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Child Care and Nursery

The Childcare Rooms are open from 10:00 am to 12:30 pm each Sunday morning. (10:00 am to 11:00 am for childcare for any adult programming happening and 11:00 am to 12:30 pm for worship.) 

Childcare will be taking place in the nursery and attached preschool room.

First Unitarian Cares!

If you (or someone you care about in our community) would like a caring card, a ride, a meal delivered to your home, a prayer, or a pastoral visit, please fill out a pastoral care request form on our website: https://1uc.org/connect/pastor... or contact Rev. Diana or Susan Bishop (chair of the Befrienders).

Please contact Rev. Diana directly if you need financial assistance. The Minister's Discretionary Fund is available for anyone who needs emergency financial support. In the past, the fund has been used to help cover rent, groceries, fuel, home repairs, medical costs and other needs. Allocations from this fund are completely confidential.

Requests for support from this fund have risen significantly. If you have financial capacity, please consider making a gift to the Minister's Discretionary Fund. Thank you!

CHANGE FOR CHANGE needs your help. Did you know that anyone can suggest a worthy local non-profit in our community? Do you know how?

• Check out the 1uc.org website and click on the justice tab
• Then click on Community Partnerships and click on the application in green in the middle of the page.
• Submit the application to Deborah Shinn or Anne Murray, or leave it in the office Social Justice mailbox. Or you can email the completed application to them. They can be found in Breeze.

NEWS FROM UUSC (UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST SERVICE COMMITTEE) Last time we wrote you, Revs. Dave Dunn and Jeff Jones were in jail after stopping construction at Cop City in Atlanta with their bodies. We are happy to share that all 5 who were arrested were released from jail with misdemeanor charges! Additionally, Rev. Christina Branum-Martin, Rev. Misha Sanders, and other UUs joined others to deliver over 116,000 petition signatures collected by the Cop City Vote Coalition in support of letting Atlantans decide if they want Cop City at all. The City of Atlanta is trying a legal appeal to avoid verifying signatures, a decision that Senator Raphael Warnock and Stacey Abrams both criticized as deeply anti-democratic.

We're grateful to be part of a movement that won't cede ground to fascism, increased militarization of our public safety, and destruction of our green spaces.

As Unitarian Universalists, we hold deeply to the truth that there is no one singular right way to live and love. We see this flourishing in the work to Stop Cop City: some folks put their bodies in front of construction equipment while others tediously match thousands of referendum signatures one by one while others bring food and care for babies.

Our call to collective liberation includes all this and more – we root deeply in spiritual practice for strength and courage, we send cards and food and song as our prayers, we summon the courage to show up and out of our comfort zones again and again, and we also rest in the dark peace of night when we need it.

NEWS FROM THE OKLAHOMA POLICY INSTITUTE:

Poverty Results from Structural Barriers, Not Personal Choices. Safety Net Programs Should Reflect That Fact (2021)

Many families—especially people of color, who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic—were already facing severe economic challenges because of structural barriers preventing them from reaping the benefits of a strong economy. These families sometimes rely on federal safety net programs to access the resources they need to afford food, rent, and other necessities. But the social safety net is fundamentally inequitable. The structure of programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) ignore systemic barriers rooted in structural racism that disproportionately affect people of color, especially Black Americans. Instead, these programs are meager and punitive, designed to blame individual shortcomings—even though evidence debunks the myth that laziness or poor choices cause poverty. 

NEWS FROM ACLU: Classes are back in full swing, and so is school censorship.We're fighting for the right to learn. In this dire moment for our right to learn, here's what you need to know about the latest wave of school censorship:

1. 35% of K-12 students are not able to exercise their right to properly learn about race and gender in class because of "anti-CRT" curriculum changes. And, in a particularly egregious case in Florida, Ron DeSantis has directed teachers to tell students that slavery benefited Black people.

2. Last year, 2,500 books were banned, mostly because they discussed race, gender, sexuality, or marginalized identities. The banned titles include Pulitzer Prize winning novels, like Toni Morrison's Beloved and Art Spiegelman's Maus.

3. We're fighting back. We've gone to court to protect the right to learn in Missouri, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Virginia, and more. And, we have already successfully convinced a court to pause the implementation of Florida's censorship law in higher education.

If we protect the right to learn, we can raise a strong generation of leaders who will help us build a more perfect union.

Welcome new Committee!

The function of the Committee on Ministry is to monitor on a regular and continuing basis the effectiveness of the church’s ministry, acknowledging and praising areas of strength, and assessing the reasons behind areas of perceived weakness or dissatisfaction, so that we, as a congregation, can grow into our full potential and fulfill our mission. If you have any questions about the role of the Committee on Ministry or have concerns, praise, or ideas about the ministries of this church, you are welcome to reach out to a member of the CoM: Rebecca Daniels, Lori Jervis, Tom Peryam, Liz Pillar-Little, James Vaughn, Derrick Wagner

Note: Most meetings continue to meet via Zoom but some groups may elect to meet in the building. Please contact the meeting organizer directly if you are uncertain of the location.

• Sunday Morning Meditation – Every Sunday at 10:00 am, Meditation Room - Corley Commons (contact Lori Jervis for information - see article above)

• Tuesday Discussion Group – Every Tuesday, 11:00 am (contact Ron Wasson for information - see article above)
  

• Bell Choir Rehearsal – Every Wednesday, 5:45 pm, Sanctuary (contact LaDonna Hunt for information)

• Choir Rehearsal – Every Wednesday, 7:00 pm, Sanctuary (contact 'Ebuka Ezeakacha for information)

• Membership Meeting – Thursday, September 28, 6:00 pm (contact Lorriana Lee-Knapp for information)
  

• 1UC Alliance Brown Bag Lunch/Program – Tuesday, October 3, 11:30 am, Daniel Hall (contact Maureen Harvey for information)

• UU Book Club – Thursday, October 5, 7:00 pm (contact Steve Gryglewicz for information)

• Fiber Connections – Sunday, October 8, 12:00 pm, Eddy Room (contact Paula Geisinger for information)

If you have a newsletter article you would like to submit please email your article to mgrogg@1uc.org no later than Tuesday (the day before the newsletter goes out) by 5:00 pm.

Did you know that you can access all church policies and procedures as well as Board meeting minutes on our new website? Just go to 1uc.org, and click on the "members" link in the upper right-hand corner (just to the left of the Facebook and other social media icons). This will open a page that says "Protected: Members." The password is @600NW13thSt [Note: the password is case-sensitive; do not put in additional punctuation or spaces.]

From here, click on "church documents." All official policies and procedures can be found in the "policies" folder. The bylaws and Board of Trustees meeting minutes are in the "governance" folder. Please disregard the "website SOPs" folder, which is for administrative use only.

CHURCH STAFF

Lead Minister - Rev. Diana K. Davies

Director of Lifespan Religious Exploration - Tim Atkins

Choir Director - Chukwuebuka ('Ebuka) G. Ezeakacha

Accompanist - Steven Elkins Kennedy

Office Administrator - Marlies Grogg

BOARD OF TRUSTEES 2023-2024

President of the Congregation – Marcia Woodward

President Elect – Cathy Webster

Immediate Past President – Marshal Gimpel

Clerk – Deborah Shinn

Treasurer – Ron Wasson

                Clare Auwarter                Lorriana Lee-Knapp                 Larry Little

                    Ann Meeks                        Coba Neitzel                        Doug Vincent

Committee on Ministry

                Rebecca Daniels                Lori Jervis                             Liz Pillar-Little                                  Tom Peryam                  James Vaughn                    Derrick Wagner