UNIverse Weekly October 2-8, 2020

October 2-8, 2020

WORSHIP

September Worship Theme: Imagination
Fins, Feathers, Fur and Francis

Join us for a joyful youth-led Blessing of the Animals!

Please feel free to bring consenting companions on camera with you! (Plushie versions always welcome, and less wiggly). Please send photos (TODAY!) to webmaster@nwuuc.org for our animal companion collage!

The login for Zoom is https://nwuuc.org/zoom/ or follow the service on our Facebook page. Stay tuned in afterwards for Coffee Hour.

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

CALL FOR CHALICE LIGHTERS!

WE ARE SEEKING CHALICE LIGHTERS FOR OCTOBER. PLEASE SIGN UP! NWUUC welcomes children’s participation in the weekly Sunday service. Options to participate include lighting a chalice live via Zoom during the service or submitting a video to re@nwuuc.org that can be played during the service. LED lighting options can be used instead of a flame. Please use this link to sign up: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050f4aaeac2f4-nwuuc

MUSIC MINISTRY

Time To Take A Breath
by Philip J. Rogers

As we respond to current events and life situations it is good to stop and take a moment to slow down, still ourselves and just breathe. Without an extended diatribe of words, I offer some musical soundtracks for those few moments of calm stillness.

Please listen to any (or all) of these calm evoking musical resources that can aid in our taking the time to just… breathe.

Angel Eyes, performed by jazz saxophonist, Gene Ammons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If77_P8v7iE&feature=share

High Hopes, performed by Frank Sinatra and Eddie Hodges
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S94Bh3Qez9o&feature=share

Dream, performed by Dinah Washington
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB_k1htl2Rg&feature=share

OUR NWUUC FAMILY (CARE CORPS)

Would you like to schedule a private meeting with Rev. Misha? Please call the main number, 770-955-1408, to set up a time.

The Care Corps continues to make phone calls in an attempt to touch base with all members as we are still practicing social distancing. If you haven’t heard from us yet, rest assured your time is coming. However, we are placing calls based on birthdays and joining anniversary dates. If you have never put your birthday into the Realm system, we’ll never know when to wish you a happy birthday! Now is the time to learn how to use Realm and to be able make your own calls to friends you have been missing on Sundays. If you need help with accessing Realm, please send an email to the Tech Team at techhelp@nwuuc.org and one of our friendly tech gurus will call to help you. Remember, if you have something you want to share with us or with the congregation at large, feel free to email or call one of us—we are happy to hear from you. If you don’t want your joy or sorrow made public that is ok, too. You can trust our confidentiality.

Your Care Corps Team

From Rev. Joan

Each Sunday, during our virtual worship service we lift up the Joys and Sorrows which members and friends of Northwest have shared with our Care Corps team. We also invite those logged in to go to the CHAT box at the bottom of their screen to share a bit of what’s going on in their lives. Again this week, we received a bounty of responses.

David Morgen shared that his daughter, Ella, has a big new JOY in her life. She’s adopted two tiny kittens.

A joy from Grier and Toni Page who helped lay paver stones with friends at the church last Saturday.

Maria Drinkard shared that she tested COVID positive last week. “One more week of isolation to go. I’m GRATEFUL that the symptoms are not severe.”

Both Maria and Judy McKinley offered CONGRATULATIONS to Pam Zenner on the occasion of her retirement after forty years with a local law firm.

Hannah Cowart shared a JOY. She reconnected with her third grade teacher this week after thirty years! Hannah is hopeful that they will be pen pals.

Nancy Johnson shared that her brother, Bruce, and her good friend, Wei, each had a birthday and both turned sixty this week. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to both!

With THANKS to all of you who share in the work of keeping community,

Your Care Corps Team.

If you have a joy or sorrow you would like to have shared in the UNIverse please call or email Rev. Joan Davis at 404-275-0236 or joanarmstrongdavis@gmail.com.

If you are going through difficult times and would like emotional support or are in any situation where support and caring are needed contact:
Rev. Misha Sanders, Minister, 770-955-1408
Rev. Joan A. Davis, Community Minister, 404-275-0236
Maria Drinkard, 678-644-6480
Karen Edmonds, 770-851-1354
Linton Hopkins, 678-938-8858
Valerie Johnson, 470-209-9864
Lil Woolf, 404-276-6189

(770) 955-1408 Office Hours M-F 9 am to 5 pm office@nwuuc.org

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Coffee Hour

Do you enjoy coffee hour each Sunday? Are you willing to be a host from time to time? From the beginning of our virtual Sundays we have been fortunate enough to have Liz Martin as our coffee hour host, (thank you, Liz!) but now that she is back into intense seminary studies she isn’t able to be the host each week.
It’s pretty easy if you have any tech skills at all, so don’t be shy! Send your name to our IT Helpdesk at techhelp@nwuuc.org and one of us will get back to you with how-to instructions.

Patio Paverse

Last Saturday over 20 members and friends gathered to work on the patio behind Subramanian Hall. I, for one, found it exhilarating as I drove to the church, in anticipation of seeing people in person. We were all masked and spent most of the time outdoors. People were carting wheelbarrows full of pavers to the back area, others were unloading the wheelbarrows into stacks of pavers and still others were raking gravel into a smooth surface and pounding pavers into a pattern. All of this is, admittedly, very hard work. But the camaraderie, the love for our congregation and the determination to be part of this project outweighed the hard work. Some of us brought food to feed the hungry workers and drinks to refresh the fluids lost through sweat and we all took time to break bread together on the front porch—all the while keeping adequate social distancing.

Despite all the work done during last week and then on Saturday, creating the pervious patio (to facilitate drainage of the area), it turned out to be a job bigger than we could complete. Some tenacious members are continuing to work this week, but we may need to have one more work day, Saturday, October 10. If so, we’ll be asking for volunteers again. I hope you’ll consider helping if you are physically able.

I want to thank the following people for all their hard work with this project.

First, the members of the BESC who were able to be there during the week and again on Saturday: Constance Dierickx, Dave Zenner, Larry Wallis, and former BESC member, David Stewart. Others who helped either during the week, on Saturday or both include Michael Dierickx, Pam Zenner, Dave Savage, Glenn Koller, John Hagler, David Benoy, John Maynard, Rev. Misha Sanders, Hannah Cowart, Morning Washburn, Kara Shaw, Sydney Kahn, Anthony Kahn, Sandy Davis, Derrick Alford, Allen Rider, Grier and Toni Page. Beryl Grall, Rev Joan Davis, Constance Dierickx and I fed the hungry workers. I hope I have not inadvertently left someone off.

The expansion and the new patio are stunning! Please note the carpet in Subramanian Hall that was just laid this week. We are all so excited about returning safely to it, as I am sure the rest of you are as well. Our Building Expansion Steering Committee and the many other volunteers who are making it a reality deserve our thanks and support. See the most recent pictures below.

Thank you,
Lil Woolf
president@nwuuc.org

Progress as of Wednesday afternoon.

Send us your pictures!!

At the worship service several weeks ago we had a slide show of pictures of US! It was great to see recent photos of many of us in our homes and elsewhere. It was so well received that we’d like to continue it for a while longer, so we ask that you upload your photographs of what you have been doing this summer, whether they are pictures of you coping during quarantine, or taking a vacation away or both. Please send pictures that include you, your families, friends and your pets in them so that we may share our collective joy.

We want to include as many people as we can. Please continue to upload your photographs to this Google drive link, https://forms.gle/9HmcXuR3RkEMU2fN9. If you are not able to access the drive, you may email pictures to this email address, webmaster@nwuuc.org.

IT Help Desk

If you need help using Zoom to log into the service or a church online meeting, logging into Realm, our webpage Nwuuc.org or into our Facebook Group page, we have a team of experts who can help. This desk is managed by Cameron Moore, Katy Lockhart, Kuru George, David Morgen and Russ Martin. To reach one of them email your questions to techhelp@nwuuc.org. One of them will respond with answers.

Shop NWUUC Merch

Check out Northwest’s new merchandise shop at www.zazzle.com/store/northwestuuc for T-shirts, polos, and more!

If you’re interested in submitting merchandise designs, please email Cameron Moore at stewardship@nwuuc.org.

Zoom Documentary Discussion
A Class Divided
7pm on Friday, October 9th

Watch the documentary A Class Divided on your own and then join a virtual discussion on Zoom!

The film profiles the Iowa schoolteacher Jane Elliott and her class of third graders, who took part in a class exercise about discrimination and prejudice in 1970 and reunited as adults to recall the experience.

Here is a link to where you can watch it for free. https://youtu.be/1mcCLm_LwpE
This event is open to all who are open to all and is not restricted to Atlanta or the United States. Feel free to invite anyone you think may be interested in joining our discussion. Please allow others to get their full thought out and that any disagreement is voiced in a civil way. At the end we will decide together the topic for the next month’s film.

Please email Adam Hicks bryantadamhicks@gmail.com to be added to the email list. That way you will be able to receive updates on future events as well as the zoom link and password, which will be sent out the morning of the discussion.

NWUUC Book Groupies

The NWUUC Book Groupies will not be meeting in September but we will resume our monthly meetings, now on Zoom, at 7 pm on Tuesday, October 13th, to discuss White Fragility, the NY Times best seller by Robin DiAngelo and published by our UU Beacon Press. “DiAngelo explores how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.” This is a short book so, for extra “credit” or if you have already read it, we are recommending Between The World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, a memoir developed through a series of letters from the author to his son. This is an exceptional book written in Coates’s usual insightful style.

UUCA Men’s Retreat at The Mountain-October 23 – 25

You are invited to join your fellow UUCA men as they gather spaciously for their annual Fall Retreat at The Mountain. Fresh air, open vistas, hiking, time in nature and brotherhood awaits you. This weekend promises to be an enjoyable time during the peak Fall season in the NC mountains.

The Mountain is following all best practices for keeping our guests healthy during this time. The Mountain Retreat and Learning Center remains vigilant about offering a safe and hospitable experience. COVID-19 health measures can be found on their website.

Registration Fee includes: Lodging, meals including dinner on arrival through lunch on departure and use of assigned facilities.

Cost: $190 per person
Note: In The Mountain’s efforts to stop the spread of coronavirus every participant will be given their own private bedroom, unless you inform us of the desire to be paired with another attendee as roommates. There is no additional cost for this private room upgrade.

To register, click on this LINK. For more information, contact Sven Lovegren: sven.lovegren@uuca.org

The Mountain, our UU Retreat and Learning Center outside Highlands, NC, is a wonderful resource during this pandemic time of isolation, etc. Please consider supporting their programs, some virtual, some on the mountaintop!

Understand White Privilege and Become an Anti-Racist
Sep 23 – Oct 28

The Mountain, our UU Retreat and Learning Center outside Highlands, NC, is a wonderful resource during this pandemic times of isolation, etc, Please consider supporting their programs, some virtual, some on the mountaintop! I am taking the Understand White Privilege and Become an Anti-Racist which started today. There are 62 people taking this Zoom seminar and there is room for more so you can still sign up. -Penny

A Six-Week Series on Wednesdays from 12 noon – 1:30
Acquire guidance and answers to these questions and more:
• What is white privilege?

• Why is it so difficult for white people to talk about racism and how can we do better?

• What is the difference between a racist, a non-racist and an anti-racist?

• How can each one of us authentically become an anti-racist?

Screen Shot 2020-07-06 at 1.43.52 PM.png

Here is the link to register: https://www.themountainrlc.org/understand-white-privilege

A bit longer with more resources: https://www.themountainrlc.org/blm-educational-resource

OCTOBER BIRTHDAYS AND
JOINING ANNIVERSARIES 2020

October Birthdays October Joining Anniversaries

Ed Kilbourne 10/01
Karen Reagle 10/07
Hannah Johnson 10/09
Charlotte Alyea 10/11
Eileen Taylor 10/11
Cathryn DuBow 10/13
Helene Johnson 10/13
Gus Newman 10/13
Tony Barbagallo 10/14
Edward Lawrence 10/17
Quinn Page 10/18
Lynne Dale 10/19
Kathy Frost 10/21
Benjamin Manely 10/22
Alison Williams 10/23
Laura Hall 10/31

Penny Raney 10/22/1978
Michael Manely 10/28/2004
Shelia Manely 10/28/2004
Deborah Andrews-Gautney 10/30/2011
Helen Borland 10/18/2014
Harry Trendell 10/19/2014
Peggy Emrey 10/11/2015

CALENDAR

Sunday, October 4, 10 am Worship

Virtual Coffee 11 am

NORTHWEST LEADERSHIP

Board of Trustees 2020-2021

President Lil Woolf president@nwuuc.org
President-Elect Lynne Dale
Finance Trustee Pam Freeman finance@nwuuc.org
Secretary Sandy Davis board@nwuuc.org
Imm. Past President David Stewart
Trustee at Large Larry Wallis
Trustee at Large Grier Page
Trustee at Large (youth) Chloe Morgen

Ministries Team Leaders
Communications: Jenn Meunier Miller
Community: Brian Freeman
Gardens & Spaces: Beryl Grall-Petty
Justice: Dave Zenner
Adult Learning Lead: Marilyn Matlock, Co-Lead: Sally Mitchell
Stewardship Lead: Cameron Moore, Co-Leads: Gwen Kahn & Melissa Niedermeyer

Staff
Rev. Misha Sanders, Minister
Rev. Joan Davis, Community Minister
Adia Fields-Udofia, Religious Education Director
Dr. Philip Rogers, Music Director