UUCSJS Midweek Message

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Email admin@uucsjs.org or call Jess at 609-965-9400 if you need assistance

• Upcoming Sunday Services
• Connect to the Monthly Theme
• Events This Week
• Announcements
• Call to Action
• Caring Team
• Last Sunday
• Connect to Our Faith

Breakfast Church: Potatoes, Eggs, & Coffee Beans

Presented by UUCSJS Director of Religious Education, Jessica Dunn Safonof

In life, things happen around us and things happen to us. Finding your center during these experiences means understanding your choices about how you react and what you make of it. Will you learn, adapt, and choose to make the best of each experience?

Join us for this all ages service when we will gather together around one of the oldest and most important places of human connection - the table. Breakfast Church will include eating together as a central element, alongside music, stories, and learning how to find your center.

PLEASE NOTE: This service will be in person at UUCSJS and streamed live on our Facebook page. A recording will be available later in the day on our YouTube Channel.

*Masks are currently optional at UUCSJS.

Finding our center and clarity about our values go hand in hand. But do we really take the time to regularly name and bring our core values into awareness? And do our self-proclaimed values match how others see us? And how we are actually living. This exercise invites you to wrestle with both of these questions. And do it with a trusted companion.

To keep it simple, here's a list of values.

Here’s how to engage with it:

1. Pick your five core values from the list.
2. Give a blank copy of the list to someone close to you and ask them to pick the five they think are your core values, without letting them know which you picked earlier.
3. Compare lists and discuss the differences, as well as why each of you picked what you did.
4. Either alone, or with the person close to you, engage the questions below. If you do it with the other person, invite them to also identify their top five values and engage the questions as well.

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.

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

Next meeting - Thursday, Jan 12, 1:00 pm

Margaret circle is going to have an interesting time at their monthly meeting. Each member is being asked to think of a song that has significance in their lives. They will tell Katy Cardwell of their choice before Jan 10, and Katy, who is in charge of this program, will provide this music. The person choosing this piece will tell us what the meaning of this song has been in their life and will have a chance a chance to sing it karaoke style if they wish. This should be a fun way to get to know each other in a unique way and enjoy some music!

Margaret Circle is open to all women of the congregation. If you are not a regular, and wish to come, contact Betsy Searight.

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

Towles spins a beguiling and rollicking historical adventure set in the 1950s, brilliantly imaginative, and with an unforgettable cast of characters, ostensibly about a Lincoln Highway trip to California that keeps getting derailed. This novel follows 18-year-old Emmet Watson who is a surprisingly composed and mature young man.

Book Club will be meeting Friday, January 20 at 7:00 pm on ZOOM (www.tinyurl.com/uucsjszoom).

Everyone is welcome to join the meeting.

February 17 – The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

Questions: morellb@msn.com

Calling all helpers willing to do road cleanup. UU has been doing road cleanup along Pomona Rd. right by our UU sanctuary for several years. The area always has lots of debris to pick up and I think our world is better for us doing this. Next cleanup is Jan. 15th at 9am with Jan. 29 the raincheck day. I'll put a sign up sheet at the back of the sanctuary on Jan. 8th for those who would like to participate. Gloves, bags, and grabbers are supplied. Thank you Nancy Watson

With much gratitude to Janet Longo for holiday decor in December.

And a special acknowledgement to Gina Roche for Dec 24th chalice table arrangement.

Everyone is invited to bring their own version/vision of flowers, branches, weeds and leaves to the chalice table!

Sign up ahead of time thru Colby @ 609 442 0967.

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
• Helen Utts at (609) 338-3391 email: HelenUtts@aol.com
• Tony Zitelli at (201) 463-2800 email: happy85a@aol.com
• Barbara Morell at (215) 805-7599 email: morellb@msn.com
• Janet Longo at (609) 748-8608 email: jilportnj@comcast.net

Caring Team is looking for members who are willing to attend monthly Zoom meetings and help out when congregants are sick or suffering from hardships. Please contact Tracey Catino if you can join our confidential group.

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.

Side With Love is thrilled to announce 30 Days of Love 2023! Our annual month of spiritual nourishment, political grounding, and shared practices of faith and justice, 30 Days of Love will go from Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (January 16) through Valentine’s Day (February 14).

This year’s 30 Days of Love is a gift to our whole community: a love letter, a warm hug, a spiritual balm for all of the individuals, families, religious professionals, partners and communities that embody our values and work for justice and liberation year round.

Each week will feature a spiritual theme overlapping with one of Side With Love’s intersectional justice priorities, and we'll share an array of offerings to help nourish your spirit and give gratitude and affirmation.

WEEK 1 (January 16-22): Interdependence :: Democracy & Electoral Justice

WEEK 2 (January 23-29): Embodiment :: LGBTQIA+, Gender & Reproductive Justice

WEEK 3 (January 30 - February 5): Resilience :: Climate Justice

WEEK 4 (February 6-12): Healing :: Decriminalization

BONUS DAYS (February 13-14): Blessings :: Liberatory Intersections

Each week, you can expect to receive several different kinds of offerings, each from a different voice within Unitarian Universalism. Each week’s resources will be published by 12pm ET every Monday:

• A weekly Side With Love message, grounded in personal story and offered on our blog and via email and socials, reflecting on the week’s spiritual and justice issue themes
• A Time for All Ages grounded in the week’s theme, presented in video and written form, available for free use in your congregation this week or any week it works for you
• A video of Body Practice, suitable for all ages and with attention paid to accessibility for people of varying abilities
• A thematic Prayer, available for use in both video and text formats
• A thematic Blessing, available for use in both video and text formats
• A Grounding Practice to offer at the beginning of gatherings or meetings from our Side With Love Fun & Spiritual Nourishment Squad, available for use in video and facilitator guide formats

Click HERE or on the graphic below for more information or to sign up.

Central East Region Information- Updated for January!

Click on the image below for more information and to view more events in our area.

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