BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.3.3//EN TZID:America/Los_Angeles X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:VEVENT UID:3205@uucpa.org DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20180318T121500 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20180318T131500 DTSTAMP:20180301T160259Z URL:https://www.uucpa.org/events/shall-keep-church-congregations-name/ SUMMARY:Shall We Keep “Church” in Our Congregation’s Name? DESCRIPTION:Shall We Keep “Church” in Our Congregation’s Name? Oppor tunity to Provide Your Opinion On March 18th\n\nMichael Lohman\, a life-lo ng Unitarian\, moving here from Rockville\, MD 3.5 years ago told the Boar d last fall that he was surprised to learn that UUCPA still had the word ' church' in its name as his former Rockville congregation changed their nam e from church to congregation over 5 years to avoid perceived barrier to p otential new members visiting us. Our research on UU congregations uncover ed that while 421 congregations included “church” in their names\, 586 use a different name\, such as\, 246 with fellowship (which connotes a sm aller congregation to many) and 155 with “congregation” and 31 with “community.”  If you are interested in learning more\, you can read a bout another congregation’s name change process to replace church with c ongregation at http://www.euuc.org/events/name_change.php.\n\nIn our discu ssions with members from both services since Feb. 4th\, many didn’t have strong feelings to change our name\, but they could be comfortable to dro p word “church” and replace it with another “C” word like “congr egation” or “community” (thereby maintaining acronym UUCPA) if it wo uld prevent barrier to attend. Some of these reasons to drop “church” in our name included:\n\n Members raised Jewish find the word “church ” very uncomfortable\n People with no previous religious affiliation av oid “church” because of religious right/evangelical connotation.\n To many\, church means Bible-based and conservative.\n\nResults of Discussio n So Far\n\nIn over roughly 45 interviews about 35 preferred to remove wor d “church” from our name with 10 either not seeing need for change\, i nitially\, but after thinking it through\, changed their position. Only 4 in the end wanted to stay with church. Currently\, the majority of those w ith whom we engaged in discussion preferred to drop or replace church in o ur name. The majority preferred “congregation” with second largest gro up liking “community.”\n\nPlease Provide Your Input on March 18th\n\nW hat do you think about potential change? You have chance to share your opi nion with those of others at meeting on Sunday\, March 18\, 2018\,  12: 15 – 1:15 pm in Room 6.\n\n \;\n\nhttps://www.uucpa.org/events/shall -keep-church-congregations-name/\n\n \; CATEGORIES:Classes LOCATION:Room 6 GEO:37.419574;-122.11249800000002 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=505 E Charleston Rd\, Palo Alto\, CA\, 94306\, United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=Room 6:geo:37 .419574,-122.11249800000002 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Los_Angeles X-LIC-LOCATION:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20180311T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR