Recipe share
"During the worship service on December 20 (just preceding the Winter Solstice), we heard a few folks share their experiences of working with recipes - of both going by the book and of adjusting it to suit one’s own taste. The beautiful thing about recipes is that they can encourage us to try new things, can nudge us into the wakefulness that happens when we experience something new for the first time." Continue reading on page 4
Evergreen
This holiday season we've invited congregants to share their favorite, tried and true holiday dishes. We received so many submissions -- pies, soups, and so much more, filled with the creativity and love we know to be true of us at Evergreen. Check your e-mail soon, and also find the Recipe Share on the website!
please e-mail newsletteR@evergreenuu.org for a print copy
Early Winter 2020 | Covers December 20th through January 31st
closed captioning
Newsletter
from the minister - on page 4
Table of contents
EUUF Info & Mission Planning News ................. 2 Connection Page ........................... 3 From the Minister ......................... 4 Evergreen's Offerings ..................... 5 Full Week Faith ............................. 6 Children & Youth .......................... 6 UUA, Holidays and Days of Observance .................................... 7 Miscellaneous ................................ 8
We have started using Closed Captioning during our services. While not perfect, it's quite good, and increases accessibility for those who prefer to read or have difficulty hearing. There is also an option to hide the subtitles for those that find the words distracting. Click here to learn how.
help with slack
Meet with Pastor Tom
Do you lead a committee or group at Evergreen? Consider using a Slack channel for your group to communicate outside of your regular meetings and get rid of those lengthy cumbersome email chains once and for all. Contact Alli, our office administrator, to get your group set up with a channel on Slack. Your channel can be private or open to everyone in our Evergreen Slack community. New feature on Slack We can now post automated event reminders with the zoom link in specific channels. The reminders can be set to post the zoom link in a channel up to 2 days before the event. If this is something you'd like set up in your committee or group's channel, please send a message to Alli, the office admin and she can get it set up.
December 20th - January 31st Sunday Worship Service 10:30 am Join Zoom Meeting Evergreen Unitarian Universalist Fellowship 1607 4th St., Marysville, WA 98270 www.evergreenuu.org 360-659-6621 Office Hours Please check with the Office Admin via email for in-person office hours MINISTER Pastor Tom BOARD PRESIDENT Fred Haist boardpresident@evergreenuu.org BOARD OF TRUSTEES board@evergreenuu.org OFFICE ADMIN Alli Curtis administrator@evergreenuu.org RELIGIOUS EDUCATOR Mari Budlong redirector@evergreenuu.org NEWSLETTER newsletter@evergreenuu.org
Early winter 2020
pastoral associates are available by phone or e-mail, or zoom. contact them at pastoralassociates@evergreenuu.org resources and needs survey
To schedule a phone/virtual meeting, go to calendly.com/therevtombozeman. Or, if something urgent comes up, you can always call/text him at 774-353-0523.
Submit Something For the Weekly Update, Newsletter or Sunday Announcements! Check out the new form for submissions for the Weekly Update, Newsletter, Sunday Announcements and more! You can choose what the title will be, in which publications you'd like the announcement to run, how long it will be publicized, and what images will be included (if any.)
If you're new to Slack and/or find it confusing, please join us on Zoom so that we can help get you oriented! Hosted by Alli & Mari. Monday, December 28th, 2:00 pm or 2:30 pm Join Zoom meeting here. (Meeting ID: 975 1869 3842 Passcode: 362501) If you haven't signed up for Slack yet and are feeling a little intimidated about the process, join us at 2:00 pm for some guidance in creating an account and the basics of getting started. If you have already created an account and are familiar with what Slack is, join us at 2:30 pm. We will have another Slack Tutorial Session on: Tuesday, January 5th, at 6:30 pm or 7:00 pm Join us for one or both. Want to get a head start on creating your account? Contact Alli, the office admin for a link to join our Slack workspace.
Our journey together toward creating a new Mission Statement is approaching conclusion. In November, the Congregation came to consensus on a statement of the Vision of what Evergreen could be like in 5-10 years that motivates our collective involvement in the congregation: Evergreen is a welcoming, inclusive, supportive congregation that is known in the wider community for actively promoting our values, including social justice, and for providing a safe environment to explore personal and spiritual growth. With the Core Values, Bedrock Beliefs, and now Motivating Vision as a foundation, the Planning Team drafted a new Mission Statement with the goal that it would be lived, would be used, and would be fulfilled during the period it is in use. As we have emphasized all throughout the process, the Mission Statement should be revisited and adjusted on a regular basis as the congregation grows and needs and circumstances change. Thank you to everyone who shared your feedback on the draft Mission Statement! Many participated in conversations about the draft mission statement with each other online in the #mission channel on Slack and in weekly Sunday coffee hour discussions. It has been our privilege on the Planning Team to witness the genuine interest and commitment to openness and generosity that has taken place in these conversations and all throughout the process. We will now synthesize all of your thoughtful and very insightful comments, questions, and suggestions into a revised Mission Statement to share with the Congregation in January prior to the Congregational Meeting. We look forward to Evergreen implementing its new Mission Statement in the New Year! It will be a time for new beginnings in so many ways.
connection page
news from the mission planning team
First Draft of new Mission Statement Watch for our Revised Version in January
from the minister
Book Discussion Group - Last Wednesday of the month 7:15 - 8:45 pm -December 30th - "Where the Crawdads Sing" by Delia Owens, a novel set in North Carolina in 1952, part animal behavior and part murder mystery. A 2019 best seller. -January 27th "Becoming" by Michelle Obama Contact Michelle Valentine for more information. EUUF Writer's Night - January 9th (2nd Wednesdays), 6:30-8 pm Join in an evening of sharing your written works. Non-writers are welcome; the last part of the meeting will be dedicated to workshop / sharing writing techniques, methods and inspiration. Join Zoom Meeting. Contact Orient Coleman or Jen Broadway for more information. Big Questions - 2nd and 4th Fridays, from 7-9 pm Join here to discuss fundamental questions in philosophy. The questions take the Socratic form, “What is …?” What is justice? What is truth? What is it to be spiritual? All are welcome. Contact Desmond Smith for more information. Men's Circle - 2nd and 4th Tuesdays, from 7-9 pm We are a group of men who gather to share with each other our authentic joys, challenges and insights, with the goals of personal growth and mutual support. We pledge to create affirmative, compassionate gatherings through heart-felt sharing, deep listening, honest communication, and confidentiality. We currently meet via Zoom. Contact Dan Hall for more information. WISE - Women Investigating, Supporting, and Experiencing Wednesday, Dec 23rd & Jan 27th (4th Wednesdays) from Noon - 1:30 pm If you will be 60 or older this church year, please join us for lively conversation and lots of laughter! Throughout the year we will explore topics and activities pertaining to this age and stage of our lives, so join in when you can. Be ready for reflection, learning, growing, and FUN! Contact Sarah Taylor for more information. Common Ground Choir 1st and 3rd Thursdays, from 7-8:30 pm The choir has been rehearsing via Zoom meetings held on Thursdays at 7 p.m. If you would like to join us, please contact Kathleen at kathleengoff@comcast.net. All are welcome. We have also been rehearsing with practice audio files which can then be added to tracks on SoundTrap. This way we can still provide music for the virtual services and maintain our identity as a choir and as worship leaders. This is a valuable tool which we will continue to use even after things get back to the "new normal". Sunday Afternoon Covenant Circle Dec 27th & Jan 24th (4th Sundays), from Noon-1:30 Curious about Covenant Circles.... Want to build community and lasting friendships with UU’s, while exploring spirituality and life’s meaning in a small group ministry setting? Every 4th Sunday come join us for The Sunday Afternoon Covenant Circle and see what they are all about! Sally Malan and Kelli Sparks, Co-Leaders Join Zoom Meeting Meeting ID: 275 674 184 Passcode: 067957
Christmas eve service - Seasonal Adornments
evergreen's offerings
During the worship service on December 20 (just preceding the Winter Solstice), we heard a few folks share their experiences of working with recipes - of both going by the book and of adjusting it to suit one’s own taste. The beautiful thing about recipes is that they can encourage us to try new things, can nudge us into the wakefulness that happens when we experience something new for the first time. It was really wonderful to gather with folks after the worship service to hear everyone’s thoughts about the first draft of the new Mission Statement that the Planning Team had drafted. There was a feeling of that wakefulness - of that encouragement - in our virtual room. Because we were wrestling with fundamental questions about this congregation about which we all care so much. Here is what Mari and Marilyn read for our chalice lighting on that morning: “Bold and Courageous Together” by Erika Hewitt The word courage comes from the Latin cor, which means heart. According to poet Mark Nepo, the original use of the word courage meant to stand by one’s core: a “striking concept that reinforces the belief found in almost all traditions that living from the Center is what enables us to face whatever life has to offer.” To “encourage” means to hearten; to impart strength and confidence. This is our work, as a religious community: to encourage one another; to be bold in engaging the world around us, as well as what scares us internally; to give one another the confidence and heart to live as fully as possible. With full hearts, we affirm our relationships with one another; we recognize our agency and our connective power; and we accept our responsibility to be bold and courageous. We light this chalice, symbol of all that we are, all that we have done together, and all that we will be as our shared ministry encourages those within, and beyond, our walls. I’m delighted to get to be on this journey with you all, as we move into the increasing light together. In faith, Pr. Tom
Adult Programs Is there a program you'd like to offer? Contact Desmond at adultprograms@evergreenuu.org. Find more details on our website! www.evergreenuu.org/adult-programs
Thursday, December 24, 2020 at 4:00 p.m. | Online via Zoom The fact that we will spend Christmas Eve on zoom gives us the opportunity to do something very special, and YOU will be a part of it. We will have a lot of Christmas Music and the opportunity for you to bring a decoration of some kind which grounds you to the holiday and hold it up to your webcam and share the story of how it came to be important. Please join us for the low-key celebration of this special time of year. Join the zoom meeting here.
Children & Youth
Books / Poetry Compassionate Ninja by Mary Nhin I Am Love by Susan Verde In My Heart by Jo Witek A Little Spot of Feelings by Diane Alber Visiting Feelings by Lauren Rubenstein Listening to My Body by Gabi Garcia Movies / Videos Imba Means Sing (TV-PG) Wonder (PG) Kindness is Contagious (Not Rated) Queen of Katwe (PG) Movement Dance! This line dance video shows the steps for the Boot Scoot. Enjoy! Can you make it work for your favorite songs? Craft / Activity Ice Lanterns - There are many ways to make ice lanterns--it's important to have two freezer-fproof containers. Suspend the smaller container in the larger, pour water between the two and freeze it. When frozen, briefly run hot water inside the smaller container and around the outside of the larger one to loosen the containers, place on a plate to catch melting water.
2021 UUA Virtual General Assembly registration now open!
These resources and ideas are tied to the theme and offer ways for you to engage with the worship series throughout the week.
Breathe: A Letter to My Sons by Imani Perry
The 2020 - 2021 UU Common Read selection, “Breathe offers a broader meditation on race, gender, and the meaning of a life well-lived and is also an unforgettable lesson in Black resistance and resilience.” Reading the book in community is a great way to make the change we want to see happen in the world real. Common Read discussion materials will be available for download late January 2021. https://www.uua.org/read
December 21st – Winter Solstice December 22nd – The first Unitarian Church is found in Transylvania, 1557. December 24th – The flaming chalice is adopted as the Unitarian logo in 1941. January 27th - International Holocaust Remembrance Day. UNESCO Director-General "Seventy-five years ago, the 100th and 322nd divisions of the Soviet Army’s ‘1st Ukrainian Front’ reached the Nazi concentration and extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, whose very name symbolizes the barbarism of the killing centres and concentration camps”. This day commemorates the genocide that claimed the lives of nearly 9,000 homosexuals, 250,000 physically and mentally disabled people, 200,000 Romas, 3 million ethnic Poles, 5 million Slavs and 6 million Jews by the Nazi regime and its accomplices.
UUA news, holidays & days of observance
The Inauguration of a New Day By Brent A Smith We retell the birth, life, and death of Dr. King to symbolize that it is not until humanity can measure the worth and meaning of a single life, that it can extend worth that to all souls. But, this is a new day. For more than nearly fifty years this culture has dwelt in grief over the loss of great lives in the murders of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, and others. We have dwelt in grief over the loss of faith in humanity and human institutions, from Watergate to Monica-gate to Guantanamo Bay. Yet, this is a new day, as our choir sang. Send the sun in time for dawn Let the birds all hail the morning Love of life will urge me say You are the new day -- John David This is not so much a day to recall Dr. King’s life from cradle to grave, or to hear preaching about the meaning of his dream, but to awaken to the prospect cultivated in this moment. This is a new day. And you are that new day. When Dr. King was arrested in Birmingham, Alabama for participating in a civil rights demonstration, he laid out what was necessary for people to do to live in this new day and be the new day: To reject the myth of time. “It is the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills… We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men and women willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation.” Continue reading here.
Some of our families celebrated Chalica this year. We tied a ribbon around a pillar candle for each day, which represents one of the 7 Principles. We also included an exploration of the 8th Princple, which has not been adopted by the UUA. The 8th Principle has to do with dismantling racism and other oppressions, contributing to a more diverse beloved community and spiritual wholeness, and we'll be exploring these ideas more in RE classes January through May 2021.
playing with the season
Q: What do you get when you cross a snowman and a vampire? A: Frostbite
GA is the largest annual gathering of Unitarian Universalists. It provides opportunity to build deep connections, worship, engage in faith development, participate in innovative learning and collaboration. This year, General Assembly will be completely virtual. Registration for GA 2021 is $200 per person Financial support for registration as well as a payment plan are available. June 23-27, 2021 https://www.uua.org/ga/registration
Endowment fund update
Please check the calendar on the Evergreen website for the most current offerings, activities, events and worship services. New to Evergreen? Please fill out the Guest Card at evergreenuu.org/sunday.
How The Universalists And Unitarians Invented Christmas; Plus An Anthology of Historical Unitarian Christmas Stories Harvard Square is delighted to present their first ebook, which includes an account of the Universalist and Unitarian role in giving shape to the American Christmas celebrations we know today. It also includes five classic Christmas stories by Unitarian authors, including Rev. Theodore Parker’s own Christmas story. In Parker’s story, the gospel story of Jesus’ birth is overlapped with the account of the Christmas generosity of an elderly brother and sister that heals their New England village of it social divisions (including those related to which villagers voted for which Presidential candidate). To read the book online, simply click here.
EUUF Calendar
With an endowment fund, funds are invested for the long-term benefit of the organization. The current value of Evergreen's Endowment Fund is about $104,000. When it grows to $250,000, we will be able to draw on the earnings of the fund to support our operating budget. One way to donate to the Endowment Fund is through your estate. Another way is to donate stock. There are tax advantages for donating stock, especially stock that you have held for a long time. You get to deduct the full market value of the stock from your income taxes without paying any capital gains taxes on the appreciated value. December is an especially good time to do this, before the end of the tax year. For more details on how this can work, see https://tinyurl.com/y6cm3xcy For more information, please contact Chuck Taylor.
submission deadline for late winter newsletter: January 24th date range: january 31st through March 21st Send your submissions to newsletter@evergreenuu.org Or submit using this form Send your submissions to newsletter@evergreenuu.org