Come to church this morning for a service that calls us to think about the great things UU Berks does, with all of our help. Did you know that we are working toward being solar powered? Stay for lunch! There will be a special treat for those who fill out your pledge card to hand in during our Pledge Drive luncheon!
Join us next Sunday, February 25th, for our Solar in the City 2024 Pledge Drive Kick Off. Stay for lunch during coffee hour. Please plan to join the fellowship.
This Weekend:
This month’s story is The Dog and the Heartless King, and appears in UU religious education foremother’s Sophia Lyon Fahs’ 1948 wisdom tale collection, From Long Ago and Many Lands (full text here). Read the story together, doing your best loud, unignorable bark for the dog’s part: The Dog and the Heartless King
Soul Matters Shares “Our theme this month is The Gift of Justice and Equity. Soul Matters wants us to learn that Love Grows When We Let Go of Expectation.
SUNDAY
9:30 AM : Adult RE
In Person: chalice house back meeting room
Faith Formation in Equity and Justice: We explore Gaza, Israel, Palestine.
One of the goals of the Adult RE program is to get to know each other better. What fascinating people sit around our table and how much we have to learn from each other. There’s a place for you at our table.
email Ginny Chudgar for more info (see directory for address)
Onsite Only
9:30 AM:Children’s RE: The Gifts of Our Faith – 2 classes
Elementary Ages:
Lower elementary: kids space cozy room
The Gift of Joy in Beloved Community.
Upper Elementary: social hall meeting room
The Gift of building better relationships.
10:30- Worship Service- All Ages
We meet together to sing, to reflect, and to explore our world.
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
Sunday Volunteers: Greeters: Louise L. and Be Y. Ushers: Denis W. and Carol O. Coffee Crew: Maria C. and Ryan S.
Ministerial Search Update:
We received good initial interest in our first round of interviews. Unfortunately, there was not that right alignment with a candidate to move forward. We will now go into extended search, which gives us another possibility of finding a potential ministerial candidate this year. This means that our timeline will be pushed back a couple of months, regarding candidating week, should we find the right candidate for our congregation.
We are deeply committed to finding with someone who reflects the values and priorities expressed by our congregation as being important to FUUBC.
Thank you! Your Ministerial Search Committee
Splinters from this month’s Board of Directors/ M&O Meeting
Pledge Drive Kick-off Discussed and End Date Selected – March 31st
Save the Date – May Congregational Sunday May 19th
Board Agreed to Sponsor Melissa’s Membership in AUUA
The Board Welcomes Folks to Share their Interest in Being a GA Delegate
Coffee Crew Needs Help Coffee Crew is looking for a few new helpers. Commitment is only about 4 Sundays a year on a rotating schedule. Training provided! Good benefits!! Like first dibs on snacks and hot coffee. If you can help out contact Bonnie S.
Family Promise of Berks County has teamed up with CommunityAide Partnership- they give quarterly payments for donations collected to Family Promise. If you donate items be sure to give the Family Promise number 50183. FP will get a certain amount of money per pound donated .
They accept things like clothing, household items, electronics, small furniture and toys. They are located 5370 Allentown Pike in Temple. For questions talk to Cyndi D. .
Do you like to decorate and throw parties? We need your help with the 2024 Service Auction on Saturday, April 13th.
The Service Auction is an important fundraising event for the church. Frank Wilder has volunteered to be in charge of the service auction tech: donations, the auction catalog, the auction and bid winner billing.
We need someone else to be in charge of the “entertainment” part for the event.: choose a theme for the event, decorate the church for the event, manage the food & drink, and help clean up after the event. If you are interested in helping, please contact Melissa at office@uuberks.org
Feb 2-Mar 3, 2024 Small reception Feb 2 from 6-8pm. No admission cost and light food provided by The Doubletree hotel
For eight years the Shut Down Berks Coalition fought to close the Pennsylvania immigrant prison for families, then later adult women. On January 31st, 2023, the coalition of immigrant leaders, organizers, grassroots groups, interfaith leaders, lawyers, and activists, WON.
“Queremos Justicia’” tells the story through art of how the Shut Down Berks Coalition organized to close an immigrant prison. This multimedia exhibit explores the art made for the campaign and how it played an invaluable role in education, mobilization, and community building. The viewer will learn about the organizing strategy executed by the coalition, the artists who supported the campaign and most importantly, view the art and messages of families held at the Berks County Detention Center themselves.
Your 8th Principle Team is recommending this read for all who are curious and concerned about the deleterious effects of microaggressions. You can find this book at the link below.
Subtle Acts of Exclusion, First or Second (expanded) Edition: How to Understand, Identify, and Stop Microaggressions by Tiffany Jana (Author), Michael Baran (Author)
Reviews: “This is an unreasonable manifesto. It’s unreasonable because it challenges us to take responsibility, to be kind, to dig in, and to change the invisible corners of our culture. We’ve got work to do. Unreasonable is precisely what we need.” —Seth Godin, author of This is Marketing
“This book skillfully uses stories and research to build a deep understanding that is able to take something negative and turn it into an opportunity to productively come together and create more support, trust, and equity.” —Aimee Meredith Cox, PhD, Associate Professor of Anthropology, New York University, and author of Shapeshifters
“Jana and Baran have provided us a powerful tool to help us learn about how subtle forms of bias can profoundly impact people’s sense of belonging and their ability to perform at the highest level. Through thoughtful research and powerful examples, they have not only brilliantly articulated the problem but also offered us a pathway to a solution. Kudos!” —Howard Ross, author of Reinventing Diversity, Everyday Bias, and Our Search for Belonging
“This book should open the floodgates for people to tell their own stories of being subtly excluded at work, with a new language that will make it so much easier to address out in the open and create teachable moments. As a little person, I have experienced so many subtle acts of exclusion over my career, whether it’s people telling me I look ‘cute’ or having to constantly fight for respect and validity. I wish every one of my colleagues over the years had been able to read this book!” —Becky Curran Kekula, Director, Disability Equality Index, Disability:IN
We’re gearing up to go camping at the end of April 2024 (Friday the 26th – Saturday 27th). The site is local. There will be drop in and overnight camp options. Let us know you’re thinking about attending by signing up here https://uuberks.org/camp
Please join this exciting program connecting our children and youth with adults in the congregation! Adult Pals who register will be assigned to a registered child. Adults will commit to sending at least one correspondence per week over the 6 weeks of the program. Over the length of the program, Mystery Pals will send letters, emails, drawings, cards, and perhaps small gifts or treats to each other. For safety, parents will be informed of their child’s assigned Pal. Parents of other children are welcomed to register and be assigned to a child that is not theirs. Mystery Pals will be revealed on March 24th. What a way to celebrate our community!
The mystery only lasts a little while, but the friendship can be much longer!
Beloved Conversations is a program for people seeking to embody racial justice as a spiritual practice. Many members of First UU Berks have participated in this program prior to and following the congregational vote in 2020, when the 8th Principle was adopted in solidarity with UUA’s intention to formally vote in the 8th Principle.
Your 8th Principle Team encourages each of us to consider enrollment in Beloved Conversations, offered by the Fahs Collaborative at Meadville Lombard Theological School. The program is open to all learners. In Beloved Conversations, we join to heal the impact of racism in our lives, to get free together.
Click on the link below to receive updates for Beloved Conversations in early 2024. Please indicate group participated with your congregation- UU Berks of Reading, PA. Scholarships is available.
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. The latest directory is dated 1.31.24
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.
This graphic, by @restoringracialjustice, shows us what our aspirations look like in action. February’s theme, from our resource called Soul Matters, is Justice and Equity.
Equality is a tough one to reckon with, because making something legislatively equal does not always cure the problem. The Supreme Court granted equal access in the right to marry, but not every state automatically changed their laws around housing or employment or credit to reflect this. “I can legally marry my same-sex partner but my job can still fire me for it, or my landlord can choose to not renew our lease,” is what I heard from some of the couples I married as we celebrated equality. It is progress, and we should celebrate it, but equality alone is not enough without the larger framework of equality within a justice-seeking system.
Learning to accommodate a person’s needs so that they might fully participate in a community activity is the level I see UU Berks at. Space for chairs and scooters, zoom for folks at home, words on the screen for hearing impaired….these ordinary run-of-the-mill accommodations are already in place, and as we become aware of needs, we do our best to meet them. Equity is being sure that each person’s individual requirements (not likes or preferences, but needs) are met, and they may not be alike. At the same meeting, we might have a person who needs to stand, another who needs closed captioning, and another who needs a ramp to get to the meeting. Holding an awareness of equity within a justice-seeking system makes these actions happen.
Always having justice in mind, a time and place where there are no barriers to full inclusion, is where I see UU Berks at. When you see me at coffee hour, or even with each other, what are your thoughts on this graphic?
Happy Valentine’s Day and Black History month!
In peace
Rev. Amy
Each Moment a New Moment For Justice
Each moment is a new moment,
Each day is a new day.
Pause. Breathe. Win the moment.
This mantra that Soul Matter’s Soulful Home packet shares with us this month reminds me of Borris, the spider. Have you met Borris yet? He’s been hanging out at your church since our fall Movie Night. Each week he talks with Erin, our Sunday morning assistant and sexton. Each week he tells her a new place that he would like to observe us from. He likes to hang up somewhere high, where he has a good vantage point. One week it was next to the Black Lives Matter banner. One week it was from our Christmas trees. Some weeks he has hung out in the chandelier as people greet each other and find their name tags.
Getting a good vantage point can be hard for us humans sometimes. Finding that vantage point is so important when we are working to make the world a better place. This mantra “Pause. Breathe. Win the moment,” is adapted from Charles Oteyza for the National Education Association last year. Soul matters reflects, “Oteyza offered this so that education advocates who work tirelessly for justice in our education system can ‘ …remain present, impactful and connected, [taking] a moment to pause, recharge, and refocus.’ Doing so, he says, allows us to sustain personal health while continuing to contribute to the justice work that is so important to us.”
There is so much in this world that we would like to be better, so much that feels too big, too insurmountable. The biggest challenges are not completed in a single action. They take the next right action done over, and over, and over, and over again.
Sometimes we need help getting to a place where we can notice everything. Like Borris, we need to ask for help. Tuning into our breath can sometimes be the help we need. When we breathe with awareness, using something like square breathing or a similar technique, we mark the air going in and out of our bodies, it helps us slow down and feel more grounded. When we’re grounded, focused, we can more easily choose that next right move, choosing the next action to help us in the moment. Those moments add up. Together we can do great things. Breathe.
Yours in the exploring,
Your Director of Religious Education,
Ebee Bromley
living the dream
by nadine j. smet-weiss spiritual director
the dream is beloved community we are called to imagine it and live into it not to achieve it for the dream is not a to do item on some checklist somewhere the dream is a way of being with each other in the world the dream is realized in our living of it may it be so
