Join us as we begin a new church year with our annual Water Communion ceremony, and a meditation on water as a metaphor for envisioning our future together.
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.
This Weekend:
This month’s bedtime story, The Invitation by Stacey May Fowles (suggested for kids 4-8) The main character, Fern, opens her mailbox and finds an envelope. Fern hates surprises and has a lot of anxiety about inviting the unknown into her life. Friends (and an inner positive voice) help her move through the worry and find the joy in inviting in experiences that are new. Invitation to Connect: Help your child express the many feelings they have when facing surprises or the unknown. Also, consider letting them know how you were like Fern when you were younger (and maybe still are). If you have a child who struggles with anxiety, this is a great book to open space about the tools they can use to work through hard things.
In Person: back of the chalice house meeting room.
Faith Formation in September: We explore the gift of Invitation! 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:
Younger Elementary: kids space cozy room
Bluey explores:
Activity highlight: featherwand
Older Elementary: Kidspace front room
Superheros Academy: Teen Titans
Activity highlight: building a fort
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
We are one of almost 300 UU congregations who will gather for the first-ever UU Climate Justice Revival: Reimagine Together: From an Extractive Age to a New Era. We can only manifest what we first imagine together! Even those of us who love Mother Earth or have been environmental activists for a long time start to feel powerless. But, there’s power in numbers and we’re joining thousands of UUs around the world for a denominational kick-start.
Day 1: Saturday, Sept. 28, 9am-11am Revival Activities for Children & Youth and Facilitated Dialogs for Adults Day 2: Sunday, Sept. 29, 10:30 – 1:00pm Worship and Activist Fair
UU the Vote, UUs for Social Justice, UU Service Committee, Side With Love
Berks Climate Action, and other local organizations
Our congregation will:
Creatively represent the realities and possibilities for climate justice in our unique context,
Develop a vision of a flourishing future,
Identify a clear set of potential actions that we can take to realize this vision,
Understand our roles in the interdependent ecosystem of creating climate justice and collective liberation.
These kinds of things don’t happen often. We’ll all have the same materials, sing a common song, and when it’s over, we’ll be part of the national conversation moving our climate work forward. It’s exciting just on the face of it, and the day itself will be a lot of fun. To prime your pump, here are some 15-minute videos exploring Climate at the Intersections from Side With Love.
Back to school can be an expensive time of year with new clothes, shoes, backpacks and more. A very generous member anonymously donated funds to help anyone struggling to buy school supplies. If you are in need of a little back to school help please contact Melissa at office@uuberks.org
WHO ARE OUR CHURCH LEADERS?
As we begin this new church year, church members should be aware who serves in elected positions of church leadership. Here they are:
Board of Directors: Mike Mannix (President), Nic Stolzfus (Vice President), Amber Brown (Secretary), Mona McCormick, Louise Lorenz.
Ministry & Operations Team: Lynn O’Brien (Treasurer), Frank Wilder, Ryan Spengler, Steph Elliot
SHARED GOVERNANCE
By Mike Mannix, Board President
Many of you will recall that our church moved into a governance structure called Shared Governance in 2019. Our bylaws were changed to establish the Ministry and Operations Team (M&O) as a partner branch of governance to the Board of Directors (BOD). Ideally, each of these bodies have five members in addition to the minister.
The minister holds a vote with the M&O but not with the BOD. The M&O focuses on the day-to-day operations and programs. The BOD focuses on policy and oversight. The minister is a central cog to this scheme. With the arrival of Rev. John, your church leadership is determined to rededicate itself to the shared governance structure and the benefits it can provide for our church. You can expect to hear your church leaders refer to Shared Governance when addressing the congregation. On behalf of my fellow board members and my partners in the M&O, I wanted to explain the basic meaning of this term so that it can be commonly understood. Feel free to approach me and other church leaders about this structure if you have questions.
This year’s Reading-Berks CROP Walk on 13 Oct will include some activities to highlight needs of people nearby and around the world. As always, this annual fund-raiser—of which First UU is a sponsor!—aids the international efforts of Church World Service as well as the Helping Harvest Fresh Food Bank, the supplier for our monthly food pantry.
The CROP Walk will be held starting with registration and other activities at 12:30 p.m. Sunday, 13 October, at the Grings Mill Recreation Area off Tulpehocken Road in Spring Township. The actual walk along the Tulpehocken Creek begins at 1:15 p.m.
In addition, this year’s walk day will include these opportunities in the pavilion at Gring’s Mill:
• Writing advocacy letters in support of the bills that will help supply food for hungry families
• Putting together some hygiene kits for CWS to distribute
• Collecting non-perishable food for Helping Harvest
Easiest way to join the team is to go to the URL, https://events.crophungerwalk.org/cropwalks/teams and go to “Find an existing team to join” and type in “First UU Berks County.” (Also, “Spirit Walkers” who help raise funds for the cause but cannot or choose not to walk are welcome!)
The page also has a button to click to donate to the team or its individual members.
Thanks for your consideration and we will to see you as part of the team on Oct. 13!
Contemplative Companions will be regathering in October. New and ‘renewed’ participants are welcome! Our October gathering will be held on Sunday October 6th at the Penn State Berks Labyrinth following the service. You are invited to bring a brown bag lunch and may want to bring a lawn chair or blanket for seating. Following lunch/reconnection time, Jane will offer a brief Labyrinth, we will then walk the Labyrinth as a group, followed by sharing time. For further information contact Jane R. or Nadine.
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.
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
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.
It was the fourth day of our caravan drive to Reading. We were on a particularly long leg, leaving Lincoln, Nebraska and pushing all the way to Chicago. By about 7pm, we’d reached Rockford, Illinois and the limits of hunger. The city offered many options, so many that decision fatigue set in fast. Whenever that happens, Jess and I will default to Middle Eastern, which is how we ended up at the Sahara Palace, tucked into a strip mall a few miles off the interstate. Tired and hungry, we entered with a mission: get in, eat, get back on the road and get to the hotel. With only three other diners in the place, we figured we were in good shape to make this a quick stop.
“Have you had this kind of food before?” asked our server. We said yes, it’s one of our favorites. “Good,” he said. “Close your menus. I’m going to cook for you. This will be the best you’ve ever had.” Our server turned out to be the owner, and he didn’t cook so much as direct the kitchen. But, a few short minutes later, our table was laden with chicken, lamb, kefta and rice; hummus and fresh pita and a killer garlic sauce. And Frank, the owner, was right – it was the best we’d ever had. “That’s love in there,” he said. “That’s the secret ingredient.” A cliche, but no less true for that.
Our quick in-and-out extended for an hour. The hotel would still be there, we figured. We sat and ate and sighed with contentment. We chatted on and off with Frank. The jangled nerves of non-stop driving were calmed. What we thought we wanted gave way to what we needed in the moment.
The invitation to pause – to step out of the flow of time, to connect and reconnect, to just be – comes from unexpected directions and unlikely messengers. In the frantic pace of daily life, to hit deadlines and get from point A to B, we often miss what we’re being welcomed into. This month, as we explore “The Practice of Invitation,” I invite you to consider what invitations are being offered to you now (and which ones you may have missed). Part of the practice is knowing what to listen for, and being ready to say “yes.”
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Jess and I are slowly getting settled. It’s been a bit of an adventure getting here, and we are still house hunting, but have done well with Air BnBs to date. Fingers crossed, we’ll have a permanent address come October.
We are both so grateful for the meals and good wishes we’ve received during this month of transition (and individual thank you notes are wending your way).
I am jumping into the flow here feet first, and there’s already much underway as I begin my first year with you all. By now, I’ve met with most of our committees, spent much time talking with staff and getting to know the internal systems, and stepped into the flow of congregational life (it was lovely to see so many of you again at the annual picnic, and a privilege to work alongside some of you during the August food bank day). The board and I met for a Saturday retreat to set goals and expectations for the year. There’ll be plenty of opportunities in the months ahead to gather together and begin shaping the future of 1st UU Berks (yes, there will be invitations), and I’m looking forward to getting creative with you as we settle into our time together.
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As our year begins, here’s how to get in touch with me:
Typically, I’ll be in the office Tuesday through Thursday from 10 until 3. Friday is my reading and sermon prep day, and I’m available for emergencies only. Monday is my sabbath day, and I won’t be available (emails and other messages will be returned on Tuesday).
My office time will shift between church and home as needed, so it’s best to make an appointment for face-to-face time in person or over Zoom. Please email me at minister@uuberks.org, or text me at (505) 920-4445
Please don’t ever hesitate to get in touch with me for any reason. Often, the minister will be the last person to know what’s going on in your lives, and I want to be sure I’m there for you whenever needed. My general advice is this: If the thought “I wonder if I should talk to the minister” even slightly crosses your mind, then that is the time to get in touch with the minister. I hope as we get to know each other better that I’ll become one of your first phone calls.
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We’ll celebrate our annual Water Communion on Sunday, September 8th. Please bring your water to share in our common bowl as we kick off a new year.
See you in church!
To Dance With The Wind – An Invitation
The first time I went sailing was with my uncle. He invited me out for an afternoon, on a tiny four person sailboat when I was around 14 years old. His family rented the time and the boat for a few hours while they hosted me on one of the first weeks away from my mom and dad.
I don’t know if I would have ever sought out a sailing adventure had he not invited me. It became our annual tradition for many years to go out on a tiny rented boat and sail up and down the pond near us, seeing where the wind would take us.
Sailing a small boat like that takes communication, it takes wonder and it requires you to notice your surroundings with intention. Asking questions like: I wonder what’s changing? I wonder what will happen when…? I notice that we go faster if. Do you see those turtles on the shoreline? Would you like to go explore over there? Can help one enjoy the journey.
In sailing, the journey is the fun part. Oftentimes you can’t get from point A to point B on a direct path. Sure, we might have set out thinking we would get to some point offshore one way but the wind might have had other plans that day. We had to see what the wind was doing. We had to dance with the wind. Zigging and Zagging back and forth at the wind’s invitation to keep momentum going.
Thomas Potter and John Murray have a story that’s all about dancing with the wind and invitations created when the wind was still and there was seemingly no momentum to be had. But that’s a story for another day. Here’s a link to one way their story is told. I invite you to explore what happened with them in 1770.
I’m curious – what’s a story about a time when someone invited you to an experience that was new or different? Have you ever been changed or enriched because you invited someone new or different than you into your life?
In 2024, as we set out on our new church year, how will you dance with the wind? Who will you invite in? How do you feel invited?
As we get underway, I invite you to sail in our religious education ministries. There are so many ways you can explore: our youngest will sail near the shores and explore lessons with Bluey. Our older elementary kids get to try on what superheroes can invite us to be. Our adults dance in conversations they decide on each month. Each week we come together to worship and to share nourishment afterwards.
I will be around for a few more weeks to sail alongside you before the winds take me to explore a wholly new experience for me – what it will be like to be a newborn’s mother. Erin Connolly, UUBerk’s Sunday Morning RE assistant and sexton will be sailing with you for more hours while I’m away. Our contact info is in the directory – do you have the latest copy? Email our office admin, Melissa Medina at office@uuberks.org if you need an update.
I look forward to noticing where invitations lead us when I return this winter.
