Sunday, September 13, 1 pm

"Water Communion"

Rev. Krista Weber Huang and Kathy Burek

In Person: UCCNB, 1000 Long Lake Road

Online: Merging Waters Zoom Room

Join us for this annual ritual of gathering as we begin a new church year! During Water Communion you are invited to bring water representing your spiritual, emotional, mental, and/or physical journeys over the summer. We will join these waters into a collective bowl as a physical representation of our value of Mindful Interdependence. 

Rev. Krista's Office Hours

Columbia Heights Pride, Saturday, September 12, 11am-4pm

Water Communion, Sunday September 13, 1pm

Smitten Kitten Community Work, Sunday, September 20, 1pm

UCCNB Block Party, Sunday, September 20, 10:30am-12:30pm

Service on Congregational Teams, Sunday, September 27, 1pm

MW Fall Festival, Sunday, October 4, 1-4pm

Saturday, September 12, 11 AM – 4 PM

Kordiak Park, Booth 27

1845 49th Ave NE Columbia Heights, MN 55421

A big thank you to those who signed up for booth duty at Columbia Heights Pride. We're in space number 27 this year. CH Pride Map

September 20: Smitten Kitten Comes to Merging Waters

Merging Waters Unitarian Universalist Congregation invites you to join us for service on Sunday, September 20 starting at 1:00pm. We’ll be joined by JP Pritchett, founder and owner of The Smitten Kitten, to hear how and why this small shop offering sex toys, safe space, and education, became one of the most energized hubs of community support and resistance during the ICE Metro Surge. Note: There will be an opportunity to offer support to the Mutual Aid Fund established by The Smitten Kitten to extend the good work they’re doing in their community. As UU’s, we affirm the life-giving goodness of consensual sexual pleasure, so we are excited to hear from The Smitten Kitten about their incredible journey so far!

Sunday September 20, 1pm, at Merging Waters UU, 1000 Long Lake Rd, New Brighton (in the United Church of Christ building at the NW corner of I-694 & Long Lake Rd).

Merging Waters Fall Festival

Sunday, October 4, 1:00 -4:00 pm

Come and bring your family and friends! Merging Waters is going to celebrate fall and our community on Sunday, October 4. We'll have a short Sunday service outside at 1pm. The service will be a Pet Blessing service. Only bring a picture of your pet for the blessing. Following the service, there will be a petting zoo, balloon art, pumpkin decorating, and of course donuts and cider. It will be a fun time to relax and enjoy fall together.

September Worship Theme

"Beginning is a big word in our culture. It comes with a lot of pressure. We are expected to be a hero of sorts: Clear about where we are going and courageous enough to get there on our own.

The beautiful life, the enviable journey, is the one that is mapped out from the start and never veers off track.

Even the wise and widely-loved, Mary Oliver, seems to get into this game of bold and brave beginnings. “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?,” she asks. It’s a question that can sometimes feel more intimidating than invitational.

But what if we began our journeys differently? What if we allowed ourselves to start off with humility, not heroism? With our doubts rather than our certainty? What if it was ok for us to say out loud: “I’m not sure where I’m going? And I’m not sure I can get there on my own?”

-from Soul Matters Small Group Workbook

Spero Academy is a public K-6 elementary charter school with locations in Northeast Minneapolis and Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. Spero Academy provides individualized educational programs designed to benefit students with disabilities and meets their unique needs through continuous progress and a responsive environment, which maintain a high standard of academic and personal excellence and cultivate a sense of respect, responsibility and community. 

More importantly, Spero Academy provides hope. Traditional public schools can often be unaccommodating places for children with disabilities, and many of these students unintentionally fall through the cracks. When families feel like their school is failing their child, they turn to Spero.

Merging Waters Women's Book Group

October 3, 9:30am

Online: Our Zoom Room

Book selected: Fiction-Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett

In the spring of 2020, Lara’s 3 daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.

The Merging Waters Women's Book Group is a gathering of female (identifying as female/feminine, LGBTQ+ inclusive)) members and friends who meet the first Saturday of each month to discuss books written by female identified authors. The group alternates between fiction and non-fiction works recommended by one or more of the group members.  Contact Pat Ferrian (ferri004@gmail.com) to be added to the email list.

Meetings are held online via ZOOM, 9:30 am to 11:30 am. Unless otherwise noted, use the “Our Zoom Room” (Yellow Button) on the mergingwatersuu.org home page. 

Merging Waters Sunday Evening Book Group

September 13, 7pm

Sig & Marti’s

(The Residences at St Anthony Assisted Living)

Treats: Marilyn

Book Selected: Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. Published in 2022, 368 pages. 

A charming, witty and compulsively readable exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope that traces a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.

After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she’s been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn’t dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors—until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

The Merging Waters Unitarian Universalist Congregation (MWUUC) Sunday Evening Book Club meets the second Sunday of each month except in August.  Contact Pat Ferrian (ferri004@gmail.com) to be added to the email list or for questions.