OUUC Weekly Update 11-23-21
News from the Olympia Unitarian Universalist Congregation
Worship Service November 28 - online and in-person by RSVP
“A Bigger Table” - Rev. Mary Gear and Sara Lewis
“If I am more fortunate than others, I need to build a longer table not a taller fence.” - Tamlyn Tomita
This Thanksgiving weekend we begin the Guest at Your Table fundraiser for the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee by expanding our table.
RSVP for in-person worship.
Join us for Online Worship.
See recordings of online services here.
Thanksgiving Blessing
While we lament that we can’t gather in person for the traditional OUUC Thanksgiving potluck, we can gather virtually for a community blessing and recognition of all that we are thankful for. Join Rev. Mary at noon on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 25 for a short virtual blessing and let the winter holidays begin!
OUUC Thanksgiving Blessing
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89144989231?pwd=SUp5d3Z2dG0yWU8vS3pFTy9CdVpzdz09
Meeting ID: 891 4498 9231
Passcode: 343410
Sunday Talk Show Guest is Gail Gosney Wrede
The “After Church with Melanie Ransom” talk show IS BACK this Sunday with special guest, Gail Gosney Wrede. Gail is a long-time member of OUUC, and has probably been on every committee, including being the Board Chair. This is your chance to discover how your life might overlap with Gail’s. The show starts at 11:30 am after the coffee chats. My next guests will be Fred Kellogg and Beatrice Owana on December 19. If you missed some of the previous shows, you can find them on the website. Many of us come to OUUC for the theology or the minister, but we stay because of our life-long connections to the people. – Melanie Ransom
Send a Photo of Your Table
Health & Safety Update
We are shifting from the crisis of COVID to learning to live with COVID. In response to this shift, the Health & Safety Task Force met last week to review the current OUUC guidance. The Task Force is working on an update, so you can expect new protocols and phases soon. There are a couple of things to note now. First, as some of us are out and about and the young ones have returned to school, we are more in contact with other people and sometimes exposed to people who have COVID. Vaccines make it less likely that someone will spread the virus and that if a vaccinated person gets the virus, it is likely to be mild. And we know that there are exposures and breakthrough cases. If you are exposed to someone who has COVID, please follow the current state guidance here. And please plan to attend OUUC functions virtually until you have a negative COVID test or 14 days have passed since your exposure. If you test positive for COVID and have been at OUUC, please let a staff person know so we can notify anyone who may have been exposed.
Second, now that the Sanctuary air quality is improved with new ductwork, air handlers, and filters, we plan to invite up to 15 people in on Sunday mornings for worship services. We will continue to screen for COVID symptoms and exposure and strongly encourage that anyone who attends services be vaccinated if they can be. We are still testing the new streaming technology, so you may experience cords and Plan B as we try new things. We are all staying flexible as we learn to live with a new reality. Thank you for your adaptability.
The Health & Safety Task Force:
Brian Coyne, Board Liaison
Polly Taylor
Tim Ransom
Jerald Dodson
Pat Sonnenstuhl
Marie Arensmeyer, Facilities Manager
Frank Turner
Rev. Mary Gear, Minister
Chris Parke
COVID Phases
Book Sale Starts December 2!
The HOLIDAY ONLINE BOOK SALE is December 2-5 to raise funds for Help US Move In, a local non-profit organization working on housing issues. Please let your local friends and family know about the sale. Our online store will open at 8:00 am on December 2. Here's the link. Before December 2, you will see a 'Coming Soon' message where you can sign up to receive our Newsy Bits & Sales Tips charity book sale newsletter. When you click on the same link on December 2, the store will be open for shopping! We still need volunteers for Book Pick-Up on Thursday, December 9, and Saturday, December 11. Contact Susan Dodson for more information or to volunteer your help.
Articulating Your Faith Class
Last Chance to Register: Class May Be Canceled Due to Low Registrations
Wednesdays Dec 1, 8, and 15, 6:30-8:00 pm. Would you like to know more about Unitarian Universalism? Would you like to feel more comfortable talking about UU and answering questions about it? What do you say when someone asks you about UUism and your beliefs? Join this three-session class, taught by Sara Lewis, to gain more comfort and skill in answering those questions. Register here.
Congregational Meeting
Our next Congregational Meeting will be held online only, at 11:30 am following Sunday Service, on December 12. The main agenda item will be a vote on the Proposed Transitional Budget for January to June of 2022. Copies of the proposed budget will be distributed in advance. If you have questions or comments about the proposed budget or would just like to learn more about how OUUC’s finances are managed, please join in a Board Listening Session online after church on December 5.
A Few Words from OUUC’s Parish Nurse
Our Parish Nurse, Ann Yeo (who was musing about the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday), recently did a Google search on the subject of gratitude. That search explored the many benefits of practicing gratitude - benefits for our physical, mental and emotional, social, and spiritual health – and Ann decided to share some of that information with you.
Gratitude is a thankful appreciation for what an individual receives, whether tangible or intangible. With gratitude, people acknowledge the goodness in their lives. Believe it or not, the phenomenon of gratitude has been well-researched. The multitude of known benefits of practicing gratitude is quite startling, actually. Being grateful has the power to:
· Make us happier and more optimistic, reduce symptoms of depression, increase our resilience, and improve our self-esteem.
· Improve our sleep, motivate us to exercise more often, reduce pain, lower blood pressure, strengthen our immune system, reduce stress, and help us to live longer lives.
· Make us more understanding, more compassionate, more helpful, and kinder to others; and thereby improve our relationships with others.
· Improve our decision-making, increase our goal achievement, build our social capital, make us more creative, increase our productivity, and make us more effective leaders.
· Make us more humble and less self-centered.
· Reduce materialistic thinking, and strengthen the spiritual aspect of our lives.
So, how can we reap the many benefits of practicing gratitude? In other words, how can we cultivate gratitude, or refocus on what we have rather than on what we lack? Some suggestions include:
· Regularly write thank-you notes, or make telephone calls or personal visits if possible, or even thank someone mentally, for kindnesses they did for you.
· Keep a gratitude journal.
· Count your blessings.
· If prayer is part of your spiritual practice, offer regular prayers of thanksgiving.
· If meditation is part of your spiritual practice, sometimes focus on that for which you are grateful.
Here are some final thoughts:
With gratitude, people acknowledge the goodness in their lives. (Even in the second year of a pandemic, there is goodness!) In the process, people usually recognize that the source of that goodness lies at least partially outside themselves. As a result, gratitude also helps people to connect with something larger than themselves as individuals - whether with other people, with nature, or with a higher power.
Gratitude helps people to feel more positive emotions, to relish good experiences, to improve their health, to deal with adversity, and to build strong relationships. Gratitude is possible to cultivate, and it is worthwhile to do so.
Hear again the words from that familiar Thanksgiving hymn: “We sing now together our song of thanksgiving, rejoicing in goods which the ages have wrought, for Life that enfolds us, and helps and heals and holds us, and leads beyond the goals which our forebears once sought.” (Singing the Living Tradition, # 67)
-Ann Yeo, RN, MSN, Certified Holistic Nurse
Quick Notes
Thank You, B&G Leaf Raking Brigade! Thank you to Jerald Dodson, Joe Joy, Kent Canny, and David Pelto for raking all the leaves off the parking lot that came down in the storm!! - Steve Tilley
Follow Up to the Q&A on Cultural Appropriation: If you would like to further explore the topic of cultural appropriation, Sara has gathered resources as a starting place for you here: Cultural Appropriation Resources (padlet.org)
No In-Person Grief Group in November - The next meeting will be Thursday, December 23 at 6:00 pm at OUUC. Please contact Josie Solseng with your questions.
See a list of online meetings that you might attend here.
Ways to Give - Did you know you can donate to OUUC by text message? Just text "OUUC" and "amount" to 73256. You can also donate online by visiting our secure online giving page.
In the Larger Community
Here are two opportunities for further justice learning:
From the Welcoming Congregations of Unitarian Universalism: In case you missed this, here is an excellent recorded webinar from November 11. Calling all Families: How to Support Trans Young People.
From JUUstice Washington, a UU Action Network: Everyone is welcome to decolonize and re-indigenize their hearts, minds and actions. Indigeneity Conversations is a podcast series that features deep and engaging conversations with Native culture bearers, scholars, movement leaders, and non-Native allies on the most important issues and solutions in Indian Country. The series also features excerpts from our Indigenous Forum, a sovereign space and touchstone for Native leaders and non-Native allies to come together at our annual Bioneers Conference and to create and grow strategic alliances. In this episode with Matriarch Casey Camp-Horinek, we talk about how a burgeoning indigenous-led Rights of Nature movement has the potential to protect ecosystems from destruction by granting legal rights to nature itself, and how many tribes are uniquely positioned for leadership to institute and uphold the Rights of Nature because of their sovereign legal status. Listen here.
Since I Been Down - Film and Speaker Event November 30: Please join a virtual viewing of the film Since I Been Down, followed by a panel of speakers. The film spotlights Washington State prisoner Kimonti Carter and follows his efforts, as well as a wide group of prisoners, as they break free from their fate and create a model of education that is transforming their lives, their communities, our prisons, and our own humanity. Kimonti is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. And yet, he devotes himself every day to educating and expanding the perspectives of his fellow prisoners. Carter is a member of the #BlackPrisonersCaucus and started the prison led education program, T.E.A.C.H. The panel will feature Formerly Incarcerated Leader, Devon Adams, Fundraising Coordinator (Collective Justice), Formerly Incarcerated Leader, Eugene Youngblood, C.A.R.E. Coordinator (Freedom Project), Formerly Incarcerated Leader, Rep.Tarra Simmons, Elected Representative of the 23rd District. Film: November 30, 5:30 pm; speakers at 6:30 pm. For a registration link to the virtual screening and discussion, contact Steve Tilley. You can watch the film between Tuesday, November 23, and 7:15 pm, November 30 with this link. Password: civilsurvival2020
Register now for the Pacific Regional Assembly.
About Us
Sara Lewis, Director of Community and Faith Development
Darlene Sarkela, Congregational Administrator
Marie Arensmeyer, Facilities Manager
Anissa Bentlemsani, Religious Education Assistant
Email: liberalfaith@ouuc.org
Website: http://ouuc.org
Location: 2315 Division Street Northwest, Olympia, WA, United States
Phone: 3607866383
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OlympiaUUC/
Twitter: @OlyUUC