7 PM:

• For this week’s story we hear The Cricket and the Coin told by Lea Morris. 

SUNDAY

At home in your own time

• *** New Years at Home 
• Finding the Sacred in Our Everyday Spaces – What does it mean living as a family living with intention?  Choose one activity to do as a family this week.  Let us know how it goes for you by email or share in the fb group 🙂

10:30

• For All: Join us in meeting new friends from the UU Church in Lehigh Valley

• Use a printed or hand labyrinth to find renewal as you attend worship this morning. Here’s a labyrinth you can print out and trace.  Labyrinth Printable

10:45 – 11:45

• Youth Group (7th grade & up): next meeting 3rd week of January  

 Office is closed week between Christmas and New Years – See you on Jan 4th! 

Our Church office will be closed for the Holidays beginning on 12/24/21. Our office will open again on January 4th.

The food bank that FUUBC organizes on the first Thursday morning of every month at the parking lot located on 5th and Cherry streets, needs more volunteers, including for the coordinator role. This is a great opportunity to help in our community and engage with people from diverse backgrounds ! 

Coordinator role – Brian Kammerer needs to step down from this job, but there will be opportunities to shadow him and get extensive training if you are interested in helping in this way. The responsibilities require approximately 4-6 volunteer hours per month, with most of that time needed for the food distribution day.

Tasks* include: 

• transporting tables, chairs, and other items to the site at 8am
• managing volunteers that morning, and clean-up. 
• ordering food online and filling out paperwork for Healthy Harvest (who provides the food and oversees operations)
• making other purchases for materials as needed (with provided funds)
• other communication with church staff/leaders. Spanish skills are a plus. 

*Note: It might be possible for other volunteers to help with one or more of these tasks, so please let us know what you are capable of doing for this role

Other volunteers are needed asap on the day of food distribution for food setup, distribution of food, registration and communication with recipients (Spanish fluency would be helpful), and clean-up. Training will be provided.
Contact the Ministry and Operations Team (g.ministry.and.operations@uuberks.org) with questions or to volunteer. Or speak with Tonya Wenger or Rev. Dr. Sandra Fees.

Join us on Monday January 3rd, @ 7:00pm. Together we will acknowledge the gradual shifting of the light as we enter a new year. Contact Nadine Smet-Weiss (njw1258@hotmail.com or 484-333-4015) for further information or to receive the zoom link for these gatherings.

Unfortunately we had to postpone our December Listening Cafe due to a family emergency of our scheduled presenter. Michelle Williams will be with use for our January 7th meeting. We will focus on the problem of homelessness and housing insecurity in communities of color.

We invite all in our community to listen with an open heart, to ask questions and to share your stories at the Adore Listening Café, and, please, encourage friends and family to join in the dialog.

https://uuberks.org/adore

Our FUUBC 2022 Service Auction is on Saturday, February19th @ 6 PM.  Following social distancing recommendations, our auction will be conducted fully online like last year.  We will be using the same online auction website to host the silent auction for the week before & after, and Zoom to conduct the live auction on Saturday night. If you would like to volunteer to help or have a question/suggestion, send us an email at g.service.auction@uuberks.org. Many thanks from the Service Auction Committee. Watch the Univoice for additional information.

Vanco, the eGiving provider behind our church’s GivePlus Mobile app is now using a new online giving app, Vanco Mobile. This easy-to-use app replaces the GivePlus Mobile app you currently use to make your donations.   The switch is simple!  

• Your log-in credentials are the same in Vanco Mobile as in GivePlus Mobile 
• Recurring created through GivePlus mobile will continue as scheduled  
• New gifts, or changes to previously scheduled recurring gifts, can now occur through Vanco Mobile 

Download the free Vanco Mobile app today in the Google Play store or the Apple App store. Find our organization by searching for First Unitarian Universalist Church or by its invite code, 2S4C9G.   

Our church has 2 websites: one is public and one is private. Anyone on the Internet can access our public website at uuberks.org, but you have to be a member of our congregation to access the private UUBerks Member Info site at member-info.uuberks.org. Access is restricted, so you need to login with your email address & password.

Our public website has a lot of information that is also useful for members. Did you know that we record a video of every worship service and post them on our website? 

To find the recordings, navigate to uuberks.org. At the top of the page, there is a green box on the right side of the screen, with the title “Next Service”. (A) If you click on the next line of text (the title of the next service), you will be taken to a page with all the information about that service, like the Zoom meeting details. 

At the bottom of the green box, there is a “Service Archive” button. (B) Click on it to navigate to a page listing all of our previous services.  Click on a service title to see more details about the service and to view the video recording.

 

We have established a Zoom service tech line if you are having trouble logging into our Sunday service. If you do not get an immediate answer, leave a message and your call will be returned momentarily.Dial 484-925-1684.

Here’s what I discovered. Intention is different from setting goals or resolutions in that it “pulls us into” who we truly are. Goals and resolutions “push us out” into future possibilities. To set intentions, we must listen to our inner voice which tells us who we truly are.                                                                   

Katie Covey, Soul Matters Director of RE Resources

January is that time of year when we begin again, often setting new goals – to get in shape, eat healthier, read more, be more patient. These are worthy resolutions. But setting resolutions sometimes feels like another task list – and one that gets filled with items that I’m already worried I’m going to fail to do.

Like Katie Covey, I’ve discovered that setting intentions, actually learning to live with intention, is different from setting resolutions. It means discovering what I really want, what my spirit is longing for. It means connecting to my deeper self, to my most authentic self. What if we were all to take some time to reflect quietly on what is calling or whispering to us? What wisdom does the still small voice in us have to offer?

Every January I create a vision board as a way to get in touch with that inner voice. I sometimes do this with friends and other times on my own. Spending a few quiet hours reflecting, gathering images, and putting them on paper helps me get to that inner voice that tells me who I truly am.

So this January, I hope you’ll set aside some time to dream on what your heart is most hungering for.

With love,

Rev. Dr. Sandra Fee

nadine j. smet-weiss

spiritual director

my heart hungers

for the sense of fullness

found in being 

truly alive

tempted as i am

some days

to bury that hunger

with the busyness of doing

my heart will not

be satisfied

until i honor breath

requesting its blessing

upon all my doings