This Week at UUP: Luncheon, Food for COTS, Float Creation!

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


To subscribe to "This Week at UUP" for email delivery, please send a request to uupetaluma at gmail dot com.

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND UPCOMING EVENTS

UUP 5th Sunday Luncheon and Fun-Time - March 29th, noon to 2:00 pm
Who said "There's no such thing as a free lunch"? We're having one right here at UUP on Sunday! You will be served a tasty lunch prepared by the Social Responsibility Committee: Chili, salad, bread, dessert and beverage. We'll even have a little something extra for kids who don't like chili. All we ask is that you bring non-perishable canned or packaged food items for donation to COTS/Petaluma Pantry. Let's see how many bags of food UUP can collect for others in our community who are hungry and in need of our help. Or if you like, you may make a cash donation, and we'll do the grocery shopping. Then we'll have some fun as we prepare to support our community in a different way. The Butter & Eggs Day Parade Task Force will engage all ages in helping to create the UUP float for the April 25th parade! Don't miss it!

Take a tour of COTS
COTS offers tours of their family shelter on the second Thursday of every month. The next tour is April 9th and includes a free lunch.
When: Thurs., April 9th, noon - 1pm. Lunch served at 11:45 am, compliments of the Petaluma Kitchen
Where: Center for Homeless Children and Their Families, 1500 Petaluma Blvd. South

Religious Education Committee Recruiting New Members
Please consider joining our Religious Education (RE) committee for the coming year. We help plan curriculum and provide support for ongoing RE classes and special services and events. The program serves 40 children and youth, and we have a lot of fun! If you are looking for ways to contribute to the congregation, we'd love your help. For more information, please contact Leslie Harrison.

SAVE THE DATE and SIGN UP NOW! Join us for the Annual UUP Memorial Day Retreat - May 22nd-25th!
We have room for fifty people (usually 30+adults and 20+ kids!) at Four Springs Retreat Center for our seventh annual four-day have-a-great-time-together fun fest. We live in community and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy: cooking & meals together, swimming pool, rustic cabins, beautiful remote location, a smattering of fun groups and mostly: time to visit and get to know each other. Please let T know ASAP if you would like to reserve a spot(s)… or help create & organize! We especially need people to organize kid events and support, support with food/meals, to plan the Worship Service, and to organize/communicate/administer the details! If interested, contact T Hathaway.

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, March 29, 2009: "The Transient and the Permanent"
Guest Speaker: Jamie McReynolds
Worship Leader: Elisabeth Hathaway
In the past several months we have been looking at our seven UU Principles. Today, join us to consider what are the transient and permanent aspects of our UU faith? Answers to this question have changed over the last two hundred years, and as we have been noting in our recent services, these principles and purposes are currently under review. Are our UU principles a transient or permanent aspect of our faith?
Jamie McReynolds is a seminarian at Starr King School for the Ministry and will be graduating with a Masters of Divinity degree in May 2009. He plans to serve as a chaplain in a hospital or hospice. Jamie is a former resident of Petaluma and was a lay leader in the UU Congregation, Santa Rosa.

April 5, 2009: "The Individual Heart and the Congregational Vision"
Worship Leaders: Diana Spaulding and Elizabeth Nielsen

April 12, 2009: "The Passion of Jesus: A Critical Examination of Easter"
Guest Speaker: Meredith Guest
Worship Leader: Jodi Boyle
In certain Christian traditions, the week culminating in Easter Sunday is called the Passion of Christ, passion coming from the Latin word for suffering. But another meaning of the word 'passion' is something to which one gives oneself with devotion and commitment. Following the excellent book The Last Week by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan, the same authors I referenced for the Christmas sermon, let's look at the original intent of the early Christian writers within their historical circumstances and see if we can identify the real passion of Jesus and how that might still speak to us in our time. - Meredith
Meredith Guest is a member of our own Unitarian Universalists of Petaluma. A former Baptist minister, Meredith has become known for her passionate sermons, which inspire, incite, and invite us to examine our beliefs and assumptions more closely.

REGULARLY SCHEDULED GATHERINGS
* Larking About, the UUP choir, meets Wednesdays at 8 pm at David Dodd and Diana Spaulding's house, 716 Bassett St. New singers are always welcome!

Links:
www.uupetaluma.org
Facebook Page (be sociable with UUP friends!)
Flickr Gallery