This Week at UUP: Happy Birthday, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.!

The Unitarian Universalists of Petaluma
Nurture Your Spirit. Help Heal Our World.


ANNOUNCEMENTS AND UPCOMING EVENTS

This month's Share-the-Plate Sunday: the Petaluma Educational Foundation
In keeping with UUP's commitment to supporting our community, we will share our non-pledge offering this Sunday with the Petaluma Educational Foundation. PEF is a broadly based community foundation that secures and distributes contributions from the private sector (local businesses, parents, individuals, service clubs and private foundations) to benefit the educational program in Petaluma area schools. PEF provides grants to teachers, offers scholarships to graduating seniors and manages designated funds for school programs and activities. Founded in 1982, PEF serves ten school districts incorporating 31 public and non-profit private schools in our community.

Jim Scott Featured at UUP Potluck and Concert, Saturday afternoon, January 31st, 5-7 pm, at the Eriksens' in northwest Petaluma
All UUPers have the exciting opportunity to hear UU songwriter and guitarist Jim Scott at an informal potluck, concert and singalong. Jim has performed at over 500 UU churches and wrote three of the songs in our hymnbook, including "Gather the Spirit." He also writes children's songs on environment and social justice issues. This will be a social event for all ages.
Please bring a potluck dish to share and a donation to help cover Jim's travel costs from the East Coast. We are suggesting a donation of $8-15 for adults (sliding scale) or $15-20 for a family. No one will be turned away for a lack of funds.
Sign-ups will begin next Sunday at the Sunday service, or email Marlene Abel at marlenea at sonic.net . The Eriksens can accommodate about 40 people in their home, so space is limited. The Eriksens live at 2125 McSween Lane, off Ely, between Corona Road and Old Redwood Highway. (Marlene will have maps at UUP.)
Thank you, Jean Conrad, the Eriksens, and the UUP board for making this event possible.

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY CORNER:
Service is our Prayer
Thank you everyone for a very successful Guest At Your Table program. Together we contributed $1,425 and qualified for $770 in matching donations for a total benefit to the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee of $2,195. This is almost double what we accomplished last year! In addition, because 18 adults and 8 youth - more than 25% of our total membership - contributed at the membership level, we have earned another ribbon for our UUSC banner. Most importantly, we have helped to fund the humanitarian and social justice work of UUSC.
SRC quote for the week: "The central task of the religious community is to unveil the bonds that bind each to all. There is a connectedness, a relationship discovered amid the particulars of our own lives and the lives of others. Once felt, it inspires us to work for justice." -- Rev. Mark Morrison-Reed

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, January 18, 2009: "Happy Birthday, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr."
Worship Leader: Joyce Tischler
January 15 would have been the 80th birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, the Baptist minister who became the conscience of a nation. Let's read his words and the inspirational words of others and ask: "what would Martin say" on the eve of the inauguration of the first African American president in U.S. history?

January 25, 2009
"The Third UU Principle: Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations"
Worship Leader: Elisabeth Hathaway

February 1, 2009
"The Same River Twice"
Guest Speaker: Rev. Meghan Conrad Cefalu
Worship Leader: Jodi Boyle
In 500 BCE Heraclitus of Ephesus noted that "You cannot step twice into the same river, for other waters are continually flowing in." We have to concede that change is the only real constant in life and yet it so often takes us by surprise. Amidst all the change, there is something changeless in which we can trust and have faith.
The Rev. Meghan Conrad Cefalu serves the Unitarian Universalist Community of the Mountains in Grass Valley, California. She and her husband both grew up in Petaluma and enjoy coming back "home" to visit their parents. The president of our Board of Trustees, Jean Conrad, is Meghan's mother.

REGULARLY SCHEDULED GATHERINGS

Membership Committee: brown-bag committee meeting after the service on Sunday, Jan 18th in the Christian Science parlor. Any questions, please call Karen Rutherford.
Larking About, the UUP choir, meets Wednesdays at 8 pm at David Dodd and Diana Spaulding's house, 716 Bassett St.

www.uupetaluma.org