This Monday we’ll continue our series of videos Transgender Inclusion in Congregations. We’ll watch and discuss the third video “Unpacking the Gender Binary.” This session will present a different model for understanding gender expansively and provide the basis for unlearning our assumptions and approaching gendered differences with curiosity and openness.
You are welcome to join us ...
If you had difficulty hearing Rev. Baxter’s sermon, The Gift of Limitations last week, you can listen to the podcast audio version or Youtube video version via UUCPA’s January 10, 2021 worship service web page.
https://www.uucpa.org/services/the-gift-of-limitations/
Subscribe to UUCPA’s Youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM05n0t7MwVVMdohXT6orfQ
The UUCPA Talent/No Talent Fundraiser & Holiday Show was held on the evening of January 9th. It was a fun-filled evening emceed by Geoff Ivison featuring 14 acts including singing, dancing, poetry reading (one’s own or someone else’s), essay-reading, and a talking dog. The event raised over $3,000 with ~60 households attending. After the show, ...
The Stewardship Committee of UUCPA is preparing for the upcoming 2021-22 Canvass of the Congregation. We invite you to join us by volunteering to have conversations with UUCPA Members and Friends in support of the pledge drive. If you’d like to participate, please let us know by sending a message to the Stewardship Committee, ...
UUCPA’s Talent/No-Talent Holiday Fundraiser Show is Saturday, January 9, 20121 @7PM-8:30PM
Tickets are available now at https://www.uucpa.org/events/talent2021/. Scroll to the bottom of the page to register, pay, and receive the Zoom link.
Join us for an evening of (online) song, piano, poetry, dance, and dog interviews!
Our All-Star line-up includes: Reverend Amy, the UUCPA Choir, Matt Rosin, Grace ...
Please be on the lookout for a congregational survey in your inbox (or spam folder). It was sent out last week via Realm. The goal of the survey is to see how we are doing in terms of being welcoming and inclusive. There is also a free response option for anything you’d like to share ...
Interested in Writing? UUCPA’s Writing Group invites you to join us. We begin by sharing a page or two of something we’ve written, sometimes on the last month’s topic idea, occasionally something entirely different. Then we take turns providing a sample piece that serves as a prompt for the next month’s writing.
There’s time to sit ...
The events of Jan. 6, when armed “protesters” stormed the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., has evoked all kinds of responses. One response that really caught my attention was to the effect that our society has not done a good job teaching young people about how democratic institutions actually work. The armed protesters seem to ...
UUCPA will sponsor our regular ecology camp this summer, Ecojustice Camp. We’re expecting that COVID restrictions will still be in place through the summer, so we’re planning the camp with that in mind. That means we’ll have a three week session this year, and the camp will be outdoors (as usual) and socially distanced. We ...
Please join us for a 4-part adult religious education class titled: Transcendentalism Then and Now, led by Rev. John Buehrens. Advance registration is required. Please email areclasses@uucpa.org to sign up for the class.
Background reading (optional) for the course is Rev. Buehrens recent book, CONFLAGRATION: How the Transcendentalists Sparked the American Struggle for Racial, Gender, ...
On Monday, December 28 (7-9 pm) we’ll continue our series of videos Transgender Inclusion in Congregations, We’ll watch and discuss the second video “Gender and Our Faith Community.” Gender roles and expectations show up in all kinds of subtle ways in society and in congregational life. In this session we will dig into what we’ve ...
Healing the Divide meets on Jan 3 @ 1 pm
Are your kids Zoomed out? Could they use a creativity break? Could *you* use a break?
For $10, distract your kids (or yourself!) with a Maker Kit. We’re putting together kits of less-usual craft supplies (as pictured), along with links to an idea page—pictures of sample creations that can be made using the kit (and household ...
There are many events at UUCPA this week. While we can’t celebrate in person, these holiday events are happening online: No-Rehearsal Christmas Pageant, Winter Solstice, and Christmas Eve. Members, friends, and visitors to the church are welcome to come together in community.
Join any of the services/events via Zoom: zoom.us/j/485021387. The password is ...
Hi all,
Our annual No-Rehearsal Christmas Pageant will move online this year. And your child can participate!
We mailed out Christmas pageant packets to UUCPA kids from preschool to grade 8. These packets have instructions and materials for making simple Christmas pageant costumes. BUT it looks like some packets did not get delivered in time. ...
Clearly, the giving spirit is underway at UUCPA. Our annual Undie Sunday moved successfully online. Thanks to your making over $1700 in donations, we were able to give 20 sleeping bags and a couple of large boxes of underwear, socks, hats, and other essential items to the folks being helped at the Opportunity Center, as well ...
The White Folks Dismantling White Supremacy group will be meeting again on Tuesday, December 22 from 7:15 to 8:45 p.m. on Zoom. In this session we will be listening to a brief interview with Ibram X. Kendi, author of the book How to be an Anti-racist, about his companion workbook called Be Anti-racist: A Journal ...
Thank you for all of the generous donations to the 2020 Undie Sunday campaign! We collected over $1700 and around a dozen physical items from 50+ generous donors. Sally is now busy ordering socks, underwear, sleeping bags, and gift cards online to donate to the Opportunity Center Holiday Shoppe by December 19.
Thanks so much ...
The winter holidays are here and while we can’t celebrate in person, many of our favorite holiday events are happening online: Caroling, No-Rehearsal Christmas Pageant, Winter Solstice, and Christmas Eve. Members, friends, and visitors to the church are welcome to come together in community.
Join any of the services/events via Zoom: zoom.us/j/485021387. The password ...
A November update to the iPad app for Zoom introduced a problem where participants are sometimes unable to see and hear shared content such as the music videos in our Sunday services. If this happens on your iPad, select the small button in the lower right corner that says return to shared content. Other iPad ...
I’d like to tell you about some fun family activities for the holiday season.
No-Rehearsal Christmas Pageant – December 20th
First and foremost, we’ve got fun plans for the annual No-Rehearsal Christmas Pageant on Sunday, Dec. 20, at 10:30. Every UUCPA child from preschool to grade 8 will receive a packet in the mail during the week ...
Every year UUCPA collects NEW underwear, socks, gloves, and such for the Opportunity Center’s Holiday Shoppe. Even in the middle of a pandemic, there are still people without stable housing and they still need underwear, among other things. This year Undie Sunday will run from Nov 24 to Dec 8.
Undie Sunday Lockdown Style (Updated December ...
While the auction is over, there are still a few items (parties, services, etc) with open spots. These items can be purchased now online. Please browse the catalog of open items and use the buy now button to purchase. The catalog can be found here: charityauction.bid/uucpa2020auction. More information can be found on the UUCPA website auction page.
Finally, ...
Healing the Divide meets on December 6, at 1:00 PDT on Zoom. The December topic is – What are Our Priorities after Trump?
Healing the Divide began its monthly meetings in early 2017, a few months after Donald Trump’s inauguration. As we look forward to Joseph Biden’s inauguration, it seems a good time to consider where we want to ...
Transgender Inclusion in Congregations was scheduled to meet on December 21, the third Monday of December. But that day is the Winter Solstice, and UUCPA will be having a Solstice service in the evening. So, just for this month, Transgender Inclusion in Congregations willl meet on the fourth Monday, December 28. All are welcome.
The UUCPA 2019-2020 Annual Report is now available for your reading pleasure on the website: uucpa.org/about-us/our-governance/#annual.
Thank you to all the participants, volunteers, and donors for your support in the 2020 auction! We weren’t sure if an online auction could be successful, but it was and it was fun too! As of today, the auction has grossed over $15,000!
While the auction is over, there are still a few items (parties, ...
The next meeting of White Folks Dismantling White Supremacy is on November 24, 2020 at 7:15 pm via Zoom. If you would like to attend this session and are not subscribed to the email list, please email dismantlingwhitesupremacy+subscribe@uucpa.org. Zoom information for the session will be sent to this list early next week. We welcome new ...
Rev John Buehrens is the retired senior minister of the UU church in San Francisco. After the last time he gave a guest sermon at UUCPA, numerous members of our congregation asked the ARE Committee to arrange for him to teach a class for us. We have finally accomplished that!
On the four Wednesday evenings in January, ...
Photo by Artem Beliaikin on Unsplash
The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA)’s LGBTQ and Multicultural Programs Office now hosts a monthly Trans/Non-Binary online gathering space called UPLIFT. All trans/non-binary Unitarian Universalists, whether children, seniors, or anyone in between, are welcome.
The gatherings take place on the fourth Tuesday of each month at 5 p.m. Pacific and will ...
The silent auction is auction is happening now (online) and ends at 6 pm on Nov 14 (tonight)! Once the silent auction ends, the live online event begins via Zoom. Prepare now by registering to bid at https://charityauction.bid/uucpa2020auction. If you ordered a dinner box, please come to pick it up at the ...
In-person visits at UUCPA are now possible within these careful health guidelines
Photo by Udayaditya Barua on Unsplash
Stanford Spiritual Care has warmly invited us to join their Diwali celebration on Wednesday, November 18. All the details are here–come celebrate the striving to make wisdom overcome ignorance and goodness overcome evil!
Diwali–Stanford Spiritual Care
Hello everyone,
Thank you so much for the outpouring of donations in the last few days. We are taking the weekend to clean up the catalog and then silent bidding starts on Monday November 9th. Find out more about how to bid on the auction web page.
In the meantime, please plan for the following:
Book your auction ...
How are you doing?
Photo by Chris Benson on Unsplash
This period of waiting is reminding me of a couple of times that I was waiting very impatiently for something that I cared about passionately and that was completely beyond my control. At moments, I literally paced my apartment, gritting my teeth and muttering, “Waiting is a ...
In September, 2020, many of you attended UUCPA’s Welcoming Congregation seminar “Transgender Experience and Spirituality.” The event featured selections from the online course series “Transgender Inclusion in Congregations,” developed by UU leaders Rev. Mykal O’Neal Slack and Zr. Alex Kapitan and the Transforming Hearts Collective.
The excerpts we viewed and discussed in the seminar were moving ...
Do you have an interest in accessibility and inclusiveness for people of all abilities at our Sunday services? Supporting people with disabilities has gotten harder during the Covid19 pandemic, but there are ways to help.
At UUCPA we want to ensure that we offer closed-captioning consistentlythrough Zoom and Facebook Live on Sunday mornings. The AV Committee ...
With support from the State of California’s Project HomeKey, LifeMoves, the parent organization of Hotel de Zink and the Opportunity Center, has partnered with the City of Mountain View to construct an interim housing community that will offer extensive support services to help homeless families and individuals return to stable housing. The project involves the ...
In order to give our Sunday school teachers a break, we skip Sunday morning activities for children and youth on a few Sundays. In addition, there is no Sunday School on Intergenerational service worship service weeks.
Upcoming off Sundays include:
22-Nov
Family check-in before the intergen Thanksgiving service (No Sunday School)
6-Dec
Singing carols after the intergenerational Posadas service ...
The Brown Bag Books selection for December is “Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen” by Jose Antonio Vargas (Non Fiction).
“This is not a book about the politics of immigration. This book—at its core—is not about immigration at all. This book is about homelessness, not in a traditional sense, but about the unsettled, unmoored psychological ...
First of all, thanks to those who have uploaded items, emailed and texted me pictures, and planned crafts and baking galore!As we move into the final week of the donation phase, I’ve been thinking about how I can adapt my own donations to these new times. Here are my thoughts:
Dinner parties:
Pack it up! Break the ...
Dear UUCPA folks,For our annual remembrance service this coming Sunday, we want to include everyone you are remembering, however long ago they died. We’ll have a video of their photos along with music. To make sure they are included, please send me a digital version of a photo, in an e-mail that includes their names, ...
Don’t forget to change your clocks before you go to bed after Halloween, or you’ll show up very early for services on Sunday . . . Daylight Savings Time is ending, so put the clock back one hour.
See you after an extra hour’s rest, November 1!
UUCPA now has two all-gender family restrooms on campus, thanks to an unexpected opportunity arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. These updated facilities will better welcome and serve congregants of all genders (including non-binary, gender-fluid, and agender UUs) and anyone who might need the help of a partner or caregiver (of any gender) when using the ...
A few intrepid folks have started posting their online donations. Thank you so much! Add your donation here: https://charityauction.bid/uucpa2020auction
And the auction team is looking at yummy food options for the party food boxes for the evening of the auction.We are still looking for volunteers in the following areas on November 14th:- Cooking crew for the ...
Many of us have been working on the election in one way or another — letters, postcards, phone-banks, trying to convince our families, etc., etc., etc. Soon, Election Day will come and go. Yet the election may not be over then, or even soon afterward. We may find ourselves feeling the need to continue our ...
Dear wonderful postcard/ letter writers and friends,
If you want to attend a phone bank with other UUCPA members and friends, join Nancy Neff and Elsa Schafer on Monday and Tuesday afternoons at 2-5 pm. Or if that doesn’t work, you can join one of the UUJMCA/Reclaim Our Vote sessions on Sunday afternoons, 1-4 p.m. Read on ...
Brown Bag Books‘ November selection is “The Overstory: A Novel” by Richard Powers.
This winner of the Pulitzer Prize “is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of–and paean to–the natural world. . . . There is a world alongside ours–vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost ...
Hello, travelers in the imagination! The Sci-Fi Fantasy group will be meeting on October 21, 2020, to discuss the movie, The Day the Earth Stood. Make sure to spend an evening with Gort and Klaatu before then. We’ll be discussing the 1951 version (though if anyone has seen the remake, their comments will be ...
DeSmog Blog, a website devoted to countering global warming misinformation campaigns, has noted with approval a recent action taken by our Green Sanctuary Committee.
Palo Alto Paying Over $20,000 Annually to Natural Gas Trade Group Fighting Climate Action
Palo Alto maintains membership in the American Public Gas Association (APGA), a leading natural-gas industry organization. The Green ...
