Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church - Unitarian Universalist

Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church - Unitarian Universalist

Friday E-Mail News           October 8, 2010

Services at 9:15 AM & 11:15 AM

October 10, Sunday: Sermon - Heroes of Our Hearts. Rev. Dr. Janet E. Newman. The two heroes of this sermon, although not Unitarian Universalists, certainly are good role models for us as persons who lived their/our values and principles. They challenged the status quo at the same time as they made the world a better place for all.

Religious Education

Religious Education for children nursery through fifth grade is offered at both services.

Classes for sixth through twelfth grades are offered at the 11:15 AM service.

Church This Week

October 8, Friday: Social Action Movie Night, 7 PM, Parlor. The Gay Straight Alliance hosts “Preacher’s Sons.” All ages, free.

October 8-10: TJ District’s 2010 Anti-Racism Conference: Building the World We Want: From Just Us to Justice.

October 8, Friday: NatureSpirit’s Last Meeting, 7 PM, Social Hall. NatureSpirit will meets for its last event, celebrating ten years of its history with a ritual of transition and discussion about the future of earth centered spirituality at TJMC. Food provided, but snacks and beverage contributions are welcomed.

October 10, Sunday: Last Day to Purchase Flower Bulbs, 10:30 AM + 12:30 AM, Social Hall. Support our Coming of Age class (ninth graders) raise the necessary funds ($5000) for their class pilgrimage in the spring. Only $6 a package!

October 10, Sunday: UU Christian Fellowship, 9:15 AM, Summit Room 1. Our service will be led Chaplain Alexandra McGee, Transition Ministry Associate, who will take her theme from the Lectionary. This is the only Sunday morning service that the Christian Fellowship has scheduled for this year; therefore, we hope that we have an especially good turnout for Alex and her service.

October 10, Sunday: Peace Action-United Nations, 10:30 AM, Green Room. The agenda will include the results of our congregational peace survey with plans for follow up; the UU UNO Honors program with four criteria to become a Blue Ribbon congregation; and a new ‘Peace Ministry Network’ program sponsored by the UUA Commission on Social Witness. You are invited to participate to help make decisions. Background information about these two new programs will be available for discussion.

October 10, Sunday: Environmental Action Photograph, 12:30 PM, Outside. TJMCers are invited to gather on the Edgewood Lane front steps to form a human 350 for a group photo. Why? This day (10/10/10), in more than 170 countries worldwide, citizens are holding Global Warming Work Shops to tell their governments there is no time left to begin taking action. NASA’s Center for Climate Analysis chief, Dr. James Hansen, has declared, among others, that the uppermost safe level of carbon dioxide (C02) in earth atmosphere is 350 parts per million.  In May 2010, the planetary average was 392 parts/million and rising. (For more info see 350.org on the web, where we expect our photo will appear.)

October 14+21+28, Thursdays: Active Minds, 1 PM, Parlor.

October 14+21+28, Thursdays: Adult Choir, 6:45 PM, Parlor.

October 16, Saturday: New Comer’s Orientation, 9 AM, Summit Rooms 1+2.

October 16, Saturday: 10-10-10 Party, 6 PM, Social Hall. If you are a numerologist, you know that this is the tenth month, with a tenth day of the tenth year. We are sponsoring a Services Auction evening of food and fun using your 10 fingers for 10 bucks to welcome our new Interim Minister. Of course, because we are a church, the only time the building is free is Saturday, October 16! If you would like to come to a 10-10-10 party (on the sixteenth) for $10, please notify Elizabeth Breeden at brs@cstone.net.

October 17, Sunday: Sermon - Taking a Leap of Doubt. Rev. Rose Edington & Rev. Mel Hoover. Our guest preachers are beginning their ninth year as co-ministers to the UU Congregation of Charleston, West Virginia.

October 17 – November 21, Sundays: AFD: UUs and Social Justice: A People So Bold, 9:15 AM, Summit Room 1. Led by Pam Philips. Cost: $2/session or $14 for all. Sunday morning RE for grown-ups - check it out!

October 17 + November 21: Sunday: Congregational Conversations, After Services, Sanctuary. How much is TJMC worth to you in time and money? What if members were required to give their time and money to the church every year? Congregational Conversations and Cottage Meetings have been scheduled to discuss the answers to these very important questions. The first Cottage Meeting will be Friday, October 15. The last one will be Thursday, November 11. Sign-up sheets will be available at the Membership table next to the bookstore in the Social Hall. Everyone, members and non-members alike, are invited. Please do not miss this chance to have your voice be heard.

October 17, Sunday: 1PM Fall Auction Donation Deadline. Last chance to offer up your donations for the November 6 ChiliFest and Silent Auction. Enter your donations online now (look for the “Get Involved” tab at the top of the TJMC website) so we can finalize the auction catalog.

October 17, Sunday: Peace Action-United Nations, 3 PM, Social Hall. The Rev. Dr. William May will speak on “Containing Runaway Fear in American Foreign Policy.”

October 17, Sunday: Second Annual Vigil for the People and Mountains of Appalachia, 7 PM, Sanctuary.

Church Notes & Requests for Help

October 2010 Monthly Bulletin is now online at uucharlottesville.org.

RE Needs Two Volunteers: Two more volunteers needed to teach in our elementary age RE program - for four weeks only (October 24, November 7+14+21) at the 11:15 AM service. We will study our Second UU Principle “Offering Fair and Kind Treatment to Everyone” which will include a multi-week social action project for all ages! Contact Leia Durland-Jones at 293-8179 x6# or leiadj@embarqmail.com to help.

Auction donations needed: There are less than ten days left to submit your offerings for the November 6 Auction. We are looking for a variety of dinners and events to take place between November 6 and April 15, 2011, everything from the simple to elegant, small to large, child centered to intergenerational to adult centered. Contact our Dinner Diva, Lynn Heath at 760-3279 or auctiondinner@uucharlottesville.org at if you need help creating a dinner/event. We are also looking for services with a winter/spring theme and special children’s gift items to supplement the gift-worthy items gleaned from the recent yard sale. For more info and to submit your donations via the TJMC website, look under the ‘Get Involved’ tab. Auction help will also be available at the Auction Table in the Social Hall Sunday after services.

Buy Your Groceries Online and Raise Funds for TJMC! RelayFoods.com allows you to shop at more than 50 area grocery stores, specialty shops, and farms on one website. Browse for staples, prepared foods, farm-raised produce and pasture-raised meat, all at in-store prices. You can check out with a credit card, and they will meet you with your purchase at one of their free pick-up spots conveniently located around town. The vendor list keeps growing: Whole Foods, Wolf Creek Farm, Revolutionary Soup, Polyface Farm, Planet Earth Diversified, Rebecca’s, Reid Supermarket, Foods of All Nations, The Cheese Shop, Hardy Farm, Hotcakes, BreadWorks, and many more. For every family that places four orders of $100 or more by the end of 2010, Relay will give TJMC $50. If one hundred families participate, that is $5,000 for our church. The fundraiser starts Friday, October 15.Here is how it works: 1. Log on to RelayFoods.com and select Charlottesville as your city. 2. Shop for all your grocery needs from paper towels to local eggs (if you create an account with Relay, they will save your half-finished order for minutes or days). 3. At checkout, type TJUU in the “Enter Your Coupon Number Here” box. 4. Select a pick-up location. 5. Enjoy better food, more living, less driving. And raise money for TJMC. Questions? Contact RelayFoods at webcontact@RelayFoods.com.

Membership Directory: Due to a few technical glitches, our new Membership Directory disk distribution will be delayed a few weeks. We are hopeful that this distribution will begin on Sunday, October 10. For any questions, you may contact Jean Newland at kipanbdjean@gmail.com.

UUSC-TJMC Holiday Card: Send a winter holiday greeting card to TJMC friends and members during the end-of-the-year holidays by contributing to the UUSC – no postage needed. Contributions small and large are welcome and contributors’ names will be listed it he card, to be issued with the December 2010 Monthly Bulletin. Membership for adults is $40 ($75/couple); seniors 65 and over $20; students and youth $10, checks payable to UUSC. You may mail your contributions to TJMC, Attn: UUSC, or give it to Edith Good at Sunday coffee hour by December 15, Contact: Edith Good at 293-4044.

RE Wish List: Thanks to all who donated prizes for Oktoberfest and Bingo Night. Next up on our wish list are more prizes and treasures for another Bingo Night in February. Coffee Mugs, extra party favors, small toys and games, art supplies, knick-knacks - anything you have too much of and is not perishable - would be a great prize for a bingo winner. Small to medium-sized wicker baskets are especially appreciated to round up all the loot. This wish will expire when our prize coffers are full again.

Church Upcoming Dates

October 18, Monday: IMPACT’s Annual Assembly, 6:30 PM, Offsite. Will be held at St. Thomas Aquinas Church, Alderman Road. Do not miss this important meeting when everyone present will have a vote to decide which issue IMPACT will work on this year. The three issues from which we will be selecting were identified as Mental Health, Homelessness (also centered on access to mental health treatment), and Affordable Job Training. This is one of the three big inter-congregational meetings of the year. We will also receive updates on last year’s issues, pre-kindergarten education and interpretive services. We have a turnout goal of twenty-five from TJMC. Come represent and join other TJMC Unitarian Universalists at this important interfaith event.

October 19, Tuesdays: UUppity Women, 7 PM, Parlor. Bring your ideas for discussion topics to our meeting on October 5. Look for details about our Tuesday, October 19, gathering in Friday Emails and Sunday Bulletin Boards. Contact us at uuppities@uucharlottesville.org.

October 24, Sunday: Sermon - What Do You UUs Believe, Anyway? Rev. Dr. Janet E. Newman. How good it feels to have a clear, positive, succinct answer for those who ask the question above! This sermon will offer some resources and helpful suggestions. Choir will sing.

October 24, Sunday: AFD: Weatherizing the Home, 3:30 PM, Parlor. TJMC member John Semmelhack, a certified Home Energy Rating System (HERS) rater and the owner of Think Little, an energy-efficiency consulting firm, will discuss how weatherizing the home can save energy, save money, and lessen your home’s carbon footprint. He will also describe the workings on two rebate programs, from the IRS (up to $1,500) and from LEAP, a local non-profit (up to $3,000).

October 29, Friday: Labyrinth Walk, 5:30-8:30 PM, Social Hall. From 5:30-7 PM an open, unstructured walk will be offered - walk at your own pace in silence or with recorded music. From 7-8:30 PM, live acoustic music with ritual will take place, observing a theme of All Souls’ remembrance. Friendly folks will be on hand the entire time to introduce you to this contemplative activity if you are new to it.  Join us!

October 31, Sunday: Sermon: How Does UU Theology Relate to All Souls’ Day? Chaplain Alexandra McGee, Transitional Ministry Associate. The early Universalists had doctrines that gave them hope when they considered an afterlife. Some Latin American cultures relate to Hallowe’en as Dia de los Muertos, day of the dead, to give them hope as they honor their deceased loved ones. What do we modern UUs do with the inescapable fact of death?

November 6, Saturday: Fall ChiliFest & Silent Auction, 4-7 PM Bring the whole family to eat chili, play games, and bid on items perfect for holiday giving and social events to carry you through the long winter months.

November 13, Saturday: TJMC Fall Clean Up, 8 AM–1 PM, Outside. Come join us for a fall grounds clean up day at church. We hope to make good progress in tidying and tucking in our beautiful grounds for the winter season. Come out get some fresh air, fellowship with folks you may not have befriended yet, and help our wonderful church. You will be glad you did. Sign ups and more specifics will be available at our table in the Social Hall during upcoming Sundays. For more information email Holly Hintz: hollyhg1@yahoo.com

Community News

October 14, Thursday: Government Services Day, 10 AM-2 PM, Downtown Mall. Giveaways, demonstrations, information, and fun activities for kids including a visit to the Fire Department smoke house.

Friday Email Submission Deadline: Thursday noon the day before the Friday.