Thursday, January 6, 2022 |
|
THIS SUNDAY'S
WORSHIP SERVICE
|
|
|
"A Blessing for Exhausted Pigeons"
Leika Lewis-Cornwell. guest speaker
Vida Morley, service leader
Nevin Dawson, musician
Online Zoom ONLY Worship Service
Sunday, January 9, 2022 | 10 am
For millennia, mystics from many traditions have navigated times of uncertainty with the help of contemplative practice. This service will explore the lessons and blessings that intentionality can offer us in navigating our own times of uncertainty.
Leika Lewis-Cornwell (they/she) is an organizational consultant and UU minister in formation. Leika completed a two-year internship at the UU Church of Annapolis in 2020 and currently serves as the President of the UU Humanist Association.
A native of the DC area, Leika has spent the past 20 years working with churches, non-profits, and large organizations to help them grow into their best selves. Leika now lives in Milford, DE with her family.
So we can begin the worship service promptly at 10 am, please sign into Zoom ( click here) by no later than 9:50 am. A virtual coffee hour will immediately follow the service.
Please submit "Joys and Concerns" and "Announcements" in advance by emailing them to the UUCR office ( click here) by 9 pm Saturday. |
|
|
Come Join Us for Coffee Hour |
|
Please come join us for our Virtual Coffee Hour at 11:00 am, on Sunday, January 9 immediately following the worship service (continuation of the worship service's Zoom link).
It's a time to see and talk to one another, and the next best thing to being there!
|
|
|
 |
This Week's
Worship Service
Previous Worship Service Recordings
NEW!
Text of Last Week's Sermon
UUCR
|
|
|
|
JAN 9 | Worship Service &
Virtual Coffee Hour
Online Zoom ONLY
Leika Lewis-Cornwell, guest speaker
Vida Morley, service leader
Nevin Dawson, musician
JAN 16 | UUCR & UUFE
Worship Service &
Virtual Coffee Hour
Online Zoom ONLY
Rev. Sue Browning
Nancy Holland, service leader
JAN 23 | UUCR & UUFE
Worship Service &
Virtual Coffee Hour
Online Zoom ONLY
Dr. Bob Clegg, guest speaker
Jan Sprinkel, service leader
JAN 30 | UUCR & UUFE
Worship Service &
Virtual Coffee Hour
Online Zoom ONLY
Rev. Sue Browning
|
|
|
|
If you know of another link or event that should be added, please contact
the UUCR office by email or phone 410-778-3440. Thanks!
|
|
|
UUCR Services Going Online-ONLY for the Month of January |
|
January 4, 2022
Dear Members and Friends,
UUCR’s Re-Opening Task Force met this past week and has decided, based on local health conditions, including the record-breaking spread of Covid and hospitals being at capacity throughout the region, that UUCR will not hold in-person Sunday services for the month of January. Sunday services will be held each week on Zoom.
This was a difficult decision. We recognize our members value the option to gather in person each week. And, too, we see the spread of the virus breaking all records. During this post-holiday period, we expect the high transmission to continue for a few weeks. By moving to online services for January, we hope to do our part in the community to limit the spread and to ease pressures on hospitals.
We plan to resume in-person services (continuing to provide an online option) as soon as conditions improve. With consideration for our fellow congregants, when we resume in-person services, we ask that all who attend in-person services to please be fully vaccinated. We understand that a few people may have a medical exception to being vaccinated. Yet for the majority, and to protect those who cannot yet be vaccinated, we ask all others to be fully vaccinated and boosted if eligible.
At this point, UUCR will continue to permit the use of the building by small groups (e.g., for committee meetings), provided all of UUCR’s Covid guidelines are followed. While Sunday services are open to the public, with large, varied groups, including visitors, our assessment is that small groups can more easily check in with one another and make a choice on whether or not to meet. We do want to emphasize the importance of proper mask wearing whenever in the building.
The task force will meet again in a few weeks to assess local conditions, including stress on hospitals, and review these plans.
If you have questions or input for the task force, please be in touch. As always, thank you for your flexibility and patience.
The Re-Opening Task Force
Jim Lavin (Task Force Chair), Nancy Holland (Board President), Rev. Sue Browning (Minister), Pat Bjorke, Gail Folger, and Jackie Mathwich
|
|
|
Welcome to the first issue of Reflections for 2022. It doesn’t seem possible that a new year is upon us. I hope that all of you and your families had a lovely Christmas. For those who attended our Eve of the Eve service, by Zoom or in person, it was different this year, but it did provide us a welcome opportunity to be in community and share some holiday spirit. Thank you to everyone who made the evening possible!
As we look to the start of 2022, many of us are dismayed to be facing the Covid omicron variant and a nation seemingly still divided on numerous issues. Within our congregation this year brought isolation, illness, injury, and loss. But UUCR has also been resilient and steadfast in its commitment to our blessed community. Our committees continue their valuable work. We now have a “tech team” and can offer hybrid services to allow members, friends, or visitors to attend services by the method most comfortable for them. We are grateful for Rev. Sue who has been generous with her time, creative and flexible in her approach, and determined to provide a service every week through unprecedented circumstances.
And I am so grateful for and to you, the members and friends of UUCR, who have sustained each other through this difficult year. You are what makes our small congregation mighty. None of us can know what 2022 will bring but I know we all continue to have hope for a better tomorrow. With that hope and your commitment to UUCR, we will make it happen.
Best wishes to you and yours in this New Year. In gratitude,
Nancy
|
|
|
If you don't see "END of REFLECTIONS for January 6, 2022" at the very end of this email, you're not seeing the entire email. To view it to the end please Click here
|
|
|
Your communications committee (PROCC) is hoping to revise last year’s fun and successful valentine cookie event — sweets for the sweetest congregation of members and friends ever! Once again we will need volunteers to:
Bake a batch or two;
Deliver bags of cookies to our members and friends;
and
Hand out bags on the pick-up day, Sunday afternoon, February 13, at the UUCR parking lot. (Plenty of hours before the Super Bowl).
Other opportunities to help are on the horizon as well, as we will have a gathering of folks to fill the bags on the Friday or Saturday before 2/13.
|
|
|
Social Concerns/Social Justice Committee |
|
Working on the Maryland Environment |
As Maryland has more than 3,000 miles of tidal coastline, our state needs to be a leader in reducing the causes and effects of rising ocean levels due to climate change. A group of UUCR members is forming to support measures expected in the 2022 Maryland legislature, opening on January 12. We will use the positions advanced by the Maryland League of Conservations Voters, an umbrella group of volunteer environmentalists that has worked in Annapolis for 40 years. This year, for the first time, the League is partnering with the state NAACP to ensure equity for communities of color under any proposal.
Local supporters will be asked to telephone and email members of the District 36 delegation when key votes are scheduled. Those reps are Senator Stephen Hershey and Delegates Steve Arentz, Jefferson Ghrist, and Jay Jacobs. Their contact info will be provided.
So far, three UUCR and a UUFE member (met via a Sunday coffee Zoom) have expressed interest. The Conservation League has emphasized the importance of making a strong impact (via numbers of contacts) on legislators from rural, conservative areas such as the upper and mid-Shore since veto-proof majorities may be needed on some bills. Please contact Linda Weimer at namrag.weimer@gmail.com or by phone at 410.778.2618 if you want to help.
|
|
|
Collecting Redner Receipts for
Amy Lynn Ferris Adult Activity Center
|
For those of you who are still collecting Redner grocery store sales receipts for the Senior Center, please be assured that they are still accepting and using the receipts to help them cover programming costs. They get a small percentage of the sales amount on the receipts. You can mail them directly or bring them to church and we'll mail them in bulk. Their address is: Amy Lynn Ferris Adult Activity Center, 200 Schauber Rd., Chestertown, MD 21620, or you can drop them off during their weekdays hours. Questions? Contact Lynn Dolinger,
|
|
|
Leadership Development Committee |
|
LDC Call for Volunteers for the Stewardship Drive
It’s time for the annual Stewardship Drive, where we seek pledges from members and friends to support next year’s budget. There are two members who’ve already committed to helping out, and we are looking for two other folks to help with the process. Mainly, the committee compiles and sends out pledge materials to members and friends, keeps track of which ones have been returned, and follows up with those people who have not returned theirs. The committee will begin its work very soon in January.
One good thing is that this is a “time-limited” commitment. The BEST thing is that this essential work ensures the operation of UUCR for another year — supports our staff, our worship program, our upkeep of the building and grounds, our music program, and the work of the various committees.
Wishing you a Happy New Year!
Amy Warner
|
|
|
Pastoral Care and Connection |
|
You are encouraged to share your joys and sorrows with the UUCR Pastoral Associates (see below). This team is a mixed group — but all have had previous life experiences and a variety of professional training in counseling and philosophy. Please contact one, or several of us, if you “want to talk.”
Pastoral Care Associates: Kevin Brien,
Gayle Folger, Nancy Holland, and Vida Morley
|
|
|
JANUARY
11 - Vida Morley
12 - Ralph Dolinger
13 - Melinda Lippincott
14 - Dianne Turpin
14 - Judy Graham
20 - Al Mathwich
22 - Clark Bjorke
29 - Zoe Panas
|
|
|
We want to help celebrate your birthday! If we didn't include your birthday, please contact the UUCR office by email (click here). |
|
|
Unitarian Universalists of the Chester River 914 Gateway Drive | Chestertown, MD | 21620
Phone: 410-778-3440
Office hours: W - Sa, 8:30-10:30 am |
Su, 8:30 am-noon | Closed, M & Tu
|
|
|
END of REFLECTIONS for January 6, 2022
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
