http://www.uua.org/re/youth/events/gacaucus/faq/index.shtml

Our 1st-6th grade class will be holding a sock drive in June in support of the No More Deaths Ministry. I will deliver the collected socks to that team at General Assembly in Phoenix:

http://nomoredeaths.org/

Blessings~~

Rayna Hamre, OCUUUC Director of Religious Education

In honor of Mother’s Day, I will be speaking this Sunday on the subject “The Legacy of Julia Ward Howe.”  I believe Julia Ward Howe is among the top 100 most important figures in American history.  In the second half of her life, she focused on the causes of pacifism and women’s suffrage.  In 1870 Howe was the first to proclaim Mother’s Day.  She was the founder and president of the Association of American Women, a group which advocated for women’s education, from 1876 to 1897. She also served as president of organizations like the New England Women’s Club, the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association, the New England Suffrage Association, and the American Woman Suffrage Association.  Sunday I will be exploring Julia Ward Howe’s life, her legacy and the special meaning she gave to “Mother’s Day” in her “Mother’s Day Proclamation.“   I look forward to seeing you Sunday.

Sunday’s music will feature the Orange Coast Choir singing “Who Will Fight No More Forever,” with lyrics based on the surrender speech of Chief Joseph.

Beth  (musicdirectorocuucorg)  

the play about Prop 8
by Dustin Lance Black

Audition dates at OCUUC:

Sunday, June 10th, 12:45-2:00 p.m.

Thursday, June 14th, 7:00-8:30 p.m.

Audition information:

Two audition dates are being offered for the staged reading of “8” at Orange Coast Unitarian Universalist Church. Actors read from scripts onstage in the performance, and there will be just two rehearsals.

There are 21 parts, and all but the plaintiffs’ parts can be played by any gender. There are two parts specifically for teenagers. Interested actors can bring a short monologue of their own and should be prepared to sight-read courtroom-style text. Come to either audition during the times listed.

Performance date:  Saturday, August 4, 2012 at OCUUC

Website for more information:  http://www.8theplay.com/readings/orange-coast-unitarian-universalist-church/

 Facebook Page for Audition #1

Contact Beth for more information.  (musicdirectorocuucorg)  

Download the Audition Flyer in pdf, click here

Download the Audition flyer in pdf, click here

Rayna Hamre, OCUUC Director of Religious Education, href="dreocuucorg">dreocuucorg

Current.  1^st-6^thgrade “With Justice and Compassion” curriculum activities. The 1st through 6th graders are continuing with the “With Justice and Compassion” curriculum. The lessons in this curriculum explore social issues and history of immigration to the United States. As part of these lessons, the children will be asked to learn about, and share with the class, information on their own families. Please help your child prepare to talk about one of the following for class.  (If your child has already talked about one or more of these, he or she should do a different one.)


 

This will be a fun evening for all ages!!

My April column was about easily preventible diseases, the communicable ones for which we have developed vaccines. Unfortunately we have no idea how to prevent many conditions and the list of autoimmune disorders is one that just seems to keep growing. There are currently more than 80 widely accepted conditions in this category. Autoimmune literally means an immune response to the self. In other words the immune cells in the body begin to attack and destroy healthy body cells. This is similar to an allergic reaction, but there the stimulus comes from outside the body and not from the body itself. One of the confusing aspects is that an outside stimulus may be the initiator. For example in Celiac Disease or sprue, the intestinal lining reacts to gluten (found in most grains) by destroying the villi necessary to absorb nutrients. Eating a gluten-free diet relieves this, but it can take some time for the intestines to “calm down” and sometimes the inflammation never entirely resolves.

Among Americans, 23.5 million people have an autoimmune disease. Women seem to be more likely to develop one than men. Some disorders seem to have a familial tendency. Environmental exposure to certain things, sunlight, chemical solvents, and even certain viral and bacterial infections can increase the risk. Your ethnicity or race can make you more or less susceptible to various autoimmune conditions and can affect the severity of the disease.

Any organ in the body can be involved. The thyroid gland is a commonly affected gland and is a good example of the ways autoimmune conditions can behave. An affected thyroid can underproduce thyroid hormone (Hashimoto’s Disease) or overproduce it (Grave’s Disease). Thyroxine affects the function of multiple organ systems so its levels are vitally important to normal function. Too much is as bad as too little. Grave’s disease also illustrates how peculiar the malfunction of our immune system can be. In this case, the body makes antibodies that mimic a hormone the pituitary gland makes to regulate the thyroid gland. TSH, thyroid stimulating hormone, is at normal levels, but the thyroid gland responds to the abnormal antibodies and goes into overdrive. This can damage the heart and eyes and cause many distressing symptoms such as anxiety and insomnia. There are several treatments depending on the severity of the condition. Sometimes it completely resolves with minimal treatment.

Many autoimmune disorders profoundly affect a person’s life even though they are quite common such as Type I diabetes. We are all familiar with the fact that just replacing insulin does not solve all the health problems diabetics face. Diet and exercise are of vital importance to maximize control of blood sugar levels and minimize organ damage.

Each autoimmune disorder is unique, but they all share some common characteristics. Most can cause fatigue, dizziness, and low-grade fever. Most are characterized by remissions when symptoms abate and exacerbations or flares when symptoms suddenly increase. Stress, both environmental (such as heat or cold) and emotional, generally cause exacerbations.

Other disorders such as Addison’s Disease, pernicious anemia, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s Disease, lupus, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, and ulcerative colitis, have been recognized for a long time, but are still hard to control. There are fairly effective medications, but balancing drugs and dosages to minimize side effects is difficult. Most drug regimens involve suppressing the immune system generally to some degree. You can imagine that this has major drawbacks. Making various life style changes and modifying the environment in some way are almost always a part of learning to live successfully with an autoimmune disorder.

Whenever there is no cure for a condition, alternative medicine practitioners become very active. This can be a good thing; the problem is that it is very hard to sort out the valid recommendations from those which have little or no good research behind them. A number of traditional institutions (like UCLA) have Complementary Medicine departments which can be an ideal source for consultation.

Having a chronic condition is never easy, but joining a support group can be very helpful. Thanks to internet technology, even those with a rare disorder can find a community of others to offer practical suggestions and a listening ear.

Adair Small, Congregation Nurse, nurseocuucorg

Resources:

Just type in the disorder you are searching for and you will find information and further resources.

Centers for Disease Control

National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine

National Library of Medicine, MedlinePlus

Time:  12:30 pm

Agenda

I. Vote to select Members of the Settled Ministerial Search Committee

II. Vote to proceed with the Sale of Existing OCUUC Property

III. Vote to proceed with the Purchase of New OCUUC Property

More info:

Map to:

Lutheran Church of the Resurrection
9812 Hamilton Avenue, Huntington Beach, 92646

Click on image for interactive map

The Rev. Dr. Tom Owen-Towle has just completed 44 years of settled ministry and is now giving sermons and conducting workshops across our District offering a seasoned perspective on the topics of progressive religion, partnership, gender justice, parenting, and citizenship in the global family.  He has written two dozen books, the latest being Theology Ablaze which will be theme of the service on April 29th at OCUUC. Tom and his life-partner Carolyn Sheets Owen-Towle are ministers emeritii of First UU Church of San Diego and the active parents of 4 children and 7 grandchildren. Tom is a guitar player, budding magician, and community volunteer. His books will be available for purchase between services and after second service.

From Rev. Ed:

I am delighted that Rev. Tom Owen-Towle will be with us to help lead the service and preach in Sunday’s service. With 44 plus years in Unitarian Universalist ministry and four decades of leadership in the men’s movement, Tom Owen-Towle brings a seasoned perspective to the topics of progressive religion, partnership, gender justice, parenting, and citizenship in the global family.

Tom Owen-Towle has been a parish minister since 1967 and is the author of two dozen books on various topics of personal growth, social compassion, and spiritual depth.

He has been partnered in marriage for 38 years to Carolyn Sheets Owen-Towle, and they are devoted parents of four and active grandparents of six. He is also a guitarist, a Little League coach, a budding magician and merry-maker, especially with seniors.

Owen-Towle is a national leader who continues to conduct workshops and retreats on the core themes of his books.

Rev. Dr. Tom Owen-Towle’s sermon is entitled “Theology Ablaze!” I will help lead Sunday’s service. I look forward to seeing you Sunday.

Come join our drum circle this month!  Looking for a fun way to learn about rhythms, teamwork and playing with others?  Drum circles are energizing, meditative, and a whole lot of fun!  No experience required.  Children and Adults are welcome.  Bring your drum or use one of ours!  Don’t want to drum but love to dance?  You are welcome, too!  We will meet on the OCUUC patio around 1pm or when it is cleared.  Don’t forget your lunch or a snack!

Summer Albayati-Krikeche
Ben Pruess
Yassine Krikeche
Rev. Kent Doss

•Tuesday May 8th: Taizé Singing as a Spiritual Practice  

With Amy Tompkins and Ted Lundholm, meets the second Tuesday of each month, 7 – 8:30 p.m. in Gillan 3.

• May 8th, June 12th, July 10th August 14th, September 11th, October 9th, November 13th, December 11th

Taizé Singing originated in Taizé, France. Simple rounds and chants are sung over and over as the participants improvise as the spirit moves them; each person sings louder or softer, faster or slower, harmonizes or not as they become immersed in the experience. Eventually, the song ends naturally and the group moves on to a new song. Those new to Taizé Singing are invited to join the group as we deepen our spiritual experience through the beauty of the music we create.

•Deepening Your Spiritual Practices Reading /Discussion Group: “Living Our Principles” 

Friday, April 27th from 10:00 am to 12 noon with Karen Anderson

Meets alternate Fridays of each month at 10 am-12 pm, please confirm date with Karen and find out the location for the week.  The group meets at a nearby restaurant for breakfast and discussion.

We will begin with reading excerpts from several books, and work to apply our UU principles in our lives. This will be a support group where we will share the journey of life and challenges as we work together to apply what we are learning to our own lives. For  location please contact Karen Anderson.

(There is a possibility of a similar group that meets on Friday from 6:30-8:30 Ppm.  If you are interested in that evening group, please email or call Karen.)

Here are the books we will start with:

• Rev. Forrest Church, The Cathedral of the World
• Rev. Scotty McLennan, Finding Your Religion 

This Sunday we will explore how institutions can bring about the renewal of individuals and the rebirth of groups. In my sermon “The Power of Institutions to Change Our Lives” I will share several examples of how institutions can affect the moral and social conditions of our lives in positive ways. It is really possible for institutions, when they are based on life affirming principles, to facilitate the development of people’s lives in positive ways. I will explore this theme Sunday drawing from real case histories. We will also be honoring Earth Day this Sunday. I look forward to seeing you Sunday.

This Sunday’s music will honor Earth Day. There will be several special numbers by small groups, plus the choir will sing from Missa Gaia (Earth Mass).

Also, there will be a Congregational Meeting at 12:30 pm.

Please take some time to learn about our OWL programs. Some of our OWL graduates are now teaching OWL at their UU churches and fellowships.

From our Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) web site:

“OWL addresses decision-making, clarifies values, builds interpersonal skills, and deepens understanding of spiritual, emotional and societal aspects of sexuality, which can influence the decisions we make. Its ‘three Rs’ are Responsibility, Respect, and Relationships.”

http://www.uua.org/ga/past/2008/commonthreads/115700.shtml

In the Faith~~

Rayna Hamre, OCUUC Director of Religious Education

kitchenwitchcscom

CUUPs owns a Maypole that is available for Beltane rituals.  If anyone is interested in using it for larger, church-wide ritual, please contact Tim at twtitusyahoocom.

Blessed Beltane!

This Sunday we will continue our exploration of the theme of the month for April focused on rebirth, transformation, and renewal.  We have looked at the ancient symbol of the labyrinth – a symbol that spans Pagan and Christian traditions and thousands of years – and we have explored the symbol of resurrection which is rooted in a Christian perspective but has parallels in many different and diverse faith perspectives. This Sunday we will “look east” and explore the idea of reincarnation, which is one of the major Eastern symbols of rebirth and renewal, believed in by millions of people around the globe.  Rev. Ed will be leading the service and the sermon, entitled “Reincarnation for the Unitarian Universalist Soul,” will be given by Summer Albayati-Krikeche, a candidate for UU ministry.

The chalice that’s used at General Assembly is touring around the country, and this Sunday it will be at OCUUC!  Thanks to Katherine Martin who made the arrangements.

Notice of Congregational Meeting on Sunday, April 22, 2012

Time:  12:30 pm

Agenda

I. Vote to proceed with the Sale of Existing OCUUC Property

II. Vote to proceed with the Purchase of New OCUUC Property

III. Introduction of Nominees for the Settled Ministerial Search Committee

__________________________________________________________

Notice of Congregational Meeting on Sunday, April 29, 2012

Time:  12:30 pm

Agenda

I. Vote to select Members of the Settled Ministerial Search Committee

II. Vote to proceed with the Sale of Existing OCUUC Property

III. Vote to proceed with the Purchase of New OCUUC Property

IV. Proposed By-Laws Changes (Read about them on our Member Page)

Proposed Changes to OCUUC By Laws
April 2012

Oboist Amelia Russo-Neustadt and her husband, pianist Aaron Neustadt will be providing springy and sprightly Baroque music this Sunday.

Home gardeners are invited to bring flower cuttings for this Sunday’s Easter service.  There are some vases at the church, or you can bring your own.  Please have flowers there by 9:30 (before 1st servcie) or 11:00 (before 2nd service).  After the service, a few volunteers will be taking the flowers to Members and Friends who can’t physically come to church very often.  (Please note, this is different from the Flower Communion ritual we sometimes do in the Spring.)  If you’d like to volunteer to bring flowers and/or deliver them, please let Beth Syverson know by email or call  (MusicDirectorocuucorg)    714-376-6666.

1. Christine will be leading a three-month course in Craft philosophy on Monday nights from 6:30 to 8:30.  The course is ideal for those who took her successful Wicca 101 course, but it is open to anyone who is sincerely interested.  The course begins Monday April 2.  You may miss the first three sessions and still complete the class.

2. On Saturday April 14, from 5:00 to 9:00 pm we will be offering a special workshop with herbalist Jim Finch.  Learn to use herbs to make cough syrup and Jim’s specialty: Totally Awesome Salve.  Each participant will take home one bottle of syrup and one jar of salve plus the skills to make them yourself.  The cost for materials 1s $20, although some scholarships are available.  RSVP to Christine at kitchenwitchcscom so we can be sure to have enough materials.

How quickly this month has gone by! The cooler weather is most enjoyable, and there is so much going on in our congregation and RE program right now during the spring months.

Please join us for our annual Easter Egg Hunt with our Bunny Store on Sunday April 8. This is always so much fun. Please bring a canned food item for our Share Ourselves (SOS) collection. This will allow our children to experience community giving and receiving on special days.

Our new social justice curriculum is in full swing for grades 1-6. We will be telling family stories. If your 1^st-6^th graders ask about family history and lore, please take some time to talk to them. This will be a learning time for all of us! This is to assist us in getting ready for Justice General Assembly in Phoenix June 2012. Please consider attending GA! www.uua.org I just made my reservation for Justice GA in Phoenix. I hope your family can join me. More information is below.

Mark your calendars for Sunday May 6 for OCUUCs Auction and Annual Meeting Event. Stay tuned for our activity plan for children and youth for that evening. There will be no Religious Education that Sunday, we want all to come for an afternoon and evening of fun and community.

Please take the time to complete your congregational survey from our ministerial search committee. The selection of a new minister will have a huge impact on OCUUC for many years to come. See the information below. Also, the attached document is from our congregation nurse on how to talk ot parent who choose not to vaccinate their children. That choice poses a threat to public health, and Adair Small has put together valuable information for our UU parents.

I want to encourage everyone to stay abreast of our exciting news about the possibility of finding a new church home.  Our hard-working OCUUC Board is working on this and we have found a property that could work very well for us.  Read the BLAST for more information from our church president, Mary Lundholm.

Many thanks to our Secret Pals Team for all they did this year to make SP a big success! Gabrielle Block, Team Leader, Elizabeth Kilchoer, Jacques Kilchoer and Christine Soriano all made our program and reveal picnic fun for all.

Thanks for all you do~~

Rayna Hamre, OCUUC Director of Religious Education, dreocuucorg

——————–

Current. The 1st through 6th graders have started a new curriculum, adapted from the UUA’s “With Justice and Compassion” curriculum. The lessons in this curriculum explore social issues and history of immigration to the United States. As part of these lessons, the children will be asked to learn about, and share with the class, information on their own families. For the March 25th class, we will be creating an immigration timeline. Please make sure that your child has information about what country at least one parent or more distant ancestor came from, and when (year or approximate year) they came to the United States.

April 8. Easter Egg Hunt and Bunny Store. We will participate in our regular curriculum sessions and have our annual Easter Egg hunt after the 2^nd service. Join us for the fun!

 ASAP. Many parents in the congregation have not yet returned their Congregational Surveys.  As you know, OCUUC is beginning the important work of selecting a new minister. Critical to that process is the completion of the Congregational Survey sent to every member and friend of OCUUC. Reponses to the Congregational Survey will be used as a snapshot of the congregation, and will help determine what qualities and skills will be required of our next minister.  Put yourself in the picture by completing and returning the Congregational Survey as soon as possible. If you have misplaced your survey and would like another copy, please contact Barbara Schilling, dreocuucorg

April. OCUUC is offering 5-6th Sr. High Our Whole Lives (OWL). Classes will be held at OCUUC, the cost is $30 per family. 4-6 grade sessions are: Sunday April 15, 1-3:30 pm mandatory parent & student session; and Sundays April 22, 29, May 6, 13, 20, 27, June 3, 1-2:30 pm. dreocuucorg

April 8 and Ongoing. Families are invited to bring non-perishable foods and toiletry items for the Share Our Selves (SOS) little green shopping cart on the patio. Goods will be dropped at SOS each week. Please bring one canned good on Easter Sunday.

 June 20-24 2012, UU Justice General Assembly (GA) in Phoenix http://www.uua.org/ga/ GA is the yearly general conference for the entire UU denomination. This year it is being held in Phoenix, and this is a wonderful opportunity for our families and youth to attend. We hope to have some fund raisers this year to help send our youth to Justice GA. Here is a link to the new UU Justice GA blog http://immigrationjustice.blogs.uua.org/

Adair Small, RN  April 2012

Why don’t infants and children die at a rate of 20 per 100 as they did just over a century ago? One word: Immunizations. Infectious disease is not the only killer, but it was number one for millenia.

So why does an Anti-Vaccine Movement exist? One word: Fear

Vaccination has been dogged by controversy for more than 200 years. There is something about injecting a healthy child with a substance derived from a deadly disease that just seems wrong to parents unless they have a clear understanding of the science and/or are faced with actual experience of the illness. Even during historical epidemics, there was major opposition to this unknown method among families of  ill, dying or dead victims. Experience and education led to the embracing of many vaccines in the last century. This has been so successful, that the rate of the “usual childhood diseases” has dropped so dramatically as to result in the eradication of smallpox worldwide and polio in Europe and the Americas. Unfortunately, the last decades have seen a significant resurgence of whooping cough and measles.

Why is this? When the vast majority are immunized, something called herd immunity occurs. There are so many who are not susceptible that when there is one case, no one else gets it. Not everyone is medically eligible for vaccination and some have religious objections. Herd immunity protects them. But as more people decline immunization, the risk of more widespread disease increases. The most contagious diseases need the highest rate of immunization to prevent an outbreak. Children are experts at contaminating themselves and others! They put everything in their mouths, play close together, share food, drink, etc. And most communicable diseases are contagious before anyone suspects they are ill.

Trying to discuss the importance of vaccination with a non-believer, is extremely difficult. It is like religion and politics. But I will give you a list of specific myths and also make this suggestion. Those who are tempted to avoid vaccination for their children should be asked if they have learned all they can about the diseases that the vaccines can prevent. It is not safe for them to assume that these diseases will remain so rare that they are not a threat.

Only since World War II, have we had antibiotics to fight bacterial infections, and they are no help against viral disease. Diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), and one type of pneumonia are the bacterial diseases we are most familiar with regarding vaccination. All the rest of the commonly used US vaccinations we have today are for viral illnesses.

I talked about fear at the beginning. Fear leads people to search desperately for reasons and answers. There are risks and side effects to vaccination as there are to everything in life. I actually survived all the usual childhood diseases of my day with no ill effects: measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox and influenza. But I had a cousin with polio, and a friend hospitalized with measles. Good medicine means a continuous study of how well treatments work and their safety. It takes many different scientific studies to determine accurate results. The field of immunization has proved a great example of misused and misinterpreted science. It has taken many studies over many years to disprove the autism scare; and many still won’t believe the results. There is a principle of human nature called “last bad outcome;” whatever you associate with a bad outcome, becomes the cause of that outcome. Eat dinner out, get sick: you don’t want to eat that or there again. But was it the restaurant or something else? Get a flu shot, get sick a day later: it was the shot. Never mind that the virus in the vial was dead! So when symptoms of autism arise shortly after multiple immunizations, well, that must be the cause.

If you can get one person to reconsider opting out of vaccination, you will have done a lot for public health.

Resources:

Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All by Paul A. Offit

The Risks of Skipping Kids’ Vaccines By Lisa Farino for MSN Health & Fitness

Common Concerns and Facts About Childhood Immunizations

 1. Overloading the Immune System

Every day, infants and children contact millions of particles of pollen, dust, mold viruses, and bacteria that trigger immune response. The triggers in a vaccine make up a very small part of a child’s environment.

2. Serious Side Effects

Local soreness, low fever, and a day of fussiness are the worst that most babies experience. This is extremely mild compared to the severity and duration of the illnesses being protected against. Even chickenpox can be serious. One in 500 children who get chickenpox need to be hospitalized. Mumps can cause infertility. Measles, mumps, chickenpox, Hib can cause meningitis and encephalitis among other complications.

3. “Since other children are vaccinated, my child doesn’t need to be.”

Some children have allergies or immune disorders and cannot be vaccinated. Some families religious beliefs prohibit vaccines. If the immunization level for a highly contagious disease like measles falls below 90-95%, that disease could rapidly become wide-spread once again. In certain communities where that has happened, children have died in recent years from both measles and whooping cough.

4. Testing of Vaccines is Insufficient

Most vaccines are tested in more children and for a longer time than most medicines parents give their child. The pneumococcal vaccine was tested in 40,000 children.

5. Vaccines contain unsafe material

Immunizations for infants and children no longer have mercury in them and have not for several years. Some preparations have aluminum, but the aluminum babies receive from formula is 10 times more than the amount in their vaccines during the first 6 months of life. Some parents have worried about the fact that serum from cows is used in some vaccines. However, the prions that cause Mad Cow disease are contained in brain tissue, not serum.

6. Vaccines cause Autism

Some people are convinced that the thimerosal, a mercury compound that used to be used as a preservative in all vaccines, caused autism. The autism scare stemmed from a very preliminary study of only 12 case reports in 1998. Millions of dollars later, extensive studies and legal reviews have failed to substantiate any cause and effect relationship between vaccines and autism.

Adapted by Adair Small, RN from: Common concerns About Childhood Vaccinations, prepared for the subscribers of Pharmacist’s Letter / Prescriber’s Letter by Therapeutic Research Center, 2009

Resources:

Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All by Paul A. Offit

The Risks of Skipping Kids’ Vaccines By Lisa Farino for MSN Health & Fitness

Music for Sunday:  Orange Coast Choir will sing a Gospel number “Sing Me Home,” plus the choir will present a very special “Time for All Ages” this week.  Beware the Minotaur!

REBIRTH & RENEWAL Sundays:

April 1 – Labyrinth
April 8 – Easter
April 15 – Reincarnation
April 22 – Earth Day
April 29 – Renewal with special Guest Minister Tom Owen-Towle

My very first two General Assemblies were in Phoenix, where this year’s GA will be held and in our own backyard, in Long Beach. I went with my entire family. Those GAs were very special. I went to GA in Salt Lake City, where I was able to visit my mother’s family, and to GA in Minneapolis, where my husband’s family lives. Those trips were also, very, very special. One of my proudest moments was a GA I didn’t even attend, where youth advisor Birdie Reed sponsored my son, and he carried our UU banner in the big banner parade that opens GA every year. I wasn’t even there, and that GA in Cleveland was very special to me.

But last year we went to Charlotte, North Carolina. So my very proudest moment at GA was putting on this ‘Standing on the Side of Love’ T-shirt, gathering with so many other UUs wearing this T-Shirt, and marching with everyone to stand up for Marriage Rights for All. Swirling in that gathering of UUs, and knowing that we all stood together; that we all were there to stand on the side of Love gave me goose bumps. I got goose bumps writing about it, too.

We walked together in our shirts that day, we had signs and we sang. We heard inspirational stories and singers. But being part of that group, just being together, straight and LGBT, old and young and in-between, being there to do the right thing and to speak up for justice, was an incredible experience. It rained on the way back from the park that day, and that in no way dampened our spirits. We were there, and we were all present for justice. We were together in the spirit of life and love.

This year we will be standing up in Phoenix for another important issue, immigration and border justice. I want for each and every one of you to be able to have that experience. To march with your UU sisters and brothers, to hold space and speak up for doing the right thing. Please join us for justice GA in Phoenix in June 2012. Walk with UUs from all over, walk together with others from OCUUC. Please come and join hands, and walk with me.

http://blueboat.blogs.uua.org/ga2012/programs/

http://www.uua.org/documents/lfd/1202_youth_ga.pdf

OWL provides accurate information to young people so that they can make informed decisions about their bodies and their lives. It’s a lot of fun too! We still need one male facilitator for a Saturday if anyone from another UU church is available who has had the OWL training.

Mandatory Parent meeting Monday March 26 6pm-10pm
Friday March 30 5:30 (potluck 5:30-6:30) pm through Saturday March 31, 6 pm
Friday April 20 6 pm through Saturday April 21, 6 pm

Registration is $30. OWL is open to all youth in the 10th-12th grades in the larger community. Contact Rayna Hamre  (dreocuucorg)   for more information.

Please let us know ASAP if your children will be participating in Our Whole Lives, or, OWL. We will be opening up the sessions to other churches in the area, so spaces will fill fast.

• Senior high OWL will meet for two intensives on Friday March 30 6 pm through Saturday March 31, 6 pm and Friday April 20 6 pm through Saturday April 21, 6 pm.
• 5th-6th grade OWL will meet on the following: Sunday April 15, 1-3:30 pm mandatory parent & student session; Sundays April 22, 29; Sundays May 6, 13, 20, 27; and Sunday June 3, 1-2:30 pm.

ANNOUNCEMENT: In case of rain, our Ostara ritual will be in the Social Hall at OCUUC.

See you in one of the locations!

General Assembly (GA) 2012 will be a gathering with multiple ways of engaging in justice work for people of all ages. Joining with the people of Arizona, we will worship, witness, learn and work together. We will leave General Assembly grounded in our faith, energized for justice and with resources to bring this work home to our congregations.

  ________________

Contact: Mary Lundholm  (presidentocuucorg)  , President

Music for this Sunday will run the gamut from Woody Guthrie (whose centennial birthday we’re celebrating this year) to Melissa Etheridge plus a few surprises.

Emrys Staton is a lifelong UU who grew up in Arizona. He has spent the past several years as a volunteer engaged in humanitarian work along the border between the United States and Mexico. His work has included placing water in the desert for migrants crossing the border, providing medical care to people deported back to Mexico, and traveling to Washington, DC to advocate for better standards of migrants kept in Border Patrol custody. He is now finishing his final semester of seminary school at Claremont School of Theology and is working part time for the Southern California UU Justice Team.

Rayna Hamre, OCUUC Director of Religious Education, dreocuucorg  (dreocuucorg)  

• Secret Pals is now underway! The Secret Pals gift exchange is taking place on March 11th, March 18th, and March 25th.  Don’t forget to bring your presents! On those four Sundays, please leave a present in your Secret Pal’s basket before the beginning of the second service. Pick up your present from your basket after the end of the second service. Baskets will be located in the Social Hall.
• A basket will be set out for you before the second service to make sure that your Secret Pal has a place to put your present. The Secret Pal reveal party will be held on March 25th, after the second service. Look for further details in your Secret Pal basket, or on this blog. If you have questions, contact Gabrielle Block, gbpuzzleraolcom  (gbpuzzleraolcom)  .
• OCUUC will be offering 5-6th grade and Sr. High Our Whole Lives (OWL). Classes will be held at OCUUC, the cost is $30 per family. 4-6 grade sessions are: Sunday April 15, 1-3:30 pm mandatory parent & student session; and Sundays April 22, 29, May 6, 13, 20, 27, June 3, 1-2:30 pm.
• Sr. High OWL dates are Friday March 30 6 pm through Saturday March 31, 6 pm, and Friday April 20 6 pm through Saturday April 21, 6 pm. (two weekend intensives) and one mandatory parent meeting, date tba.
• Parents, please let us know asap student names, grade level, and parent names and contact info, for those who are ready to sign up.  Spaces are limited. This is a wonderful program and I encourage you to enroll your children. dreocuucorg  (dreocuucorg)  
• OCUUC will be starting new curriculum in March for our 1st-6^th graders. This is part of our nation-wide preparation for Justice General Assembly in June in Phoenix. We will be sending home more information about this new curriculum.
• Ongoing. Families are invited to bring non-perishable foods and toiletry items for the Share Our Selves (SOS) little green shopping cart on the patio. Goods will be dropped at SOS each week.
• June 20-24 2012, UU Justice General Assembly (GA) in Phoenix http://www.uua.org/ga/ GA is the yearly general conference for the entire UU denomination. This year it is being held in Phoenix, and this is a wonderful opportunity for our families and youth to attend. We hope to have some fund raisers this year to help send our youth to Justice GA. Here is a link to the new UU Justice GA blog http://immigrationjustice.blogs.uua.org/

Event Details:

• 7:00 pm on Saturday, March 31st
• Admission is FREE
• Intermission with bar: wine and water for sale, and snacks for a donation
• 50-50 raffle (that is, the winner gets 50% of the money from the sale of raffle tickets and the church gets the other half). Raffle tickets will be available at the door and at intermission, when the drawing will be held

Questions? Contact Beth Syverson anytime at MusicDirectorocuucorg  (MusicDirectorocuucorg)   or 714-376-6666.  Hope to see you there!

In this area awash in million dollar homes, there is homelessness all around us if we have ‘eyes to see.’ I am told that Orange County has one of the largest homeless problems in the country. This Sunday we hope to explore this subject and look for ways to practice our values.  I am thrilled that I will be joined this Sunday by Paul Leon, President and CEO of the Illumination Foundation of Irvine. Paul will help me convey the message of the homeless among us and give witness as someone who is on the front lines daily providing solutions to this crisis and as someone who is at the forefront of addressing this issue in this part of California.  The Illumination Foundation has been, and is now, doing incredible work in this area of social justice. Please join me Sunday as we explore this issue and look for ways to, in the words of our UUA principles,  practice ‘justice, equity and compassion in human relations.’

Pop singer Denise Rosier will be our Guest Artist this Sunday.

Come and join CUUPs for a ritual of awakening.  Our theme is Waking the Bears.  We will bring out our inner bears as we celebrate the coming spring in a joyous ritual of drumming, music, and dance.  Feel free to bring all kinds of rhythmic instruments to help our special guests drummers Ben, Kent, and Summer!

DETAILS:

CUUPs Spring Equinox/Ostara Ritual

Sunday March 18. Arrive at 1:00 for a 1:30 ritual

Place: Victoria Vista Park, across the street from OCUUC

Bring the usual things: a chair, a cup, your own lunch, and a dessert to share.

Wear: anything suggestive of bears: hats, T-shirts, whatever!

 Rayna Hamre, OCUUC Director of Religious Education, dreocuucorg  (dreocuucorg)  

• Secret Pals is now underway! The Secret Pals gift exchange is taking place on March 4th, March 11th, March 18th, and March 25th.  Don’t forget to bring your presents! On those four Sundays, please leave a present in your Secret Pal’s basket before the beginning of the second service. Pick up your present from your basket after the end of the second service. Baskets will be located in the Social Hall. For those of you didn’t have a chance to decorate your Secret Pals gift basket on February 26th, stickers will be available for basket decorating on March 4th.  A basket will be set out for you before the second service to make sure that your Secret Pal has a place to put your present. The Secret Pal reveal party will be held on March 25th, after the second service. Look for further details in your Secret Pal basket, or on this blog. If you have questions, contact Gabrielle Block, dreocuucorg    Thanks to Gabrielle for heading up this project!

• OCUUC will be offering 5-6th grade and Sr. High Our Whole Lives (OWL). Classes will be held at OCUUC, the cost is $30 per family. 4-6 grade sessions are: Sunday April 15, 1-3:30 pm mandatory parent & student session; and Sundays April 22, 29, May 6, 13, 20, 27, June 3, 1-2:30 pm.

• OCUUC will be starting new curriculum in March for our 1st-6^th graders. This is part of our nation-wide preparation for Justice General Assembly in June in Phoenix. We will be sending home more information about this new curriculum.

• Ongoing. Families are invited to bring non-perishable foods and toiletry items for the Share Our Selves (SOS) little green shopping cart on the patio. Goods will be dropped at SOS each week.

• June 20-24 2012, UU Justice General Assembly (GA) in Phoenix http://www.uua.org/ga/  GA is the yearly general conference for the entire UU denomination. This year it is being held in Phoenix, and this is a wonderful opportunity for our families and youth to attend. We hope to have some fund raisers this year to help send our youth to Justice GA. Here is a link to the new UU Justice GA blog http://immigrationjustice.blogs.uua.org/

• Harry Potter will be back this summer by popular demand! Jennifer Abt is preparing our own UU Hogwart’s Academy for our OCUUC summer program. Stay tuned for more news about our upcoming HP summer.

On a separate issue, the Brock family will be visiting Costa Mesa the first week of April. If you would like to offer home hospitality to this unique collection of persons, or know someone who might, let me know.

Sally has been ably assisting me with BP screenings for some time and now we have another helper, Alexis Worth, RN. Alexis has been visiting OCUUC for a while now. She is studying to be a nurse practitioner at Cal State Long Beach.

Periodic screening of your blood pressure is one of the easiest and most important steps you can take in order to live long and well! Hypertension is known as the silent killer, because symptoms don’t occur until significant damage is done. What kind of damage? Basically, imagine those microscopic capillaries, with one cell thick walls carrying oxygen and nourishment to all your vital organs. When the pressure within increases, they tend to blow out like a weak tire, leaving permanent damage behind. This occurs anywhere the blood vessels go; particularly vital are the brain, retina of the eye, and the kidney. A stroke may be the most dramatic result of hypertension, but insidious damage occurs continually.

Our blood pressure changes through out each day and across the life span, but it is a myth to think that any significant higher reading is normal as we age. It is the rare individual that does not have some atherosclerosis or hardening of the arteries with age and this does force the heart to beat harder, thus causing both hypertension and predisposing to heart failure. Ideally, our blood pressure should be below 130/80. The systolic (top) reading measures the pressure of blood in the artery in the upper arm when the heart beats. The diastolic (bottom) number is the pressure in between beats, that is when the heart is at rest. In general, the lower the numbers the better! People with true low pressure may have problems with feeling faint when standing up quickly, but otherwise low is good!

Your blood pressure is on a continuous scale and any persistent elevations need to be diagnosed and treated. Losing weight is never simple, but that, along with increased activity is the number one successful treatment for pre or mild hypertension. And if you smoke, here is another reason to quit! Stress is also a culprit. Even if you can’t eliminate stress there are wonderful, fun ways to cope with it. Yoga, Tai Chi, biofeedback, meditation and simple breathing exercises. We now know that diabetes and hypertension are linked, with one increasing the risk of the other and both increasing the risk of heart disease dramatically. No one likes taking pills, so remember that at any level of hypertension, life style changes can enable you to avoid or decrease the need for medication.

We have handouts on many of these topics at either the Caring Table or at the BP Screenings. I am also happy to provide more specific information to anyone! Some great web resources are:

www.webmd.com/hypertension-high-blood-pressure

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001502

Adair Small, Congregation Nurse

nurseocuucorg  (nurseocuucorg)  

I look forward to seeing you Sunday – Rev. Ed

This Sunday’s music will include Orange Coast Choir singing Can You Hear?, a powerful anthem about children who are abused and hurting in the world. The piano pieces will be Schumann’s Kinderscenen (Scenes from Childhood).

_______________________________

The monthly theme for Sunday services in March is SOCIAL JUSTICE.

• March 4 – Human Trafficking
• March 11 – Homelessness
• March 18 – The Patriot Act Now
• March 25 – Immigration Justice

April’s theme will be RENEWAL.

OCUUC is very pleased to be hosting two sessions of Our Whole Lives (OWL) this spring. OWL is designed to teach our young people about their bodies and to assist them in navigating the messages about  sexuality they enouncter in today’s complex world. This spring we are offering OWL for grades 5-6 and for Sr. High students. Spaces are filling up so please get your youth on the list for OWL soon.

Our RE committee, RECY, is very excited to be offering  new curriculum for our 1-6 graders this spring. With Justice and Compassion: Immigration Sessions for Children’s Religious Education, by Mandy Neff. Please take a look at this new curriculum put out by the UUA  http://www.uua.org/documents/neffmandy/justice_compassion.pdf   Our own Gabrielle Block is working to adapt the curriculum to the specific needs of our OCUUC RE program.

Adult and children’s programs are being created and offered to assist us all in getting ready for our Justice General Assembly in Phoenix in June. If you have not been to a UU General Assembly (GA) and are interested, ask me or someone else who has been to a GA about going. It is an amazing experience to stand together with a thousand or more UUs from all over the country to worship and work together at GA!

Thanks for all you do~~

Rayna Hamre, OCUUC Director of Religious Education, dreocuucorg

~~~~~~~~

• Secret Pals begins on February 26th! If you or your child have signed up to participate, please pick up your Secret Pals assignments from Gabrielle Block. Gift basket decorating (for the basket that will be used for your Secret Pal presents) will be held in the Social Hall after the second service, beginning at 12:15.  If you are new to Secret Pals this year, you should decorate a gift basket.  If you participated in Secret Pals last year, you may choose whether to decorate a new basket or to keep your basket from last year. The Secret Pals gift exchange will begin on March 4th. Stay tuned for further announcements!

• OCUUC will be offering 5-6th grade and Sr. High Our Whole Lives (OWL). Classes will be held at OCUUC, the cost is $30 per family. 4-6 grade sessions are: Sunday April 15, 1-3:30 pm mandatory parent & student session; and Sundays April 22, 29, May 6, 13, 20, 27, June 3, 1-2:30 pm.

• Sr. High OWL dates are Friday March 30 6 pm through Saturday March 31, 6 pm, and Friday April 20 6 pm through Saturday April 21, 6 pm. (two weekend intensives) and one mandatory parent meeting, date tba.

• Parents, please let us know asap student names, grade level, and parent names and contact info, for those who are ready to sign up.  Spaces are limited. This is a wonderful program and I encourage you to enroll your children. dreocuucorg

• Ongoing. Families are invited to bring non-perishable foods and toiletry items for the Share Our Selves (SOS) little green shopping cart on the patio. Goods will be dropped at SOS each week.

•  June 20-24 2012, UU Justice General Assembly (GA) in Phoenix http://www.uua.org/ga/  GA is the yearly general conference for the entire UU denomination. This year it is being held in Phoenix, and this is a wonderful opportunity for our families and youth to attend. We hope to have some fund raisers this year to help send our youth to Justice GA. Here is a link to the new UU Justice GA blog http://immigrationjustice.blogs.uua.org/

Sing along, dance in the aisles, and have a GREAT time with Larisa Stow & Shakti Tribe

Orange Coast Unitarian Universalist Church hosts Larisa Stow & Shakti Tribe for a transformational evening of rocking, soulful KIRTAN and more! A RAISE THE ROOF celebration of unity-in-community, Shakti Tribe mix the spiritual and the sacred with an edgy pop sensibility, sensuality and rock groove like no other – truly a magic carpet ride for the soul.

$20 in advance / $25 at the door.

Check out this wonderful interview with Larisa Stow in Vision Magazine:

Vision Magazine: How does music really bring people and different cultures together?

Larisa Stow: Music is a vibration. It takes you into an energy, a vibrational energy. So when people listen to music, when they experience music together, it’s literally everybody getting on, let’s say, a space ship together. They’re going on a journey together because it takes you in a similar vibrational frequency. So it doesn’t matter who you are, it doesn’t matter where you are on the planet; music is a vortex.

Larisa Stow and Shakti Tribe in Concert Feb. 25th

Free three-part series at Brea Senior Center, 500 S. Sievers Ave.
Thursday, Feb. 23, 2012, 11 a.m. – noon: Help with Medicare Rx Costs

Information on premiums, deductibles, co-pays, low-cost options; Medicare Drug Plan Choices, Formulary Review

Part II: Thursday, March 29, 11:00 a.m. – Noon: Practical Tips on Medication Storage, Disposing, & Remembering

Part III: Wednesday, April 25, 10:00 a.m. – Noon “Brown Bag Medication Review” with a pharmacist. Call to register: (714) 990-7750

Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias: What Does the Diagnosis Mean?

Tuesday, March 20, 2012, 4:30 – 7:00 p.m. (Refreshments 4:30 – 5:00)

UCI University Club, Irvine

Reservations mandatory: (949) 824-2382, press option 4

March 21, 2012

Members and Friends,

As you know, OCUUC is beginning the important work of selecting a new minister. Critical to that process is the completion of the Congregational Survey sent to every member and friend of OCUUC. Reponses to the Congregational Survey will be used as a snapshot of the congregation, and will help determine what qualities and skills will be required of our next minister.

If you have already returned your Congregational Survey, thank you!  However, if you have not yet returned the Congregational Survey, won’t you please take a moment, RIGHT NOW, to complete and return it? EVERYONE’S opinion is important to the future of our church, and we need to hear from you. Thanks in advance for helping us with the survey process!

We have only received 130 surveys but we distributed 300 surveys. That’s not even half!  Please help us get at least an 80% return rate.

If you have misplaced your survey and would like another copy, please contact me by email  (MSSCocuucorg)   or phone 949-285-0918.

Barbara Schilling, Chair

OCUUC Ministerial Search Survey Committee

Our Year of the Dragon is off to a great start. Thanks to the help of our January volunteers, our children had the fun of putting together a dragon parade for Chinese New Year. Fittingly, this is the Year of the Dragon, so there were dragon stories and poems along with our dragon making activities in the Social Hall. The adults had a surprise when the dragon was waiting for them on the patio after the second service. If there were any evil spirits lurking about the building they should be gone after our parade. We welcomed in the New Year with plenty of noise and good wishes. February brought us our second craft night, with the evening focused on Valentine activities and a pizza dinner. Through the cooperation of several committees, our Spirit Grant money, and a private donation, we were able to replace the television in the Social Hall with a new model. With much clearer picture and sound available, RE will be able to resume family movie nights and to provide up-to-date equipment for trainings and classes.

If our Religious Education classes seem a little small during the months of February and March, it is because we have a large group of youth who are taking Our Whole Lives (OWL) at the UU Church of Long Beach. Our families and events will be back on track at OCUUC in May. OWL provides age appropriate information, in a caring environment with trained facilitators, about the human body, sexual health and positive life choices. OWL classes are scheduled at OCUUC for our 5-6 graders and senior high this spring.

Parents, please let us know ASAP if your children will be participating in Our Whole Lives, or, OWL. We will be opening up the sessions to other churches in the area, so spaces will fill fast.

• Senior high OWL will meet for two intensives on Friday March 30 6 pm through Saturday March 31, 6 pm and Friday April 20 6 pm through Saturday April 21, 6 pm.
• 5th-6th grade OWL will meet on the following: Sunday April 15, 1-3:30 pm mandatory parent & student session; Sundays April 22, 29; Sundays May 6, 13, 20, 27; and Sunday June 3, 1-2:30 pm.

Email dreocuucorg  (dreocuucorg)  

The focus of my sermon will be John Murray born in England on December 10, 1741. In 1770 he emigrated the our country to “lose himself in America.” He preached, as a Universalist minister, his first sermon in Good Luck, (now Lacey Township) , New Jersey.

In 1774 he settled at Gloucester, Massachusetts, and established a congregation there. There he met his second wife, the author Judith Sargent Murray. He was suspected of being a British spy, but in 1775 was appointed chaplain of the Rhode Island Brigade by General George Washington despite petitions for his dismissal by other chaplains over his rejection of belief in hell. On October 23, 1793, he became pastor of the Universalist society of Boston, and faithfully served it until October 19, 1809. He was a man of great courage and eloquence, and in the defense of his views endured much detestation and abuse. He is one of those remarkable persons who contributed to the diverse community of people we today call Unitarian Universalists.

I look forward to see you on Sunday.

We will delve into our Universalist heritage by learning about Rev. John Murray and Judith Sargent Murray.

John Murray and the Winds of Change

You never know what the wind will blow in or which way the wind blows. The wind can change directions and maybe change your life. It happened to John Murray. As a young man, John Murray had excellent fortune blow his way. He had a fine education, a steady job, a loving wife, and a young son. Life was good. Then, suddenly, everything changed. John Murray’s wife and their son became sick and died. John lost his job, lost all his money, and was put in jail because he could not pay his bills.

John was a very religious man, a Universalist, who had even preached about a loving God. Now, he was not so sure what he believed. He felt his life was over. Friends urged him to go someplace where he could start again.  Read more

We have dates, but there are still a few things up in the air.  We could use a leader for the Midsummer ritual.  Also, we’re hoping for a camping adventure at Beltane, which means we don’t currently have anyone to lead our normal Maypole ritual.  If anyone would like to lead a Maypole or other ritual for those who can’t make it out to the mountains, we would be happy to lend our materials (including our beautiful Maypole) to them.  Just let us know.

Obviously, since the location of the church could change over the year, location and times could also change. With that in mind, here is our schedule for the upcoming Wheel of the Year:

Ostara: Sunday March 18, 1:00 pm.  Christine Hernandez and/or her Wicca 101 graduates will host our Spring Equinox ritual.

Beltane: We’re hoping for a Beltane in the woods.  Our current plans are to go camping in the local mountains with our friends from the Coven of the Silver Grove.  Come for a weekend of adult fun with perhaps a touch of debauchery.  This event will require pre-registration.  More details to follow.

Anyone who would like to lead a celebration locally, please let Christine know. We have a great Maypole!

Midsummer: Sunday June 24, 1:00 pm.  Let us know if you’d like to lead this one!

Lammas: Saturday July 28, 6:00 pm.  Christine Hernandez will lead a ritual honoring the sacrifice of the harvest.  Make corn dollies and offer them in expectation of an abundant harvest of gifts in your life.

Mabon: Sunday September 23, 1:00 pm.  Come and celebrate the vine, the wine, and the harvest in honor of Dionysus.  Tim and Brenda Titus will lead a ritual of thanks for the fruits of our labors.

Samhain: Saturday October 27. 7:00 pm (pending confirmation from COSG).  Join us for our popular and introspective ritual honoring our ancestors and the Mighty Dead.  Once again, the Coven of the Silver Grove will lead this beautiful and meaningful ritual of love for our ancestors.  This is a more solemn ritual, open to anyone over age 12. A donation will be requested to pay for our feast and per-registration will be required.  Final details will be posted in early October.

Yule: The Winter Solstice Singing Ritual, our most loved event of the year, will return on December 15 at 8:00 pm, followed by a second ritual during Sunday service on the 16th at 10:30 am.  Our musical descent into the darkness and rise into the light will once again inspire us all to bring our tender lights into the world.

Imbolc: Assuming that the world still exists ;) our Imbolc/Candlemas ritual will be on February 2, 2013 at 7:00 pm.  Brenda and Tim Titus will lead the group in a healing ritual, and we will bless candles to light our way for the upcoming turn of the Wheel.

My sermon title on February 5th is “Linda Barnes: Champion of Change.” Also, this Sunday, we will all share in a communion ritual similar to a Flower Communion. Please bring a packet of seeds, or a locally grown or organic fruit, vegetable or herb to share at the Earth’s Bounty Communion.

Additionally, at February 5th’s service, we will be raising awareness and seeking the support of every person in the congregation to joining the 42-42-42 Food Ethics Action program. What is the 42-42-42 Food Ethics Action program? It is a call for 42 men, women and children of OCUUC, beginning March 11th and culminating on Earth Day, April 22, to be committed for a period of 42 days leading up to the 42 nd Earth Day, to taking action of their choice with respect to food ethics. Please see the 42-42-42 web page for more details.

Sunday’s music will include Jason Cook’s husband Lawrence Ingalls playing harp and singing songs by Simon & Garfunkel and Boz Scaggs, and Beth Syverson will also play Simon & Garfunkel tunes on piano.

Update 2/9:  The man has been united with his famiy and is now getting medical care.  His brother came for his things and expressed gratitude for all our help.

At Wednesday’s Board meeting, the Board of Trustees discussed the issue about the homeless gentleman who has been living on our property. For those of you who don’t know, we have a homeless man who has been sleeping on the grounds behind the Boag building and leaving his belongings there during the day.

The board felt that we had three options for handling this situation:

1. Do nothing
2. Call the police and have him removed
3. Assist him in finding a better situation

The board looked at our principles in forming our response. Our first and second principles apply to this situation.

• The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
• Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;

The board has, therefore, decided that we will proceed with compassion and assist this man in finding a better situation. He will be asked to store his items away from the children’s areas on the property and to be off the property before 8AM on Sundays.

Rev. Ed will be working with SOS to find assistance and housing for him. While that is being solved, the man still needs help. I am asking the congregation to bring things to help keep him warm, dry, and fed. If you have things that can assist him please talk with me  (presidentocuucorg)  .

Concerns or questions can be sent to Rev Ed or Mary Lundholm

I hope your children will be able to join us for our dragon parade for Chinese New Year this coming Sunday. We will walk our dragon around our coffee area immediately after the adult service. We still need adult helpers for this Sunday’s project, and to assist the children in making their own dragon paper bag puppets. Please let me know if you can assist, there will be too many children for just three of us to work with safely.

RECY has made one policy change for this year for teachers. We are asking that relatives not teach together in the same classroom if there are only two teachers present. This is to keep everyone protected should any questions arise about any situation in a classroom. We are being proactive with this policy so that continue to have safe and happy classes at OCUUC.

Our youth group will be moving the first week in February up to the Tracey Boag Building for a pilot project. We hope to create a great place for the youth to gather near the patio area and playground.

Check out all the details below for fun activities for all ages. The Jason Shelton music event is coming up fast. RE will host a Valentines Craft Night, with pizza dinner on February 4^th. Gabrielle Block will be heading up our Secret Pals program at the end of February, continuing through March for the third year in a row. Thank you, Gabrielle!

Dates will be announced very soon for winter/spring Our Whole Lives for Sr. high and for our 4-6 graders. Our Whole Lives (OWL) provides a safe setting with trained facilitators for children and youth to learn about their bodies. In addition to providing accurate information, OWL encourages the older youth to explore their own sexual identities and ethics, and to critically examine the messages from the larger culture. Please contact me immediately if your sr. high or 4-6 grade students would like to take OWL this spring. dreocuucorg

Thanks for all you do~~

Rayna Hamre, OCUUC Director of Religious Education

dreocuucorg

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

• Saturday February 4th, 4-7 pm in the Social Hall, Crafts for Valentine’s Day such as cards and decorations. Fun for the entire family, all are welcome! Pizza will be provided, bring a side dish or dessert to share. Helpers needed for set up and clean up, please contact Rayna to RSVP at dreocuucorg  (dreocuucorg)  

• OCUUC Children’s Choir will be singing in the Jason Shelton concert “Voices in Unity” on February 11 at 7:30pm.

Rehearsal schedule:

Sunday, January 29, 1-2pm, Gillan 3 classroom

Sunday, Febuary 5, 1-2pm, Gillan 3 classroom

Thursday, February 9, 7-8pm, sanctuary

Friday evening, February 10, 6-7pm, sanctuary

Saturday evening, 6pm call time, 7:30pm concert

Jason Shelton wrote some of our favorite UU songs – “Standing on the Side of Love,” “Morning Has Come,” and “Fire of Commitment.”  He’ll be here to conduct and sing a concert of his own compositions about love, unity, and action.    Here is the flyer for the whole Jason Shelton weekend:  http://ocuuc.org/ministries/workshops/

Contact Beth Syverson if your family wants to participate in this special event.  Beth Syverson, 714-376-6666, MusicDirectorocuucorg  (MusicDirectorocuucorg)  .

• Renaissance Module at the Los Angeles UU Church, March 22, 2012, 5:30 pm  to March 24, 2012, 12:00 pm. Renaissance Module: UU Identity. This is open to the RE community; Rayna is one of the organizers. The goals of the Unitarian Universalist Identity Module include: creating an understanding of identity as a process; becoming aware of how the process unfolds; identifying ways to foster the process, specifically among Religious Education participants and generally among their congregations. Link: Registration form

• May 5, 2012, save the date. International Day at Soka University, with the OC Dept. of Education and Arts Orange County. We can meet up for music and fun

• Ongoing. Families are invited to bring non-perishable foods and toiletry items for the Share Our Selves (SOS) little green shopping cart on the patio. Goods will be dropped at SOS each week.
• June 20-24 2012, UU Justice General Assembly (GA) in Phoenix http://www.uua.org/ga/  GA is the yearly general conference for the entire UU denomination. This year it is being held in Phoenix, and this is a wonderful opportunity for our families and youth to attend. We hope to have some fund raisers this year to help send our youth to Justice GA. Here is is a link to the new UU Justice GA blog

Here’s a link to the AHA site which has a brief video of Hands-Only CPR™ http://HandsOnlyCPR.org/  You can also get an app for your iPhone, Android, or Palm Pre to guide you through CPR!

Sudden Cardiac Arrest

This means your heart has completely stopped effective beating; survival depends greatly on immediately getting CPR from someone nearby. Unfortunately, less than 1/3 of those people who experience a cardiac arrest at home, work or in a public location get that help. Most people are worried that they might do something wrong or make things worse. That’s why things are being made much simpler for non-medical professionals. And the beauty is these techniques can work as well or better than “old-fashioned CPR”!

If you see an adult suddenly collapse, and he or she is not breathing and unresponsive, call 911 and push hard and fast in the center of the chest. The American Heart Association says, “Don’t be afraid. Your actions can only help.”

Heart Attack and Stroke

In a heart attack, a part of the heart can die from lack of blood. In a stroke, part of the brain can die. These are life-and-death emergencies; every second counts. If you see or have any of the following symptoms, immediately call 911. Not all these signs occur in every heart attack or stroke. Sometimes they go away and return. If some occur, get help fast! There are new and better treatments every day to stop a heart attack or stroke in its tracks. But to be effective, these drugs must be given relatively quickly after symptoms first appear.

HEART ATTACK WARNING SIGNS

• Chest Discomfort
  • Most heart attacks cause discomfort in the center of the chest that lasts more than a few minutes, or that goes away and comes back. It can feel like uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain.
• Pain or Discomfort in one or both Arms, Back, Neck, Jaw or Stomach
• Shortness of Breath with or without chest discomfort
• Other Signs may include a cold sweat, nausea or lightheadedness

STROKE WARNING SIGNS

If even one of these signs is present, don’t delay:

• Sudden numbness or weakness of Face, Arm, Leg, especially if one-sided
• Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding
• Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
• Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
• Sudden severe headache with no known cause

Thanks to our partnership with Hoag Hospital’s Health Ministry program, we will be able to offer CPR and or First Aid training through the year! Let’s all be prepared to save lives if we have to.

And don’t forget prevention. Try not to gain weight; try to exercise some every day. Remember, any step you take can be the first of many in the right direction!

Adair Small, nurseocuucorg  (nurseocuucorg)  
Congregation Nurse

The theme for the month of February revolves around Unitarian Universalists who have made an impact on the society and culture of their times. Some are famous, some are not, and some may be completely unknown to the general public, but all have made creative contributions to the society of their time and place. Sunday February 5th we will focus on Linda Barnes, who has been a champion of food diversity and sustainable agriculture. More about this notable biology professor and seminarian may be found here.

Rev. Ed’s sermon title is “Linda Barnes: Champion of Change.” Also, this Sunday, we will all share in a communion ritual similar to a Flower Communion. Please bring a packet of seeds, or a locally grown or organic fruit, vegetable or herb to share at the Earth’s Bounty Communion.

Additionally, in Sunday’s service, we will be raising awareness and seeking the support of every person in the congregation to joining the 42-42-42 Food Ethics Action program. What is the 42-42-42 Food Ethics Action program? It is a call for 42 men, women and children of OCUUC, beginning March 11th and culminating on Earth Day, April 22, to be committed for a period of 42 days leading up to the 42nd Earth Day, to taking action of their choice with respect to food ethics. Please see our website for more details.

Within OCUUC, AIDS Team Ministry can use a few new drivers.  Contact Mary Lundholm   (presidentocuucorg)  to volunteer.  Our program continues to meet the needs of the neediest here in Orange County living with AIDS.

Also, the 42-42-42 program, which will begin March 11th and culminate on Earth Day, April 22, involves the following:

Getting 42 or more people at OCUUC to commit, for a period of 42 days leading up to the 42nd Earth Day, to taking action of their choice with respect to food ethics.

Please contact Maureen McConaghy if you would like to participate.

Outside of OCUUC, we need your help on a number of items:

#1:

Our church voted to support SB 810, the California Universal Health Care Act.

The bill has now passed out of an important State Senate committee and may come to a vote in the full State Senate as early as Wednesday the 25th.  Some State Senators, including Lou Correa of Santa Ana, are key Senators who’s support we need in order to pass SB 810. Their names and numbers are listed below. Please call on Monday or Tuesday to let them know you support this bill.  These are direct numbers to their offices in Sacramento.

Senator Lou Correa (Orange County/Santa Ana area)
Phone: (916) 651-4034

Senator Ed Hernandez (Los Angeles/West Covina area)
Phone: (916) 651-4024

Senator Michael Rubio (Fresno/Bakersfield area)
Phone: (916) 651-4016

Senator Juan Vargas (San Diego area)
Phone: (916) 651-4040

Senator Ron Calderon (Los Angeles/Montebello area)
Phone: (916) 651-4030

#2:

The SAFE California Act

is a ballot initiative that replaces California’s death penalty with life without the possibility of parole. In order to qualify for the November 2012 ballot, we need to gather signatures.  Click here to sign the petition to get this on the ballot.  We will also have petitions on the Faith In Action table for the next three weeks.

#3:On January 15, more than 20 people from four UU congregations in the Orange County, CA area attended a workshop and training withGrassroots Leadership.

UUs from Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Fullerton, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Laguna Beach, and Orange Coast Unitarian Universalist Church in Costa Mesa joined those from Tapestry, a Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Mission Viejo, CA.

Donna Red Wing, Executive Director of Grassroots Leadership, and Bob Libal, senior organizer, guided attendees in developing a plan to implement a visitation program at James A. Musick immigration detention center in Irvine, CA — the first of its kind in southern California.  Participants also heard from Jose de Jesus Penaflor, an ex-detainee who talked about his life before, during, and after detention. He was bonded out by a fund created at First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles.

If you are interested in this issue, please contact Birdie Reed immediately.  Over the next 6 weeks, plans will be in the works to organize efforts throughout all UU Congregations in Orange County.  A meeting will be held on February 26 at a site to be determined.  We will keep you posted on the location of that meeting as the date gets closer.

#4:

On January 19th, AB 1148

passed the CA Assembly Appropriations Committee with a 12 – 5 vote in favor.  The California Clean Money Campaign needs help making phone calls to mobilize their constituents to ask for them to support AB 1148.  PLEASE COME HELP make phone calls into strategic assembly districts.  Click here to register and to get details on their next phone banking event.

#5:

We all enjoy eating out.  Unfortunately, the workers

who cook, prepare, and serve our food suffer from poverty wages, no benefits like paid sick days, and little or no chance to move up to better positions. When the people who serve us food can’t afford to pay the rent or take a day off when they’re sick, our dining experience suffers.  The newly released Restaurant Opportunities Center’s National Diners’ Guide 2012 provides information on the wage, benefits, and promotion practices of the 150 most popular restaurants in America. The Guide lists responsible restaurants where you can eat knowing that your server can afford to pay the rent and your cook isn’t working while sick.

Click here to download a copy of this year’s guide.

For the latest information on these issues, visit us at the Faith In Action Table after both services.

How do you help others?  How can OCUUC help you help others?  We can help by working together! 

Our special guest artist will be Roy Zimmerman, known for his to-the-moment political satire, especially “Defenders of Marriage,” which he’ll sing for us on Sunday at both services.

We’re gearing up for the Jason Shelton Worship Weekend “With Hands and Hearts and Voices” on February 10-12. Please pre-register if you plan to attend the workshop and/or the concert on Saturday, February 11. And contact Beth if you’d like to participate in any of these ways:

• Sing in mass choir finale
• Children’s choir
• Volunteer at workshop (comp ticket)
• Volunteer at concert (comp ticket)
• Housing for choir members and ministers Friday and/or Saturday (February 10 and 11)

And please spread the word to folks you know at other nearby churches who might like to attend or sing in the mass choir. A pdf of the sheet music is free and Beth  (musicdirectorocuucorg)   can email the file to the singer right away.

The concert on Saturday, February 11 is our big choir concert for the year. (We usually have it in June.) The choir would sure appreciate a full house! The music for the concert is all written or arranged by Jason Shelton — a real testament to Unitarian Univ ersalism. You will leave inspired and filled up with UU spirit!

The February service theme is UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISTS – MAKING A DIFFERENCE, and each week we will profile an ordinary individual (or a couple in one case) who let their UU principles guide their lives in an extraordinary way. The people we will be focusing on will be:

• Linda Barnes (food diversity and sustainability)
• Jason Shelton (UU composer and Minister of Music)
• John Murray and Judith Sargent Murray (Universalist pioneers)
• Emrys Staton (undocumented immigrant justice)

Come hear their stories and let them inspire you to act on your UU principles in your own way.

February 11th will be here before you know it!

Mark your calendar for the concert Voices in Unity February 11th at 7:30 pm, featuring music composed by Rev. Jason Shelton, performed by choir members from OCUUC, a combined choir piece, and the Children’s Choir.

OCUUC Children’s Choir will be singing in the Jason Shelton concert “Voices in Unity” on February 11 at 7:30pm.

• Rehearsal schedule:
• Sunday, January 29, 1-2pm, Gillan 3 classroom
• Sunday, Febuary 5, 1-2pm, Gillan 3 classroom
• Thursday, February 9, 7-8pm, sanctuary
• Friday evening, February 10, 6-7pm, sanctuary
• Saturday evening, 6pm call time, 7:30pm concert

January is traditionally a month when people think about change – perhaps in the form of New Year’s resolutions or perhaps because a year has “ended” and a new year has “begun.” Additionally, OCUUC, as a church and an institution, is in a time of huge transition: a long and successful ministry has ended and not so long from now a new settled ministry will begin. The time in between – the time of an interim ministry – is a time of experimentation and exploration.  So it is fitting that January’s “theme of the month” be about change. I will explore this theme from a variety of perspectives in a series of three sermons this month January 15th, 22nd and 29th.

With combined RE funds, youth recycling money, a donation to RE and Spirit Grant matching, we have been able to purchase a new television for the Social Hall. We look forward to resuming movie nights with a much sharper audio and video output for the new year! We will need someone with a pick up truck to assist with moving the old TV for recycling on January 13 or 14, transporting to a temporary recycling center at Huntington Beach Public Library. Please let me know if you could help us out with a truck dreocuucorg  (dreocuucorg)  

We are in the process of setting up dates for winter/spring Our Whole Lives for Sr. high and possibly for our 4-6 graders. Our Whole Lives (OWL) provides a safe setting with trained facilitators for children and youth learn about their bodies. In addition to providing accurate information, OWL encourages the older youth to explore their own sexual identities and ethics, and to critically examine the messages from the larger culture. Please contact me immediately if your sr. high or 4-6 grade student would like to take OWL this spring:  dreocuucorg

dreocuucorg

• February 4, 4-7 pm in the Social Hall. By popular demand, Crafts with Judi for Valentine’s Day designs!! Cards and crafts, fun for the entire family, all are welcome! Pizza will be provided, bring a side dish or dessert to share. Helpers needed for set up and clean up, please contact Judi or Rayna at dreocuucorg  (dreocuucorg)  

• OCUUC Children’s Choir will be singing in the Jason Shelton concert “Voices in Unity” on February 11 at 7:30pm.
• Rehearsal schedule:
• Sunday, January 29, 1-2pm, Gillan 3 classroom
• Sunday, Febuary 5, 1-2pm, Gillan 3 classroom
• Thursday, February 9, 7-8pm, sanctuary
• Friday evening, February 10, 6-7pm, sanctuary
• Saturday evening, 6pm call time, 7:30pm concert

 Jason Shelton wrote some of our favorite UU songs – “Standing on the Side of Love,” “Morning Has Come,” and “Fire of Commitment.”  He’ll be here to conduct and sing a concert of his own compositions about love, unity, and action.    Here is the flyer for the whole Jason Shelton weekend:  http://ocuuc.org/ministries/workshops/  Contact Beth Syverson if your family wants to participate in this special event.  Beth Syverson, MusicDirectorocuucorg  (MusicDirectorocuucorg)  .

• Renaissance Module at the Los Angeles UU Church, March 22, 2012, 5:30 pm  to March 24, 2012, 12:00 pm. Renaissance Module: UU Identity. This is open to the RE community, Rayna is one of the organizers. The goals of the Unitarian Universalist Identity module include: creating an understanding of identity as a process; becoming aware of how the process unfolds; identifying ways to foster the process, specifically among Religious Education participants and generally among their congregations. Link: Registration form

• Ongoing. Families are invited to bring non-perishable foods and toiletry items for the Share Our Selves (SOS) little green shopping cart on the patio. Goods will be dropped at SOS each week.

• June 20-24 2012, UU Justice General Assembly (GA) in Phoenix http://www.uua.org/ga/  GA is the yearly general conference for the entire UU denomination. This year it is being held in Phoenix, and this is a wonderful opportunity for our families and youth to attend. We hope to have some fund raisers this year to help send our youth to Justice GA. Here is is a link to the new UU Justice GA blog http://immigrationjustice.blogs.uua.org/

Also, of great importance to the congregation, Rev. Wienecke, as part of her remarks, will outline the search process recommended by the UUA for securing the best minister for the next chapter in the life of Orange Coast UU Church. She will also be available to answer questions after the service.

Rev. Bets Wienecke is the Pacific Southwest District Ministerial Settlement Representative who advises and consults with this district’s UU congregations in the southern half of California, Nevada and Arizona about the ministerial search process.

In keeping with the January theme of change, Rev. Wienecke will speak on the subject of “Holding Tight and Letting Go.” Rev. Wienecke comments: “Transitions in life offer challenges and choices:  Do we cling to what we know or do we venture forth into uncharted territory?”  Also, of great importance to the congregation, Rev. Wienecke, as part of her remarks, will outline the search process recommended by the UUA for securing the best minister for the next chapter in the life of Orange Coast UU Church. She will also be available to answer questions after the service.

More about Rev. Bets Wienecke: she was honored as Minister Emerita of the Live Oak UU Congregation in Goleta after serving there for eighteen years. She has served on the UU Ministers Association Executive Committee, on the Board of Trustees of Meadville/Lombard Theological School, President of the PSWD UU Ministers Association chapter, and President of the Santa Barbara Clergy Association.   She was awarded the Pacific Southwest District’s Distinguished Service Award in 1988. Bets’ spouse is Peter Haslund, who taught political science at Santa Barbara City College for 41 years and is now serving as President of their Board of Trustees. They proudly share four adult children and five “above average” (of course)  grandchildren.

Together we are creating a new surge of energy to invigorate the congregation. Look for more Adult Education classes to get started in January 2012. The board hopes that you will find offerings that appeal to you and create a sense of spiritual depth to your connection with OCUUC.

This chart is just amazing to me. Look at that jump in attendance.

This chart shows that our goal for a 5% increase was an average Sunday attendance of 117 people. We reached an average of 136 people.

Of all of the eight sabbats, Imbolc (also known as Candlemas) may be the most difficult for modern people to understand.  Why do we celebrate the return of spring smack in the middle of winter?

Translating to “ewe’s milk,” Imbolc is the celebration of the very first signs of spring.  When ancient farmers noticed that their pregnant sheep were lactating, it was a sure sign that the birth of the new lambs was just around the corner.  The sun stays in the sky noticeably longer than it did back at the Winter Solstice, another sure sign of the coming Spring.  In a time when families began to starve as the winter cold strangled the production of food, the signs of its icy grip loosening were a very welcome sight.

The themes of Imbolc are the same themes that these ancient agricultural people would have used.  At Imbolc we celebrate the returning light, awaken the Goddess that has slept within ourselves and the Earth since Samhain, cleanse ourselves for the coming spring, and seek inspiration for the coming turn of the Wheel.  All of this is represented by the day’s most common symbol: candles.  Fire lights the way; fire purifies; fire provides the light of inspiration (any UU knows that!).

Fire is also sacred to the Celtic goddess Brigid, the goddess most associated with Imbolc.  Brigid rules over inspiration, smithcraft, and all manner of the arts.

Come and light a fire for the sleeping Brigid as she lights a fire to guide your way for the coming year!  Our celebration of Imbolc will be early this year: January 21, 2012.  The ritual will be a bit more formal than our past few.  We will cast a formal circle along with all the other more traditional elements of ritual.  Those of you interested in the more witchy side of paganism won’t want to miss this one.

DETAILS:

What: CUUPs Imbolc ritual

When: Saturday January 21 at 7:00 pm (Please arrive at 6:30)

Where: OCUUC Sanctuary

Bring: Something to drink from, a potluck dish to share, and a place setting for the feast.  Our potluck will be New Year’s themed: bring something traditionally eaten at the New Year for luck and prosperity (or just bring something tasty).

Wear: Light colors, especially white and lavender.

RSVP: by commenting on this post or join the Orange Coast CUUPs Facebook page.

New Year Service Schedule:

Schedule for January:  One service: Sunday, January 1st at 10:00 am  Two services: Sunday, January 8th at 9:45 am and 11:15 am  Two services: Sunday, January 15th at 9:45 am and 11:15 am  Two services: Sunday, January 22nd at 9:45 am and 11:15 am  Two services: Sunday, January 29th at 9:45 am and 11:15 am

• 6:30 pm – Social hour with a special appearance by Santa!
• 7:30 pm – Christmas Eve family service-  ”Would You Like to Hold the Baby?“ pageant, with children, youth, and grown-ups acting out the nativity story with lots of music.

It is important to be sensitive to those who may find this a stressful period, and if you are one of these folks, to know that you are not alone.

All losses and potential losses count. How can you be full of cheer if jobless and in fear of worse? Events that happen from time to time in all our lives make celebration tougher: illness, death of a loved one, perhaps a separation or divorce.

The holidays accentuate these feelings of loss or loneliness because of ours and others’ expectations, and anxiety about the future. I think the “other’s expectations” part is key. You should be able to share your feelings of loss with those who are close to you and scale down the festivities to something you are comfortable with. This is a time when being with family and friends can be an enormous help, as long as they are sensitive to your feelings.

One way through all this is to try to look for the joy in the present moment and to be with people who lift you up rather than drag you down. The OCUUC community is one where I have always found the love, caring and support to be very special. You already know who the folks are who make you feel good just when you see them or hear their voice. Try to be in their company. Think about the places that have always made you feel good or at peace and seek them out. I find there is nothing like a walk on the beach or at the marsh to make me feel better. Don’t forget that activity is a wonderful antidepressant and anti-anxiety tool!

It is important to be able to separate holiday blues from clinical depression. If you have been feeling an overall disinterest with your life prior to this holiday season, then you should be evaluated by a mental health professional. Call the NAMI WARMLINE, 1-877-910-WARM (9276) or 714- 544-8488, 8 a.m. to midnight daily.

If you already suffer from depression, keep supportive family and friends close during the holiday season. This can be a tough time and you should lean on all the people you can, to get you through it. I have some Tips for Handling the Holiday Blues available at the Caring Table, or I would be happy to send them to you.

I take this opportunity to wish you the brightest 2012,

Adair Small, Congregation Nurse
nurseocuucorg  (nurseocuucorg)  

Blessings of the season to all!

Please stop by the Social Hall after the potluck on Sunday 12/18 to hear a presentation on Ethical Eating. OCUUC would like to have more involvement in this important movement to assist the planet and all that make up the interdependent web.

The day is rapidly approaching for our Christmas Eve pageant! We still need some help behind the scenes for the presentation Would You Like to Hold the Baby? This will be a wonderful evening of family and church bonding and holiday fun. Please bring a treat or snack to share for the social hour from 6:30-7:30 p.m. that night. Beth Syverson will be leading the choir, and I am coordinating the acting roles. Rehearsal for the actors is this Thursday December 22^nd.  Pizza dinner for the rehearsal diner, 6:00 p.m. for pizza, rehearsal begins at 6:30.

We will be moving ahead to create a pilot program for a full RE program at our first service time on Sundays. Please send any thoughts, ideas or comments to me, we need to hear from you. The target date for beginning is February 5. We will need teachers and participants. We are very excited and hope to expand our vibrant RE program to a wider community. We will need your assistance and talents for this pilot. Please contact Rayna if you can assist or have any questions or suggestions.

We are in the process of setting up dates for winter/spring Our Whole Lives for Sr. high and for our 4-6 graders. Our Whole Lives (OWL) provides a safe setting with trained facilitators for children and youth learn about their bodies. In addition to providing accurate information, OWL encourages the older youth to explore their own sexual identities and ethics, and to critically examine the messages from the larger culture.

Thanks for all you do~~

Rayna Hamre, OCUUC Director of Religious Education

dreocuucorg

_______________________________

• Rehearsal for the Christmas Eve children’s choir and pageant actors.  All children are invited to participate:

• Rehearsal for all actors and choir members is Dec. 22. Actors can wear bathrobes if they play people, animals will wear the color of their animal, any style of clothing. If you have an earth color or plain head scarf for the people roles, please bring it. I will have some on hand for actors to borrow.
• The children’s choir will sing at the Christmas Eve service which will be on Saturday, December 24 at 7:30pm.  Children can participate in BOTH the pageant and the children’s choir if they wish.   MusicDirectorocuucorg  (MusicDirectorocuucorg)   or dreocuucorg  (dreocuucorg)  

Backstage pageant help is needed:

• Costume & mask helpers (night of the performance), staging coordinators, prop assistants, clean up and set break down(at least 4 helpers needed)    dreocuucorg

• Registration is ongoing for winter camps at de Benneville Pines. Sr. registration goes fast, sign up asap http://www.uucamp.org/
• Ongoing. Families are invited to bring non-perishable foods and toiletry items for the Share Our Selves (SOS) little green shopping cart on the patio. Goods will be dropped at SOS each week.
• June 20-24 2012, UU Justice General Assembly (GA) in Phoenix http://www.uua.org/ga/  GA is the yearly general conference for the entire UU denomination. This year it is being held in Phoenix, and this is a wonderful opportunity for our families and youth to attend. We hope to have some fund raisers this year to help send our youth to Justice GA. Here is is a link to the new UU Justice GA blog http://immigrationjustice.blogs.uua.org/

February 10-12, 2012 – Worship Weekend with Jason Shelton – “With Hearts and Hands and Voices”

I am very excited to bring out my friend and colleague Jason Shelton to lead not only OCUUC but all the local UU congregations in a weekend-long exploration of worship.  He will be presenting a workshop about how our worship can be more aligned with our values.  Plus we’re producing a big concert with Jason, our choir, a mass choir, and special guests.  And Jason will lead worship at OCUUC on the Sunday morning.

Jason Shelton is one of the shining stars in the Unitarian Universalist Musicians Network.  He went to seminary to become a Minister of Music and he serves the big UU church in Nashville (where Beth and Tom Winnett go now).  He is a wonderful composer with a huge heart for Unitarian Universalism.  We are lucky to have several of his songs in our hymnals and in our choir’s files as well.  In 2009, our choir traveled to sing in a mass choir at the Arizona district assembly, where we performed Shelton’s Sources: A Unitarian Universalist Cantata.  His church has produced a CD of UU songs that I highly recommend.

I hope many of you will become involved in this exciting event.  You can participate by attending the workshop, singing in the mass choir, volunteering to help, attending the Saturday concert and Sunday worship, or by inviting your friends to come along.

Attention Singers & Instrumentalists — As soon as the calendar turns over to 2012, we will hit our concert repertoire hard to prepare for our big Jason Shelton weekend concert on February 11.  It’s the perfect time to join the choir so you can participate in this very special event.  The choir is open to all singers who can match pitch and follow directions.  We meet on Thursday nights at 7:30pm in the sanctuary.  Plus the choir is having a special retreat on Saturday, January 14th in Long Beach to further prepare for the concert.   Contact Beth  (musicdirectorocuucorg)   if you’d like to get on board with the choir, or if you’d like to participate in the concert as an instrumentalist.   

February 25, 2012 – Orange Coast Concerts – Larisa Stow & Shakti Tribe

Another big event happening in February is our one-and-only Orange Coast Concerts event this year — Larisa Stow & Shakti Tribe will be performing again at our church.  I believe this will be their fourth appearance.  Larisa is another friend and colleague of mine who I respect and admire very much.  She travels around the world with her band, performing in concerts and rituals, plus serving others through a prison ministry.  Her music is a combination of rock and world sacred music – a vibrant, energetic, loving musical experience based on Hindu mantras.  You can dance, meditate, sing along, or just enjoy the music like a “regular” concert.  Tickets are already on sale online and they will be sold on Sunday mornings after the first of the year.  I hope you will also be able to participate in this event as an audience member or volunteer.  This is an excellent opportunity to bring a friend who’s never been to OCUUC before.   Since this is our only Orange Coast Concerts outing this year, we are hoping for great support from OCUUC so we can continue offering concerts next year.

Thank you for supporting the many ways that music intersects with worship and spiritual growth at OCUUC.  I am at your service — let me know how I can best meet your musical wishes.

Beth Syverson
Director of Music Ministries
musicdirectorocuucorg  (musicdirectorocuucorg)  
714-376-6666

Beautiful music, a meaningful story, and the inspiring message of spreading light to the world.

This unique ritual is different from everything else we do.  Celebrating the darkest day of the year and the beginning of light’s return to the world, we tell the myth of  Persephone’s descent into the underworld through narration, poetry, and song.

The service is powerful, meditative, and joyful.  Come and celebrate the return of light and life to our world!

A note from Rev. Ed:

This Sunday we will have the annual Pagan service at one service at 10 a.m.  Thus we will ‘round out’ our tour of three major world religions for this month, Buddhism, Christianity and Paganism.  For those interested, there will be follow up Adult Education courses for persons further interested in examining Buddhism and Christianity.  The series on early Christianity  (Genesis, A Living Conversation) will take place on Wednesdays beginning  Jan. 18th and will be led by our own Ken Small.  The series on Buddhism will take place in January and please keep your eye on the Adult Education web page for further details.  There was quite a bit of interest in both classes and we look forward to these interesting explorations.  I look forward to seeing you Sunday.

Our December 2011 worship theme at OCUUC is world religions. Here is my Time For All Ages presentation that compares Unitarian Charles Dickens‘ A Christmas Carol and the Buddhist Four Noble Truths. Dickensians around the globe will celebrate his 200th birthday in February 2012.

Happy Holidays to All!

Rayna Hamre, OCUUC Director of Religious Education

 ~~~~~~~~~~~

Once upon a time there was a man named Ebenezer Scrooge. He has become famous, many of the grown ups know his story. He loved money more than anything. His business partner dies, and his partner comes back as a ghost on Christmas Eve. I always want to say Bob Marley, but it was Jacob Marley. He warns Ebenezer that he will be visited by three ghosts before the night is over, the Spirit of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Future.

The Spirits do come and visit Ebenezer, and give him a good scare. The Spirit of Christmas Past shows him the person he used to be, that he used to be able to have fun and was in love with a girl, but his love of money became more important. The Spirit of Christmas Present takes him to his nephew’s, where hears how the others see him, that he is mean and only thinks of himself and his money.

The last Spirit, who shows him the future that might be, takes him to see the family of the man who works for him, Bob Cratchit. He has a little boy named Tiny Tim, who will die because his family is poor and not able to take care of him. Ebenezer sees his own death which really scares him.

After he wakes up in the morning he is very different. He realizes that we should be good to each other, that to take care of each other and to be kind is the most important thing. He tries to make all of his family and those who work for him happy. He learned an important lesson.

Rev. Ed has talked about a religion from Asia, it is called Buddhism. I saw some of the important things in Buddhism in this story. The Buddha told everyone what are called the Four Noble Truths. Charles Dickens lived at a time when many people suffered, and that is the first noble truth, that everyone suffers. Rich people, poor people, everyone suffers.

The second noble truth is that the cause of everyone’s suffering can be known and understood. Good news for all of us, and Ebenezer was able to find out what was caused his suffering in the story. He was greedy, he only loved money, he tried to keep everything he had for himself, and he never shared anything.

The third noble truth talks about greed, that is the way that all of us try to hold on to the good things in our lives, and worry if we will not be able to do that. It makes us unhappy that everything changes, that things never stay the same, and we worry about that and try to hold on to things and people. It can make us mean and crabby with ourselves and with others.

The fourth noble truth tells us how to live to have a happy life. We need to do what Ebenezer did, share what we have and expect things to change all the time. We can be happy if we accept that things are always changing and don’t expect them to stay the same, if we can let things change.  We have to see that all the things we own can go away and even our feelings or other people’s feelings can change, and that all the changes are okay. We shouldn’t expect to keep everything forever. If we see that, it sets us free, and we can open up our hearts and stop worrying. Then we are free to love ourselves and each other.

Do you have the Worship Weekend with Jason Shelton on your calendar?  On February 10-12, 2012, OCUUC will be hosting a Worship Weekend with Rev. Jason Shelton (Music Minister at the Nashville UU church, and composer of “Standing on the Side of Love,” “Morning Has Come,” and many more).  A worship workshop led by Jason Shelton will occur all day Saturday February 11 — it’s open to anyone who is interested in creating worship.  There will be a concert featuring Jason Shelton, our own Orange Coast Choir, plus a mass choir and special guests on Saturday night, February 11th.  And Jason Shelton will be presenting the service on Sunday morning, February 12th.   We are looking for volunteers to help with the planning and execution of this big event. Contact Beth Syverson  (musicdirectorocuucorg)   if you’d like to volunteer to help out.

Christmas Eve Children’s Choir

The children’s choir which will perform at the Christmas Eve service.

• December 22nd – Dress rehearsal for all Christmas Eve participants, 6:30 pm*
• December 24th – Christmas Eve

Winter Solstice Singing Ritual

•Final class on Tuesday April 17th: “Early Christianity: From Christ to Constantine 325 AD” with Keith Jenkins & Lynn Jackman

Time & Location: 7:00-9:00 pm in the Social Hall

So you think you’re familiar with Christianity today…good for you!! But do you know what the very first Christians thought…about Christ? About how Christians should behave? About what writings they considered holy?? Well if you don’t know, you can certainly find out!! Come join us for an entertaining, fact-filled and informative time with “Christianity — from Christ to Constantine”. The class will explore the history, beliefs, traditions, and theology of the early Christian church, up to the year 325ad, when the Emperor Constantine called the First Council of Nicea. Come on, admit it…aren’t you a little bit curious what early Christian services were like? Who early Christians were influenced by? How in the world did a religion with only 12 rag-tag adherents take over the mighty Roman Empire and create the world’s best-selling book? Who was Emperor Constantine, and what was the significance of the First Council of Nicea? (Hint: What is a “Unitarian”?) The class begins Tuesday, March 13th at 7:00pm in the Social Hall and runs for 6 consecutive Tuesdays until April 17th. The course will be led by Lynn Jackman and Keith Jenkins and they look forward to you joining them. See you then!

•Deepening Your Spiritual Practices Reading /Discussion Group: “Living Our Principles” 

Friday, April 13th from 10:00 am to 12 noon with Karen Anderson  (adulteducationocuucorg)  

Meets alternate Fridays of each month at 10 am-12 pm, please confirm date with Karen and find out the location for the week.  The group meets at a nearby restaurant for breakfast and discussion.

We will begin with reading excerpts from several books, and work to apply our UU principles in our lives. This will be a support group where we will share the journey of life and challenges as we work together to apply what we are learning to our own lives. For  location please contact Karen Anderson  (adulteducationocuucorg)  .

(There is a possibility of a similar group that meets on Friday from 6:30-8:30 Ppm.  If you are interested in that evening group, please email or call Karen  (AdultEducationOCUUCorg)  .)

Here are the books we will start with:

• Rev. Forrest Church, The Cathedral of the World
• Rev. Scotty McLennan, Finding Your Religion 

•Tuesday May 8th: Taizé Singing as a Spiritual Practice  

With Amy Tompkins and Ted Lundholm, meets the second Tuesday of each month, 7 – 8:30 p.m. in Gillan 3.

• May 8th, June 12th, July 10th August 14th, September 11th, October 9th, November 13th, December 11th

Taizé Singing originated in Taizé, France. Simple rounds and chants are sung over and over as the participants improvise as the spirit moves them; each person sings louder or softer, faster or slower, harmonizes or not as they become immersed in the experience. Eventually, the song ends naturally and the group moves on to a new song. Those new to Taizé Singing are invited to join the group as we deepen our spiritual experience through the beauty of the music we create.

Someone asked me “What is the difference between an Interim Minister and a Settled Minister?”  In the following remarks, I will try to answer this question.

A settled minister has a long term relationship with a congregation. Their role includes preaching, pastoral care, administrative leadership, and teaching.  An interim minister acts as a “settled minister” to a certain extent, in that the interim minister performs the ordinary tasks of a settled minister, such as preaching, pastoral care, administrative leadership, and teaching.  But the more significant and important role of the interim minister is to prepare a congregation for its next settled minister. One might define this as a “consulting” role vis-à-vis their “ministerial” role.

One way of describing this “consulting” role is that the interim minister looks at several dimensions of church life to get a sense of its readiness to move on toward its next stage – the introduction of its next settled minister into the life of the congregation.  In a broader sense, this “consulting” role of the interim minister engages the congregation in the opportunity to look at the long term goals and needs of the congregation and the community.

An interim minister seeks to engage church leaders about the long term goals and aspirations of the church.  This is often a substantial change from the habit of a congregation’s leaders being immersed in the details of day to day management of the church and not looking beyond that.   Some, but not all of the “dimensions” of church life examined by the interim minister are the following:

1.      Does the congregation have a mission statement that is in alignment with where the congregation actually wants to go and is able to go? Does the congregation have a mission statement that is exciting to a majority of the congregation?  This is a very important issue for a number of reasons. In the process of trying to match the congregation with a settled minster the people of the congregation need to carefully define what it wants and therefore what it needs in a settled minister.  Prospective ministers will want to “hear” that a congregation has a clear sense of direction. Ministers will want to match themselves with congregations with compatible goals. Furthermore, a clear, compelling mission statement provides all church leaders – minister, DRE, staff, and lay leaders- with a clear sense of direction. Without this, everyone makes up their own “mission.”    In a very fundamental sense, for UU congregations, a mission statement provides the “authority” and legitimacy for all that ministers, staff, and lay leaders do; without it, a congregation is rudderless.

2.      Do the policies, procedures, by-laws, and other governing documents reflect where the church wants to go institutionally?  Are these documents outdated? Do they reflect prevailing wisdom in UU congregations regarding best practices? Do they reflect where the congregation wishes to go, and specifically, what the congregation’s mission requires? In healthy congregations, the policies support the mission. This too, is very important because it is imperative that the Board, Minister, staff, committee chairs, and anyone else involved in leadership in a church are reading from the same playbook.  If there is not a common set of rules, then everyone makes up their own. That is not a situation the church will want to be in as it seeks a new settled minister.

3.      Are a congregation’s finances healthy?   More specifically, a congregation needs to analyze if they will be able to absorb the costs of a new settled minister, while maintaining the financial obligations they are already committed to.  A point will come in which the church will commit itself to a specific salary package for the new settled minister. This figure is very likely to be higher than what it has been in the past. It is important that a congregation be certain they can sustain the level of financial commitment it will be making. Some of the areas to look at are: the annual canvass, special fund raisers, and whether or not there is an effective endowment development program in place.  There is another issue at play. Prospective ministers will be looking at OCUUC and asking the question “What is the church’s level of commitment as reflected in its level of giving?” and what the answer is will be important to ministers making a decision about where to engage in ministry.

4.      Are there programs to support the mission of the church?  The most important aspect of this issue is does the church have a covenant group or small group ministry in place to support the growth and development of the church. In a broader sense, a church’s mission determines what programming goals will be most important for the church.

5.      Are there programs for leadership training adequate to the needs of the church? Being a leader in a UU church is very challenging and deserves and requires adequate training.  One of the roles of an interim minister is to engage in leadership training, and to bring in persons from the district or national level who can provide needed leadership training.  Most importantly, it is imperative to make sure the church leadership will have training in the future adequate to its needs.

It is important to address the tasks described above while a congregation is in its interim ministry period because a congregation will want its settled minister to focus on the basic tasks of ministry, i.e., preaching, worship, pastoral care, teaching, etc. and be less associated with administrative and organizational changes.  Change and experimentation are natural aspects of the processes mentioned above, and change can be stressful. A congregation does not want its settled minister to be entangled in the discomfort that change evokes; however, an interim minister, who will be with a congregation for a specifically defined period of time, can be more easily associated with the opprobrium of change without creating problems for the church.

I hope these comments are helpful. If you have any questions about my comments please do not hesitate to contact me.

The Winter Blood Drive will be on Sunday, December 11 from 8:30 – 2:30 in the OCUUC parking lot. This is a particularly tough time of year on the nation’s blood supply. We have members of our own congregation needing frequent transfusions. Please donate if you can. Appointments are very helpful, but walk-ins are always welcome! Sign Up at the Caring Table or online.

Blood Pressure Screening

December 11 will also be an opportunity for you to have your BP checked whether or not you are donating blood! During the Arts and Crafts Fair, Sally Cowan, RN, will be providing this service at the Caring Table, where Adair’s Heart Healthy Holiday Trail Mix will also be on sale!

Whooping Cough Vaccine

Pertussis, better known as Whooping Cough, has seen a dramatic resurgence in recent years. Although it is rarely life threatening to adults, it is not a minor illness. We are susceptible since our childhood immunity has worn off long ago and when adults do get it, they can pass it to babies and unimmunized children where it is a very serious illness. Now there is an effective new killed vaccine with no mercury preservative. Side effects are very unlikely, except for some tenderness at the injection site. The vaccine is a three-in-one: tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis.

You can get this from your health care provider or, if you have no insurance, the health department. Call them at 1-800-564-8448 for an appointment for: children, women of childbearing age (pregnant or not), any adult who cares for children or comes into contact with them regularly, and all over 64.

The Winter Solstice Singing Ritual has become a much-anticipated annual event at OCUUC for good reasons: beautiful music, a meaningful story, and the inspiring message of spreading light to the world.

This unique ritual is truly different from everything else we do.  Celebrating the darkest day of the year and the beginning of light’s return to the world, we tell the myth of  Persephone’s descent into the underworld through narration, poetry, and- most of all- song.

The service is powerful, meditative, and joyful.

• Join us in the sanctuary for a special evening performance
  on Saturday, December 17th at 8:00 pm.
• We also will perform the ritual on Sunday, December 18th at 10:00 am
  as the church’s Sunday service.

Come and celebrate the return of light and life to our world!

Religious Education is currently looking at adding a full RE program to our first service time on Sundays. Please send any thought, ideas or comments to me, we want to hear from you. The target date for beginning this pilot program is February 5 2012.

Note the link to sign up for Camp de Benneville Pines winter camps below. The camps fill quickly, particularly Sr. High Camp, so get your registration money in soon. Some scholarship money is available through OCUUC, contact Rayna for more information.

Thanks for all you do~~

Rayna Hamre, OCUUC Director of Religious Education

dreocuucorg

• Rehearsal for the Christmas Eve children’s choir.  All children are invited to participate:

Rehearsals will be Sundays from 1:00-1:45pm in the Gillan 3 classroom on these dates: November 27; December 4 (in the Sanctuary); December 11; December 18

The children’s choir will sing at the Christmas Eve service which will be on Saturday, December 24 at 7pm.  There will be a rehearsal around 6pm that night. The Christmas Eve service this year will be the “Would You Like to Hold the Baby?” pageant, which involves children, youth, and grown-ups acting out the nativity story.  Children can participate in BOTH the pageant and the children’s choir if they wish.   MusicDirectorocuucorg  (MusicDirectorocuucorg)   or dreocuucorg  (dreocuucorg)  

• Non-speaking, December 24th pageant parts available. Please contact Rayna or sign up at the RE Table on Sunday:

Mary, Joseph, Donkey, Innkeeper & Wife, Stable girl, Shepherds, 3 Wise People, Dove, sheep, cow, cats, horse & barnyard animals

• Backstage help needed:

Costume & mask helpers (night of the performance), staging coordinators, prop assistants, clean up and set break down(at least 4 helpers needed)          dreocuucorg

• Winter Jr. High OWL. The UU Fellowship of Long Beach will be hosting  Jr. High Our Whole Lives (OWL) for grades 8-9 (grade 7 on a case-by-case basis). This class will be held from late January to early March 2012. OWL training teaches young people to be responsible and become knowledgeable about their bodies and sexual choices. Contact Rayna or Merrie Lee if you are interested and would like more information.  See attached, and info flyers will be available at the RE Table with the dates dreocuucorg  (dreocuucorg)  
• Registration is ongoing for winter camps at de Benneville Pines. Sr. registration goes fast, sign up asap http://www.uucamp.org/
• Ongoing. Families are invited to bring non-perishable foods and toiletry items for the Share Our Selves (SOS) little green shopping cart on the patio. Goods will be dropped at SOS each week.
• Share Our Selves (SOS) adopt-a-family. Information on the patio for adopting a family for the winter holiday
• June 20-24 2012, UU Justice General Assembly (GA) in Phoenix http://www.uua.org/ga/  GA is the yearly general conference for the entire UU denomination. This year it is being held in Phoenix, and this is a wonderful opportunity for our families and youth to attend. We hope to have some fund raisers this year to help send our youth to Justice GA. Here is is a link to the new UU Justice GA blog http://immigrationjustice.blogs.uua.org/

David has been pastoring UU churches for over 10 years from Texas to Chicago, and has recently moved to Orange County. His ministry includes developing new churches as well as consulting congregations about mission development, worship, and outreach. He moved here with his better half, the Rev. Jennifer Owen-O’Quill, who serves at the Tapestry UU congregation. Together, David and Jennifer have a too-cute-to-believe son named Daniel.

  Online registration is available by following this link.

Link: Who may donate?

Craft, Cider and Stories Night with Judi & Rayna on Sat. 11/19, tonight! In the Social Hall, light dinner provided, 4-7 p.m.

Jr. High parents, attached is the information about upcoming Jr. High OWL in Long Beach. We need to get reservations in to Cheryl Kessler for our youth if they are attending. Registration will be held the first day, but we need to reserve spots for our youth.  The information is on the attached info sheet. Please contact me with any questions.

Note the link to sign up for Camp de Benneville Pines winter camps below. The camps fill quickly, particularly Sr. High Camp, so get your registration money in soon. Some scholarship money is available through OCUUC, contact Rayna for more information dre@ocuuc

Thanks for all you do~~

Rayna Hamre, OCUUC Director of Religious Education

• Family Night of Crafts, Cider and Stories, Saturday November 19th, 4-7 p.m. Come for a cozy evening of crafts with Judi and stories with Rayna. Warm cider and fall snacks, too. All who are young at heart are most welcome! Please RSVP to Rayna  (dreocuucorg)   so we can plan supplies and food. dreocuucorg  (dreocuucorg)  
• Saturday November 19th from 9am to 1pm at the Orangethorpe Methodist Church to hand out food to the needy. Call or text Merrie Lee.
• All children and youth are invited to sing in the Christmas Eve children’s choir.  There are animal parts and parts for hand percussion also. All children are invited to participate:

• Rehearsals will be Sundays from 1:00-1:45pm in the Gillan 3 classroom on these dates: November 27; December 4; December 11; December 18
• The children’s choir will sing at the Christmas Eve service which will be on Saturday, December 24 at 7pm.  There will be a rehearsal around 6pm that night. The Christmas Eve service this year will be the “Would You Like to Hold the Baby?” pageant, which involves children, youth, and grown-ups acting out the nativity story.  Children can participate in BOTH the pageant and the children’s choir if they wish.   MusicDirectorocuucorg  (MusicDirectorocuucorg)   or dreocuucorg  (dreocuucorg)  

• Winter Jr. High OWL. The UU Fellowship of Long Beach will be hosting  Jr. High Our Whole Lives (OWL) for grades 8-9 (grade 7 on a case-by-case basis). This class will be held from late January to early March 2012. OWL training teaches young people to be responsible and become knowledgeable about their bodies and sexual choices. Contact Rayna or Merrie Lee if you are interested and would like more information.  See attached, and info flyers will be available at the RE Table with the dates dreocuucorg  (dreocuucorg)  
• Registration is ongoing for winter camps at de Benneville Pines. Sr. registration goes fast, sign up asap http://www.uucamp.org/
• Families are invited to bring non-perishable foods and toiletry items for the Share Our Selves (SOS) little green shopping cart on the patio. Goods will be dropped at SOS each week.
• June 20-24 2012, UU Justice General Assembly in Phoenix http://www.uua.org/ga/  This is our yearly general conference for the entire UU denomination. This year it is being held in Phoenix, and this is a wonderful opportunity for our families and youth to attend. We hope to have some fund raisers this year to help send our youth to Justice GA. Here is is a link to the new UU Justice GA blog http://immigrationjustice.blogs.uua.org/

Craft, Cider and stories night with Judi & Rayna on Sat. 11/19 RSVP requested so we can plan supplies and food. This event will be cancelled if we do not receive your RSVPs by Wed. Nov. 16, so let us know if you can make it for this evening of family fun!

Special thanks this week to Ariana Kenney and Karen-Magoon Pearson for their assistance on November First Sunday, and to Merrie Lee and Heather McCoy for putting together our youth Halloween party.

Thanks for all you do~~

Rayna Hamre, OCUUC Director of Religious Education

• Family Night of Crafts, Cider and Stories, Saturday November 19th, 4-7 p.m. Come for a cozy evening of crafts with Judi and stories with Rayna. Warm cider and fall snacks, too. All who are young at heart are most welcome! Please RSVP to Rayna  (dreocuucorg)   so we can plan supplies and food. dreocuucorg  (dreocuucorg)  
• Saturday November 19th from 9am to 1pm at the Orangethorpe Methodist Church to hand out food to the needy. Call or text Merrie Lee.
• All children and youth are invited to sing in the Christmas Eve children’s choir.  There are animal parts and parts for hand percussion also. All children are invited to participate:

1. Rehearsals will be Sundays from 1:00-1:45pm in the Gillan 3 classroom on these dates: November 27; December 4; December 11; December 18
2. The children’s choir will sing at the Christmas Eve service which will be on Saturday, December 24 at 7pm.  There will be a rehearsal around 6pm that night. The Christmas Eve service this year will be the “Would You Like to Hold the Baby?” pageant, which involves children, youth, and grown-ups acting out the nativity story.  Children can participate in BOTH the pageant and the children’s choir if they wish.   MusicDirectorocuucorg  (MusicDirectorocuucorg)   or dreocuucorg  (dreocuucorg)  

• Winter Jr. High OWL. The UU Fellowship of Long Beach will be hosting  Jr. High Our Whole Lives (OWL) for grades 8-9 (grade 7 on a case-by-case basis). This class will be held from late January to early March 2012. OWL training teaches young people to be responsible and become knowledgeable about their bodies and sexual choices. Contact Rayna or Merrie Lee if you are interested and would like more information.  Info flyers will be available at the RE Table with the dates dreocuucorg  (dreocuucorg)  
• Families are invited to bring non-perishable foods and toiletry items for the Share Our Selves (SOS) little green shopping cart on the patio. Goods will be dropped at SOS each week.
• June 20-24 2012, UU Justice General Assembly in Phoenix http://www.uua.org/ga/  This is our yearly general conference for the entire UU denomination. This year it is being held in Phoenix, and this is a wonderful opportunity for our families and youth to attend. We hope to have some fund raisers this year to help send our youth to Justice GA. Here is is a link to the new UU Justice GA blog http://immigrationjustice.blogs.uua.org/

A big thanks to Merrie Lee, Heather, Vera Viana-Asper, Frankie Seigfried, Jade & Jeremiah, Gabrielle Block, and Birdie Reed for assistance with our special activities on Halloween Sunday. Our regular volunteer teachers jumped right in, too. Adults and young people had a fun day. We had a learning activity centered around our reverse trick-or-treat packets that were put together by the children and were sent home for each family.

Thanks for all you do~~

Rayna Hamre, OCUUC Director of Religious Education

• Family Night of Crafts, Cider and Stories, Saturday November 19th, 4-7 p.m. Come for a cozy evening of crafts with Judi and stories with Rayna. Warm cider and fall snacks, too. All who are young at heart are most welcome! Please RSVP to Rayna  (dreocuucorg)   so we can plan supplies and food. dreocuucorg  (dreocuucorg)  
• All children and youth are invited to sing in the Christmas Eve children’s choir.   I will also have parts for hand percussion if they would rather play than sing:

1. Rehearsals will be Sundays from 1:00-1:45pm in the Gillan 3 classroom on these dates: November 27; December 4; December 11; December 18
2. The children’s choir will sing at the Christmas Eve service which will be on Saturday, December 24 at 7pm.  There will be a rehearsal around 6pm that night. The Christmas Eve service this year will be the “Would You Like to Hold the Baby?” pageant, which involves children, youth, and grown-ups acting out the nativity story.  Children can participate in BOTH the pageant and the children’s choir if they wish.   MusicDirectorocuucorg  (MusicDirectorocuucorg)  

• Winter Jr. High OWL. The UU Fellowship of Long Beach will be hosting  Jr. High Our Whole Lives (OWL) for grades 8-9 (grade 7 on a case-by-case basis). This class will be held from late January to early March 2012. OWL training teaches young people to be responsible and become knowledgeable about their bodies and sexual choices. Contact Rayna or Merrie Lee if you are interested and would like more information.  Info flyers will be available at the RE Table.dreocuucorg  (dreocuucorg)  
• Saturday, November 5^th Assist with our building and grounds clean up and maintenance.
  9:00 am Work Party, OCUUC grounds
• November 6th will be our all-church Goods and Services auction. I have been to some wonderful events over the years, including pizza making last month. Plan to offer an event and come for the fun! Contact Rayna or Merrie Lee for more information.  dreocuucorg  (dreocuucorg)  
• Families are invited to bring non-perishable foods and toiletry items for the Share Our Selves (SOS)  little green shopping cart on the patio. Goods will be dropped at SOS each week.
• June 20-24 2012, UU Justice General Assembly in Phoenix http://www.uua.org/ga/  This is our yearly general conference for the entire UU denomination. This year it is being held in Phoenix, and this is a wonderful opportunity for our families and youth to attend. We hope to have some fund raisers this year to help send our youth to Justice GA. Here is is a link to the new UU Justice GA blog http://immigrationjustice.blogs.uua.org/

An important part of this document indicates that we will “honor established process of resolving conflict where differences become chronic.”  The Board of Trustees has established new procedures to implement this Covenant. You can find those procedures in our “Peacemaking Policy” and our procedures for correcting a “Serious Breach of Covenant.”

Beginning the first Sunday in November, the first religious service will begin at 9:45 a.m., rather than 9:30.

And, don’t forget to set your clocks back on Saturday night November 5th for Daylight Savings.

I look forward to seeing you in church.

In the month of November I will explore the theme of gratitude, appreciation and thankfulness. Rather than just talk about gratitude, I would like to invite every member and friend of the church to experiment with the practice of appreciation- by engaging in an effort to express gratitude in their daily lives. This could take the form of expressing gratitude to family and friends. I will be talking further about this in my sermons this month.

Beginning the first Sunday in November, the first religious service will begin at 9:45 a.m., rather than 9:30.

And, don’t forget to set your clocks back on Saturday night for Daylight Savings.

I look forward to seeing you in church.

Our first group of highlighted UUs includes Margaret Fuller, Hans Deutsch and Rev. Charles Joy, and George de Benneville. Margaret Fuller was a 19^th century intellectual, mystic, war correspondent and early champion of women’s rights. Hans Deutsch and Rev. Joy designed the flaming chalice during the resistance movement of World War II. This symbol eventually became the symbol of our shared Unitarian and Universalist faith. George de Benneville championed our Universalist heritage in the 18^th century, and preached that all people are loved and saved by God. He risked of his life to say these words in both Lutheran and Catholic Europe, and many of his friends were killed for these activities. His life was important, important enough for our UU Camp de Benneville Pines in the San Bernardino Mountains to be named after him.

One paragraph cannot do justice to the lives of these amazing and complex individuals. Below are UUA resources if you would like to explore further:

http://www25-temp.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/margaretfuller.html

http://www.uua.org/publications/pamphlets/introductions/151248.shtml

http://www25-temp.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/georgedebenneville.html

I am honored to share these brave and inspired lives with our children and youth. I hold an MA in history, so this is a true passion of mine. Presenting age-appropriate information and activities with enthusiasm can bring people from the past alive to young people. History shouldn’t be boring!

Of course 1^st Sundays are only one week out of our month. Our regular curriculum Sundays are taught by a wonderful group of volunteers. As always, I am so grateful for our RE community! Thanks to all those who help teach and support our young people on Sundays and beyond.

I look forward to a year of learning and fun with our OCUUC children and youth!

In Gratitude~~

Rayna Hamre, OCUUC Director of Religious Education

Craft night with Judi on Sat. 11/19 rsvp requested; Talents and Services Auction Sunday 11/6; we need a few more adults to help out with RE this Sunday for our fun & informative Halloween RE time. Kids are invited to wear their costumes. Face painting between services, reverse trick-or-treating packets and more. More information below.

Thanks for all you do~~

Rayna Hamre, OCUUC Director of Religious Education

• Date change for crafts with Judi, Saturday November 19.  Come and have fun, snacks and make some winter craft items to take home and to sell at our our Dec. crafts fair as a RE fundraiser. Plenty of crafts for the entire family, don’t miss this night! Save baby food or other small jars WITH lids, cleaned and label, free please, for snow globes. You can drop them off at the RE table on Sundays. Please rsvp so we can purchase supplies and get ready for the fun.  dreocuucorg  (dreocuucorg)  
• All children and youth are invited to sing in the Christmas Eve children’s choir.   I will also have parts for hand percussion if they would rather play than sing.

1. Rehearsals will be Sundays from 1:00-1:45pm in the Gillan 3 classroom on these dates: November 27; December 4; December 11; December 18
2. The children’s choir will sing at the Christmas Eve service which will be on Saturday, December 24 at 7pm.  There will be a rehearsal around 6pm that night. The Christmas Eve service this year will be the “Would You Like to Hold the Baby?” pageant, which involves children, youth, and grown-ups acting out the nativity story.  Children can participate in BOTH the pageant and the children’s choir if they wish.   MusicDirectorocuucor  (MusicDirectorocuucorg)  g
3. We will be looking for a few good actors to participate in the pageant. No speaking parts except for  a bit of mooing, neighing or baaaing.

• November 6th will be our all-church Goods and Services auction. I have been to some wonderful events over the years, including pizza making last month. Plan to offer an event and come for the fun! Contact Rayna or Merrie Lee for more information.  dreocuucorg  (dreocuucorg)  
• June 20-24 2012, UU Justice General Assembly in Phoenix http://www.uua.org/ga/  This is our yearly general conference for the entire UU denomination. This year it is being held in Phoenix, and this is a wonderful opportunity for our families and youth to attend. We hope to have some fund raisers this year to help send our youth to Justice GA. Here is is a link to the new UU Justice GA blog http://immigrationjustice.blogs.uua.org/

Within OCUUC: 
AIDS Team Ministry update – Clients are switching back to us because our food tastes better!  We have three freezers full of food and an active list of clients, but can use more help with logistics.  Contact Ted Lundholm  (atmocuucorg)   to help.

Join us at the Program Fair on Sunday, November 13th between services where we will ask you “What Do You Do For Others?”  Perhaps there are issues of social justice that you have in common with fellow OCUUCers!

Other UU Organizations Outside of OCUUC:
The 28th Annual UU Service Committee Latin American Encuentro was held yesterday at First Church Los Angeles.  It was the kickoff of the Social Justice GA that will be held June 20-24, 2012 in Phoenix.  As you may know, General Assembly 2012 will be a gathering with multiple ways of engaging in justice work for people of all ages. Joining with the people of Arizona, we will worship, witness, learn and work together.

The regional coordinator is Emrys Staton.  You can also learn more online by following these important

• General Assembly Blog
• Twitter
• Facebook

UU Legislative Ministry of California’s annual Leadership Summit will be held at Camp deBenneville Pines November 18-20. This will be an in depth training opportunity for justice leaders. Our Young Leaders SALT (Spiritual Activist Leadership Training) participants will also be engaged in this.

Organizations Recognized by OCUUC:

The California Alliance for Retired Americans held their 2011 Annual Convention last week in Long Beach.  8 resolutions passed:

1.) Eliminate the Death Penalty
2.)Protect Workers Rights
3.)Disclose Political Supporters
4.) Gay Pride Month Senior Centers
5.) Pedestrian Safety
6.)Protect CA from Dangers of Nuclear Power Plants
7.)Support an Immigration Policy based on Labor and Human Rights
8.) Outlaw Hiring Discrimination against the Unemployed

Consider joining this organization if these issues appeal to you (and you don’t have to be a retiree!)  See Eva Lu Goodwin Noriega for details.

CARA Town Hall on Social Security, Medicare, and Medi-Cal will be held on Wednesday, November 16, from 2pm – 4pm.  It will be held at the Dayle McIntosh Center, 13272 Garden Grove Boulevard, Garden Grove, CA 92843 (map).  The town hall meeting regards the federal budget negotiations in the Supercommittee, and how they will effect Social Security, Medicare, and Medi-Cal. If you or your loved ones are effected, this is an important opportunity to make your voice heard. Contact Eva Lu Goodwin Noriega for details.

ACLU Southern California is taking a stand against the death penalty in 2012.  The SAFE California Campaign is working to give voters a chance to replace the death penalty on the November 2012 ballot.  But the work begins now.  Contact Birdie Reed if interested in this issue.

This past Friday, the Student/Farmworker Alliance marched against Trader Joe’s.  One of the local organizers was Natasha Noriega-Goodwin.  Click here to read more about this very interesting, but seldom heard about event.

Faith In Action meets monthly, usually on the third Sunday of the month.  You are always welcome to attend, organize, and get people interested about a social justice issue important to you.  

Sincerely,
Charlie and Birdie Reed, Eva Lu Goodwin Noriega, Pat McCully, Ken Arnold, Dan Noel, Earl Hardenbrook, and Mike Harmanos, Chair 

dreocuucorg  (dreocuucorg)  

Look for a new service project on the patio. OCUUC will begin an ongoing collection for Share Our Selves, canned goods and toiletry items.

RE teachers, please note this Sunday is the last opportunity to attend teacher training. We will gather immediately after the service to review changes and updates in our RE program.

Beth Syverson, our Director of Music Ministries, is getting ready for our Christmas Eve Service. Note the dates for the children’s choir practice below. Your child’s participation is most welcome for this year’s pageant! Contact Beth at

MusicDirectorocuucorg  (MusicDirectorocuucorg)  

Thanks for all you do~~

Rayna Hamre, OCUUC Director of Religious Education

• All children and youth are invited to sing in the Christmas Eve children’s choir.   There will be parts for hand percussion if your child would rather play than sing:

• • Rehearsals will be Sundays from 1:00-1:45pm in the Gillan 3 classroom on these dates: November 27; December 4; December 11; December 18
  • The children’s choir will sing at the Christmas Eve service which will be on Saturday, December 24 at 7pm.  There will be a rehearsal around 6pm that night. The Christmas Eve service this year will be the “Would You Like to Hold the Baby?” pageant, which involves children, youth, and grown-ups acting out the nativity story.  Children can participate in BOTH the pageant and the children’s choir if they wish.   MusicDirectorocuucorg  (MusicDirectorocuucorg)  

• Teacher training will be held after the second service, on Sunday October 23^rd at 12:45.  All RE teachers are requested to attend if you did not go to last week’s training. It will not take too long and will fun & informative ;)   dreocuucorg  (dreocuucorg)  
• Winter Jr. High OWL. The UU Fellowship of Long Beach will be hosting  Jr. High Our Whole Lives (OWL) for grades 8-9 (grade 7 on a case-by-case basis). This class will be held from late January to early March 2012. OWL training teaches young people to be responsible and become knowledgeable about their bodies and sexual choices. Contact Rayna or Merrie Lee if you are interested and would like more information.  Info flyers will be available at the RE Table.dreocuucorg  (dreocuucorg)  
• October 24, Social Justice Leadership Webinar. The UUA is presenting a series of webinars this fall, this is the first http://ocuuc.org/socialjustice/2011/10/social-justice-leadership-webinar-monday-october-24/
• October 29^th, 9am-1 pm, CPR and defibrillation training. Just a few spots are left, priority for RE teachers. Contact Rayna at dreocuucorg  (dreocuucorg)  
• October 30, Sunday, Reverse Trick-or-Treating kits for your families. Let neighbors, friend and family know about earth-friendly options for chocolate purchases. Kits will be ready for pick-up in the Social Hall. We will hold our annual morning of face-painting, too! If you would like to help out with face-painting contact Rayna or an RE Committee member dreOCUUCorg  (dreOCUUCorg)  
• November 6th will be our all-church Goods and Services auction. I have been to some wonderful events over the years, including pizza making last month. Plan to offer an event and come for the fun! Contact Rayna or Merrie Lee for more information.  dreocuucorg  (dreocuucorg)  
• Sat. Nov. 12, crafts with Judi! Come and have fun, snacks and make some winter craft items to take home and to sell at our our Dec. crafts fair as a RE fundraiser. Plenty of crafts for the entire family, don’t miss this night! Save baby food or other small jars WITH lids, cleaned and label, free please, for snow globes. You can drop them off at the RE table on Sundays. Please rsvp so we can purchase supplies .  dreocuucorg  (dreocuucorg)  
• June 20-24 2012, UU Justice General Assembly in Phoenix http://www.uua.org/ga/  This is our yearly general conference for the entire UU denomination. This year it is being held in Phoenix, and this is a wonderful opportunity for our families and youth to attend. We hope to have some fund raisers this year to help send our youth to Justice GA. Here is is a link to the new UU Justice GA blog http://immigrationjustice.blogs.uua.org/

Service times have changed to 9:45am and 11:15 am.  Also, please remember Daylight Savings asks you to FALL BACK on Saturday night before you go to sleep.

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OCUUC Fall 2011 Events, Goods & Services Auction on Sunday, November 6th from 10:30 am-2:00 pm

View the Auction Catalog here.

Get ready for different kind of Goods and Services Auction!

Silent Auction

• Bidding will be available between services for early birds, and we will provide a “Buy it Now” price in case you can’t stay. Our fabulous Auction volunteers will be on hand to assist you in bidding, should you need it.
• Bidding will be open between 10:30 am and 11:15 for early attendees. Bidding will close during second service but will reopen at 12:30 pm.

Afternoon Event

• Lunch will be available for $4.00 starting at 12:30 pm. Beer and wine bar open.
• Live music by rock/blues band “About Time” starts at 1:00 pm for your enjoyment.
• At 1:45, the Silent auction ends (pencils down!) and winners are determined.
• Members, recent visitors, friends, and friends of friends are invited and welcomed.
• We will have age-appropriate activities for children.  The nursery will be open for the youngest.  In order to help us plan a great time for your children, please let us know if they’re coming.  RSVP to Mary  (presidentocuucorg)  .

If you’d like to offer an event, goods, or services, you may use the online form to submit your information or you may print out this form, fill in your information, and turn it in at the Auction Table. Submit your items by Sunday October 30th and be entered to win $150 in scrip!

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Join us for our Annual Programs Fair on Sunday, November 13th, 10:00 am to 1:00 pm on the patio.

What is the Programs Fair? It is one way that Committees, Groups and Recognized Organizations can present themselves to the OCUUC community. The goal is to provide volunteer opportunities that motivate people to get involved with the good work you do.  For more information, email Mike Scott  (programsocuucorg)  .