UUCSJS Midweek Message

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

Greetings, Gentle People,

Welcome to the New Year! I hope that everyone had a peaceful holiday season.

As you know, we had a small outbreak of Covid-19 from our Christmas Eve service (everyone is ok now) and that our January 2 service was cancelled. After consulting with Melissa Hutchison of the COVID Response Team and with Board President Kit Marlowe, we have decided to suspend all in-person programming at the UUCSJS building for the month of January. Decisions about February and later months will be made as they get closer and we have more current information about infection rates in South Jersey.

This week’s worship will be back on ZOOM, and the link will be posted prominently on our website as has been our practice in the past. Our primary goal is to keep people safe.

Our worship theme for January is Living in Intention, which offers rich ground for exploration. In my online meditation this week, I spoke briefly about the difference between making New Year’s resolutions vs. setting intentions for the new year. The difference is not unlike the difference between a contract and a covenant, wherein a contract can be broken, but a covenant is designed for some human fallibility. A covenant is a commitment to stay in the relationship, even when we fail at bits and parts of it, because it is the relationship, not the bits and parts, that is the priority. A resolution made on New Year’s morning (in my experience) is often left in pieces before Valentine’s Day. An intention, however, is a commitment to an aspirational goal. It is a challenge to stay in the effort, even when (especially when) things get tough and we stumble or make mistakes.

There will be a time during worship on Sunday for you to offer an intention, either privately or to share with those present, for the coming year. I will share my intention with you now: better communication. I am setting an intention to improve my communication skills and practices in 2022. This means that I am committing to being better about email correspondence and following up with phone calls and other messages. I commit to communicating more clearly and more frequently about the general goings-on of congregational life and process. I know that I will not be perfect, but I commit to keep trying.

I look forward to gathering with everyone on ZOOM (www.tinyurl.com/uucsjszoom) again this Sunday morning at our regular 10 a.m. EST worship service. May this week keep you well and safe.

Peace,

Rev. Dawn

Rev. Dawn is available for pastoral care appointment Wednesday through Friday 10am to 3pm. 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.

More willing workers needed. Can you help?

Our participation in “Adopt-a-Road” is in jeopardy…

To participate in the Adopt-a-Road program, UUCSJS does at least four (4) road cleanups every “Earth Day Year” (before April 22) while earning a modest stipend from Atlantic County Utilities Authority (ACUA). The cleanups involve walking up & down Pomona Road for about one mile to bag up trash and recyclables.

You’re invited to join the cleanup crew on Sunday, January 16 at 8:15 AM at the UU Center. If it works the way it’s supposed to, you will team up with a partner as you put on a safety vest and gloves and choose your grabber.

Although it might be unexpected, volunteers often report feeling gratified they got out so early and had some exercise and time for reflection along with doing something useful.

We need eight (8) volunteers to accomplish the task in a reasonable amount of time, yet for our first cleanup in July we had five and in October, only four. That’s not enough to do the job and sustain our participation in the program.

Further, the present coordinator plans to step down as of Earth Day 2022 and someone new will be needed to schedule cleanups and report them to ACUA. Will you be the one to take on this straightforward job that improves our environment and helps the church at the same time?

We hope it’s been the pandemic that has discouraged more participation; we shall see. Please don’t hesitate because you’ve never come before – it’s that easy!

Snow/rain date is Sunday, January 23 at 8:15 AM.

Thank you and see you there,

Judy Pereira

Book Club will be meeting on Friday, January 21 at 7:00 pm on ZOOM (www.tinyurl.com/uucsjszoom).

BEHOLD THE DREAMERS by Imbolo Mbue

A “compulsively readable debut novel” about marriage, class, race, and the trapdoors in the American Dream – the “unforgettable story” of a young Cameroonian couple making a new life in New York just as the Great Recession of 2008 upends the economy.

Judy Pereira will lead the discussion. All are welcome to join the meeting on ZOOM.

February selection is ANXIOUS PEOPLE by Fredrik Backman

Questions: morellb@msn.com

Cancellation of Service

As another article in this Mid-Week Announcement no doubt reports, the Pandemic Safety Task Force learned on December 27th that at least one person acquired a Covid-19 infection at our Christmas Eve service.

We moved quickly to cancel the service scheduled for Sunday January 2nd . We made that decision quickly, but not lightly. Protecting the health of our members was foremost in our thoughts. We did not consider shifting that service to Zoom because the service involved music and Zoom won’t transmit music without extensive preparation that we could not complete in time.

The service on January 9th will occur on Zoom. The potential for Covid-19 infection is higher than ever before. (Cases in New Jersey double every 7 days.) On Sunday, January 16th , we expect to worship electronically, too.

UUCSJS Board Meets Next Thursday

The UUCSJS Board will meet on Zoom on Thursday January 13th . We will talk about 1)

highway signage, 2) audio / visual / Internet improvements, and 3) Covid-19 safety. The

Board welcomes all members and friends to attend, particularly if you worry that we

might make a wrong decision.

Kit Marlowe

UUCSJS Board President

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

What will 2022 hold for us? As individuals and as a community, what would we like to set for an intention for the coming year? What might we like to leave behind from 2021? Join us for this all-ages ritual of renewal.

PLEASE NOTE: Sunday service will be livestreamed on Zoom only. There is no in person gathering.

Volunteer to be a worship associate! Contact Sheila Stoner or Rev. Dawn today!

“Here’s what I discovered. Intention is different from setting goals or resolutions in that it “pulls us into” who we truly are. Goals and resolutions “push us out” into future possibilities. To set intentions, we must listen to our inner voice which tells us who we truly are.”

- Katie Covey, Soul Matters Director of RE Resources

So here we are again, in the month of January, with its talk of daring resolutions and demanding calls to become better. It’s hard to resist. After all, who of us couldn’t benefit from a bit of self-improvement? And so most of us gladly go along and declare “This is the year I’m finally going to be a better me!”

But are we sure this is what we really want? When you read that quote above about being “pulled in” rather than “pushed out,” what happens in your heart? Is being pushed really what you want and need? Are you really excited about the New Year’s work of striving to create a brand new you? Or do you suddenly notice an internal whisper that says, “I long to be pulled in more deeply to the self I already am”? In other words, maybe our real New Year’s work is not about pushing forward into self-improvement, but about pausing, stepping back and asking, “What hunger has my heart?”

There is, after all, a big difference between becoming better and becoming ourselves. Self-improvement is not the same as self-alignment. Wanting to get from point A to point B is something quite different from longing to find your inner anchor. Bottom line: Goals and intentions may indeed be more distinct than we have thought. And being clear about that may be more important than we have thought.

So this month, maybe our most meaningful work is to make room. All around us this month, there’s going to be tons of talk about creating goals and imagining who we might become. But living with intention seems to be more about creating a quiet space that allows us to connect with who we already are, a space that protects us from the pressure to accomplish and instead makes room to ask questions of integrity.

And if we are able to carve out that quieter space, then maybe we will discover that this isn’t the year of “finally becoming a better me.” Maybe we’ll decide it’s enough to simply “finally be me.”

(From Soul Matters January 2022)

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.

“Make New Year's goals. Dig within, and discover what you would like to have happen in your life this year. This helps you do your part. It is an affirmation that you're interested in fully living life in the year to come.”

—Melody Beattie, The Language of Letting Go: Daily Meditations on Codependency

Ever since 2016, I’ve been picking a word that serves as the theme for my year: a single word that I want to serve as my grounding; my personal lodestar for the upcoming year.

Joy. Embrace. Explore. Delight. Authenticity. Roots. Each of those words has represented a year of my life. Part of my New Year’s tradition is reflecting on those words from prior years, and how my year was influenced by that theme.

In January 2021, I chose “roots.” During challenging times throughout the year, when I wasn’t sure what to do, I used my word to guide me: I meditated on “roots” and found an activity that helped build the roots I had been seeking. It motivated me to do tasks I normally would never have attempted – like my backyard rose bushes. It helped give this introvert the motivation to meet people in my neighborhood and attend some local neighborhood festivals. It helped me pay closer attention to state-specific and local justice issues. I will forever remember 2021 not as “Year Two of the Pandemic,” but as my year of roots.

After I’m done reflecting on the past year, I think about what comes next: Where am I on my Life’s Journey? What would I change if I could? What do I notice happening in my own personal evolution? What do I want to come next? What do I need to come next? After careful consideration, I decide on my single word theme for the new year.

For 2022, my word will be “blossom.” Sure, it flows naturally from last year’s “roots,” but I’ve also noticed new facets of my identity that are starting to blossom. It’s time to let myself try new things and really truly allow myself to blossom, and observe what beauty develops. It’s time to truly blossom into a new, more fully-realized version myself.

If this is your first year to the idea, I invite you to consider making this one of your own personal New Year’s traditions, too. When you think about your 2022, what word do you want your theme of the year to be? What word might you use as your centering lodestar for 2022?

Prayer

Give me comfort as I reflect on the past year and remember all the peaks and valleys on the journey. Give me wisdom as I seek out what is right for me for the new year. Give me inspiration as I define my intentions for the new year. And give me courage to live the life I yearn for.

Tim Atkins (he/him/his) serves as the Director of Lifespan Religious Exploration for the First Unitarian Church in Oklahoma City. He spends his spare time writing, playing board games, trying to change the world, and attempting to reason with his cat Dorothea.

Website: uua.org/braverwiser
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BraverWiser/

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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