UUCSJS Midweek Message

• Announcements
• Notes From the Board
• Call to Action
• Connect to Our Monthly Theme
• Events This Week
• This Sunday
• Last Sunday
• Caring Team
• Connect to Our Faith

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.

Just for this month book club will be THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20 at 7:00 pm instead of Friday, October 21.

ZOOM at 7:00 pm is reserved for THURSDAY, October 20th.

ZOOM link: www.tinyurl.com/uucsjszoom

SEARCH by Michelle Huneven

Dana Potowski is a restaurant critic and food writer and a long time member of a progressive UU Congregation in Southern California. Under pressure to find her next book idea, she agrees to join The church search committee for a new minister, and resolves to secretly pen a memoir, with recipes, about the experience. That memoir, SEARCH, follows the travails of the committee and their candidates – And becomes its own media sensation.

Anyone is welcome to attend this meeting as this is an interesting and fun book regarding the UU minister search!

November Book Selection is THE NIGHT WATCHMAN by Louise Erdrich

Questions: morellb@msn.com

October 30 will be a 5th Sunday. On this date we will be trying out a new "Stay awhile longer after service and mingle, communicate with others day" which will temporarily replace the former 5th Sunday shared meal day. We'll be doing bagels and baked goods. Those who like to bake are invited to break out their talent and bring items to share for coffee hour. Vegan, vegetarian, no gluten, regular, a recipe from a magazine, try it on us before you take it to the relatives for the holidays, etc.. Please mark items so folks know what it is. Folks can also support their local bakeries too! Please bring items to the kitchen before service and share prep / serving / warming suggestions with the Brew Crew. We have a great assortment of plates / trays to put things on. There will be the usual beverages, fruit, etc. available also.

The RE youth are celebrating Banned Books week all month long. Want to check out a banned book? Interested to know which banned books the youth found on the RE shelves or around their houses? Come downstairs to the RE Library and check out our display and even borrow a book to take home with you!

Wake up! You can sleep later!

Fill out your UUCSJS auction

donation form today!

Services - Dinners and Events - Items

Handmade and Baked Goods

UUCSJS 17th Annual Auction

Win It Now Price

If you see something that you really want in the Silent Auction, and are willing to pay a little more for it, you don’t have to keep coming back to see if you’ve been outbid.

We list a Win It Now price on many of the bid sheets. It will not be an unreasonable price, and it will guarantee that you win the item.

When bidding, you simply write your name on the Win It Now line and hand the bid sheet to the table monitor. That ends the bidding for that item.

Auction date: Nov. 12 @ 6:30 pm

Clothing Donations

Each week our congregation hosts a number of donation collections. We collect donations for the Food Bank, CARA (the Coalition Against Rape and Abuse), the local animal shelter, and clothing for the ESWA (Eastern Service Workers Association).

Please bring in your donation of new or gently used clothing of all sizes. Footwear, too! Your donations will be transported to Eastern Service Workers Association (ESWA) and never sold.

Place your clean contributions in the brown bin in the foyer, under the Social Justice table to the left. Thank you!

Richard Schurig has been providing "sentry duty" in our vestibule for our Sunday services.

He is ready for a break so that he may enjoy the service. Please see Richard if you are able to help with this. He will make it easy for you to step in. All genders and ages are welcome to apply.

We will not be having Coffee Hour on November 6. If you linger after the service, you may find yourself accosted by a mop, broom, or duster! Yes, this will be our semi-annual Blue Jean Sunday. We have both outdoor and indoor tasks that need volunteers to accomplish. At our last BJS, Richard provided an elegant and delicious lunch - after the work was done! I hear he has quite the menu planned for November 6..... Stay for fellowship and the reward of caring for our physical Spiritual Home.

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.

— Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Please speak with Colby if you wish to bring an arrangement of your choosing to our chalice table for a Sunday Service. Use your creativity!

Contact Colby Tippins call/text: 609-442-0967.

Carol, from the New Jersey Poor People’s Campaign, is looking for help setting up a voter registration drive in Atlantic County on October 8. Please call her at 732-616-1751 if interested in helping. This request brings back memories? Remember when The Third Reconstruction by Reverend William Barber was our common read?

Mark your calendars for the next road cleanup for Oct. 16, 2022. We will clean the west sides of Pomona starting from UU. We'll not go near the current construction site by Stockton. Join us 8:30am to 9:30am. Supplies and safety gear will be provided. Contact Nancy Watson for more information.

If you have any previous knowledge about or would like to learn how to video our Facebook services for our viewers please inquire with Colby (609-442-0967) so we can establish a network of backup people to call upon.

Looking for a book to read on this month's theme? Try one of these:

Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown

All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis Edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson

Reviews here and here

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

How about some music to lead you into our theme?

Find playlists on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0aM94q7PC7rErK0dA5wIHk?si=7ec8c7baf55147d7

And YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvXOKgOQVYP5ipRhSnyjS-kY78BX_hnr_

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.

Margaret Circle will meet on Thursday, Oct. 6. 1:00pm.

Following our joys and concerns, we will have a topic presented by Kim Trott. She will tell the story about Tamsen Donner and the Donner Party. Tamsen, the wife of Donner party leader, George Donner, wasn’t famous for art, music, leadership or involvement in any great political movement. She was simply the right person, in the right place, at the right time to offer her expertise, wisdom, and strength of character. She is most famous today for staying behind when rescue parties came for the starving, snowbound emigrants in order to care for her husband and small children. She did, or course, this and a great deal more.

All women of the congregation are welcome to come to our meeting.

Download the pdf schedule below

Guest minister Rev David Hunter

If a friend (a non-UU friend) asks you what do you UUs believe, and you recite to them the seven principles (you do have them memorized, don’t you?), are they satisfied, or do they ask about our beliefs with respect to more traditional theological topics? Are they satisfied (are you satisfied?) to say we UUs can believe whatever we want?

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.

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
• Barbara Morell at (215) 805-7599 email: morellb@msn.com

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.

The 2022–2023 UU Common Read is Mistakes and Miracles: Congregations on the Road to Multiculturalism by Nancy Palmer Jones and Karin Lin, published by Skinner House Books. The Common Read builds community in our congregations and our movement by giving diverse people a shared platform for reflection and a shared focus for action.

What calls Unitarian Universalists to create multicultural, antiracist Beloved Community? What do congregations need when they embark on this journey? What common threads run through their stories? In Mistakes and Miracles, Nancy Palmer Jones and Karin Lin—a white minister and a lay person of color—share how five diverse congregations encounter frustrations and disappointments, as well as hope and wonder, once they commit to the journey. The world has seen much turmoil, pain, and yes, glimmers of hope, in the three years since the publication of Mistakes and Miracles. As we enter a Common Read of this book, we find ourselves receiving its report with a changed spirit, an urgent need, and perhaps new hope for multiculturalism and antiracism work in our movement.

The UUA will release a four-session discussion guide in late 2022. If you are starting the book now, please note that each chapter ends with questions to reflect on learning and experiences around multiculturalism and Beloved Community work in your own congregation. For more information on how you and your community can participate in the Common Read, visit uua.org/read.

Check murraygrove.org for a full calendar of events.

Central East Region Information- Updated for October!

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