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Weekly News for the week of:
April 23, 2023
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All of this talk about a search committee and the budget and General Assembly and the annual meeting…..it is time to check in on how our spiritual life is doing as tasks for the transition pick up momentum.
To attend on site, FULL VACCINATION STRONGLY RECOMMENDED: FUUBC strongly encourages all those who can be vaccinated to be vaccinated, including boosters as appropriate.
MASKING RECOMMENDED: FUUBC strongly encourages attendees at worship
services and other large gatherings to wear masks.
To attend by Zoom, click on this link: uuberks.org/zoom-worship. (If this is the first time
you’re using zoom, you may be prompted to download a launcher app).
To connect by phone (audio only):
1) Dial the phone number: 1-646-558-8656
2) When prompted for the “Meeting ID”, enter: 921 4271 5512#
3) When prompted for the “Participant ID”, enter: #
Please plan to arrive or log on by 10:20-10:25 am to enjoy the gathering music, and,
for those on zoom, to establish a connection before worship is scheduled
begins. Zoom participant mics are muted throughout the service.
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This Weekend:
- Tonight’s Story is The Way of Changing Habits and Resistance We Are Better Together words by Bill McKibben, and illustrations by Stevie Lewis.
- Soul Matters shares: We live on a beautiful planet. Together, we must change the way we live on it. We must grow together, understand together, and research together to change the ways we have lived that have hurt our planet. Old habits do not work anymore.
- Watch it here. Or find it here.
SUNDAY
9:45 AM :Adult RE
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In Person: meeting room off gerber room. (Teens welcome with accompanying parent/guardian)
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Faith Formation – fourth Sunday in April: discussion of concepts from The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris. Do you have a book you’d like to discuss? email Ginny Chudgar (see directory for address)
9:45 AM: Children’s RE
Elementary Ages: Onsite/Online, email Ebee Bromley by Saturday noon if you’ll be attending online
- On site: Kidspace Classroom 2nd floor * teens may help, let us know you’ll be coming
- Children’s RE – We learn songs for worshiping together.
10:30- Worship Service- All Ages
How are we navigating our faith and religion?
10:30 – 12:00 Youth Group:
Grades 7th – 12: meet to sketch out your worship service you will lead on 5/7.
?? Mystery Pals ??
Week 2 of 6: registered participants have received information to send and receive correspondence! What do you want to know next?
The goal of this program is to build a relationship with Pals across generations, make a connection with them, and for participants kids and teens to know they are loved in their church community.
Monday – Thursday
Weekly posts on our covenanted RE Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/groups/UUBerks.RE.page/?ref=share
check out our Remind classroom.
If you need to signup link here: remind.com/join/refuucbc
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April’s Special Plate CollectionThis month our special plate collection will benefit South of Penn. Checks may be mailed into the church, put in the collection plate or dropped on the wooden box in the Gerber room, throughout the month. Checks should be made out to FUUBC with South of Penn in the memo line. For more information on South of Penn visit https://www.facebook.com/southofpenntaskforce/
How South of Penn Transforms our Community:
Earth Day Clean up, April 22, 2023
Two locations:
South of Penn: Reading Iron Playground. 723 Laurel Street
Oakbrook: Cultivating Community Garden, 140 Ligget Ave.
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Sunday Volunteers: Greeters: Dennis W. & Karen N. Ushers: Joanne K. & Carol O. Coffee Crew: Randy N. & Rachel L. 
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IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM YOUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Dear Members of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Berks County,
As we progress through Phase Two of the Settled Ministry Search Process, the congregation will participate in selecting the Search Committee (SC) members. The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) has refined and recommended a specific process to accomplish this important work. UUBerks leadership has embraced, tailored, and will execute this process within the next few weeks.
According to the UUA, using the recommended process provides good results with high respect and trust for both the SC and leadership. A synopsis of the process is as follows:
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Leadership will phone each household to have a conversation, ultimately asking for recommendations for the search committee.
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Recommendations will be recorded.
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The most frequently listed names will become the short list of candidates for the SC.
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Board members will call the short-listed candidates to see if they are interested in serving. Commitment and availability will be discussed. Candidates who are sitting members of the board or M&O team would have to vacate those positions.
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Candidates will create a Bio and statement of why they wish to serve on SC.
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A vote for the slate of candidates will occur during a congregation meeting by early June.
Please consider the following questions while determining whom you recommend serving on the SC.
•What qualities are needed for someone to serve on a ministerial search committee?
• Who in the congregation works well with others?
•Who can represent and serve the whole congregation well, including our children and youth?
• Who knows (or can learn) the history and culture of the congregation, whether it is a member long-standing or relatively new? Who can use this history proactively?
• Who has been and/or is active in the congregation and has demonstrated responsible participation and leadership?
We hope you will take the time to have a meaningful conversation with leadership. If you are unavailable to talk when the call is placed, please be certain to return the call to the Board or M&O member that contacted you. It is imperative that we have each member’s input during this selection process. And please feel comfortable asking questions- if we don’t know the answer, we will research it and get back to you.
Respectfully Submitted by the Board serving you,
Ramona McCormick, President Nic Stoltzfus, Member at Large
Amber Brown, Vice President Mike Mannix, Member at Large
Greg Dimovitz, Secretary
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Member Spotlight:
On May 23rd, longtime members Nelson and Caroline S. will be celebrating their 75th wedding anniversary. If you would like to send a card or letter please send them to: |
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Do you have our latest Church Directory?
If you are in need of a church directory, please email Melissa at office@uuberks.org for a PDF copy or a hard copy to be mailed to you. |
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| Would you like to deepen your connection to members of our church community?
The Eighth Principle Committee invites you to read What Does It Mean to Be White? Developing White Racial Literacy by Robin DiAngelo and then share your reactions to this important work in conversations with others, starting in July. This is an opportunity to build community by telling stories and grappling with societal oppression. We have a limited number of copies available for $12. Please contact Be Young to get your book. We look forward to lively discussions this summer.
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| Food Bank
The Helping Harvest Food Bank held at our church on the 3rd Saturday of each month, is on 4/15/23. To prepare, we need to set up a “store” in the Gerber Room with tables and shelves around 8:30 AM. We will receive a delivery truck from Helping Harvest around 9:30 AM, which contains hundreds of pounds of food that must be carried in from the street. We will unbox all of the items and place them on the tables and shelves. Once the “store” is ready, we will guide families through it, one or two at a time, and assist them in selecting items that they can take home for free. Afterwards, we will break down all of the boxes and put away the tables and shelves.
We require many volunteers to ensure that everything runs smoothly. Currently, we are in need of more help. Would you be able to spare a few hours on Saturday morning to assist us? Typically, things are slow until the delivery truck arrives, so we could use more help with unloading, managing the different food areas in the “store” and cleaning up afterwards. Last month we were done before 12 noon. If you have any questions, please contact Frank W.
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Are you curious what it would be like to be with UUs from all over the country and continent, right in our backyard? Make sure to register for General Assembly happening this June from the 21st – 25th! You can register for a day, a few days or full meeting. Check out https://www.uua.org/ga for more information.
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Solar Panel System Update:
The project is progressing smoothly, and we have made significant strides in the last week. One of our tasks was to determine the ideal location for the safety disconnect switch and combiner box. The disconnect switch is an on/off switch that is typically used during maintenance work on the solar panels. However, it is also crucial for first responders in the event of a fire to shut everything down. Thus, it must be mounted on the outside of the building, and we found a suitable location on the South wall of the Gerber Room within the library’s fenced-in parking area. The area is accessible via a fire department lockbox on the gate to the parking lot and we should be able to access it through the fence.
The combiner box has multiple functions. It serves as a waterproof junction box for all the different wires from the solar panels, linking them to a single cable running to the breaker box in the church basement. Additionally, with a microinverter system like ours, it acts as a communication gateway. The combiner box monitors the solar panel output and uploads the data to a webpage accessible via the internet. To connect the combiner box to our network, we will need an Ethernet cable. While Wi-Fi can also be used, our signal is weak when measured from outside the building near the church parking lot. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to us at g.solar.team@uuberks.org.
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| Attention Giant Shoppers! Did you know you can shop at Giant and make money for the Church at no cost to you?
FUUBC is part of the Giant charitable grocery scrip program that gives 10% of all gift cards sold back to our church. You can purchase cards as needed or sign up for a monthly gift card order that will be sent directly to your home the first week of each month.
When you receive your order you will also receive a return envelope to mail your check to the church. Checks can also be dropped in the Gerber room drop box or in the plate collection. Checks should be made out to FUUBC with giant card in the memo line.
If you would like to purchase Giant cards please return the form below to Melissa at office@uuberks.org. One time cards can also be purchased from Melissa at coffee hour twice a month.
Giant cards are available in $50 and $100 increments.
Giant Card Form
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Parking Update
Reading is changing its street parking procedure from meters to app only payments. Currently parking in front of the church is free during the week until further notice. Street parking is always free on Sundays and free parking is also available in the Library lot on Sundays. The parking garage does charge on Sundays. You can pay by the Parkmobile app or at the small payment station near the entrance of the parking garage (near the stairs)
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Resistance is our theme, resilience is our goal
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” (There is argument over who gets the attribution for this quote, but it is a good thought, eloquently stated)
Being involved in resistance against evil simply means doing something instead of nothing. Resistance against evil might take some of us out onto front lines of a big battle. But resistance also looks like refusing to think ill of somebody. Or choosing to adapt your comfortable language to incorporate phrases or pronouns that require some work, some practice, some discomfort. Resistance means not being idle or oblivious to encroaching evil, in whatever ways we can.
Resistance is both individual and corporate, to be examined then practiced as we can. Usually when we realize that something is making its way into the midstream that has potential for harm, or might even have that feeling of being evil, we have to ask ourselves, individually and in a group, what will we believe? What actions will we support and which will we resist? And how will we resist? Being a religious person does not mean being nice and friendly—yes, we may be nice, but it means knowing how to mount resistance against our family, friends, neighbors, and ourselves being mistreated.
Why might we be thinking about resistance, as a congregation? While there are many answers to that query, let me give just a few ideas. The three holidays at the beginning of April are all about resisting oppression, however different the forms or oppressors. Ramadan for Muslims, Passover for Jews, and Good Friday and Easter for Christians all call their people to be resilient. As Unitarian Universalists, we are bound together in our resistance to oppression. Working together, holding a common view of freedom, is how we faithfully resist.
This month, bring a friend to any or all of the services, so that they might feel buoyed in their own journeys. None of us is alone.
In peace with love,
Rev. Amy
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Here’s a song in our hymnal that grew out of the Carlsbad Decrees in Germany, around the 1840s. It made it’s way into our hymnal, published close to 30 years ago in 1993 under the section ‘The Life Of Integrity’ as #291 Die Gedanken Sind Frei.
It became popular just eight years after it’s first round in the zeitgeist during the German Revolution. And again it sprang forth in Germany through the 1930s and 1940s. Rev Kimberley Debus writes in her blog, Notes From the Far Fringes, there was ‘at least one example of Nazi resistance, a member of the White Rose Resistance (Sophie Scholl) would play the song on her flute outside the prison where her father had been detained for calling Hitler ‘a scourge of God.’ ”
What thoughts do you resist? What thoughts do you embrace?
Take a listen to singers from The Community Church of Chapel Hill and pick out the line that helps you resist:
#291 Die Gedanken Sind Frei
translation of verse 1 is by Arthur Kevess and new lyrics from Elizabeth Bennett
Die Gedanken sind frei, my thoughts freely flower.
Die Gedanken sind frei, my thoughts give me power.
No scholar can map them, no hunter can trap them,
no one can deny: Die Gedanken sind frei!
My thoughts are as free as wind o’er the ocean,
and no one can see their form or their motion.
No hunter can find them, no trap ever bind them:
my lips may be still, but I think what I will.
A glimmering fire the darkness will brighten;
my soaring desire all troubles can lighten.
Though prison enfold me, its walls cannot hold me:
no captive I’ll be, for my spirit is free.
Ebee
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by nadine j. smet-weiss
spiritual director
walking
into the world
this day
i elect
to step softly
upon concrete
and asphalt
open
brief
delightful
interactions
with people
i pass
on the street
graciously
yield
to drivers
racing through
red lights
refusing
to brace
or harden
i choose a
resistance
that seeks to
embody
love
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