UUCC Twice-Monthly Newsletter

Opportunity for Good:

Many of us are profoundly worried and discouraged by the failure of the United States Senate to pass legislation to protect the voting rights for all Americans. Rather than feeling hopeless, there are actions we must take to preserve democracy in this country. Multiple organizations are working to maximize voting. One of them is Reclaim Our Vote at https://reclaim-our-vote.webflow.io./, a volunteer-driven, nonpartisan voter outreach campaign with a focus on voters of color, especially in the South. One of their current campaigns is postcarding, right now to 720,000 Black registered voters in Texas, where there will be a primary election on March 1st. Locally, you can email Lorrie Epling at Coastside United for Action to join this campaign and mail postcards by February 14th. Lorrie will provide addresses, postcards, and a script; you supply postage.

Food for Our Souls:

UUCC First Sunday Service, February 6th, 11am

The Touchstones Theme for February is Power. On February 6, our beloved Bill Heavlin delivers a new sermon entitled “The Sacred Conversation: Exploring the Power of Covenantal Listening."

UUs often discuss topics with the implicit goal of converging on truth, assuming both the uniqueness of truth and the power implied by this uniqueness. In this sermon, we explore a second dimension to such conversations: the value of the dialog itself, of discovering and creating shared language, and of recognizing others as co-travelers on a common journey. Drawing from team sports, linguistics, and ecology, Bill offers analogies and (perhaps) even insights about power, language, and conversation.

Bill has been integral to the production of UUCC's online Zoom services, taking on every role from switchin' slides to snuffin’ chalices. Dr. Bill Heavlin works as a research statistician in Google’s Applied Science team, which includes research on implicit bias. At home, Bill enjoys hiking Coastal trails, painting watercolors, and feeding wild backyard birds.

For the Order of Service, click here.

Please join us at 11:00 am Pacific, 2pm Eastern.

Gathering for service and music begin at 10:50 am.

UUCC Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/6617755196

Meeting ID: 661 775 5196 Password: UUseesea

Share the Love -- A CoastPride Faith Partners ONLINE Valentine's Day Event on February 13th, 2pm

Please join CoastPride, UUCC, and other Faith partners for a talk by Bishop Megan Rohrer, the first openly transgender minister to be ordained by the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Valentine’s Day is often seen as an exclusively romantic holiday, but love is about familial and community connection as well. Prior to Bishop Megan's talk, CoastPride's Faith-Based Partners are providing craft supplies to make Valentine's cards. You can opt to make a traditional Valentine for partners and romantic interests. Or you can choose to expand the scope of love by crafting a card for family, friends, and neighbors. Or you can exponentially expand the healing power of love by creating a card for one of our unhoused neighbors temporarily living at the Coastside Inn. After you register, CoastPride will send you information on how to pick up your Valentine’s packet, which contains craft supplies plus goodies.

This event is free and a Zoom link will be provided to registered participants via email up until the time of the event. However, earlier registration is needed to pick up your Valentine's craft package at the CoastPride Center from Wednesday, February 9th, through Saturday, February 12th. For those of you who have opted to create a card for someone at the Coastside Inn transitional housing shelter, the deadline to drop off your cards is 12noon on February 14th. All completed Valentines will be delivered to residents at the Coastside Inn on the afternoon of Valentine’s Day.

UUCC "Sharing the Pulpit" Sunday, Feb. 20th, 11am

UUCC is thrilled to invite all Shared Pulpit graduates to deliver their sermons on Third Sundays in 2022. Join us Sunday, February 20th, when Tricia Dell delivers a sermon entitled, "Facing the truth as a spiritual practice: the benefits of staying with difficulty and uncertainty." As climate change rolls out before our eyes and unpredictable challenges persist within our families and in our communities, how can we learn to face hard truths and let that clarity shape our actions?

Whether facing the truth of your racism or learning how to identify what’s true for you in any given situation, facing the truth often requires hanging out with discomfort. Tricia will share her experience of accepting the uncomfortable feelings associated with difficulty and uncertainty and how they have supported her spiritual journey.

Tricia Dell has worked in the nonprofit sector as a coach and strategist helping nonprofit boards strengthen their organizations through board development, donor communications, planning, and fundraising. She has attended UUCC over the last two years, acted as as a UUCC Worship Associate, and guided UUCC's community fundraisers. She is also a long time member of UU San Mateo. Tricia is a recent—and proud—Shared Pulpit graduate from the recent inter-congregational class, co-sponsored by UUCC and the UU Fellowship of Santa Cruz County, and taught by Tovis Page and Kathryn Jay.

UUCLC Transitioning to In-Person Sunday Services

UUCLC hopes to resume indoor services starting in April. In the short term, UUCLC will offer alternative ways for their community to gather rather than through a formal worship service. Click here for UUCLC's Board's official notice on suspending their second Sunday Zoom production.

Gail Marquette will continue to host the Coffee Hour & Free Wheeling Symposium on Sunday mornings at 10:00am at their regular Zoom site. Lake County UUs are a lovely bunch and you are welcome to join them on any Sunday morning at 10am.

UUCLC will continue to announce the UU Coastside Community’s Zoom Sunday Services, as well as those of UU San Mateo. We are forever grateful to UUCLC for our partner exchange during the Pandemic. The two congregations shared production tips, music recordings, and attended each other's services, helping to bolster morale for both communities. And we hope to see our Lake County friends here for UUCC 1st and 3rd Sundays until they resume in-person service.

Meeting Recap UUCC Congregational Meeting

UUCC held our second Congregational Meeting on January 16th. We had 18 people in attendance and everyone had a chance to voice their opinions and offer suggestions. First, Bill Heavlin gave a short homily on "Becoming, Belonging, and Beyond." Dave Rokosky then explained the purpose of UU Congregational meetings. Noreen Cooper Heavlin summarized the progress UUCC has made since our first Congregational Meeting in 2017 with an updated history. Nancy Palmer concluded with a treasury update on how UUCC has fared during the Pandemic years of 2020-2021.

Below is a summary of the discussion portion of the meeting:

(1) A proposal to meet at the Odd Fellows Hall, perhaps as early as the first Sunday in April, COVID variants considered.

The Odd Fellows hall space consists of one large, hardwood-floored ballroom rated for up to 220 occupants, plus a separate kitchen and dining room for about 25 people. A new air handler system provides ventilation that exceeds CDC guidelines for healthy indoor air quality. The upstairs is approximately 3,000 square feet. We also have a place to store our hymnals and the option to set up cushioned chairs in any configuration we’d like, thus allowing for social distancing. The $150 dollars includes a two-hour time frame for set-up, gathering, the service, coffee hour, and tear down. The hall is about 5 times the size of the New Leaf Classroom, has a movie screen, soundboard, and other technical elements to help with hybrid services.

Most people at the meeting thought the Odd Fellows would be an excellent location to meet in person. People pointed out the importance of the elevator and handicap accessible bathroom, the circulation system, and flexible seating possibilities. Of concern is that there’d be a process where vaccination status be verified before attending in-person services and that people be asked to wear N-95 masks during services. The singing at services and how the choir would perform is still to be worked out.

(2) Additional and alternative programming models. Since last summer, we have had two different programming models. Standard service and Gallery View services. The latter are third Sundays, leaner, with more participatory discussion.

Hold one in-person, hybrid, service a month at Odd Fellows and the other Sunday host over Zoom-only.
Simplify Gallery View Sundays even more where the focus would be on the discussion that could be inspired by readings, poetry, or a central monthly topic.
Drop back to only one service a month. (A vote was taken for this suggestion and only three people out of 18 in attendance were interested in this option, with one maybe.)
Give people the opportunity to share more spontaneously.
Poll people as to what type of topics they’d like to discuss.
Revisit the vision statement for UUCC and brainstorm on what might inspire more people to attend services.
Create a service entirely around poetry and readings to stimulate a discussion among attendees like what is done with the Logos Collective.
Get training for Chalice Circles from UUCB, which is an 8-week program involving a list of topics, an Order of Service, and questions to think about before the small group meetings. People are given 5 minutes of uninterrupted time to talk about their own lived experiences about the topic up for discussion. At the end, people have time to talk about what was brought up for them by what others have shared.
Offer Coffee Hour Sundays on 2nd and 4th Sundays – providing a social time in which to get together and socialize.
Bring back Talk Back during formal services, whereby people in the congregation can comment on what stimulated them about a particular sermon.

3. Our approaches to volunteering and giving. We call out for time, talent, treasure and trust.

It was pointed out that we really need more people to get involved with UUCC. We will become a better community when we have more input from more people. Everyone should be putting in something of their own to develop our beloved UUCC community.

How to get more people to attend services? Here were some responses:

Reach out to people who used to attend and ask why they are no longer doing so.
Work closer with the LGBTQ+ Community through CoastPride to get younger people interested in attending our services.
Buddy up at one person’s home during Zoom service viewing so that more than one person can watch services together.
Hold another training session on how to use Zoom for anyone who needs more online service guidance.

The question came up on how to get more people involved in volunteering. Here were some suggestions:

Highlight a volunteer opportunity each service during Announcements.
Give details on what each volunteer opportunity might entail.
Let people know how a volunteer job could be beneficial; like increasing one's public speaking skills as a Chalice Lighter or Worship Associate.
Creating the entire newsletter would take some time but proofreading the newsletter would be an easier task. Reduce bigger tasks into smaller chunks.

Next steps for the Planning Committee will be to send out a survey on people's interests, comfortability, and requirements for meeting in person again; along with an interest survey on alternative programming options listed above. For the entire transcript of UUCC's 2nd Congregational Meeting, email uucoastside@gmail.org.

Volunteer Jobs in Under 30 Minutes a Month

A great recommendation from our recent Congregational Meeting was to offer volunteer opportunities that would require less than 30 minutes a month. Here are a few volunteer jobs we could really use your help with:

(1) Learn how to spotlight speakers during our 1st and 3rd Sunday Services. Simply hover your cursor over the person you want to spotlight, click on the ‘…’ (ellipsis) menu, and choose Spotlight.

(2) Volunteer to be the breakout room host for First or Third Sunday services.

(3) Invite two friends to Subscribe to our YouTube Channel. Or volunteer to coach a regular attendee on how to subscribe to UUCC's YouTube channel.

(4) Invite a friend to attend one of our services online.

(5) Be a Chalice Lighter for a Third Sunday service. After a half hour training, no rehearsals are required.

(6) Find quote memes for our twice-monthly newsletter on monthly Touchstones themes.

(7) Suggest poems, inspirational quotes, YouTube music video links, social action notices, and articles of interest for UUCC's Facebook page.

(8) Coordinate the Compassionate Caring Committee request with posts to our Compassionate Caring Committee Mailing List.

Please contact us at uucoastside@gmail.com to let us know how you can help our Beloved Community grow on the Coast. And thanks to all of you who have or continue to volunteer!

Compassionate Caring Committee:

The UUCC Compassionate Caring Committee volunteers are often able to support our members during life events such as post-operative, illness, or can’t go out. Do you need food delivery or an errand run? Are you feeling loneliness, loss, or grief that a call might help?

Please contact uucoastside@gmail.com if you’d like support or if you want to volunteer.

We Appreciate Your Support:

For supporting UUCC financially, we have two options:

(1) Donate Online

Online donation is easy. At Weekly Offerings, look for the words

UU Coastside Community. Enter your dollar amount, and at Frequency choose either Monthly or One Time. At the bottom of the page, click Continue. Fill in your name, address, phone number, and payment method. Click the box I am not a robot, then click Process. To try it now, click this link, to

the UUSM donation “Vanco” page