As we move through these sweet days of Summer, we are looking ahead to Fall for back to school and back to church—or at least more church events. For the coming Fall, there are some things that will be the same and some things will be different, kind of like the rest of life these days.
We will still gather for worship on Sunday mornings at 10:00 am in person and online. We will still gather to be together, practice together, and learn together. We’ll still work together for a world that is loving, just, and healthy.
Our theological grounding in Unitarian Universalism calls us to live in this world and make it as just as it can be. In this time of division, partisanship, and authoritarianism, we think an important role of a faith community is to help us learn how to practice humility, build bridges, and understand the forces that cause us to be divided. We think practice in multiculturalism is important, and that understanding racism and white supremacy culture is key.
With that in mind, we will be focusing our efforts this next year toward this annual theme:
Building Beloved Community with a focus on anti-racism and the practice of coming together again, in-person, online, and in covenant.
This theme has integrated connection, justice, and practice.
We’ll continue having monthly spiritual themes that we’ll use in worship, learning, singing, and discussion. For this next year, the themes will be:
September – Welcome
October – Covenant
November – Accountability
December – Refuge
January – Power
February – Liberation
March – Commitment
April – Trust
May – Vision
June – Relationship/Community
Sunday Mornings!
We’re also excited to add a regular event after the Sunday morning service. Whether we stay at one service or move to two services, we’ll add the opportunity to practice together.
While we are offering one service it will be “Worship Together” from 10:00-11:00 am, “Be Together” from 11-11:30 am (breakout rooms online and coffee in-person), then “Practice Together” starting at 11:30 am. Practice together might be the opportunity to listen and share with events like Melanie Ransom’s Talk Show, a Board Listening Session, or a forum on a theme-related topic. We’ll also have practice rooms at OUUC for discussion, quiet, and creativity.
Thursday Evening Community and Faith Development Night!
We’re very excited to be planning a weekly focus on re-gathering and re-building community together for the program year (September-June). The plan is to have an evening that offers something for everyone and makes it easy for us all to gather. To that end, the plan is to offer a community dinner every Thursday, 5:30-6:30 pm. That will be followed by faith development programming such as adult education classes, children’s religious education classes, small groups such as Young Adults, and other exciting possibilities. We will provide childcare for the young ones. And we will continue to offer our Spiritual Practices at 7:00 pm on Thursdays, so folks can also choose to attend that. Some events will be online and some in-person so everyone can participate in the way they choose.
Rev. Mary and Rev Sara are already planning on offering a class together on Thursday evenings, Building the World We Dream About. Watch the schedule to find out what else is offered!
If you are interested in helping plan or offer Sunday worship or after-service events, please contact Rev. Mary at minister@ouuc.org
If you have an interest in helping support the dinners or offer a program on Thursday evenings, please contact Sara Lewis at dre@ouuc.org
We are really looking forward to Fall and hope that you are too. See you soon.
Rev. Mary minister@ouuc.org
Rev. Sara dre@ouuc.org
