Thank you so much to everyone who came out to WUSYG'S Imagination Ball on Jan. 21st, which was an opportunity for our community to come together to celebrate love and diversity. #imaginethat The event included inspiring music from Shiva and Jakob Barton's Band UP (see John and Maggie Russell getting the dance floor started!), some fun facepainting and costumes (check out the Clark Family all decked out!) and some community-building crafts (including Love Notes to Neighbors and a Garden of Dreams planted with our collective Seeds of Hope.)

What is your experience of worship at WUS?  We would love to know!

The Worship Team and Worship Associates have created a survey to gather input about the worship experiences offered here. Please go to the link HERE to participate.

The survey only takes about 10 – 15 minutes.  The link will be available until February 14th at which time the feedback will be tallied and a summary will be made available to all.

Thank you for sharing: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7GKL5X9

Guest at Your Table

WUS is participating in this year’s intergenerational Guest at Your Table program to raise support for and awareness about the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee’s mission and model for effecting social change. This year’s program is focused around the theme of Defying Hate. See the table in the Symmes Room to pick up a Guest at Your Table box and a copy of the inspiring “Stories of Hope” brochure, which highlights some of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee’s work to protect human rights in the face of hate, Islamophobia, and other forms of bigotry. If you have a Guest at Your Table box, please remember to “feed it”.

For more information about the Guest at Your Table program and the UUSC, go to:  http://www.uusc.org/welcome-to-guest-at-your-table/

As February is a month of LOVE and we will be exploring the theme of "identity" as a congregation, Rev. Heather asked the Standing Committee Exec for permission to hang a "Love Your Neighbor" banner on the Mystic Valley Parkway side of the Society building. (See above.)

This message celebrates our values and aspirations of inclusion and serves as a reminder to everyone who sees it to "do unto others as we would have them do unto us." The banner will be introduced in worship on Sunday, will be hung that day and will remain for the rest of the month.

If you have any questions, or would like to speak with someone about groups or our initiative, please contact:
Maria Shepherd mandmshepherd@comcast.net or Maury Wood mowood60@gmail.com

Racial Justice Team

Message from Black Lives Matter

Greetings folks,
Soon we will be upon the new year. With that new year, we will come across the month of February, which has been allotted to us to celebrate our history. We know, of course, that there is so much more to our history than one month to explain. This month will be different, because we have seen the course of our journey altered so much in the past year by white supremacy, racist police, and a country that has been reluctant to acknowledge our story, in which they consistently exist as an antagonist to our freedom. This February, we want to tell our own history, before it is corrupted, appropriated, misinterpreted, and forgotten. Black Lives Matter would like to take as many opportunities as we can to speak truth to power in the community and uplift those that have come before us, exist with us, and will come long after we are gone. We would like your help. Please send us any opportunities to speak at local community centers, schools, companies, churches, and any other forum available during Black History Month so that we can share our story, for us, by us. We know with the current environment, that there is no more important moment than now to speak on the struggles that compound our existence. Please send any info to: boston@blacklivesmatter.com.

Also, If you are interested in being a part of Black Lives Matter Boston, see:
https://www.facebook.com/BlackLivesMatterBOS/

In partnership with J. Walter Thompson, we’re launching Backing Black Businesses – a long-term initiative to support the growth and performance of small Black businesses nationwide. It is important to buy local and buy Black. Small businesses provide jobs and economic security. Join us today by #backingblackbusiness or https://www.backingblackbusiness.com/ Just enter your ZIP and search. Peace and Love, BLM Boston

The Next Meeting of the UU Mass Action Black Lives Matter Certified working group will be: Sunday, February 12, 2017, 4-6 p.m. at First Parish Cambridge in Harvard Square. To view the agenda, click HERE or ask Patty Shepard for information.

The Grief Support Group will meet Wednesday, February 22nd from 7:30-9:00 pm (to be held in the Winchester Unitarian Society Parlor / go in the 478 Main Street circular drive door and to your right.) All are warmly welcome to attend. 

The Grief Support Group is open to anyone in the community who has experienced loss and seeks a caring environment to process the complex feelings of grieving. If you have experienced a death of someone in your life and would like to explore your grief with other people who have also experienced loss, please consider attending a grief support group meeting.  Everyone makes his or her own individual journey after experiencing loss. Our group has found that by sharing our journeys with each other, we are strengthened and comforted. 

The grief support meetings start with a reading and then a check-in by participants. You can say as much or as little as you feel comfortable saying (you can also choose to pass if you want.) Usually personal check-ins last a few minutes each and should be uninterrupted. Then the conversation opens up. The facilitator usually starts off this conversation with a topic or question to discuss. The meetings conclude at 9pm. Our meetings are confidential- we ask that everyone observe the guideline that what is said in a meeting, stays in the meeting. Please see the attached covenant which the group abides. 

Upcoming Schedule for the Grief Support Drop-In Group

Tuesday, March 21st    Parlor   7:30-9pm
Wednesday, April 26th    Parlor    7:30-9pm 

Please feel free to contact Karen Erikson (781-729-7249 or by email at "KarenErikson@comcast.net") if you would like more info on the Grief Support Program at WUS -or- feel free to just show up at a meeting. No rsvp needed.