The service’s message about friendship is more than a warm affirmation of its importance. It can be joyful and spontaneous, or edgy and slow-growing.
Friendship is found in the relationship of two well-known political opposites who demonstrate their mutual caring even as they adamantly disagree on a public stage. Friendship is created from an unlikely relationship between a 40-something man and a woman in her 90’s. For all of our lives, friendship is what sustains us when we need to find hope.
Consider bringing a friend to this service as an affirmation of your relationship. Trust that you’ll find something new to discuss as a result of our time together. And speaking of new, we’ll be singing a new hymn, chosen by the Association of UU Musicians before the pandemic and brought to UUCPA for the first time by Rev. Banks.
Rev. Beth Banks began her parish ministry at the downtown First Universalist Church of Rochester, NY. She served for 22 years as the Senior Minister at the UU Church of Davis. At both congregations she initiated collaborative long-lasting relationships between the church and community organizations.
In Rochester, NY, the Eastman School of Music (University of Rochester) and the Universalist Church, collaborated to create an ongoing concert series showcasing music conservatory students. In Davis, Rev. Beth worked with the Director of the AB540 & Undocumented Student Center linking trained congregation members with a program for undocumented university students and their allies. There are over 600 undocumented students attending UC Davis.
Rev. Beth is currently volunteering with the Humphrey Fellows/Fulbright Scholar program at UC Davis, and sings second soprano in the Davis Community Chorale. Her most elusive life goal is to train her mini-Australian Shepherd for Good Citizen certification.
Her UUCPA family include Richard, and her sister Phyllis Cassel, Chaz Cassel, Jana Humbert Cassel and Charlie Cassel.
Worship leader: Rev. Beth Banks
Worship Associate: Jane Chronis
Special music: Larry Chinn, jazz piano
You can follow along in the order of service bit.ly/uucpa_oos_20240721.
If you prefer to attend online, there are two options. One, join the service via Zoom bit.ly/uucpa_service_1015am_v3. To get the passcode, email sundayservice@uucpa.org or call UUCPA’s outgoing voicemail message, 650-494-0541. It is also included in the weekly update emails. Two, to watch the service live on our Facebook page (no passcode required), visit UUCPA’s live Facebook feed.
Photo credits, clockwise from top left: Rajnishpatel20894, Kwameghana, both CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Joey Huang, Omar Lopez, both on Unsplash