UUCSJS Midweek Message

• Minister's Midweek Meditation
• Announcements
• Notes From the Board
• Events This Week
• This Sunday
• Last Sunday
• Call to Action
• Explore Our Monthly Theme
• Connect to Our Faith

Rev. Dawn is available for pastoral care appointments Wednesday through Friday 10am-3pm. Please email minister@uucsjs.org to schedule an appointment.

Contact a member of the Caring Team

Team members can provide you with support during/after an illness, a death in the family, or other loss or hardship. They can find you resources, run errands, or provide meals in time of need.

Reach out to:

• Tracey Catino at (609) 674-8721 email: Traceysnaps@msn.com
• Denise O'Meara at (610) 316-7495 email: denome53@gmail.com
• Helen Utts at (609) 338-3391 email: HelenUtts@aol.com
• MaryLou DeMaria-Berhang at (201) 247-5635 email: MLberhang@gmail.com
• Tony Zitelli at (201) 463-2800 email: happy85a@aol.com

To have your announcement placed in the Midweek Message, please send an email to admin@uucsjs.org by Noon on Wednesday.

Planning a special event? The Communications Team can help. Visit https://uucsjs.breezechms.com/form/42685e for more information.

That line from old black and white Western movies reminds me of an important message from our Building and Grounds Committee.

Please do not place stickers on cabinets and library doors. The glue damages the finish on wood and is very difficult to remove from glass.

Thanks!

-Buildings & Grounds Committee

Meeting on Friday, December 17th at 7:00 pm by ZOOM (www.tinyurl.com/uucsjszoom).

All are invited to join !! Gail Cunningham will be leading the meeting.

AND THEN THERE WERE NONE by Agatha Christie

Considered by many to be the best mystery novel ever written, it is the story of ten strangers lured to a private island off the coast of Devon by an eccentric millionaire. Once his guests have arrived, the host accuses each person of murder. Unable to leave the island, the guests share their darkest secrets – until they begin to die.

January selection is BEHOLD THE DREAMER by Imbolo Mbue

Are you in need of a ride to Sunday services?

Are you willing to drive other people to services?

The Caring Team would like to know!

We are specifically looking for drivers in the Egg Harbor Township area right now but would like to help others connect as well. If you are interested in volunteering or you need a ride, please contact Helen Utts or any member of the Caring Team or email admin@uucsjs.org.

Click on the graphic below or visit the calendar at uucsjs.org for more information on events and meetings.

CLICK HERE to reserve the Zoom Room or to add your event to the calendar.

Rev. Dawn Fortune

The Christian season of Advent is but one of the holiday observances celebrated in these darkest weeks of the year. Advent is a time of joyful anticipation, Hanukkah is a celebration of the miracle of light, Kwanzaa celebrates African culture maintained throughout the diaspora. What experience of joy might we embrace this year?

This service will be held inside the sanctuary at UUCSJS (masking and social distancing required). The service will also be livestreamed on our Facebook page.

If you were unable to join us, you can watch the video of last week's service below.

Participation is needed for ESWA toy sorting in age groups and gender on Wed and Thur. Dec 15 and 16th 5pm-8 in Pleasantville for the preparation for their distribution to parents on Dec 18th.

Call Colby 609-442-0967 for more info or to volunteer your time.

This event benefits the children of low income service working members of ESWA.

Needed now are more toys for older kids, your financial contributions and donated human time!

A holiday party/meal for ESWA members is on Dec 18th,1-4, and much help is needed. Ask Colby how you can help!!

Be very merry!!!"

From UU the Vote:

Our communities deserve action, now! The UUA is partnering with the Poor People’s Campaign and other faith and justice organizations for a Moral March on Washington on Monday, Dec.13 to pass Build Back Better and democracy legislation.

We are excited to announce that UUA President Rev. Dr. Susan Frederick-Gray is joining the march and speaking at the rally.

We’re calling UUs across the country to ask them to call their Senators and the White House to demand they take action. We're also inviting local folx to the March on Washington on Dec. 13 to get this historic legislation passed. If you live in or around DC or feel called to travel for the action, please sign up here.

Take action now, by joining one of these events:

• Join a phonebank on December 9th
• Join the Moral March on December 13th

It has been over a year since we celebrated the New Jersey Clean Energy Equity Act pass in the Senate, yet this legislation continues to stagnate in the Assembly Telecommunications and Utilities Committee. This “lame duck” session is our last chance to pass A4185 before a new legislature is sworn in and our progress is set back.

Please help ensure that New Jersey's communities of color are included in the move to renewable energy. Governor Murphy’s New Jersey Clean Energy Act is a first step toward a renewable energy future in New Jersey, but we must be explicit and deliberate in ensuring that all New Jerseyans benefit from a clean energy future and are not burdened by health-harming pollution.

A New Jersey Clean Energy Equity Act will help 250,000 low-income families benefit from solar and energy efficiency, install 400 megawatts of storage and create workforce development programs. It has already passed the Senate, but is waiting to be considered in the Telecommunications and Utilities Committee.

Take Action Now: Contact the Committee Chair and your own Assembly representatives.

Worship associates are needed for the fall calendar. Sheila Stoner is calling people to enlist their help. When she calls, please say yes!

Designer and author, Ingrid Fetell Lee, encourages everyone she can to intentionally look for joy every day. She adds life to this simple practice by calling it “Joyspotting.” In an article of hers, she explains the impact it’s had on her:

“Whereas before I might not have looked twice at the orange traffic cones on the street, now I savored their pops of color against the gray sidewalk. Whereas before I might have ignored the man sitting next to me on the subway, now I noticed his polka dotted socks and smiled. The world seemed to be teeming with tiny, joyful surprises. All I had to do is look for them.”

This way of engaging our days is echoed in Mary Oliver’s arresting poem, Mindful, in which she writes,

“Every day, I see or hear something

that more or less kills me with delight,

that leaves me like a needle

in the haystack of light.

It was what I was born for –

to look, to listen,

to lose myself inside this soft world –

to instruct myself over and over in joy and acclamation.”

So let’s try to do a bit of joyspotting of our own this month. And to make it more intentional, let’s add some picture taking to our efforts. Here are your instructions:

Capture at least one image of joy every day for a week!

If you don’t have a phone with a camera, you could instead keep a notebook (a “joy journal”) with you and write down what the image is, describing it in enough detail that it will pull you back to the joy you experienced when you read it later.

Whatever mechanism you use, your goal is to “capture” a handful or two of things that, as Oliver says, “kills you with delight.”

When the week is over, take some time to reflect on the images you’ve captured. Is there a common thread? What do the images say about your experience of delight? Is color key? Surprise? Silliness? Beauty? People? Nature?

And after reflecting, consider taking it further by doing something creative with your images and insights. For instance, turn your pictures into a slideshow with music behind it. Or maybe do a final entry in your notebook/”joy journal” that sums up your insights. Or maybe write a thank letter or love letter to your images/experiences of joy. Some may want to create a collage. Others may want to print out a picture or two and frame them for a wall in your home.

Here’s another great poem to guide you on your way: Welcome Morning, by Anne Sexton:

http://mondaypoem.blogspot.com/2013/06/welcome-morning-by-anne-sexton.html

p.s - This is one of my favorite monthly explorations so far! Joyspotting is one of my spiritual practices and I love it. Try it! I highly recommend it! And I've added Ingrid Fettel Lee's book "Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness" to my reading list.

-Jess D-S

Here you will find ways to learn about and connect with our faith and opportunities to connect with other UU's from outside our congregation.

Click on the images for more information.

By Taryn Strauss

December 8, 2021

“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

—Luke 1:42, 45 (NRSV)

What if the angel comes to you and tells you not to have the baby? The message is instead: Our Savior will be borne to a different person who has the desire for this great responsibility.

That changes the Christmas story, doesn’t it? Are you still “blessed among women”?

A worn, chipped statue of Mary, pictured from the shoulders up, with a weary expression.

In this version, the shepherds outside the stable shout curses. They demand retaliation for the audacity of a lowborn woman who wields Godlike power, deciding who lives and who does not.

What we endure to end a pregnancy is like the underbelly of a miracle. You traveled far, and found the only doctor for miles who would do it safely. You held out your thumb on the side of the road, following a star.

Each Advent, my empathy for Mary’s situation returns. Every birth story is precarious. I draw strength from the blessing she proclaims as I prepare to preach about abortion in the Deep South, where both our bodily autonomy and safety when we speak for it are precarious.

People often talk about the size of a fetus in vegetal terms. Fear can be carried like a baby in utero. Once the fear was just a little bean, then grew to the size of a tomato. The cells multiply until our backs ache and watermelon-sized fear gestates in our bellies, kicking us from within.

If I preach dangerously, can I keep the sanctuary safe? If I preach the fulfillment of the blessing of choice as I understand it, will I endanger myself and my congregation?

There is no true sanctuary, not really. Only back rooms: country stables where people give birth to secrets with no choirs of angels singing “come let us adore ye” about the miracle of choosing the one life you have to fight for—your own.

Prayer

Mother of us all, grant us grace for the complex choices we make and the precious secrets we care for tenderly. Keep us safe and well loved when we lay our burdens down. Give us the courage to fight for dangerous causes; remind us the life we save may be our own.

Rev. Taryn Strauss (she/her/hers) serves as senior minister of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta, Georgia where she lives with her husband James as they wrangle twin six-year-old boys Townes and Langston, and longs for a single dull moment.

Website: https://www.uua.org/braverwiser

Click on the image above to learn more about:

• Livestreaming & Copyright Resources
• COMPASS: Navigating the Paths to Liberation Together
• A Second Slice of Pi: An Online Conference for Smaller Congregations
• News from Our Whole Lives & Parents & Caregivers Curriculum
• CERSI Job Applications Now Being Accepted!
• New Faithify Projects
• News from the CER Advisory Council
• Better Together Blog: Are You Tired?
• CER Events Calendar
• UUA News

Sunday Services 10 am in person and livestreamed on Facebook.

Email: admin@uucsjs.org
Website: www.uucsjs.org
Location: 75 S Pomona Rd, Egg Harbor City, NJ, USA
Phone: (609) 965-9400
Facebook: facebook.com/uucsjs
Twitter: @UUCSJS