Join us as we bring you feedback about this summer’s UUA General Assembly. We will share insights the meetings and workshops we attended, updates on delegate votes and interesting ideas from our larger UUA community. Come, learn what is happening at this broader level of our faith!
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 establish a connection before worship is
scheduled begins. Zoom participant mics are muted throughout the service.
This Weekend:
This month’s bedtime story, Uncle Ry and the Moon, from Zen Shorts. It’s a wonderful story for the end of summer and is told as a koan – what does the story mean to you? The whole book is a treasure, and valuable on the shelf of any UU family’s home.
In Person: back of the chalice house meeting room.
Faith Formation in July: We explore the gift of Repair through the topic of Cultural Appropriation! Topic info please email Ginny Chudgar (membership directory).
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:
sUUmmer Kids Theater Religious Exploration
The Gift of Story
Set prep & run through
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
Aug 18 Considering Membership class (email g.membership@uuberks.org if you’d like to explore becoming a voting member of the church)
Sept 8 Religious Education launch
Sept 15 New Member Ceremony
Sept 28-29 UU Climate Justice Revival
Oct 6 Solar Panel Dedication
Building Maintenance Goes Digital!
The Building Keepers are excited to announce a new, streamlined way to submit maintenance requests! Now, you can easily report any issues using a convenient Google Form accessible from your smartphone or laptop. This digital system will help us track and resolve projects more efficiently.
Here’s how to submit a request:
Look for QR Codes: Scan the QR codes posted around the building using your smartphone’s camera app.
Direct Link: Alternatively, you can access the form directly by visiting this link on your laptop or phone’s browser: https://uuberks.org/bk-ticket
We appreciate your cooperation in using this new system. It will allow us to better serve you and maintain our facilities effectively.
Are you new to the church or have you been attending and thinking about joining our community? Then come to our considering membership class on August 18 at 11:45 am in the meeting room in the back of the chalice house. Come hear stories from other members about how UU Berks membership enhances their lives. Contact g.membership@uuberks.org for more info.
Kick off Labor Day weekend with UUBerks Camping trip to Daniel Boone Homestead
August 30th and 31st.
visit www.uuberks.org/camp to sign up and for more details
Let us know that you’re looking forward to it
Join us for our End of Summer Picnic on Sunday, August 25th at 10:30 AM at Farming Ridge Park in Exeter. We’ll start with a worship service, followed by hamburgers, hot dogs, and a basket raffle. Don’t forget to bring cash for raffle tickets! We’ll also be taking a group photo. To help us plan, please RSVP using the signup form link below. We also need volunteers for setup, cooking, and cleanup. Sign up to volunteer on the form as well.
Just like last year, we’ll have a Penny Social at the End of Summer Picnic on Sunday, August 25th at 10:30 AM at Farming Ridge Park in Exeter.. This is a raffle where you buy tickets to bid on items. Drop your tickets in the bag for the items you want to win. The more tickets,
the better your chances! We’ll draw winning tickets from each bag after we finish lunch.
To make the Penny Social a blast, we need your help! We’re looking for donations of fun and interesting items for both children and adults. Have a gently-used book, a homemade treat, or a gift certificate lying around? Donating it to the Penny Social is a great way to add to the picnic fun and support our community.
After a democratic process involving thousands of Unitarian Universalists discussing the faith’s values and core theology for more than three years, delegates at General Assembly 2024 voted decisively to approve changes to Article II of their bylaws.
“This is a historic moment for Unitarian Universalism, as we move our living tradition forward to focus on shared values that will help promote liberation, radical inclusion, and communal care both within our church and across society,” said UUA President Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt.
“Section C-2.2. Values and Covenant.
As Unitarian Universalists, we covenant, congregation-to-congregation and through our Association, to support and assist one another in our ministries. We draw from our heritages of freedom, reason, hope, and courage, building on the foundation of love.
Love is the power that holds us together and is at the center of our shared values. We are accountable to one another for doing the work of living our shared values through the spiritual discipline of Love. Inseparable from one another, these shared values are:”
We need you and your gifts to make next year’s RE program all it can be! How will you help our RE Children and Teens Grow this coming year? Share your level of interest with us so we know what we can plant in our learning garden and who will be tending it www.uuberks.org/interest
Recorder Ensemble to Rehearse over Summer
The UU recorder ensemble ( 3-10 players) is enjoying playing many different types of music, focusing primarily on renaissance and baroque music, but including early classical, folk, and even some modern tunes! We play soprano, alto, tenor, and bass recorders, but recorders come in many more sizes!
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 Sirrot- Arleth at bonnie.sirott@gmail.com
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.
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The pursuit of learning an instrument takes countless hours outside of what anyone hears from the stage. It’s hours in the practice room by oneself. It’s exploring how different parts of the music fit together. It’s considering how we will let that music breathe through our technique. It’s asking what is resonant, what is dissonant, what is needed, and when is it needed? Then it’s hours together as an ensemble. It’s hours, and minutes, and seconds, and more hours all coming together in the pursuit of creation and recreation until an audience member hears that first note.
And then, when that note is shared, that phrase, that piece of music changes because the nature of music is a practice that never stays the same: music is dependent on each time and place it is shared with the people who share it. And at the same time music starts very simply with a single note. It starts with a single phrase, or a song that grabs you and won’t let go. Music at its core is an invitation to play.
Like practicing an instrument, construction projects are messy and we need to be careful at job sites, testing out what we build each step of the way. That’s the process the Unitarian Universalist Association is engaged in as they build a new UU Virtual Hymnal. Their vision, which I want to invite you to join, is “to build a living collection of song resources through an accessible, equitable, online platform grounded in UU values. […]” You can learn more about the project here https://www.uua.org/worship/lab/virtual-hymnal; we will beta test some of their work so far this fall.
The Virtual Hymnal Task Force has been designing our new platform and checking in with musicians and support organizations since March of 2023. To date that’s 17 months of various phases of work behind the scenes, with the team emerging every now and then to share their learning with the wider UU world.
This fall, I have my own project that will be going into a new phase. It’s a project that will require me to be away and practicing at home for three months starting when my baby arrives sometime this September. Tending to this new life will be a new practice for me and my family. We will be under construction.
You will be under construction too. You will learn how to rely on one another in ways you already know, and welcome ensemble members we haven’t heard yet. What will you listen for? What will sound resonant? What will feel dissonant? It’s a beautiful thing to make music together.
In August, we will be tuning up and finishing our plans for this practice time. Please reach out in the next few weeks if you’d like to help with the upcoming construction. And please consider joining in the next phase, which will commence in December upon my return. I can’t wait to hear what we create in our practice spaces.
Yours in learning and song,
Ebee Bromley, Director of Religious Education & Director of Music
a blessing
by nadine j. smet-weiss
spiritual director
may you awaken
to the truth
at the heart
of your heart
you
are
love
live from that
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