This Week at UUP

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


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ANNOUNCEMENTS AND UPCOMING EVENTS

Save the date for an important Congregational Meeting on Sunday, June 7th!
All members and friends are urged to come and have your voice heard at our Congregational Meeting on June 7th right after services.
* The Budget for the year 2009-2010 will be discussed and voted upon by the membership
* New Board member (s) and nominating committee elected
* You will meet the members of the newly formed Leadership Council
* Results of the congregational survey and the vision offering (including an update on getting a P.T. Minister)
* A delicious lunch is being planned by the Social Responsibility Committee

Developing spiritual practice through movement with Meredith, Jodi and Jan
Members of UUP are invited to come explore developing spiritual practice through movement with Jodi, Meredith and Jan, Meredith’s partner, as they host their third three-hour workshop on Friday, June 19th from 6:45 to 10 pm. Space is limited, so if you are interested in participating, please reply asap.
The introductory session will begin with improvisational movement to music. We’ll progress to moving without music wherein movement emerges from within. There will be time to reflect, journal, draw, etc., between sessions and then a time for sharing at the end. (Some light snacks will also be served.)
The three of us have all found this to be a fascinating practice and are constantly surprised at what emerges. It is a way to bypass the thinking mind and to access a kind of knowing that lives uniquely in the body, a truthfulness that gets around the censors of thought and ego.
Our intention is to offer these sessions until a group forms that will meet together regularly.
Let us know if you would like more information or to sign-up.

Meet with fellow UUs at the General Assembly!
UU General Assembly
Salt Lake City, Utah
June 24-28, 2009
For more information, talk to Marlene Abel, UUP Director of Religious Education

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY CORNER: "...service is our prayer"
5th Sunday Luncheon moved to June 7th
We've moved the 5th Sunday Luncheon to June 7th to coincide with UUP's annual June Congregational Meeting. Plan to stay after services for a delicious, healthy salad bar lunch made with local, organic and vegan ingredients prepared by your Social Responsibility Committee. Lunch will be followed by our all-important Congregational Meeting, led by your Board of Trustees, where you will hear what's happening at UUP and be able to exercise your privilege and responsibility to vote on issues important to UUP's future. Don't miss it!
Social Responsibility Committee
What we do
The Social Responsibility Committee was formed last fall to create an avenue for folks at UUP to help make a difference in the world beyond our congregation. SRC includes both the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee and Carbon Rings groups. SRC is also the committee tasked with presenting the UUA's Congregational Study/Action Issue (CSAI), "Ethical Eating: Food and Environmental Justice”, to our congregation. This CSAI encompasses aspects of environmental concern, world hunger, and concern for our treatment of animals. Whatever your passion, there is something here for you. On a local level, we have participated in the creation of UUP's environmental parade float, assisted COTS/Petaluma Kitchen with food drives, and we select the Share-The-Plate recipients each month.
How you can help
"Many hands make light work" - and allow us to do even more! You are invited to join us and help UUP make a difference in our community and in the wider world. As we say each Sunday in our Affirmation, "...service is our prayer."
Our next meeting is Tuesday, June 9th, 7:00 - 9:00 pm at Jan Crosby's. For directions and more information, contact Co-Chairs Jan Crosby or Earl Cruser.
SRC Quote for the Week
"The religion that ends with the individual, ends." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

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.)

Sunday, May 24, 2009: "Forgiveness"
Guest Speaker: Dr. Karen Melander-Magoon
Worship Leader: Joyce Tischler
Celebrate the miracle of forgiveness and the bonds we share simply by being human and a part of this wonderful world.
Guest Speaker Dr. Karen Melander-Magoon comes to us from the First Unitarian Universalist Church in San Francisco, where she is a member. Last year she received her Doctorate of Ministry from San Francisco Theological Seminary under the Graduate Theological Union, with coursework also at Starr King School for the Ministry. After years singing major opera roles in Europe and raising two children there, she returned to the States to continue performing and composed three one-woman musical portraits of women in history, including Georgia O’Keeffe and Clara Barton. Karen preaches and sings throughout the Bay Area and often weaves her own songs and poetry into her sermons and homilies.

Sunday, May 31, 2009: "Deep Listening: Tools for Change"
Guest Speaker: Kelly Philpott Brisbois
Worship Leaders: David Dodd and Berkley Sturgeon
"How we understand the past is the most important element determining our future"- Historian James Carroll
Guest Speaker Kelly Philpott Brisbois, an attorney and oral historian, will share her "Journeys of Reconciliation" project. Kelly led a group of Marin High School students as they joined forces with their contemporaries from Johannesburg, South Africa, in a study on the history of segregation and racism. As these students explored issues of race and justice, they were also focusing on the process of reconciliation in both countries. They interviewed a diverse group of activists who experienced the struggle to end Apartheid in South Africa. As a comparative study, they also interviewed activists from the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. While this project centered on a past that is often painful, it is a project that also looks to the future. Please join us after the service as Kelly shares a short film and will answer any questions you may have about this amazing project.
To view a clip from this project, please visit www.oralhistoryeducation.com.

Sunday, June 7, 2009: "An Evolutionary Parable about the Creation of Matter"
Worship Participants: Marlene Abel, Director of Religious Education, and the RE children and youth
Worship Leader: Jodi Boyle
Our RE youth will present "Startull", an evolutionary parable about an average yellow star who discovers the worth of being just medium size star and learns important lessons about the ways of the universe. Marlene Abel, Director of Religious Education and former chemist, will reflect on how the life cycles of stars and the formation of the chemical elements in stellar furnaces led to creation of life on our planet. This is an intergenerational service in which the "stars" of the RE program will be recognized and honored.

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!

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