Transforming Ourselves, Each Other and the World
As you may have noticed, this printed newsletter is different from the UUCPA Bulletins you used to receive. The UUCPA bi-weekly Bulletin will be taking a break for a while (Aug. 9, 2020, was the last one). We hope to have new plans for The Bulletin by the time we resume meeting at UUCPA in person. In the meantime, please accept this interim printed version to keep you informed.
We’ve heard the story of Epimetheus and Prometheus, and how Prometheus was punished by the gods for bringing the gift of fire to humanity. Well, in one version, that wasn’t enough for Zeus, who also sent one last punishment: Pandora. And she opened a … read more.
It is the time of All Souls and All Saints, and Rev. Millie Phillips returns to lead our service of memory for our beloved departed. We will lift up the names of the members of the UUCPA community who have died since our last remembrance … read more.
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 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 for more info…
After her postcard-writing snowballed into organizing 100 people completing 22,171 postcards, Linda Henigin decided she has to bite the bullet and make phone calls:
I weigh the discomfort and inconvenience of making phone calls against the abject horror I would feel if the current administration were to be re-elected. I simply cannot wake up on November 4, or whenever we get the final results, and know that I could have done more to elect progressives up and down the ballot. I’ll take a little discomfort now over another bout of debilitating grief after the election.
Linda Henigin
Nancy Neff suddenly “got religion” about phone banking in September when an analysis said that to have a 98% chance of winning the presidency, the challenger would have to win the popular vote by 5-6%.
Given the continued revelations since then about the ruling party’s intentions to suppress voting, avoid counting all ballots, and challenge any result other than the current president prevailing, I am driven to try to get the popular vote well above 6%. The most effective way to do that from California is phone banking, and I am convinced that Reclaim Our Vote has an excellent strategy and an easy way for volunteers to participate.
Nancy Neff
Reclaim Our Vote in a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization doing voter education in voter suppression states. Elsa Schafer has been an engaged leader with them for 3 years and is now part of their Election Protection Team.
“After 17 of us in the Bay Area made 41K calls in Fall of 2017, using the NAACP lists, to people the big Parties overlook, and 81K more African Americans voted in that one Senate run-off election than had voted in either of the Obama presidential elections, I realized Reclaim Our Vote and Founder Andrea Miller know what they’re doing — and I haven’t found a better way to spend my time than by alerting people of color that they’ve been taken off the voter rolls — disenfranchised — showing them via our 6.4 million postcards sent this year how to re-register — then using this phone banking to ask them to vote early — taking friends and family with them!”
Elsa Schafer
If you are ready to give it a try on your own:
If you want to attend a phone bank with other UUCPA members and friends and the option of starting off with a 30-45 minute training with Nancy Neff and Elsa Schafer, here is the info:
Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system.
Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/85336622571?pwd=ZWNXS2xVRnhTcThKU2wrb202L2xidz09
ALSO: Please join regular UUJMCA/Reclaim Our Vote
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 invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.” (Book cover)
Please join us via Zoom on November 3rd at noon to discuss this compelling book as we live with many areas of California in flames.
Contact Hannah Slocum brown-bag-books+owner@uucpa.org to find out more about the group.
Join the email list to be notified of book selections and for video conference details by emailing brown-bag-books+subscribe@uucpa.org.
Each year in November, the church auctions goods and services at a wonderful party. In 2020, we are committed to still bringing the congregation together for a party! An online party. As in previous years, members donate everything from homemade jam to a condo in Mexico. This year, we are going to see how creative we can be! Donations entries can be made by each individual donor until October 31st. Make your donation via this online form: https://charityauction.bid/uucpa2020auction
The auction team will contact you if we have any further questions. If you are unable to enter an auction donation, please contact auction@uucpa.org or call the office and ask them to pass your details to the team – and we will arrange for someone to help you through the process.
As in previous years, there will be silent and live auction items. Due to COVID-19, please reimagine your donations. Instead of in-person dinners, could you do meal delivery? Outdoor picnics? Do you have services you are able to offer? We are especially in need of larger items for the live auction. Do you have a second home that you could offer as part of the live auction?
Visit the Auction Page to find out how to volunteer, how to make a donation, and more!
Please join us for a 4-part adult religious education class titled: Transcendentalism Then and Now, led by Rev. John Buehrens.
Background reading for the course is Rev. Buehrens recent book, CONFLAGRATION: How the Transcendentalists Sparked the American Struggle for Racial, Gender, and Social Justice (Boston: Beacon Press, Jan. 2020). The paperback edition of this book will be available in Jan. 2021 from Beacon Press or the UUA bookstore.
The course, however, will be thematic rather than following the narrative of the book. Rev. Buehrens will identify contemporary issues as well as explore the pioneering efforts of our spiritual forebears in spiritual practice, women’s rights, anti-racism, and ecotheology. The format of the course will include both lecture and discussion.
During his career, Rev. Buehrens served congregations in Tennessee, Texas, New York, Massachusetts, and California. Prior to his retirement in 2017, he was the Senior Minister of the Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco. He was also the president of the UUA from 1993 to 2001.
Photo by Dimitry Anikin on Unsplash
| President | Brooke Bishara |
| VP Finance | Kevin Crane |
| VP Facilities, | Barbara Smith-Thomas |
| Secretary, | Joe Bailey |
| Social Justice | Kristi Iverson |
| Visitors | Jeb Eddy |
| Denominational Concerns | Maria Almli |
| Policies | Geetha Rao |
| CYRE | Emma Grant-Bier |
| Adult Religious Education | (Open) |
| Treasurer | Kay Brown |
| Communications | Thida Cornes |
| Staff Relations | (Open) |
| Planning | Dave Joki |
| Small Groups | Greg Williams |
| Membership | Jim Basiji |
| Parish Minister | Rev. Amy Zucker Morgenstern |
| Minister of Religious Education | Rev. Dan Harper |
| Religious Education Assistant | Grecia Uribe Sanchez |
| Community Minister | Rev. Jen Dillinger |
| Community Minister | Rev. Melissa Thomson |
| Community Minister | Rev. Stefanie Etzbach-Dale |
| Assistant Treasurer | Barbara Smith-Thomas |
| Head Child Care Worker | Pari Mahjoubinia |
| Music Director | Bruce Olstad |
| Accompanist | Veronika Agranov-Dafoe |
| Congregational Administrator | Jeff Cashdollar |
| Membership Engagement Coordinator | BJ Wishinsky |
| Office Administration Assistant | Debra Heinz |
| Bookkeepers | Kay Brown and Jeff Cashdollar |
| Custodian/Sexton | Enrique Infante |
| Handyman/Gardener | James Nelson |
