UUCSJS Midweek Message

• Announcements
• 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.

Thanks to Paul U., Paul A., Mike, Jack, and Max for helping to move the screens to the shed and the extra chairs down stairs. The Sanctuary storage closet is now a much safer place to habitate!!

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.

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!

UUCSJS has installed an FM listening system in the sanctuary! This will make our services more accessible for people having trouble hearing at our services. We now have six receivers with headsets that are hygienically covered with disposable earpads. We also have one electromagnetic neck loop for use with hearing aids that have a magnetic telephone coil. The system is expandable if there is the demand. If you would like to have your own personal unit set aside for you, David Weesner can fill you in on the details.

A Bloody Mary for a kid?

Don’t let your child succumb to age-inappropriate temptations!

Get him or her to the safest and hippest place to be –

The UUCSJS Auction!

Donate to the UUCSJS Service Auction!!

Fill out those forms NOW!!

Services

Dinners and Events

Items

Handmade and Baked Goods

Or buy a Sponsorship to advertise your business or say something to the congregation!

November 12, 2022

Return donation forms to Deb Dagavarian or Auction Table

UU Center

Doors Open 6:30 pm, Bidding Starts 7:00 pm

Help is needed for Coffee Hour this week. Anyone who can come in around 0915 to set up and help for afterwards will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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?

The Faith Action Committee met for the first time this past Sunday. Our next meeting will be October 30.

There are six task forces on the state level. They include Criminal Justice Reform, Environment, Reproductive Justice, Immigration Reform, Gun Violence Prevention, and Reparations. The latter is a new addition. Task force state committees meet monthly on zoom. Tony Zitelli, Cynthia Grzywinski, and Pat Kennedy are covering the Environment. Barbara Morell is covering Reproductive Justice. Janet Longo is covering Immigration Reform. Marty Quish is covering Gun Violence Prevention. We need someone to cover Criminal Justice and someone else to cover Reparations.

Shortly, we will be receiving postcards from UU state level concerning the following bill. Action is needed on S2918/A4350 which strengthens access to reproductive health care. It appropriates 20 million. We will be asked to sign the postcards and send them off to our legislators and governor.

We are getting organized. More to come.

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.

Thank You!

Our thanks go out to chalice table floral arrangement contributors during September: Helen Utts, twice by Janet Longo and an offer from Tracy Simone and Betsy Searight.

At the moment no one has signed up for Nov Sundays!!! Contact Colby Tippins call/text: 609-442-0967 if you would like to donate.

If you have been thinking about signing up but putting it off - this is the last week to sign up for this round of small groups! Groups will be assigned groups and receive their materials in the next week and will begin meetings at the end of October.

Are you looking for more connection to our UU faith? Want to connect with other members of UUCSJS?

Each month we dig in, explore, learn, and grow in our UU theology through a monthly Soul Matters theme. The theme runs through all areas of ministry from worship, to children's religious education, our family faith at home program, our social media and website, and even our monthly FUUN events! We now have the opportunity to extend this exploration and growth through small group ministry!

Groups are forming now and options are available to meet in person or online. If you are interested please add your name to the sign up sheet in the back of the sanctuary or you can email Jess for more information: religiouseducation@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.

Following our group hike, you are invited to take a jitney tour of the Refuge with a naturalist! You must RSVP to religiouseducation@uucsjs.org by Friday, September 30, 2022 to reserve your spot on the jitney.

Presented by Jess Dunn-Safonof, UUCSJS Director of Religious Education

In this all ages pop up service, you get to craft the service. What songs will we sing? What readings will we hear? What stories will we learn from together? The decisions are in your hands as you work with your group to put together all the worship elements. As we journey down the path of courage together, we will explore what it takes to change the world. We will be inspired by prophetic people who helped bend the arc of the universe toward justice. And we just might find out that we perform dozens of ordinary acts of bravery everyday, in simple ordinary ways.

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.

Download the pdf schedule below

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.

Join us on September 27, October 25, and November 15 for these interactive, 90-minute workshops on local congregational climate action.

Click on the image below for more information.

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