Wonder
There is a lovely story I read recently about the history of the Christmas tree. Christmas trees were brought over to the US by German immigrants, but they were made famous by Harriet Martineau, a writer and abolitionist, who had been invited to the family of Rev. Charles Follen, a Unitarian, to stay with them over Christmas. Charles and his wife had secretly brought a tree into the house (usually Christmas trees were outside) unbeknownst to their three young children…
November Sanctuary Update – part 2
According to our sanctuary architect Toni Pyjar from domusstudio, who is our primary liaison with the City of Costa Mesa, things have been moving along this week: PlanningThe new planner assigned to the project, Christopher Aldana, has communicated with us many times this week. I’ve found him to be very responsive and service-oriented. A much-deserved breath of fresh air from the planning dept.He reviewed the site photometrics and the existing parking lighting passed entirely, except one area in the southwest…
Camp. And more.
My family and I had a wonderful time at our All-Church Weekend at Camp de Benneville Pines the second weekend of October. We hadn’t been there for five years, and our youngest had never been there at all. Camp de Benneville Pines is very special to my husband and me, as we attended UU Young Adult Camp there for many years be-fore we became parents. It was amazing watching it become a sacred place for our kids, too. Most of…
Change
There are some forms of change that come easy for me. For example, I’ve probably lived in 50-60 different places in my life; I’m used to moving around and while I don’t always enjoy the journey, I always enjoy the destination. I haven’t yet found a place that I don’t like. And I love to learn – you all know I’ve always got some new hobby on my plate, and I try to make the services diverse and intellectually stimulating…
November Sanctuary Update
Here is the latest update provided to our new OCUUC sanctuary project team from Toni Pyjar, our project architect contact at domusstudio, who is our primary liaison with the City of Costa Mesa. “We have some good news for you. We received some plan check comments from the City! Upon first review, they appear to have no significant architectural impact on the project scope. We will request clarification of some of their comments and; of course, advocate with the church’s…
Board Goals
The Board met October 26th and created some goals for ourselves for this year. We will need everyone working on it together to be most effective. We were committed to creating goals that are understandable, will guide action, and will be clear whether we achieved them. Hold us accountable! Please contact any Board member if you would like more information or are willing to help. Our next Board meeting is Saturday, November 19th from 9am-12pm in the Victoria Room. We…
Gratitude
We are so lucky at OCUUC to have such dedicated and talented musicians in our ranks. Orange Coast Choir is practicing every Thursday at 7pm and we’re usually singing 3 times per month in the Sunday services. If you’re interested in singing with us, or just trying it out, come on over on a Thursday, or contact me anytime. Orange Coast Choir meets in Daniels Hall and on Zoom at https://zoom.us/j/581556612. The only two requirements to get into the choir…
Our Whole Lives (OWL)
On September 17th we brought together families from our church, from Tapestry UU in Lake Forest, and from our larger Orange County community for very successful orientation for our upcoming Our Whole Lives Sexuality Education (OWL) classes for grades 4 to 6. This curriculum, developed by the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ, is designed to help children ages nine through twelve gain the knowledge, life principles, and skills they need to express their sexuality in life-enhancing…
Construction Update
Once again, our Wild and Scenic Film Festival was a huge success! Many, many, thanks to Linda Spery and her crew for all the work and organization. A great weekend at OCUUC! It was especially wonderful to see so many new faces and expand our circle. I have a feeling we will be hearing more about many of the issues raised. We are all anxious to know when construction of our new sanctuary will begin. It is already later than…
What is Courage?
A friend of mine once told me that he thought I was a courageous person. I was confused. I hadn’t done anything to my mind that seemed in any way courageous. When I asked him why he said that, he re-plied, “Well, you went off and lived in Australia. You’ve moved around a lot, even overseas.” I was rather stunned that he considered that “courageous.” I had moved around all my life – my parents were inveterate travelers. Moving was…
A new Audio Engineer
Have you met our new Audio Engineer, Avery Brown yet? Avery (they/them) was hired last month and has already become an indispensable part of our worship team. They’ve recently run sound at the Spencer LaJoye concert (which was amazing, by the way!) and for our recent Music Under the Stars concert. They even came out from behind the soundboard at Music Under the Stars to sing and play piano. Multi-talented! I knew Avery from Long Beach Chorale and Orange Coast…
Superhero Academy
We’re gearing up for a fabulous year in Religious Education. We’ll be doing a new program called Superhero Academy with our Kindergarten — 6th grade group. The program’s introduction states, “From their humble beginnings in comic books of the 1930s and 40s, to modern day blockbuster movies, irreverent cartoons, and thrilling amusement park attractions, superheroes have certainly invaded our cultural zeitgeist. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find a child today who hasn’t fantasized about being a superhero or…