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| Unitarian Universalist Church of Cheyenne A community of refuge where all have equal worth and are invited into spiritual exploration as a foundation for: hope. compassionate service. action.  With Love at the Center Today’s worship service is a collaboration with another Wyoming congregations. In this worship we plan to explore and deepen our understanding of Article II, our Unitarian Universalist Association’s covenant with us and between our congregations. Each congregation will have a hand in jointly contemplating what it means to place Love at the Center and build our movement together in shared faith. Preacher – Reverend Elizabeth Mount All are welcome! For all Sunday Service connection information please scroll down  Friends, families, kids, teens, and everybody! We are so excited to FINALLY be relaunching our Religious Education Committee and our Faith Development program here at the UU Church of Cheyenne! It’s been a little while since we were able to meet in the classrooms downstairs, to join together in fellowship and to make art, play games, and find our path toward our values together through stories and discussions. Here’s a little bit about the program: RE Classes will happen on the 2nd and 4th Sunday of each month. Teachers will take the children downstairs to the Rainbow Room as the worship service closes at 11am and run until 11:45am. We’d like to have you register so we know what you need!  What about the Adults? • We invite parents to relax, have some coffee and a snack, chat in the social hall, or move to the library for conversations about parenting and faith. • All church members and friends are welcome to volunteer with RE, just ask an RE Committee member to have a conversation and get you set up in a role you’ll enjoy. • Adults who would like to deepen their own spiritual development should watch the newsletter for upcoming classes: o UU History, o Theology, o conversations on Death and Grief, o a Pathway to Membership class, o and a book club, are all launching throughout the Spring. In addition, Wellspring will have openings for a new spiritual development cohort in the Fall, Beloved Conversations for anti-racism work will be available online in a Fall session, and a new chalice circle for reflective conversations may open in the Fall as well. If you’re an adult, we invite patience, but if you have kids… well, have you registered yet?!? Our RE classes start on Sunday! We look forward to having you there. In faith and love, Rev. Elizabeth and the whole fabulous RE Committee (Rhonda, Amy, Mark, Marcie, Andy, Sharon and Jessica) CoSM Midwinter Report Rev. Elizabeth has been here for seven months now, and we are so thankful to have them. We are revitalizing some of the programs that made us UUCC and trying out new programs. Also, attendance is picking up.Our Friday Fun Nights are being well attended, and a new RE/ Faith Development program is set to start this month. Coffee hour and the monthly potluck help to bring a feeling of connectedness. The Wellspring program brings a fresh sense of spiritual growth. COMEA Shelter dinners bring a sense of service to our larger community, and the Share the Plate program generated $5,380.75 in 2022 donations to our STP recipients. All of this is a sign of renewal; a renewal of faith, of community, both inside and outside UUCC’s walls, and of connectedness.The Committee on Shared Ministry (CoMS) has been focusing on a five-item priority list for a year now. We do not feel that we can support Family Promise people in our church yet. All other program items are progressing well. Adult education classes will begin shortly. If there is a program that you would like to have at UUCC, please let us know. Your CoSM team: Birgitt, Kayla, Mike, Natalie, and Lauren.  Family Fun Night February 10, 2023 5:30 – 7:30 pm We’ll have a spaghetti dinner – pasta and red sauce provided, bring a side, beverages, or dessert if you are able. Add love to the world this February by joining us this family fun night as we paint rocks with loving images to spread around our community as a shared expression of joy!  The next COMEA dinner party is Saturday, March 4, 2023 Sign up Sheet is posted in the Social Hall.  Beloveds, While I was working as a Director of Religious Exploration in a congregation in Ohio, I had a chance to be on the periphery of the children’s choir, hearing the strumming of a guitar and the high voices of children each Sunday as I walked the last of the Kindergarteners to their pretzels and goldfish crackers and parents in the main social hall. Their favorite song to sing, and my favorite to hear, was a composition made by a member of the church about their mission statement, which featured the adorable chorus, “With LOVE at the Center, LOVE at the Center…” and I thought, “yeah, sure, that’s obviously a thing we do here, but it hardly needs to be said.” I thought most religious people were working from a similar desire to find and share love, in whatever ways we understood it. Today, looking around at the piles of proposed legislation moving through our legislature with the intent to stop trans people from accessing healthcare, defund proposals for mental health support to reduce suicide rates, raise more walls between nations, control the reproductive choices of people with uteri, and ban books that might help people of color or queer youth to feel a bit less alone in the world, I have changed my mind. Expressing the vitality of Love at our center is absolutely fundamental to our ministry as Unitarian Universalists. We need to understand our centering in love as the core message of our faith; one that is truly salvific to many people in this world. The foundation of love without condition as the basic condition of all humanity, and the offering of which leads to good behavior and the desire to build community and not the other way around is a revelation worthy of our notice. Hosea Ballou expressed the human right to happiness as a part of this love which is greater than anything in A Treatise on Atonement and in his extensive preaching in and around the Boston area in the late 1700s. He stated, “… if the Almighty, as we believe him to be, did not possess power sufficient to make all his creatures happy, it was not an act of goodness in him to create them… . If it be granted that God has both power and will to save all men, it is granting all I want for a foundation of my faith.” When we start from the understanding that all people deserve love, support, and joy (or happiness) and are granted this right by simple virtue of existence, we find it our calling to offer one another a safe, supportive, welcoming place from which to go out into the world and return week after week for mutual sustenance of the body, mind, and spirit. So here, we are building community and resistance to all forms of hate and injustice. Here we are finding the beauty in our diversity and a place where we truly value one another’s contributions to this congregation. Here, we love one another not in spite of our differences but because those differences build a broader base for community and let our wholeness be expressed in so many more holy and sacred forms of revelation than any of us could hope to find alone. Here, we rest in love. Here, we are held, with Love at the center. May you find it, feel it, and be enfolded in love each and every day. In the fullness of love, Rev. Elizabeth 30 Days of Love 2023 WEEK THREE: FEBRUARY 6 – FEBRUARY 12 Theme – Resilience: Climate Justice A prayer for climate justice By Rev. Terri Burnor Hi, my name is Terri. Let me tell you a little bit about where I am right now. Let us ground ourselves in place. This morning, I stood alongside the Mississippi River flowing through the capital city of St. Paul in the land known as Minnesota. This is the historic and contemporary home of the Dakota and Anishinaabe peoples. And this is the land where I was born, where I’ve lived for more than 5 decades. Can you hear the moving waters and cracking ice? So this is my home. What is yours? Breathe it in … let it fill your mind’s eye … use all of your senses … feel it … your vistas, your landscapes, your neighbors, your home. This is a place you know, whether you just got there or have inhabited it your whole life. Grounded now in place, let us offer a prayer to all living creatures, to all of life, to all that is found on and in the ground, under the sea, overhead, throughout this planet we call earth. Let us offer our prayers for a changing planet that is experiencing climate change at an unprecedented scale and pace. …. Climate change brought on by human actions … by our reliance on fossil fuels and ways of producing and living that do not support being in right relationship with the land. I imagine that many of you, like me, mourn what has been lost forever and are overwhelmed by all that has been damaged and must be restored. We are called to take responsibility for the loss and damage that the U.S. has caused as the largest historical emitter of carbon pollution. We are called to recognize and respond to the disproportionate impact of climate change that the Global South in particular bears. We are called to pay attention to what is happening in our backyards and across all of earth, because climate change has affected and continues to affect everyone. This prayer that I offer us all is based both on the realities before us and my fervent belief in the possibilities for tomorrow. We humans have an amazing well of ingenuity, creativity, imagination, compassion, and connection to one another and all of life. And this is what can put us on a thriving green path that is equitable and sustainable for all! This is a prayer I lift up joyfully and exuberantly because it is guided and bolstered by earth itself. The earth teaches us the power of resiliency, of regrowth, of emergence. It roots us and moves us. It brings us back to place, back to wonder and gratitude, back to possibility. It is never static. It is always moving. May we be moved too by this co-creative partnership we have with the earth. Can you hear the cracking of the ice, the call of the birds in winter’s deep frigidness? Can you feel the realness of the current season, whatever it is for you in your place, and the certainty that another season will soon be upon us? Permanence is not possible. Change is ever among us. I pray that we come together to inspire and sustain one another …. that we open our hearts in gratitude and in love …. cared for and guided by the sacred earth we call home. Blessed be and amen. https://vimeo.com/795750499  Nourish’s Dinner Church Worship Service for 30 Days of LoveSPIRITUAL GROUNDING Sunday, February 12, 2023 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM ET (Please note the Time Zone!)In this challenging time, let your souls rest as you experience powerful, embodied worship and connection. Join Revs. Emily Conger & Aisha Ansano of Nourish for a worship service to hold your tender heart, offer you respite, and nourish you in body and in spirit. In our time together, we’ll join in embodied ritual, music, small group discussions, & opportunities to name the challenges we face and to bless one another. We invite you to bring a chalice and at least a bite of food, a warm drink, or your whole meal (real or imaginary). Beloveds, a place is set for you – come be nourished in body and spirit! Nourish’s Dinner Church worship services feed bodies and spirits through food and ritual. Nourish leverages the ancient spiritual technology of connection through gathering around a table and adapts them for modern contexts. You can learn more at nourishuu.org. REGISTER NOW   Join us for free food and community conversation about why Black Wyoming History affects Wyoming’s present and the way forward in a diverse world. Thursday, February 23, 2023 Dinner at 6:00 pm – conversation starts at 7:00 pm, at LCCC Cheyenne Campus, CCI 130   Our own Elizabeth Thorson has arranged for Open World (now Coil) delegates from Uzbekistan to give a presentation at the library on Uzbekistan. It begins at 1:00 p.m. in the Willow Room. The public is invited to this interesting presentation, and it is free! You will hear from Sherzod Kulmatov, Mavjuda Hasanova, Jahongir Abdraslov, and facilitator, Bakrom Tuychiev. Don’t miss this exciting event!  Important communications are now being sent by many people in the UUCC community via emails through Realm. Be sure you are not missing anything by adding the following email address to either your whitelist or your contacts: notifications@onrealmmail.org. If you have any questions or want to create an account on Realm, please feel free to reach out to the Realm Implementation team at uuccrealmhelp@uucheyenne.org.Winter Spiritual Practices Lectio Divina: Tuesdays at 11:30am, join Rev. Elizabeth in the library to reflect on the sacred meanings of poetry in relation to your life and inner being. Lectio Divina follows a guided format of reflection with a new poem provided each week. If you would like to recommend a piece of poetry for a future session, email it to Rev. Elizabeth at minister@uucheyenne.org. Lectio Divina is paused for 2/14/2023 and will resume 2/21/2023. ********************************************************** Mindful Monday Meditation Please join us on the FIRST Monday of February for mindfulness practice in the Plum Village tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh. Unitarian Universalist Church of Cheyenne / 3005 Thomes Avenue Room 5 – Upstairs FIRST Monday, March 6, 6:00 – 7:30 PM includes: sitting and walking meditations; readings or teachings, and discussion.Everyone is welcome. No experience is necessary. For more information, please contact Beth Howard ********************************************************** Bird and Bell Meditation The following meditation sessions are still being held via Zoom: Please feel free to join us. Tuesday Morning 7:15 – 7:45 am Now includes chanting Wednesday Evening 6:00 – 7:00 pm Thursday Morning 7:15 – 7:45 am Now includes chanting Use this link Bird and Bell Meditation Zoom Link The Sunday morning session is now in person! Sunday Morning 8:45 – 9:15 am Monday morning at the Hawthorn Tree 9:15 – 10:15********************************************************** Drum Circle Fourth Fridays, February 24, from 7:00 – 9:00 pm in the Social Hall Everyone is welcome ********************************************************** Bibles and Beer: every Monday at 5:30 PM – Bibles and Beer is an interfaith study session on a Bible passage chosen weekly. Join them in person at Uncle Charlie’s or via Zoom. Please email Rodger McDaniel at rmc81448@gmail.com so he can add you to the list of those sent the Zoom link each week. ********************************************************** Community Office Hours  Community Office Hours will NOT be available 2/14/2023 and will resume 2/21/2023.Come and visit with Rev. Elizabeth on Tuesday mornings at the Paramount Café between 9-11 am. Did something in the Sunday service catch your attention and you want to go deeper? Need to chat about a minor pastoral issue? Find a really good book and need to tell someone about it? Just have some free time and want to spend it with someone? Come by and hang out for a few minutes with your friendly local UU minister! SUNDAY SERVICE INFORMATION We gather at 10 am for worship in our sanctuary at 3005 Thomes Avenue; masks are encouraged and optional. Order of Service Join Zoom Meeting Meeting ID: 952 3844 3423 Passcode: 375665 One tap mobile +13462487799,,95238443423# US (Houston) +16694449171,,95238443423# US Dial by your location +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) +1 669 444 9171 US +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 646 931 3860 US +1 929 205 6099 US (New York) +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC) Meeting ID: 952 3844 3423 Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/ac3zomnZx6 New to UU Meets monthly on the second Sunday at 11:30 am – 1:00 pm in the library and will meet Sunday, February 12 ********************************************************** Committees and Teams Worship team meets at 6:30 pm on third Wednesdays, and will meet February 15, at 6:30 pm in the library – contact Rev. Elizabeth to join a meeting or become a Worship Associate Board meets at 6:30 pm on first Tuesdays on Zoom and will meet.March 7, at 6:30 pm via zoom – contact President Elaine Hayes Committee on Shared Ministry meets at 6:30 pm on fourth Thursdays and will meet February 23 at 6:30 pm. in the library – contact Lauren Danley Finance Team meets at 4:15 pm on third Thursday’s, and will meet February 16, 4:15 – 5:15 pm in the library contact.Marci Linde or Camellia El-Antably We are pleased to announce that our new online giving platform is ready for use! You can securely give from our website atuucheyenne.org/give or via text message [text UUCC to 73256]. You can even create an account to set up recurring donations, view your giving history and use our free mobile app. If you’d like to set up an account, please contact bookkeeper@uucheyenne.org and we will send you an invitation to join our online community. *****************************************  This is a peanut free facility Please help us keep our congregants safe!  Please send Order of Service and Newsletter announcements to administrator@uucheyenne.org by or before Wednesday at 10:00 AM Thank you Join us Sunday, February 19, 2023 Sharing Love Beyond Belief Rev. Rodger McDaniel brings wisdom from the Christian scriptures and from his own deep experience in ministry to expand our understandings of Love as a call from the universe and from what might be called God. Join us in this special opportunity to move beyond our own faith language and hear with the ears of understanding in words from neighboring clergy in the words of their own faithful understanding. |
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