Dear Families and Friends of UUCW:   

 

Please spread the word and pass the flyer  to your friends and families about Imagination Station:  REC's February Vacation Childcare Program.  It is so reasonably priced ($225)  for full time care, and the daily -themed programs will be value-based and super fun! If this week fills successfully, we will be prepared to also run it during April vacation week.

 

Please spread the word and registration link. This is a church fundraiser that could proved to be very beneficial to all parties!!

 

Looking for volunteers:

Let us know  if you would be interested in volunteering your time and talent to any part of this exciting church fundraiser.  We need artists, scientists, musicians, storytellers, teen helpers,teachers of movement , games facilitators and more.  Ana Bediako and Jenny DelGizzi will be Co-Directing the week.   

 

See our ad in Baystate Parent!

 

 

During the special holiday services Dec 21 through Dec 28, members and friends of the congregation are invited to participate in our special offering project in support of the Minister's Descritionary, Emergency Fund.  This fund serves families both within our congregation and the community at large by providing needed resources such as heating oil, gas, clothing, medicine, partial rent, school supplies, etc. for those in need.  During 2014 $1668.00 was distributed from this fund. Please consider your contribution to this important ministry.  Envelopes will be handed out with Orders of Service and extras will be available in the foyer.  Thank you in advance for your generosity and compassion.

 

 

Holiday Hours:

 

  

Last year, I stood in the pulpit and told you all one of my core beliefs: the stories our kids read, the stories we read to them, help to shape them, help make them better people. And then I encouraged you to join the REC-sponsored, intergenerational, church-wide reading of the novel Wonder. (Wasn't that a great read?) This year, the REC is sponsoring a similar event, and I'd like to invite you, once again, to read along and join the conversation. Our book is Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World, by Sy Montgomery.

If you haven't met Temple, you are in for a treat. She's an amazing woman, currently a professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University, and arguably the most accomplished and well-known autistic adult in the world. Her work designing safe and humane beef production facilities has revolutionized the food production industry. Equally important, Temple has shared her autism with people of all ages; through her books and speaking engagements, she shines light on her non-traditional way of thinking, explores the way her body processes senses, and celebrates all the gifts her autism has given her.

In Sy Montgomery's biography, we meet a younger Temple, a girl for whom ordinary sensations-the feel of a wool hat on her ears, the smell of a teacher's perfume, or the sound of the school bell-were torture. To escape these overwhelming sensations, Temple took comfort in movements that others found odd: twirling, for example. She often retreated into a world of her own, ignoring the people and events around her. This behavior was, of course, hard for her friends and family to understand. But Temple, her family, and these friends did not give up. Together they found a way to better understand one another.

In one of my favorite passages in the book, adult Temple suggests an unorthodox approach to meat production facility design to people who didn't believe in her ideas ...

"Temple remembers their reaction: 'They thought I was off my rocker.' 

She has heard that one before. People have been calling Temple Grandin 'crazy,' 'retarded,' and 'off her rocker' ever since her father first insisted she be put away in an institution when she was three years old.

She's proved them wrong every time."

The REC will continue to raffle off signed copies of Temple Grandin during coffee hour each week. Get in on that if you can! And if you aren't one of the lucky winners, you can easily order the book-in hardcover or softcover-online or in brick and mortar bookstores. Consider it your holiday Must Read! Copies will also be available for purchase during the Holiday Shop here on Dec 13 and 21.

 

 

Dear Fellow Members of the UUCW:

 

The "TALK TO THE DOT" campaign worked out nicely per the feedback I received. The "Williams" hearing assistance units are now labeled. This should help isolate any bad units so we do not find them back in the box until the issue is resolved.

 

Also as a reminder I am posting the weekly "Reflection" on our website at http://www.uucworcester.org/media/podcasts, and they are fully up to date.

 

Keeping in communications,

 

 

Need a great holiday present that will really inform the receiver and keep them occupied from now until spring (and beyond)?  How about a set of the Britannica Great Books of the Western World? All fifty four (54) volumes, complete, for a donation of $100 to the UUCW.  Almost five feet of books in good condition, some still in the original shrink wrap, from Homer to Freud and including a topical index to follow a train of thought over time. If you are interested, please contact Chuck Innis.  

 

 

A few of us at UU have been contacted to help with a book drive.  Instead of our holiday shoe-box event, we will be donating books to kids, ages 3-15, in Liberia.  Because of political strife in that country beginning in 1980, schools, libraries, books and supplies were destroyed by fire.  Through education, we would like to help Liberians regain their equilibrium.  Math and science textbooks are greatly in need as well as encylopedias, dictionaries and reference books. Age-appropriate new and gently used books of all kinds are also welcome.  Obtaining a number of one kind of book would greatly benefit kids in the classroom. For those who do not have the time to find books, a shipping donation will be very much appreciated.  Each box of books costs $15.00 dollars.

 

As in the past, Robin and her RE will jump in head first to help with this event.

 

Please place your books in the box labeled "Books for Liberia" which will be either in Robin's office or in Fellowship Hall.

 

UPDATE: The deadline for dropping off gently-used and new books for Liberia is January 11.  We are now also accepting college books, especially but not exclusively math and science books.  

 

Merci!

 

Lounge

We continue our study of Christianity this week with lectures by Prof. Luke Timothy Johnson on "Moral Teaching" and "The Radical Edge".  This course continues to be open to anyone interested in the study of religions of the world.  For more information, please contact Rev. Payson.

 

Plan on enjoying the Annual Vespers Tea immediately after the beautiful Holiday Vespers Service (4 PM).   We will take out our silver coffee and tea service and our china to again celebrate the holiday season the way our congregation has done it for years. Come into Fellowship Hall still singing "Silent Night" and join us in fellowship and wonderful food, drink, and conversation.

 

Please bring either a savory (if your last name starts with A - P) or sweet dish (Q - Z) to share. Drop it off in Fellowship Hall before the service. Write a list of the ingredients on a file card and place it with your dish to provide information for people with allergies.

 

We will be setting up an hour prior to the start of service. Can you come early and set up tables and/or help with plating?   Are you available to help set out food after the service? Who wants to serve tea water, coffee, or festival punch? Lastly, we need all to help clean up so no one has to stay late. If you are willing to be part of any of these important groups, please CLICK HERE to sign up. Thank you for your time and consideration in helping us make this "The Best Vespers Ever!"

 

 

If you ordered a poinsettia to help decorate our sanctuary this holiday season, you are free to pick it up after the Vespers Service on December 21 in the sanctuary.  If you have not paid for your poinsettia, please do so ASAP.  Cost is $20 per regular size, $30.00 for extra-large.  Poinsettias remaining after January 11 will be distributed or disposed of unless prior arrangements have been arranged with the Office.

 

 

I want to write something

so simply

about love

or about pain

that even

as you are reading

you feel lit

and as you read

you keep feeling it

and though it be my story

it will be common,

though it be singular

it will be known to you

so that by the end

you will think --

no, you will realize --

that it was all the while

yourself arranging the words,

that it was all the time

words that you yourself,

out of your own heart

had been saying.

 

 

 - Mary Oliver

 

 

Jan. 3  from 1:30 to 2:30. Please join me in this free one hour class of Shintaido. The class will take a gentle and very accessible approach to exercises designed to help bring the body, mind and spirit into harmony. Wear loose comfortable clothing. Any questions please call Joe Zawielski at 508 7988638 or ask him at church. A free will  offering will be accepted to pay the church for the space.

 

 

Please note that we have begun our Annual Flu Prevention Program at UUCW.   The current precautions include: 

1. The availability of waterless hand sanitizer at each entrance to the church and in each religious education classroom.  We ask that all those entering and exiting our facility use this resource.
2. The posting of cautions for those experiencing flu-like symptoms.  The cautions currently ask that if you are experiencing flu-like symptoms (a temperature above 99 degrees, and/or a persistent cough, headache, or intestinal discomfort) to please refrain from entering the church.

/ 508-853-1942) if you are experiencing flu-like symptoms so that we can help care for you personally.  If you are eligible for and it is recommended that you have an annual flu vaccine, we strongly encourage you to get one. Thank you for helping protect those most vulnerable among us!