Aug 18, 2022 | Vespers & Wednesday Program
Vespers 6:30 PM – Vespers Leader: Sequoyah Christine Rich
Program 7:00PM – Spiritual Practices
Join us for an opportunity to learn about some of the practices of Buddhism. Sequoyah will lead us through a guided seated meditation and a guided walking meditation. She will also share about her experiences staying in a Buddhist Temple in Indonesia. Sequoyah currently co-leads the UU Asheville Buddhist Sangha and works as a Hospital Chaplain at the VA Medical Center. She graduated from Meadville Lombard Theological School with a Master of Religion.
In-person & Online at www.uuasheville.org/worship
Looking Ahead….
October 5th 1st Wed. Dinner & Peace Vespers. Join Rev. Cathy for a simple meal of soup and bread followed by a candlelight service of reflection in honor of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Holy Day of Atonement. With our roots firmly planted in both Judaism and Christianity, it is important to pause and remember.
There is no fee for dinner. We are recruiting volunteers to bring soup and/or bread for 10 people, and volunteers to help set up and clean up afterward. Click below to support this mid-week opportunity for fellowship and worship. Let us know if you plan to attend so we can plan accordingly. Thank you!
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0548ada92ba2f85-dinner
ABOUT OUR PROGRAMS & MONTHLY CALENDAR
Welcome Back! The Adult Faith Exploration Team has been busy planning for the new congregational year. We have two new offerings. A communal dinner and Peace Vigil every first Wednesday. Third Wednesdays you are invited to a bilingual conversation to explore Latiné culture and issues. Experimentation is alive and well and UU Asheville!
All Vespers services will be live-streamed. We’ll note on the calendar when programs are live-streamed or on Zoom.
Wow! So many details. Please contact me with questions, feedback and/or program ideas.
Rev. Claudia, Minister of Faith Development, faithdev@uuasheville.org
2022-2023 Focus: Widening the Circle
1st Wed. Dinner & Peace Vigil
2nd Wed. Justice & Liberation Conversations
3rd Wed. Café, Cultura y Conversación
4th Wed. Theology & Spiritual Practices
September Calendar – Belonging (Soul Matters Theme)
All Vespers in person/live streamed in September.
Program in person and via Zoom Sept. 14; Oct 12 (only these dates)
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Dinner 6:00PM
Peace Vigil Vespers, 7:00 PM, Rev. Cathy Harrington
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Vespers 6:30 PM, Leader: Rev. Claudia
Program 7:00 PM: Justice Conversation: Jeff Owens with Moms Demand Action
In 2005, John Owens was shot and nearly killed while entering the lobby of a Detroit television station by a man with a history of mental illness. Since that time, John has spoken about his experience and recovery at churches throughout Michigan and North Carolina, participated in gun safety forums, and wrote Op-Ed columns to support common sense gun legislation in the Detroit Free Press and the Asheville Citizen Times. He is the Group Co-Lead of Mom’s Demand Action for Gun Sense in Western North Carolina. John is also a member of the Everytown Survivor Fellowship, a nationwide community of survivors working together to end gun violence.
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Vespers 6:30 PM, Leader: Michele Gregory, Rev Claudia
Program 7:00PM: Café, Cultura y Conversación
Join us for this bilingual opportunity to explore Latiné culture and issues while we practice and/or are exposed to the Spanish language. Our speaker will be Michele Gregory an Asheville native who has served as a bilingual caseworker for Buncombe County for 16 years.
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Vespers 6:30 PM,Leader: UU Sangha
Program 7:00 PM: Buddhist Practices
Aug 18, 2022 | Community Plate Partners
Community Plate Extends Connection to BeLoved Asheville
Over the years, as part of our social justice work, our congregation has donated to various local organizations through UUCA’s Community Plate program. In August, our congregation will begin a four-month partnership with BeLoved, deepening the connection between our groups and working together to create justice in our community and world and practice love in building relationships across intersectional lines. Each of those four months we will learn about a different BeLoved program.
BeLoved believes in the inherent worth and dignity of every person (what we call belovedness based on Dr. King’s vision of the BeLoved community). We put into practice justice, peace, and equity in our mission and work. We put love into action daily as we build community and together create solutions to our greatest struggles. We believe in deep mutuality and working together democratically. We make meaning of life in community as we connect through relationships of love and justice and as we live purposeful lives that support the thriving of people and the planet
Your monthly donations will support BeLoved community projects including creating homes through the BeLoved Village, supporting their racial equity and healing projects, the new project La Cocina de Mama/Mama’s Kitchen, our Street Medic team, Street Outreach and the Street Pantry program.
There are many avenues for getting involved with BeLoved. We will be exploring a myriad of opportunities for UUCA members to engage via the BeLoved Village project, Street Pantry on Charlotte Street, advocacy, connections with BeLoved BIPOC community leaders, and more!
Aug 17, 2022 | Weekly Message
“Generosity costs us something–and it is because it costs us something that generosity is actually meaningful.” –Steve Lawson
The question of what makes a meaningful life is one we’ve all explored. It’s at the heart of every religious and philosophical tradition. Of course, that question contains a multitude of responses. We’re born into families and identities that shape how we make meaning in and of our lives, and our experiences along the way may redefine for us what is meaningful.
When I saw Steve Lawson’s email in my inbox, the subject line read, “The Ultimate Gift Is a Life of Meaning.” It was intriguing enough to open his monthly blog post, but I did not expect his first sentence to read, “Generosity is directly connected to meaning.” He argues that every choice we make comes at a cost in our lives, and because generosity costs us something, it inherently holds meaning.
If we follow Lawson’s premise, and what we give is an avenue to meaning-making, then the reverse may also be true. Perhaps we discern what is meaningful to us by examining where/what/who we are generous towards. We might examine questions that ask us how we spend our time, where we give our money, and who receives our gifts as a way to understand what gives our lives meaning. And in this examination, we might find a discrepancy between what we believe is meaningful and how we spend our days.
Often when we talk about generosity in congregational life, we’re almost exclusively referring to money. And yes, money matters—how we do our work depends on it. However, generosity in congregational life also involves the giving of our time. What we give our time to is not just what interests us but what we find meaningful. Whether it’s weeding the grounds, filling the BeLoved pantry, joining a committee, or serving as a worship associate, we bring meaning to our common life by sharing generously of our time, talent, and money.
As we begin this new program year, we invite you to explore meaning-making in the life of our congregation through generosity. We’ll have several opportunities for you to learn how to get involved. We’re also bringing back tabling on Sundays during after-service coffee starting this weekend. More information about opportunities will be available in future eNews editions.
Brittany Crawford, Director of Administration
Aug 14, 2022 | Sermons
Sunday, March 14, 2022 11am, In-person and on YouTube
Rev. Cathy Harrington, Interim Lead Minister
To live in this world. you must be able to do three things:
To love what is mortal
to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it;
And, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go. —Mary Oliver
Aug 11, 2022 | Weekly Message
It’s happening. School supply sales. September and October calendar pages filling up. In the midst of thunder storms and heat, we can’t help but think about cooler nights, autumnal colors, and campfires.
And your Board of Trustees has more than that on its mind. It will be a church year like no other. Just as we begin our search for a new Lead Minister, we lose the man who brought us to this point. We are bereft. We look back and feel emptiness. Ahead is murkiness, obscuring the figure who will join us as we move purposefully into our future.
At the end of the 2020-21 church year, everyone in the congregation was phoned to help identify seven committed individuals, representing some of the variety in our membership, to be our Ministerial Search Committee (MSC). They’ve been studying the UUA guidelines for accomplishing this daunting task. On August 20, we are all invited to join them at a workshop with Rev. Keith Kron, the person at the UUA who helps ministers and congregations find and fall in love with each other. After that workshop, the MSC will never be far from our thoughts as they conduct surveys and conduct small group gatherings to ascertain both who we are and what we’re looking for in terms of our next faith leader. In other words, the MSC is charged with clearing away the fog and bringing into focus the right person for UUCA.
Something else that will be engaging our energies this year is racial justice. The Racial Justice Advisory Council (RJAC) submitted its Summary Report to the Board late last spring. At its August 9 meeting, the Board voted to “accept all the recommendations from the RJAC as submitted” in that report. The Board also committed to “offer guidance/direction” for realizing those 18 Recommendations. One major activity will be studying an 8th Principle to be added to the current 7 Principles of Unitarian Universalism. An 8th Principle Task Force is forming to guide our congregation to “affirming and promoting” this Principle in the covenant between us and all the other congregations in the UUA.
This year is so full of promise, y’all! But promises are empty without actions to move from fine words to meaningful achievements. Each of us is called upon to create the UUCA of radical love and justice for all. We are who we’ve been waiting for to make a better world. Roll up your sleeves!
Mary Alm, UU Asheville Board of Trustees
