Dear UUCPA folks,
We divide our budget up into two parts: the operating budget, which we raise each year and from which we pay staff, buy supplies, pay utilities, and so on; and the capital budget, largely funded by bequests over many years, from which we fund the care of our beautiful buildings and gardens. The ...
A City’s Step Towards Reparations
Sci-Fi / Fantasy Group Discusses Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Feb 16
Remember that service from last month when Jane and I talked about giving, and money, and talking about giving and money? You might recall that we both found it a complicated business at best. And now it’s time to make sure we have our budget for the coming year, aka the Stewardship campaign, so money ...
The Forum meets from 9:00 to 10:15 Sunday mornings (in the Fireside Room when we meet in person). Here are the Forum topics for February, 2022:
2/6 Pandemic – Janet Buelow, Jai Cho, Trisha Suppes
2/13 The Capitol Riot: how big was it? – Bob Greene
2/20 Who’s afraid of Critical Race Theory? – Susan Owicki
2/27 Discussion of ...
Our Board of Trustees held a special meeting in early January to discuss the recommendation made by the Hybrid Services Task Force that we require proof of vaccination of all attendees at indoor worship services (when they resume). The Board accepted the recommendation and approved the policy below. In the coming weeks, prior to our return ...
75th Anniversary Class: Our Music, Jan 19
Campus Workday - Jan. 8 @ 9am
Every Saturday and Wednesday, we hold an hour-long group spiritual practice of reading and talking about a short text that touches on big questions. Members of the group choose the readings each time, based on what they think will prompt an interesting conversation. You are warmly welcome to join any session.
The following links give all ...
Healing the Divide meets Sun, Jan. 9. Topic: Breaking Out of Political Echo Chambers
Meet Your Leaders!
Did you know that our community is led by an all-volunteer Board of Trustees that meets monthly? Anyone is welcome to attend our meetings and learn how UUCPA is governed. In an effort to make the Board more accessible to the entire community, we will feature one Board member each month in our ...
The last day of 2021 brought the loss of George Burton Norall of Palo Alto. He was a teacher and administrator in Berkeley, Daly City, and Menlo Park schools. Burt, a graduate of U.C. Berkeley (B.A.) and Stanford (M.A.), was committed to quality education for all students and strong support for educators. He devoted his career ...
Dear UUCPA folks,
Thank you for all your input about services during COVID. The Hybrid Services Task Force, while meeting to make a recommendation to the Board about whether to require attendees to show proof of vaccination status, made another decision that takes effect immediately: we will not hold indoor services at all for the time ...
The UUCPA Sunday Meditation Group will not meet on December 26, 2021 or January 2, 2022.
It will resume at 10:00 am on Sunday, January 9, 2022 via zoom. The link for this session is sent out via email each week. Those who wish to be added to the email list should contact Eric Bier.
Your resilience, and the creativity and hard work of many volunteers and staff, have made it possible to gather in person, outdoors, since September. Now the temperature is dropping and the rain is falling, so on December 19, we are holding services indoors at both 9:30 and 11. Exciting! Essential information for you to know:
The ...
UUCPA’s mission is to transform ourselves, each other and the world. Much of this transformative work happens through connection, and many of us connect best when we are in-person, and (during the winter especially) indoors. Going indoors increases the risk of COVID-19 spread; one way to mitigate that risk is to ensure all attendees are ...
We have had yet another successful Undie Sunday drive, Covid-style! Many people either made financial donations on our website or brought physical items to Sally Ahnger’s house to fill up the barrel and then some! Financial donations totaled $1372, and we’ve heard from some people that they donated directly to Life Moves so they could ...
Join us to celebrate the Winter Solstice Ceremony – remotely via Zoom on Tuesday, December 21 at 7 pm! Have your own candle and delicious snacks at hand. We will have beautiful music and images, and each other’s company on the longest night of the year.
Join via this Zoom link.
On Christmas Eve, UUCPA will have one service, 6:00 pm. online via Zoom. The ministers will tell the Christmas story, interspersed with plenty of Christmas carols. At the end, everyone lights a candle (have a candle ready). We’ll see you there!
Note, that this has changed from the original plan, which was to hold 3 ...
Attendance at Sunday programs has been surprisingly good, sometimes 80% of pre-pandemic numbers. And as children aged 5-11 are fully vaccinated, I’m expecting attendance to go up even more. Kids are longing for the kind of informal programming that UUCPA provides — and parents are longing for a chance to see other adults in a ...
Dear UUCPA folks, We will be holding our first indoor, in-person Sunday service in almost two years this Sunday, December 12! What a tremendous event.
We have sidled our way towards this moment with a couple of memorials and with the outdoor 9:30 services we’ve held all fall. Previously, though, when rain fell on a Sunday ...
The next meeting of White Folks Dismantling White Supremacy will be on Tuesday, December 14 at 7:15 p.m. We will be revisiting the November topic of shame and moving into a discussion about how to apologize when we feel shame or guilt. This session will also include some music to inspire you and bring you joy! We ...
The Forum meets from 9:00 to 10:15 Sunday mornings (in the Fireside Room when we meet in person). Here are the Forum topics for January, 2022:
1/2 What’s in Biden’s infrastructure packages? – Bob Greene
1/9 What is the “Metaverse”? Warren Schmidt and Sarah Doxiadis
1/16 Books that changed my mind – Warren Schmidt
1/23 Sugar, salt, and processed ...
“All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good to do nothing.” So said Edmund Burke, and the corollary is also true: to stop evil from triumphing, something good people can do is . . . something. Anything. It matters.
We are already doing something at UUCPA by our participation in Multifaith Voices ...
Come to the UUCPA campus workday, Saturday, December 4, 9 am-noon. Questions? Contact: Buildings and Grounds Committee (buildings-and-grounds@uucpa.org)
Today’s plan:
3 doors to un-stick
painting, if it is not too damp
parking lot sweeping
BONUS: The Autumn Leaves Party is 10-12 (Auction Event), and promises to share treats with us!
We’re heading into the final week of Undie Sunday and due to your generosity, we’ve bumped up our goal to $1500. The collection campaign runs through Sunday, December 5. Both financial and in-kind donations are accepted. If you have already donated, thank you! If you haven’t, please help us get there by donating from the 2021 ...
Are you interested in joining a men’s group that comes together for personal growth, mutual support, and fellowship? The morning Men’s Group that meets on the first and third Mondays from 10:00 to 11:30 via Zoom is seeking additional members. Through a wide range of topics, we explore important aspects of our lives today and ...
Pastor Danielle Parish of Spark Church, which shares space with Congregation Etz Chayim on Alma St in Palo Alto, was an Official UN Conference Observer at the COP26 Climate Summit last month in Glasgow, Scotland. She is inviting us to join her as she presents her eyewitness account of her time at the conference and ...
UUCPA will be 75 years old on April 6, 2022. A variety of celebratory activities are being planned. One of these is a series of classes about the history of UUCPA which the Adult Religious Education Committee will be providing during the first three months of 2022. They will be held via Zoom at 7:00 ...
Thanks to all who participated in the UUCPA all-church auction on November 13, 2021! So far we are happy to say that we have raised over $17k. Read the rest of this message to find out how to pay for and/or pick up your items.
(and if you have already of you have already ...
The auction was held on November 13, 2021, and while the bidding is over, there are still post-auction buying opportunities! Open spots in services and parties are open for purchase. Please browse and purchase online on our auction website: charityauction.bid/uucpa2021auction!
Post-auction, how to buy:
Go to the catalog and browse items.
Select an item to open it.
Update the ...
The Forum meets from 9:00 to 10:15 Sunday mornings (in the Fireside Room when we meet in person). Here are the Forum topics for December, 2021:
12/5 From the Opium War to the creation of People’s Republic of China (1839 -1949) – Jai Cho
12/12 Are we in Cold War 2 with China? – Dick Duda
12/19 A ...
Don’t miss out! Go to charityauction.bid/uucpa2021auction today and bid on the huge selection of items. Even if you checked out the catalog before, new items are being added frequently. And others are outbidding your bids! Need help with bidding? Email: auction@uucpa.org.
Make sure you also make time to attend the live auction tonight at ...
Join us for UUCPA’s fun Live Auction event tonight, November 13 @ 6 pm! During the live auction, we’ll gather in community with Joe Bailey and Kris Geering to guide us as our auctioneers, for the important purpose of raising funds for UUCPA while having fun at the same time! Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/92135346998.
Bidder Registration: ...
Healing the Divide meets Sun, Nov. 14 @ 1pm
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 17 to Dec 5, 2021.
Undie Sunday pandemic style 2.0:
How ...
After church on Sunday, Nov 7, our consultant Rachel Maxwell gave us a very interesting Zoom presentation of her evaluation of our readiness for a capital campaign.
We recorded it, so you can still see it if you missed it or want to watch it again. It runs for about 33 minutes.
Here’s a link to the ...
I don’t know about you, but I was so glad to hear that the vaccine for ages 5 to 11 was approved by the FDA. If you have children in this age range, I hope you can get them vaccinated soon!
The Children and Youth Religious Education Committee and I are still trying to figure out ...
Due to school vacation schedules this year, we will have no Sunday school, OWL, or Senior High Youth Group on either November 21 or November 28.
Instead of Sunday School, come to the 9:30 am in-person intergenerational service on Sunday, November 21, with outdoor childcare available for preschool and elementary ages. Possum, Muds, Dr. Sharpie, ...
Thank you so much for the outpouring of donations in the last few days. Silent bidding starts on Monday, November 8th. Also, Joe Bailey and Dan Harper will be reprising their roles as Auctioneers for our Live Auction on Saturday, November 13 @ 6 pm. We hope you can join us!
Browse the catalog ...
Rachel Maxwell, our capital campaign consultant, has been interviewing the ministers, staff, Board, and major committees all week, and will make a presentation to the congregation via Zoom at 12:30 pm after the second service this Sunday, November 7. Please stay after virtual coffee hour to hear what she has learned! It’s the same Zoom ...
On the morning of Saturday, October 23, 2021, thirteen UUCPA members, families, and friends gathered at the Bedwell Bayfront Park in Menlo Park to help Save The Bay (https://savesfbay.org/) with their wetland restoration efforts. At about 9 am Charlie Onorati from Save The Bay introduced us to the 60-year history of the group’s restoration efforts ...
Undie Sunday will be happening again this year, with Covid-era modifications. The collection campaign will start on Wednesday, November 17 and run through Sunday, December 5. Both financial and in-kind donations will be accepted. Stay tuned for more details coming soon!
Remember, clocks go back in the early hours of Sunday, November 7, 2021. Enjoy the extra hour of your weekend, and we’ll see you at the service / Forum / Religious Education / all of the above!
Welcome to this gallery of photographers by the gifted Chaz Cassel! Chaz has been a member of UUCPA since childhood and has often been spotted behind the soundboard on a Sunday, behind a djembe with his son during services, or leading activities at the annual Bass Lake Church Camp Weekend. His job for the County ...
As we move into the time where we learn to live with COVID, UUCPA is preparing for the eventual questions: What happens if someone comes to campus and finds out later they had COVID and may have exposed others?
We know that we will notify those who may have been exposed as soon as possible, but the ...
Our Annual Auction is gathering momentum, and we could use your crafty skills! Homemade goods like bread, cakes, cookies, sweaters, hats, scarves, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, artwork, jams, and more….all of these are highly-prized auction items. Use this link to get to the donation form.
Remember to save the date: Saturday, November 13th!
6:00 Social Time
6:30 Bidding and Live ...
The media were busy at UUCPA this week! First there was this article in the San Francisco Chronicle:
He wanted to let homeless neighbors sleep in cars outside his Palo Alto church. It started a two-year battle by Lauren Hepler, October 26, 2021
If you can’t access that link, here’s the same article in PDF form.
And then ...
It’s raining! That’s the good news. Our thirsty land is very happy.
. . . maybe not. (c) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
The bad news is: we can’t hold an in-person, outdoor service in the rain. Even if the rain is too light to bother humans, it’s too heavy for sound equipment. So the 9:30 service will not take ...
Our Annual Auction is only a few weeks away, and it is time to dream up a fun event to offer for your fellow UUCPA members and friends. Whatever kind of food or fun you enjoy can become an auction event:
A hike and/or picnic in a treasured spot
A Zoom cooking class for your favorite cuisine
A ...
