimes in the most brutal ways possible - it is vitally important that those we lose are remembered, and that we continue to fight for justice." ~ Transgender Day of Remembrance founder Gwendolyn Ann Smith

The service will be at the Triangle Community Center, 650 West Ave. Norwalk, CT.

UU Meditation, 9:00-9:40 AM Sundays. Hybrid. A UU mix of mindfulness, discourse, relaxation, visualization and silence. In person, go downstairs and find us in the Chapel by the lower level entrance. On ZOOM -- CLICK HERE Meeting ID: 604 513 6137. Passcode: 068510. Questions? Contact  Janet Luongo.

Flowers: Should you wish to donate flowers for a Sunday service, please reach out to Ruth Fontilla, our administrator, or fill out the form in the notebook on the table in the foyer.

Pay it forward: please consider being a greeter on Sundays; help our new folks navigate our community. Contact Beth Cliff or Rob Zuckerman to find a Sunday that works for you! 

• Domestic Violence Crisis Center (DVCC)- 24Hr 888–774–2900
• Alcoholics Anonymous: 866-783-7712 https://ct-aa.org/meetings
• Al-Anon (family members of alcoholics) https://www.ctalanon.org/meetings
• Suicide and Crisis Lifeline - Dial 988 Hours: Available 24 hours. Languages: English, Spanish.