Come and join us for Sunday service, a guest speaker on unions and a performance by the RE Summer Theater Company! We’ll also welcome Rev. John and Jess Cullinan to our congregation. Service will take place at 10:30 am followed by a delicious pot luck lunch. The picnic will be held at Farming Ridge Park in Exeter located at 6075 Farming Ridge Blvd, Reading 19606.

The picnic will be held at Farming Ridge Park in Exeter located at 6075 Farming Ridge Blvd, Reading 19606.

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 establish a connection before worship is
scheduled begins. Zoom participant mics are muted throughout the service.

Come enjoy our Reader’s Theatre performance live at the picnic!

Save the date for the following events:

• Sept 8        Religious Education launch
• Sept 15      New Member Ceremony
• Sept 28-29 UU Climate Justice Revival
• Oct 6          Solar Panel Dedication

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

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:

1. Look for QR Codes: Scan the QR codes posted around the building using your smartphone’s camera app.
2. 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.

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

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!

Summer Schedule: from 11:45 – 12:45 ON:

July 14 and 28

August 11 and 25

  Please contact Tracy Blunt with any questions at: tracylblunt@comcast.net. 

All ages between 10 and 110 are welcome.

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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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

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