Calendar – Detail
There is a lot going on at UUCPA. Here is a brief listing of upcoming events. For a more comprehensive list, please visit the calendar.
Upcoming Events for Children & Youth
Upcoming Adult Classes
Upcoming Music
Upcoming Newcomer/Visitor Events
Upcoming Group Meetings
Upcoming Justice Projects/Events
Upcoming Special Events
Upcoming Holiday Events
Upcoming Non-UUCPA Events
Upcoming Events for Children & Youth
Parents Night Out!
11/22/2025, 5:00 pm - 8:00 pm Room 4/5 (Add to calendar: Google, iCal, webcal)
Parents deserve a break! Let UUCPA take care of dinner and childcare while you go out on the town every fourth Saturday (holidays excluded), usually 5:00-8:00 pm. Age range to participate: 5 and up. Please RSVP so we can get an accurate headcount. (Can’t access the sign up? Email Rev. Cat and she’ll help you sign up and get on the mailing list.)
Do you have a high schooler who would like to be part of our childcare team for this event for community service hours and some change? Email Rev. Cat.
Sunday School for children and youth preK through grade 8
11/23/2025, 10:30 am - 11:30 am UUCPA (Add to calendar: Google, iCal, webcal)
Because we believe in learning by doing, a very important part of our religious education is participation, with all ages, in the first part of regular worship services. Then during Sunday school, young people learn and play with people their age. Feel free to ask Sunday school teachers what they did this week. If you would like to review curriculum materials that are not online, please contact Rev. Cat Boyle.
Sunday School for children and youth preK through grade 8
11/30/2025, 10:30 am - 11:30 am UUCPA (Add to calendar: Google, iCal, webcal)
Because we believe in learning by doing, a very important part of our religious education is participation, with all ages, in the first part of regular worship services. Then during Sunday school, young people learn and play with people their age. Feel free to ask Sunday school teachers what they did this week. If you would like to review curriculum materials that are not online, please contact Rev. Cat Boyle.
Children and Youth Religious Education Committee meeting
12/04/2025, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm (Add to calendar: Google, iCal, webcal)
Oversees and evaluates all children and youth programs; plans and carries out special events; organizes Baby Cafe; supports social justice projects that welcome children and youth; more generally, helps the wider congregation better meet the needs of families, children, and youth. Contact: cyrecommittee@uucpa.org. Chair: Edie Keating. Board Liaison: Rev. Cat Boyle
Sunday School for children and youth preK through grade 8
12/07/2025, 10:30 am - 11:30 am UUCPA (Add to calendar: Google, iCal, webcal)
Because we believe in learning by doing, a very important part of our religious education is participation, with all ages, in the first part of regular worship services. Then during Sunday school, young people learn and play with people their age. Feel free to ask Sunday school teachers what they did this week. If you would like to review curriculum materials that are not online, please contact Rev. Cat Boyle.
Sunday School for children and youth preK through grade 8
12/14/2025, 10:30 am - 11:30 am UUCPA (Add to calendar: Google, iCal, webcal)
Because we believe in learning by doing, a very important part of our religious education is participation, with all ages, in the first part of regular worship services. Then during Sunday school, young people learn and play with people their age. Feel free to ask Sunday school teachers what they did this week. If you would like to review curriculum materials that are not online, please contact Rev. Cat Boyle.
Sunday School for children and youth preK through grade 8
12/21/2025, 10:30 am - 11:30 am UUCPA (Add to calendar: Google, iCal, webcal)
Because we believe in learning by doing, a very important part of our religious education is participation, with all ages, in the first part of regular worship services. Then during Sunday school, young people learn and play with people their age. Feel free to ask Sunday school teachers what they did this week. If you would like to review curriculum materials that are not online, please contact Rev. Cat Boyle.
Sunday School for children and youth preK through grade 8
12/28/2025, 10:30 am - 11:30 am UUCPA (Add to calendar: Google, iCal, webcal)
Because we believe in learning by doing, a very important part of our religious education is participation, with all ages, in the first part of regular worship services. Then during Sunday school, young people learn and play with people their age. Feel free to ask Sunday school teachers what they did this week. If you would like to review curriculum materials that are not online, please contact Rev. Cat Boyle.
Children and Youth Religious Education Committee meeting
01/01/2026, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm (Add to calendar: Google, iCal, webcal)
Oversees and evaluates all children and youth programs; plans and carries out special events; organizes Baby Cafe; supports social justice projects that welcome children and youth; more generally, helps the wider congregation better meet the needs of families, children, and youth. Contact: cyrecommittee@uucpa.org. Chair: Edie Keating. Board Liaison: Rev. Cat Boyle
Sunday School for children and youth preK through grade 8
01/04/2026, 10:30 am - 11:30 am UUCPA (Add to calendar: Google, iCal, webcal)
Because we believe in learning by doing, a very important part of our religious education is participation, with all ages, in the first part of regular worship services. Then during Sunday school, young people learn and play with people their age. Feel free to ask Sunday school teachers what they did this week. If you would like to review curriculum materials that are not online, please contact Rev. Cat Boyle.
Upcoming Adult Classes
Upcoming Music
By Your Side Singers
11/19/2025, 7:30 pm - 8:45 pm Room 4/5 (Add to calendar: Google, iCal, webcal)
You are welcome to sing with the By Your Side Singers, the 1st Wed of the month June – Aug, the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays during the rest of the year.
Choir Practice
11/20/2025, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Main Hall (Add to calendar: Google, iCal, webcal)
Singers wanted! We can use singers on all parts. Don’t be shy – give us a try!
The UUCPA choir welcomes singers of all vocal backgrounds. We are looking for people:
- Who love to sing with others and be inspired by the act of making live music
- Who want to learn and perform a variety of musical styles, in many different languages
- Who can join us in weekly rehearsals and Sunday morning worship
You don’t have to sight-read, but you should be able to understand a music score and to learn a part quickly after hearing it. Bruce makes pronunciation recordings to help us learn the text in languages other than English.
Date: Rehearsals – Thursday, 7-9 pm, and Sunday, 9:45 am; Performances – Sunday, 10:15 am, September to mid-Jun
Location: Main Hall
Facilitator: Bruce Olstad, Music Director (music-director@uucpa.org)
Contact: music@uucpa.org
Sacred Harp Shape Note Singing
11/23/2025, 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm Fireside Room (Add to calendar: Google, iCal, webcal)
Join the democratic and inclusive American song tradition of Sacred Harp music, one of the oldest ongoing music traditions in the United States. Rolling Stone magazine talks about “the soaring magnificence of Sacred Harp.” National Public Radio calls it “full-body singing,” and radio station KALW says it’s a “communal experience.” Come find out for yourself. Beginners are always welcome, and loaner books are available.
Dates: 2nd & 4th Sunday every month
Time: 2-4 pm
Location: Fireside Room
Facilitator: Palo Alto Sacred Harp singers
Contact: sacredharp@uucpa.org
Registration: Not required
Choir Practice
11/27/2025, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Main Hall (Add to calendar: Google, iCal, webcal)
Singers wanted! We can use singers on all parts. Don’t be shy – give us a try!
The UUCPA choir welcomes singers of all vocal backgrounds. We are looking for people:
- Who love to sing with others and be inspired by the act of making live music
- Who want to learn and perform a variety of musical styles, in many different languages
- Who can join us in weekly rehearsals and Sunday morning worship
You don’t have to sight-read, but you should be able to understand a music score and to learn a part quickly after hearing it. Bruce makes pronunciation recordings to help us learn the text in languages other than English.
Date: Rehearsals – Thursday, 7-9 pm, and Sunday, 9:45 am; Performances – Sunday, 10:15 am, September to mid-Jun
Location: Main Hall
Facilitator: Bruce Olstad, Music Director (music-director@uucpa.org)
Contact: music@uucpa.org
By Your Side Singers
12/03/2025, 7:30 pm - 8:45 pm Room 4/5 (Add to calendar: Google, iCal, webcal)
You are welcome to sing with the By Your Side Singers, the 1st Wed of the month June – Aug, the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays during the rest of the year.
Upcoming Newcomer/Visitor Events
Upcoming Group Meetings/Gatherings
Resonant Reading (Wednesday)-Compost by Dan Chelotti
11/19/2025, 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm (Add to calendar: Google, iCal, webcal)
Facilitators use a light hand, posting the reading in the chat and calling on whoever’s Zoom hand is up. Suggestions for readings* come from group members, who also take turns facilitating, if they want to try that role.
The reading for this session: Wednesday, November 19th
A dance to be done
For the rotting, the maggot strewn
Piles of flesh which pile
Upon the dung-ridden earth
And the damp that gathers
And rusts and defiles.
There is a bit of this
In even the most zoetic soul —
The dancing child’s arms
Flailing to an old ska song
Conduct the day-old flies
Away to whatever rank
Native is closest. Just today
I was walking along the river
With my daughter in my backpack
And I opened my email
On my phone and Duffie
Had sent me a poem
Called “Compost.” I read it
To my little girl and started
To explain before I was three
Words in Selma started
Yelling, Daddy, Daddy, snake!
In the path was a snake,
Belly up and still nerve-twitching
The ghost of some passing
Bicycle or horse. Pretty, Selma said.
Yes, I said. And underneath my yes
Another yes, the yes to my body,
Just beginning to show signs
Of slack, and another, my grasping
In the dark for affirming flesh
That in turn says yes, yes
Let’s rot together but not until
We’ve drained what sap
Is left in these trees.
And I wake in the morning
And think of the coroner
Calling to ask what color
My father’s eyes were,
And I asked, Why? Why can’t
You just look — and the coroner,
Matter-of-factly says, Decay.
Do you want some eggs, my love?
I have a new way of preparing them.
And look, look outside, I think this weather
Has the chance of holding.—Compost by Dan Chelotti
Source: Poetry (June 2014)
How to join:
- Join this class from your Web browser: https://zoom.us/j/96865808923, passcode 227385
- Join this class using the Zoom app: Meeting ID: 968 6580 8923
- Join this class by phone: 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) Meeting ID: 968 6580 8923
- Join this class by one-tap on mobile phones: 6699006833,,96865808923# (San Jose)
- Phoning in, but not in the Bay Area? Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/abL8clvIYT
This is the Zoom link for Wednesdays. For the Zoom link for Saturday, go to Calendar and click on a Saturday session.
Questions? Drop an e-mail to resonant-reading+owner@uucpa.org.
*This activity was formerly called “Sacred Text Reading.” That proved misleading–for one thing, more often than not our sources are secular–but it’s worth describing the qualities of a sacred text, which we still look for in the readings we choose. It is any reading that helps us to:
- connect to something of supreme importance to us
- feel more connected to other beings or to the universe
- feel more intensely alive
- align our lives with our values,
- perceive or feel more deeply
- be more fully and authentically ourselves.
Sci-Fi / Fantasy Discussion Group
Mars Express (2023 animated movie)
11/19/2025, 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm (Add to calendar: Google, iCal, webcal)
At the November 19, 2025 meeting, we’ll discuss the 2023 animated movie “Mars Express”.
From Wikipedia:
“… In 2200, Aline Ruby, a private detective, and Carlos Rivera, an android replica of her partner who died five years earlier, are sent to Earth to capture Roberta Williams, a robot-hacking criminal. Aline and Carlos venture to the depths of Noctis, the main terrestrial establishment of Mars created thanks to the progress of robotics, and where humans and various forms of androids seem to coexist in harmony. The city turns out to hide secrets such as trafficking and clandestine computer labs. Meanwhile, activists try to free the robots from the security constraints that bind them to humans.”
The movie is available on DVD at some libraries or for rental on Amazon and other places.
At the end of the meeting, we will choose a movie for our January 21st meeting.
The Sci-Fi and Fantasy Discussion Group was meeting via Zoom before it was cool! Lovers of science fiction and fantasy, at UUCPA and beyond, have been getting together online to talk about books, movies, and television episodes chosen by the group, every other month since early 2019. Past books include The Broken Earth Trilogy (N. K. Jemisin), The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (Robert Heinlein), Parable of the Sower (Octavia Butler), The Left Hand of Darkness (Ursula K. Le Guin), Red Moon (Kim Stanley Robinson); past television and movies include Arrival, Blink (Doctor Who), Serenity and The Train Job (Firefly), and The Day the Earth Stood Still.
The meeting method: via Zoom, 7-8:30 p.m.
- Dates: Third Wednesdays, except during summer months (June-August)
- Time: 7-8:30 pm
- Location: Online
- Facilitator: Bill Hackenberger (scifi+owner@uucpa.org)
- Registration: Not required
Join the meeting via Zoom: Link
- Meeting ID: 924 4906 7832
- Passcode: 825590
Dial by your location •
- +1 669 444 9171 US
- +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
Find other upcoming dates on the web page.
Saturday Meditation
11/22/2025, 9:00 am - 10:30 am (Add to calendar: Google, iCal, webcal)
The Saturday morning meditation group welcomes all to join us on Zoom for meditation and conversation. Meditation time begins promptly at 9:10 and lasts for 40 minutes, including several short readings. Next, we share tea and conversation, talking about what is important to us in the moment – perhaps our response to the readings or something that is going on in our lives.
- Dates: Every Saturday
- Time: 9:00 – 10:30 am
- Location: Online
- Facilitator: Leadership is shared and rotates weekly
- Contact: The Zoom link is available from Susan Owicki – email susanowicki@uucpa.org by 9:00 pm on Friday.
Come Meditate with Us!
Resonant Reading (Saturday)-The Virgin Mary-Panofsky
11/22/2025, 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm (Add to calendar: Google, iCal, webcal)
Facilitators use a light hand, posting the reading in the chat and calling on whoever’s Zoom hand is up. Suggestions for readings* come from group members, who also take turns facilitating, if they want to try that role.
The reading for this session: Saturday, November 22nd
“[The] Virgin Mary, humbly sitting on the ground in front of a resplendent cloth of honor, adores the Infant Jesus, [her hands point downward toward him] and her robe embroidered with the “Magnificat”. With no one present but her sleeping husband, she is no less alone with her Son than she will be when kissing Him farewell. That Rogier did expect us to think of the Passion while contemplating a scene from the Infancy is evident from the reliefs on the capitals where the Sacrifice of Isaac and the Death of Absalom prefigure the work of Redemption and, more specifically, the lance thrust of Longinus. Moreover, the fact that the Virgin holds the Christ Child on her lap in the very act of adoration, brings to mind those texts in which she addresses the dead Saviour with words such as: “Now I hold Thee on my lap as a dead body, Thee whom I held on my lap as a slumbering babe.”[This last verse is a quote found in the writing of early Christian mystics such as Symeon Metaphrastes, George of Nicomedia, and St. Bernadine of Siena]” – Erwin Panofsky, Early Netherlandish Painting
How to join:
- Join this class from your Web browser: https://zoom.us/j/91019857324, passcode 227385
- Join this class using the Zoom app: Meeting ID: 910 1985 7324
- Join this class by phone: 669 900 9128 US (San Jose), Meeting ID: 910 1985 7324
- Join this class by on-tap on mobile phones: +16699009128,,91019857324# US (San Jose)
- Phoning in, but not in the bay area? Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/abL8clvIYT
This is the Zoom link for Saturdays. For the Wednesday Zoom link, go to the Calendar and click on a Wednesday session.
Questions? Drop an e-mail to resonant-reading+owner@uucpa.org.
*This activity was formerly called “Sacred Text Reading.” That proved misleading–for one thing, more often than not our sources are secular–but it’s worth describing the qualities of a sacred text, which we still look for in the readings we choose. It is any reading that helps us to:
- connect to something of supreme importance to us
- feel more connected to other beings or to the universe
- feel more intensely alive
- align our lives with our values,
- perceive or feel more deeply
- be more fully and authentically ourselves.
Resonant Reading (Wednesday)
11/26/2025, 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm (Add to calendar: Google, iCal, webcal)
Facilitators use a light hand, posting the reading in the chat and calling on whoever’s Zoom hand is up. Suggestions for readings* come from group members, who also take turns facilitating, if they want to try that role.
The reading for this session:
How to join:
- Join this class from your Web browser: https://zoom.us/j/96865808923, passcode 227385
- Join this class using the Zoom app: Meeting ID: 968 6580 8923
- Join this class by phone: 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) Meeting ID: 968 6580 8923
- Join this class by one-tap on mobile phones: 6699006833,,96865808923# (San Jose)
- Phoning in, but not in the Bay Area? Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/abL8clvIYT
This is the Zoom link for Wednesdays. For the Zoom link for Saturday, go to Calendar and click on a Saturday session.
Questions? Drop an e-mail to resonant-reading+owner@uucpa.org.
*This activity was formerly called “Sacred Text Reading.” That proved misleading–for one thing, more often than not our sources are secular–but it’s worth describing the qualities of a sacred text, which we still look for in the readings we choose. It is any reading that helps us to:
- connect to something of supreme importance to us
- feel more connected to other beings or to the universe
- feel more intensely alive
- align our lives with our values,
- perceive or feel more deeply
- be more fully and authentically ourselves.
Saturday Meditation
11/29/2025, 9:00 am - 10:30 am (Add to calendar: Google, iCal, webcal)
The Saturday morning meditation group welcomes all to join us on Zoom for meditation and conversation. Meditation time begins promptly at 9:10 and lasts for 40 minutes, including several short readings. Next, we share tea and conversation, talking about what is important to us in the moment – perhaps our response to the readings or something that is going on in our lives.
- Dates: Every Saturday
- Time: 9:00 – 10:30 am
- Location: Online
- Facilitator: Leadership is shared and rotates weekly
- Contact: The Zoom link is available from Susan Owicki – email susanowicki@uucpa.org by 9:00 pm on Friday.
Come Meditate with Us!
Resonant Reading (Saturday)-WE instead of I-Eagleman
11/29/2025, 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm (Add to calendar: Google, iCal, webcal)
Facilitators use a light hand, posting the reading in the chat and calling on whoever’s Zoom hand is up. Suggestions for readings* come from group members, who also take turns facilitating, if they want to try that role.
The reading for this session: Saturday, November 29
Throughout the book you will often find the narrator’s term we instead of I. This is for three reasons. First, as with any book that synthesizes large bodies of knowledge, I collaborate with thousands of scientists and historians over the course of centuries. Second, the reading of a book should be an active collaboration between reader and writer. Third, our brains are composed of vast, complex, and shifting collections of subparts, most of which we have no access to; this book was written over the course of a few years by several different people, all of whom were named David Eagleman, but who were somewhat different with each passing hour.–David Eagleman, Incognito (2011), p. 228.
[Concluding his acknowledgements at the end of the book, Eagleman explains his use of “we” rather than “I” when referring to the book’s author.]
How to join:
- Join this class from your Web browser: https://zoom.us/j/91019857324, passcode 227385
- Join this class using the Zoom app: Meeting ID: 910 1985 7324
- Join this class by phone: 669 900 9128 US (San Jose), Meeting ID: 910 1985 7324
- Join this class by on-tap on mobile phones: +16699009128,,91019857324# US (San Jose)
- Phoning in, but not in the bay area? Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/abL8clvIYT
This is the Zoom link for Saturdays. For the Wednesday Zoom link, go to the Calendar and click on a Wednesday session.
Questions? Drop an e-mail to resonant-reading+owner@uucpa.org.
*This activity was formerly called “Sacred Text Reading.” That proved misleading–for one thing, more often than not our sources are secular–but it’s worth describing the qualities of a sacred text, which we still look for in the readings we choose. It is any reading that helps us to:
- connect to something of supreme importance to us
- feel more connected to other beings or to the universe
- feel more intensely alive
- align our lives with our values,
- perceive or feel more deeply
- be more fully and authentically ourselves.
First Monday Film Discussion Group
The Wind That Shakes the Barley
12/01/2025, 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm (Add to calendar: Google, iCal, webcal)
We gather via video conference on the first Monday of the month for an hour-long discussion of a movie we have chosen and each watched ahead of time. Group members add to the list of movies, the only strictures being that they must be available at no cost, for example on library sites such as Kanopy or Hoopla. (You might want to register with these services for ease of future viewing.) Then, each month, the group votes on the next movie.
Email Bruce England with any questions and to receive the video conference link.
Brown Bag Books
12/02/2025, 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm (Add to calendar: Google, iCal, webcal)
The Brown Bag Books group meets year-round, except in July and August. Many attendees bring their lunches, and everyone brings a sense of humor. Monthly sessions are always lively and enjoyable.
Books chosen by the group for discussion are usually listed in the Order of Service and the Weekly Update, as well as on the UUCPA website.
- Contact: Susan Owicki (brown-bag-books+owner@uucpa.org)
- Facilitator: Various participants
- Registration: Not required
- Meetings are held online
Resonant Reading (Wednesday)
12/03/2025, 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm (Add to calendar: Google, iCal, webcal)
Facilitators use a light hand, posting the reading in the chat and calling on whoever’s Zoom hand is up. Suggestions for readings* come from group members, who also take turns facilitating, if they want to try that role.
The reading for this session:
How to join:
- Join this class from your Web browser: https://zoom.us/j/96865808923, passcode 227385
- Join this class using the Zoom app: Meeting ID: 968 6580 8923
- Join this class by phone: 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) Meeting ID: 968 6580 8923
- Join this class by one-tap on mobile phones: 6699006833,,96865808923# (San Jose)
- Phoning in, but not in the Bay Area? Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/abL8clvIYT
This is the Zoom link for Wednesdays. For the Zoom link for Saturday, go to Calendar and click on a Saturday session.
Questions? Drop an e-mail to resonant-reading+owner@uucpa.org.
*This activity was formerly called “Sacred Text Reading.” That proved misleading–for one thing, more often than not our sources are secular–but it’s worth describing the qualities of a sacred text, which we still look for in the readings we choose. It is any reading that helps us to:
- connect to something of supreme importance to us
- feel more connected to other beings or to the universe
- feel more intensely alive
- align our lives with our values,
- perceive or feel more deeply
- be more fully and authentically ourselves.
Upcoming Justice Projects/Events
Upcoming Special Events
UUCPA Choir Winter Concert – “In Winter’s Glow”
12/06/2025, 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm Main Hall (Add to calendar: Google, iCal, webcal)
Upcoming Holiday Events
UUCPA Choir Winter Concert – “In Winter’s Glow”
12/06/2025, 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm Main Hall (Add to calendar: Google, iCal, webcal)
Upcoming Non-UUCPA Events
2025 Friendsgiving Event at LifeMoves
11/25/2025, 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm All Saints’ Episcopal Church (Add to calendar: Google, iCal, webcal)
