This Week at UUP: April 4-11, 2008

The Unitarian Universalists of Petaluma
An Oasis for Heart and Mind Every Sunday in Downtown Petaluma


ANNOUNCEMENTS AND UPCOMING EVENTS

Gather, UUP Men!
The UUP Men's Group will meet at Dick Allen's house tonight, April 4th, at 7:30 pm. Carpoolers meet at City Hall at 7:00 pm. Contact Dick Allen or Phil Boyle for more info.
The UUP Men's Group will also be participating in Rebuilding Together Petaluma on Saturday, April 19th. All men are welcome. Contact Phil Boyle for more info.

Religious Education Volunteers Needed
Our program is growing! Please consider volunteering occasionally to help with the 7-11 year old class on Sunday mornings. Volunteers will assist our regular teachers or help out on a service Sunday project. No advance preparation is required. This is a great opportunity to strengthen our intergenerational connections! Please contact Leslie Harrison for more information.

Special Choral Performance
The Bija Children's Choir, including our very own Eva Harrison-Lee, will be presenting the Quiltmaker's Gift, on Friday, April 11 at the Sebastopol Community Center, 390 Morris Street, in Sebastopol. Refreshments will be served at 6:30 pm, with the performance at 7:00 pm. This show promises to be fun for all ages. Tickets are $5 and available from Leslie Harrison. Please contact Marlene Abel for carpooling.

Annual Memorial Day Retreat!
The annual UUP all-community retreat is coming up, May 23-26, at Four Springs Retreat Center in Middletown north of Calistoga.
Be sure to look for the sign up sheet on Sunday! The deadline for signing up is April 20th.

UPCOMING SUNDAY SERVICES
(Social time with refreshments begins at 10:00 am , at the Petaluma Woman's Club, 518 B Street. Worship service begins at 10:30 am. )

This Sunday, April 6, 2008: "What's Your Story?"
Guest Speaker: Jamie McReynolds
Jamie McReynolds will be exploring our fourth UU principle, our free and responsible truth and meaning, and the ways that we make meaning in our lives. As an interfaith chaplain in a community hospital, ministering to patients, families and staff, he sees people making meaning of their lives in many different ways. How does our UU faith help us make meaning of our lives?
Jamie McReynolds is a 3rd year Master of Divinity student at Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley . He is currently a resident hospital chaplain at John Muir Medical Center in Concord , CA. Prior to seminary, Jamie was a lay leader at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation, Santa Rosa and worked professionally in banking, manufacturing and the wine industry.

Sunday, April 13, 2008: "Membership Fees"
Guest Speaker: Garrick Linn
Worship Leader: Lara Abel
April 15th is a day of reckoning in the United States, a day when a portion of our hard-earned dollars is collected and eventually redistributed in the service of what we hope (and are promised) is the common good. One might expect for such democracy-loving Unitarian Universalists as ourselves that this day would warrant celebration rather than consternation, but I have noticed that our feelings towards filing tend to be, shall we say, ambivalent. As part of an attempt to reframe our thinking about what it means to be one among many, George Lakoff has proposed that the word "taxes" be replaced in our public discourse with "membership fees." In that spirit, let us frame and explore some of the connections and responsibilities we share in our various capacities as employers, employees, citizens and congregants. The taxman cometh...will we lay out the welcome mat, or lock the door?

REGULARLY SCHEDULED GATHERINGS

UUP Worship Associates meeting Sunday, April 6th at 12:30 pm at T's office
Larking About, the UUP Singers, meets on Wednesday evenings from 8 to 9:30 at the home of Diana Spaulding and David Dodd. All are welcome to come sing!

INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMISSION TO "THIS WEEK AT UUP" AND TO THE UUP CALENDAR
If you have an item for "This Week at UUP" (UU or UUP-related only, please), send it to our Administrator, Jennifer Newman at uupetaluma at gmail dot com by Wednesday for inclusion in that week's email newsletter. For information that needs to go on the calendar, please send your event details to the same email address.

www.uupetaluma.org