Six times a year, the UUCM Basket Share program distributes half of the offering proceeds to a service or advocacy program in the wider community. 

This fiscal year's fourth Basket Share will be distributed to COTS (Committee on the Shelterless).

COTS award-winning programs have helped thousands to rebuild their lives. The CEO for COTS Mike Johnson will be coming on Sunday.  He has a very compelling story in that he was homeless for 8 years before turning his life around. 

A check made out to "COTS," will, of course, go to COTS. A check made out to UUCM will be shared equally with COTS.

UUCM member Janette Morrow and her husband, Coy, are regular volunteers. On Feb. 8, they will tell us how our donations will be put to use.

February, and I find myself feeling joyful.  January was an eventful month with lots going on at UUCM in all kinds of directions. The Bible stories for skeptics was finalized, thanks to Jan Seagrave who will facilitate it through the end of the church year.  I will be leading the second one of these after services on March 1st as we examine that old tale of Jonah and the really big fish! (Whale). Also the Membership Committee is on the closing lap of finishing up our new church brochure, a very attractive pamphlet and the first one in my time with UUCM. This is a really exciting event. It looks beautiful already and when it is done, you can all take some with you to spread around your friends and community. Leave them at the counter where you get your coffee, on the table at your lunch spot, pinned to the bulletin board where you love to visit and see what's up. Leave them at all your favorite haunts!  We are entering a focused time of outreach and letting people in the larger community know we are here and what we stand for as a spiritual community. With your good help, we can seed the county with our new good news!  All this is cause for celebration.  

And there is another joy.  After passing through the first January in California's recorded weather history without rain, we are expecting a very large and wet system to come on shore here in the next few days. I can feel the ground and the plants all waiting, tight, in focused anticipation for this weather. I trust it will come, have faith in the weather people who say it will. It could be here by the time you get this 'Musings.'

Will see you in sweet rain, God willing and if the creek WILL rise!

Rev. Chip    

Family Game Night Invite - Valentine's Day

Hello Everybody,

For Valentine's Day February 14 I would like to invite you to a fun family game night at UUCM in the Fireside Room. 6-9pm. We will play charades, dominos and other board games. Bring a game to share. Light snacks provided. Please contact me directly. All are welcome. No age restrictions.

~ Carolyn Bopp, 415-812-3187.

This is a UUCM RE Enhancement Fund sponsored event.

At our meeting on January 27, the Board of Trustees voted to approve an official mission statement for UUCM. Up until now, we have had many versions floating around (all of them very similar), but no "official" mission statement to use for marketing, planning, communication, and legal purposes. The Board of Trustees developed and voted to approve the following statement:
 

We plan to start using this statement on a consistent basis, in our order of service, in our new brochure that is under development, and in any way that helps us understand ourselves as a congregation and communicate that to others. I welcome your feedback.

Dianne

Buy your raffle tickets online or at the Crab Feed. 

Raffle tickets $3 each or 6 for $15.

Raffle items so far:

Gift certificate for one-night stay at Novato Oaks Inn

Morton & Bassett Spices: Basket of spices valued at $150

Wine, chocolate, games basket

2 Wine Baskets

Chocolate basket

Margaret Johnston - handmade silk scarf

Acrylic painting 

Genealogical research (2 hours)

Saturday, February 7, 2015   7:00 P.M.

Doors open at 6:30 pm.

240 Channing Way, San Rafael, CA  

San Francisco Dungeness Crab, Sher's Boston Clam Chowder, Caesar Salad, and Sourdough Bread

               $45.00  Adult

No-Host Bar

Corkage fee $15

Vegan pasta alternative $20 Adult, $10 Child 

Children 12 and under: Crab Dinner $20

 Children's program, age 12 and under: $15 includes games, art, music, and movie.

Music by Lucky Drive Bluegrass Trio 

 Mike Wilhoyte, Karen Wilhoyte, and Nicole Solis Snider

Questions crabfeed@uumarin.org 

Touch of Beauty is your chance to participate in a Sunday service. The only requirement is that you bring an object of beauty to display on the dais in front of the piano for everyone to appreciate during the service. Usually, but not always, people bring a plant or a bit of greenery. Even if you don't have a garden, and insist you don't have a "green thumb", you can buy an inexpensive bunch of flowers from the farmers' market or Trader Joe's.

Bring them in Sunday morning, find a vase in the kitchen, place the flowers in it (the "stuff and fluff" method is fine) and voila! A Touch of Beauty. In addition to participating (wordlessly) in the service, there are 2 other benefits to consider: (1) This is a single event -- no committees, phone calls, organizational obligations. It's EASY. and (2) You can dedicate your TOB to the memory of a loved one, or to an idea  or something more specific - such as a civil rights, peace, or justice event.

Almost all April, May and June dates are open, so email me your preference so that I can get the schedule into the office. Thank you!

Thanks go to this week's Shelter volunteers and food donators:

Grace, Paul, Mason, and Owen Dearborn, Joyce, Grace, Kristen, Edna, Wendy, Mary, and Amy.

Come be curious....Who IS Job?  What IS patience? 

Fireside Room

February 19, 7:30

This month's book choice is Elsewhere by Richard Russo. The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist turns to memoir in this hilarious and bittersweet account of his lifelong bond with his high strung, spirited mother and the small town she spent her life trying to escape. Jean Russo instilled in her son her dream of a better life elsewhere, a dream that prompted her to follow him across the country when he went to college.

Their adventures and tribulations on that road trip were a preview of the hold his mother would continue to have on him as she kept trying desperately to change her life.  All are welcome to join us in the Clara Barton room at 7:30 pm for a discussion of the book facilitated by Pamela Lyons.  This is a new release so there is a short wait from the library (less than a week).

FAITH CONTINGENT AT MARCH 

There will be a large faith contingent at the March for Real Climate Leadership Saturday, Feb. 7 in Oakland. This is our best chance to obtain a ban on fracking in CA, which poisons the air and water of all of us, and contributes significantly to worsening climate change. The statewide march is being organized by 350.org, 350 Bay Area, and supported by the Bay Area Sierra Club.

WHERE AND WHEN

The main march will assemble at Frank Ogawa/Oscar Grant Plaza at 11:30 AM. The faith contingent will assemble at the First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St. in Oakland, only four blocks from the plaza, at 11 AM. Then we will walk together to the plaza to join the march. You are welcome to meet the faith contingent there and march with them to the plaza. Feel free to carry whatever banners you have!

marchforclimateleadership.org

UUCM is one of many UU congregations that participate in the interfaith Standing on the Side of Love advocacy campaign.  

Each year we recognize a Marin County resident who lives and acts according to the SSL values of inclusion, diversity, and equality. This year's award will be presented at the Sunday service on Feb. 15. The recipient will be the Marin Interfaith Council's hardworking Street Chaplain, Rev. Paul Gaffney.