The winter holidays are here and many of our favorite holiday events are happening at UUCPA: Holiday Bazaar, Caroling, Aurora Singers Concert, No-Rehearsal Christmas Pageant, Winter Solstice, and Christmas Eve. Members, friends, and visitors to the church are welcome to come together in community.
Poet. Skeptic. Thinker. Seeker. What do you hear when you quiet your mind, engage with your breathing, and wait for the whisper of your innermost voice? Maybe you have been meaning to try meditation with a group but haven’t taken the first step. Good news – I offer an invitation and introduction. The Saturday Meditation ...
This past weekend the Action Council received a request to sign on to a letter to the Palo Alto City Council advocating support for the efforts of the local Amah Mutsun tribe to prevent development of a sand and gravel pit mine on land in southern Santa Clara County that previously belonged to their people ...
The Adult Learning Journey (ALJ) Committee would like to hear from you to help us plan future classes! We invite you to complete a short survey, as soon as possible and no later than December 3. You can do that in one of two ways:
Complete the online survey by clicking here: 2024 UUCPA Survey on ...
I want to highlight in particular: Family Giving Tree! If you are looking for a way to spread some cheer with your loved ones and UUCPA friends, come sign up for a slot or two on December 14. We will be helping out with the Holiday Wish Drive which attempts to match each child with ...
Our 2024 Undie Sunday drive will take place in early December this year. There will be opportunities to donate physical items for our local unhoused community or to make a financial donation which will allow the Action Council to purchase items on your behalf. Stay tuned for more details coming in the first week of ...
Dear UUCPA folks, As people have shared their concerns about the incoming administration, from the vigil on November 6 until now, one of the most common themes has been “We have to protect the most vulnerable people.” The incoming president has issued many threats, but who knows how many he’ll actually carry out. Two, however, ...
A Special Congregational Meeting will be held after the service this Sunday, Nov 24, to vote on the Campus Vision Project. If you did not attend the Campus Vision Update meeting on Oct 20, you might want to watch the video of that meeting. The Oct 20 presentation included more detailed information than we will ...
On Nov 24th, we’ll vote for the future of the Campus Vision project, where we hope to have every one of us participating!
At the meeting, we will provide updates on two key areas: the progress toward increasing pledges to meet the $300,000 needed for the Vision project’s additional costs, and the fulfillment of the original ...
The Forum meets from 8:30 to 10 am on Sunday mornings. Here are the Forum topics for December, 2024:
12/1 What is time? How is it measured? – Warren Schmidt
12/8 Implications of the new Administration – Dick Duda
12/15 Un-natural Selection: Examples from the Darwin Awards – Sarah Doxiadis
12/22 Your Favorite Job, Part 2 – Barbara Symons ...
Welcome to this old-fashioned Elder Journey session! We gather to check in, get to know each other better, and share about a topic. The day’s topic: “All I want for Christmas / Hanukah / the holidays is . . . ” If you could make your holiday season all that you hope for this year, ...
Due to the holiday, the parent orientation meeting will now be on Nov. 17 from 11:30 – 12:30 in Room A.
https://www.uucpa.org/learning/coming-of-age/
Dear ones, it has been a hard week. And, not gonna lie, it’s going to be a hard four years just making sure that this week’s presidential election was not our last. I’ll be very brief and paraphrase a colleague in Texas: if you’re feeling alone, scared, or hopeless, come to UUCPA this Sunday. That ...
Please mark your calendars for the celebration of Fred Zeise’s life.
The service will be held in the Main Hall and also may be attended via Zoom at this link. An order of service will be posted here by Sunday.
Thank you for your generous Auction donations. Now it’s time to start bidding…
For the auction catalog, go to https://auctria.events/uucpa2024auction and click Catalog in the top right menu bar.
Auctria, our auction service provider, requires you to register with your email address in order to bid.
Notable auction items:
Meeting of Minds is back and it’s coming up on November 17!
A great holiday party is planned just ...
Come One, Come All!
On Sunday, October 27, in the morning at Church please pick up your information packet, following up from last week’s meeting after the Sunday Service.
And if you missed the meeting – don’t worry – read all about it!
Ask us any questions you have – we’ll be by the packet table.
See you there,
The ...
Would you like to help replace some of the last flourescent tubes on campus with LEDs? Join me, Robert Neff, after church on upcoming Sundays (except not 2nd Sunday), and we will spend an hour or so replacing a few bulbs at a time. There are 7 pairs to go. You do not need electrical ...
You don’t have to be Superman.
You don’t have to own a time machine.
You just have to remember that the clocks go back one hour at 2 a.m. on Sunday, November 3. Enjoy your extra hour, and we’ll see you Sunday morning, Pacific Standard Time!
Our Justice Partner this month, as chosen by the congregation at the annual meeting, is Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, connecting clergy and people of faith to the work of social justice. This coming Sunday, November 3, Kelly Younger will speak about Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity at our morning worship service, and the entire offering ...
On November 3, we remember those we have lost: beloved people, pets, places . . . Whatever and whomever your heart has mourned, whether recently or long ago, we want to honor and celebrate them with you. Please bring the photos and mementos that will make our space sacred. Having your photos in frames is ...
Others are permitted to watch as well 😉
https://youtu.be/q2P4J8-gkeI
Menlo Park Film Discussion Group meets Nov 4
Wednesday, November 6. Election Day will be behind us, but the counting may be far from complete. We will have worked hard, UU’d the vote, empowered as many voters as we could, in the hopes that justice, equity, and all our most cherished values will prevail. Now we rest and wait. Come be in a ...
UUs of color: Diverse & Revolutionary Unitarian Universalist Ministries, California, welcomes you
A message from Rev. Kevin Alan Mann, convener of DRUUMM CA:
bell hooks said, “Beloved community is formed not by the eradication of difference but by its affirmation, by each of us claiming the identities and cultural legacies that shape who we are and how ...
Are you planning to hand out chocolate this Halloween? Did you know that some well-known chocolate brands purchase their chocolate from farms and plantations that use child labor or slave labor? And some other brands choose to look the other way or don’t track their ingredient sourcing carefully. Buying “fair trade” chocolate is a good way to ...
https://www.uua.org/calendars/uua/uua-congregational-data-certification-webinar
https://youtu.be/CseLf4PHmbQ
If you’re interested in having meaningful conversations in a small group, with a different short reading each time as the springboard to an hour of exploration, join Resonant Reading any Saturday or Wednesday afternoon.
Anyone can suggest a reading, and we’ll put it on the website for an upcoming date and happily jump in. The only ...
Many Unitarian Universalist congregations and individuals, such as the UU Congregation of Asheville, NC, were hit hard by the hurricanes of the past week, and you can send support to them via the UUA Disaster Relief Fund. UUCPA gratefully received funds from this source last year after the flood here, and this is a wonderful ...
IMPORTANT MEETING: The Campus Vision Project has received new construction estimates and is ready to update the congregation on the budget and schedule. Elsa Schafer will also have an update on the Capital Campaign.
Join the Campus Vision Task Force and the Capital Campaign Committee for a brief meeting on the Building Project on Sunday, Oct ...
UUCPA is a busy place, and our two-member publicity team is hard-pressed at times to get the word out about everything that’s happening. We don’t want anyone to miss out on a great event. If you’re looking for your volunteer niche, read on.
We have a simple system that makes it possible for each team ...
In Dismantling White Supremacy this Tuesday, October 8, we’ll learn the background and impact of a Fair Chance Housing ordinance and take effective, immediate action to help reverse a form of systemic racism that keeps people out of housing in Palo Alto. I hope you can be there!
If you are not subscribed to the Dismantling White ...
The Forum meets from 8:30 to 10 am on Sunday mornings. Here are the Forum topics for October, 2024:
10/6 Great Decisions: High Seas Treaty – Chris Cassell
10/13 What makes people happy? Keeps them healthy? – Sarah Doxiadis
10/20 Your favorite job – Barbara Symons and Susan Owicki
10/27 Discussion of Matters of Current Local, National, & International ...
Joy and I were so, so fortunate to live in a notably child-friendly culture when our child was a toddler. In Mexico, everyone seems comfortable with children and welcomes them in public spaces. In six months of her being restless, fussy, or downright loud in restaurants, on buses, in churches, we received not a single ...
1. E-mail Amy the names of your favorite species so they can fill a slideshow during the service. (I will find photos of each that the photographer grants permission to use.)
2. Bring photos and mementos of the non-human animals you love or have loved, for our altar.
3. If you have an animal at home who would enjoy ...
Bring your well-socialized pet or a memento of your pet to be blessed and join us after service for a petting zoo and more on Sunday, October 6th.
Love, the UUCPA jetpig, has been appearing in numerous places around our website. What’s a jetpig? It’s a new species, winged and rocket-powered, whose name reminds us of our Unitarian Universalist shared values:
Justice
Equity
Transformation
Pluralism
Interdependence
Generosity,
all held together and undergirded by love. The revised Article II of the Unitarian Universalist Association Bylaws gives more detail about ...
Chronic Pain Support Group meets Oct 6
Linda, a member of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico needs transportation on October 15 for post-op tests and a doctor’s appointment on El Camino in Mountain View from The Cowper Inn. Tests are scheduled at 11:15 am. Pick up about 3 pm after the 2 pm doctor appointment. Pick-up from ...
Come meet our childcare staff and enjoy cake on the patio on Sunday, September 29, 2024 after the service.
UUCPA would like to partner with There with Care to serve families in medical crisis by gathering and assembling specialized care bags. This is for all ages and we encourage families to volunteer together if they can. Please fill out this short survey to let us know your interest and availability by 10/11/24.
Due to facilitator availability, we will not start OWL 7-9 in October. We will start this program later in 2024. We appreciate all the volunteers who facilitate this incredible class. Please stay tuned.
The session about how to help a friend with depression was such a success that the series continues. At noon on September 27, immediately following the Caring Network meeting, Amy leads a session on how to recognize signs of anxiety–they aren’t always what you might think–and help a friend who may be dealing with this ...
And what to do if you think you have been
In the ever-evolving world of email and phone scams, the scammers love to target faith communities, because they figure we all trust each other and want to help each other out. Pretty scummy.
Another scam went into action today, and many of you received text messages ...
The Hotel de Zink Homeless Shelter is on our campus daily in September 2024 from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., with an estimated 12 people sleeping on cots in our main hall.
We also provide a dinner for our guests every night in September – a main course and sides for 12 people. Sign-ups needed!
Your ready-to-eat ...
The many roles that go into bringing Sunday services to everyone in the Main Hall and online rotate among a wonderful crew of volunteers. The benefit to the congregation is immeasurable. There are several benefits for you, the volunteer, as well:
Doing something important and appreciated to create community
Becoming part of a team whose members are ...
Welcome to UUCPA! We’re glad you’re here. We want to get to know you and share the gifts of Unitarian Universalism. In this 4-week group, we’ll practice deep listening, share our own values and histories, and explore all that UUCPA offers. Our curriculum is called “Starting Point,” and each session features readings, sharing circles, and ...
Are you living with chronic pain and inflammation? If you’re navigating painful chronic illnesses like autoimmune, joint issues, GI issues, long-COVID, we invite you to join us for a monthly support group. We’ll start with an introduction, asks, and a different topic for each month. Childcare will be provided.
Time: First Sunday of every month after church service around 11:30am-12:30pm, starting on October ...
We have three exciting weekends coming up!
This Sunday, September 15, is the UUCPA Activity Fair. Stroll from table to table, snacking and learning about the many groups and activities from the people who know them best: the ones who enjoy them right now. Two dozen groups will have representatives at the fair, and they’re ready ...
Are you looking to get more involved in the UUCPA community? Whether you’re new or a long-time member, the Activity Fair on Sunday, September 15th, after service is the perfect opportunity to explore ways to connect. Representatives from a variety of UUCPA small groups, committees, and activities will be there to share what they do ...
