Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church - Unitarian Universalist

Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church - Unitarian Universalist

Friday News Update

January 13, 2012

January’s Sermon Theme: Death. W. Somerset Maugham once observed, “Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it.” Instead, we will spend the month of January – sometimes called “the dead of winter” – exploring the inevitability of death, our response(s) to grief and loss, death as a metaphor, and even the potential gifts of our mortality.

9:15 AM+11:15 AM

January 15, Sunday: Sermon – Longevity Has Its Place, 9:15 AM+11:15 AM. On the evening before his assassination, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King said in a speech, “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now.” Why do so many have a fear of death, and what might liberation from that fear have to offer us? Rev. Erik Walker Wikstrom will be preaching. 

Religious Education classes for children are offered during both services.

Programming for youth (sixth thru twelfth grades) is available during the 11:15 AM service only.

Four year-olds through fifth grades begin their morning in Children’s Worship in the parlor.

The two and three year-olds RE class as well as the youth classesstart in their classrooms.

For more information, see the RE display table in the Social Hall on Sunday morning.

Children are welcome in worship.

Nursery care is available for children two years old and younger

during both services in the lower hall of the main building.

The Comfort Room at the Rugby Road entrance of the Sanctuary is designed for parents with young children. Audio from the service can be heard in the Comfort Room.

uucharlottesville.org Information Go To Links

January 2012 Bulletin: http://www.uucharlottesville.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/january-2012-bulletin-2.pdf

Calendar: http://www.uucharlottesville.org/calendar

Sermons: http://www.uucharlottesville.org/about/worship-life/services-and-sermons

Are you part of the TJMC-UU Facebook community? Click HERE or log on to Facebook and ask to join the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church group.

Have you seen the Unitarian Universalist weekly e-news letter? Click HERE for this week’s edition.

Click HERE to visit the Southeast UUA District webpage. It is full of information for our UU district.

Did you know that TJMC is a member of the Center for Non-Profit Excellence? This allows you to access any of the CNE’s classes at the membership rate. Simply state your connection to our congregation on your registration. Click HERE for more information about the CNE.

Church This Week.

January 15, Sunday: Social Action Collection – PACEM. Although the thirty-four churches who create the PACEM coalition each contribute by helping to host the guests who are homeless, PACEM is also made up of staff and supplies which create a safe, caring and supportive homeless shelter that is the conduit for all of us to become members of a larger community who tries to care for all of its members.

January 15, Sunday: PAUN Tabling, after services, Social Hall. Theme is Martin Luther King, Jr., and PEACE. For more information contact Mary Rose Curtis and Al Reynolds, Co-Chairs.

January 16, Monday: Church Office Closed for Holiday

January 16, Monday: Board of Trustees, 7 PM, Social Hall

January 17–January 31, Tuesdays: AFD: Why Evil Exists, 1–3 PM, Parlor.

January 17, Tuesday: UUppity Women, 7 PM, Parlor. Jamie McReynolds, our Ministerial Intern, will be joining us to introduce himself and answer your questions.

January 19+26, Thursdays: Active Minds, 1 PM, Parlor.

January 19, Thursday: UU Christian Fellowship, 7 PM, Summit Room 2.

January 20-22: Circle Dinners. Circle dinners are being planned for the week end of January 20, 21, and 22. Are you interested in being a host or hostess for a few people a on a cold January day or evening? Call Gayle Floyd ASAP so we can have our sign up sheets for participants available in the church hallway. This is a great way to get to know church people in small groups.

January 22, Sunday: Sermon – Dying to the Self, 9:15 AM+11:15 AM. A version of the Prayer of St. Francis closes with “It is in dying to the self, that we are born to eternal life.” What does it mean to die to ‘the self’? Please join me in exploring the struggles of being and becoming. Our Ministerial Intern Jamie McReynolds will be preaching.

Church Notes & Requests for Help

Auction Site Open for Donations: Hungry for community – in a very literal sense? The Spring Auction committee is looking for dinners, brunches, adventures, special events to carry us from March 2012 through March 2013. We would love to offer the use of vacation homes and services (professional or otherwise) from members of our community. What is it that you can donate to foster connection, raise funds for TJMC programs, and provide social activities of all sorts? Volunteers can help you craft a donation after Sunday services. Deadline for donations is Sunday, February 5, at 1 PM. Bidding starts Sunday, February 19, and be sure to come to the Auction on Saturday, February 25. For more information, see the auction page on our website uucharlottesville.org or write auction@uucharlottesville.org.

Your Music Survey Flash! Your thoughts, dreams and recommendations are essential to the future of our Music program. Have your say. This Sunday, tell the Music Task Force what kind of musical activities will help make your spiritual life at TJMC-UU bloom! You will get an email with a link to the quick and easy survey. The link will also appear on the TJMC website. If you do not have computer access, paper copies can be completed in the Social Hall on Sunday. Early deadline: Tuesday, January 24.

Magazine images needed for elementary religious education classes. We need pictures cut from magazines of people of all ages and ethnicities as well as pictures of pets for a collage project now through Sunday, January 22. There is a collection box for images in the Edgewood Lane hallway on the RE table. Thanks for your help!

Our Facilities – Our Future, Expand, Build, Renovate, Sell or Demolish? With space demands that continue to grow, but aging buildings that are expensive to keep up, what should our campus look like in five years? Should we expand, renovate, build, sell, or demolish to better meet the needs of our congregation? The Facilities Planning Task Force encourages all to go onto our TJMC webpage www.uucharlottesville.org/fptf to experience a virtual tour online and read the report, or stop by our table every Sunday in January in the Social Hall.

“On Becoming a Green Sanctuary” – Have We Transformed the Congregation? Is TJMC ready to seek accreditation by the Unitarian Universalist Association? At the Sunday, Jananuary 29, service and Congregational Meeting the Green Sanctuary Task Force will ask for the congregation’s approval of our motion to seek final accreditation. We have achieved a 15% reduction in energy consumption over three years, but that is only one sign of the changes the Green Sanctuary program’s 12 action projects have sought. Watch the video online, or stop by our table.

Helping our Partner Church-Ebenezer Baptist: Ebenezer Baptist Church reaches out each year to the Caribbean island of Nevis, providing medical information about diabetes, blood pressure and nutrition, and basic educational help to the children. They collect supplies to carry with them such as personal items like combs, hair brushes, lotion, shampoo, tooth brushes, pencils, and magic markers. They carry the gifts in their suitcases when they visit in February. We partner with them in this outreach by helping to contribute these small items. Boxes for donations will be in the Edgewood Lane hallway through January. For information contact, Elizabeth Breeden at brs@cstone.net

Back by popular demand – 2012 Attractions Coupon books only $25 to benefit the 2012-13 Coming of Age class. Just in time for holiday gift giving. See Margaret Gorman at the Scrip table on Sunday. We did not plan to sell the books this year but your requests for them has been overwhelming! Thanks for your support of our Coming of Age class! A limited number of 2011 books (five only!) available for $5 a piece!

Registration for the 2011-2012 Religious Education Program for Children & Youth is available at http://www.uucharlottesville.org/education/religious-education-program-registration on the church’s website. All families with children infants through twelfth grades participating in the program need to register.

The Religious Education program is in need of: magazines, old calendars and cards, anything paper with pictures, cigar boxes or boxes of similar size and shape. Small or miniature objects like: toys, animals, people, furniture, bells, spools of thread, keys, statues, creatures, critters, small boxes, keys, spoons, tiny mirrors, parts to old games that aren’t complete, and anything that can be glued into a shadow box to make it 3 dimensional. Leave your donations in the box in the Edgewood Lane hallway.  Thanks!