Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church - Unitarian Universalist

Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church - Unitarian Universalist

Friday News Update January 6, 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 8, Sunday: Sermon - Death Is Difficult To Face. It has been said, rather cynically, that “the moment we are born we begin to die.” Yet few of us spend much, if any, of our attention thinking about our mortality. What if we did? Might there be a gift in it for us? Rev. Erik Walker Wikstrom will be preaching, and this will be a STARS Story Sunday. 

Four year-olds through fifth grades begin their morning in the Sanctuary

for the first 20 minutes of the service.

Then they will be sung to the Parlor and taken to class by their teachers.

Religious Education classes for children and youth are offered during both services.

The two and three year-olds RE class as well as the youth classes (sixth thru twelfth grades)

start in their classrooms.

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

Children are always welcome in worship.

Nursery and child care is available for children four 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

Church This Week.

January 6+7: Join a Dialogue on Race with Zion Union & Westminster. Members of Zion Union, Westminster Presbyterian, and TJMC-UU will gather in January and February for a series of facilitated discussions to explore race and racism in our region. Begun two years ago, these sessions are being offered through our three churches. Diverse groups of about ten people will meet weekly for six weeks, follow a thoughtful curriculum, and then be invited to join an Action Team that is already having a positive effect on profound local civic problems.  Deadline to sign up is Wednesday, December 14. Training for facilitators will be offered January 6–7. For details call Bob Gross  Co-Chair of the City Dialogue on Race.

January 8, Sunday: Time to take down the church Christmas tree! Please stay a few minutes after the second service this morning and help remove the ornaments and dismantle the tree. Many hands make light work! Your help is greatly appreciated.

January 8, Sunday: Peace Action United Nations, 12:45 PM, Summit Room 2. Agenda: UU-UNO Plaque location; Nothing But Nets; Mission Statement; Invitation to William Schultz to TJMC & UNA Chapter; tabling Sunday, Janaury 15; and open for further business. Al Reynolds & Mary Rose Curtis, Co-Chairs.

January 8, Sunday: Covenant Facilitators, 1 PM, Summit Room 1.

January 8, Sunday: NatureSpirit, 5:30 PM, Summit Room 1. Email us at nature@uucharlottesville.org if you have questions.

January 9, Monday: Council Chairs, 7 PM, Social Hall.

January 10–January 31, Tuesdays: AFD: Why Evil Exists, 1–3 PM, Parlor.

January 11, Wednesday: AFD: Beans & Rice, 6 PM, Social Hall.

January 11, Wednesday: AFD: Beans & Rice Discussion, 7 PM, Summit Room 1.

January 11, Wednesday: Finance, 7 PM, Social Hall.

January 11, Wednesday: Leadership Development, 7 PM, Parlor.

January 12+19+26, Thursdays: Active Minds, 1 PM, Parlor.

January 14, Saturday: Pastoral Visitors, 8 AM, Social Hall.

January 15, Sunday: February Bulletin Submission Deadline.

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. 

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: United Nations, 3 PM, Social Hall.

Church Notes & Requests for Help

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

Do You Know… Gifts of cash or securities can be made to the TJMC-UU Endowment Fund in three ways: Current Gift - An outright gift. Memorial or Honor Gift - A donation in honor of or in memory of a church member or friend. Bequest - Gifts made by including TJMC-UU in your will. These gifts can be directed to the unrestricted fund or to any of the three restricted funds, which are the Abrahamse Fund for music, the Bristol Fund for building maintenance, and the Cheetham Fund for RE teacher training.

Volunteers Welcome: Do you feel moved to help coordinate our CareNet program? CareNet helps arrange meals and rides for congregation members during times of special need. The coordinator contacts other members to match up people to help each other out. Contact Chaplain Alexandra McGee, Ministry Associate, ma@uucharlottesville.org.

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!

Stock Donations: We would like to remind everyone that if you plan to donate stock to the church before the end of the calendar year as payment towards your pledge or for some other type of contribution, remember that it takes several weeks to complete that transaction. Also, the proceeds from stock transfers often come to the church without any donor identification on them. Therefore, if you intend to donate stock to the church, please complete a stock transfer form, available at the Church Office or on the Administrative Council bulletin board, in advance of the donation, so we may properly credit your account. The stock transfer form in the Church Office contains information about the church account to which the stock may be donated.

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.