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UUSF Weekly Electronic Newsletter
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THE CURIOUS CASE OF THIS CONGREGATION
(AND OF SCHRODINGER’S CAT)
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Sunday, June 11, 11AM, 2017
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Rev. John Buehrens, Preaching
These last three years have been among the happiest and most satisfying of my professional life. Yet UUSF still suffers from some self-defeating understandings of itself. As “Developmental Minister” I will play therapist to try to help you to change the narrative. Worship will include a covenant with Lay Chaplains, a farewell to Rev. JD Benson and to Building Manager Donald Johnson.
To be followed by lunch and to praise those who helped our “Building Our Community” Capital Campaign to raise over $1.85M at the Annual Meeting. Also you will have the opportunity to elect new members to both the Board of Trustees and the Nominating Committee.
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Annual Congregational Meeting & Election (After Service)
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Last week Members approved the operating budget for the church year that begins July 1st. This Sunday, the Society will acknowledge the achievements of the community in 2016-17 and will vote on candidates for the Nominating Committee and Board of Trustees at the Annual Meeting which will be held after the worship service.
Members will also be asked to adopt a “Sanctuary Congregation 2017” resolution affirming that this community stands willing to engage on a spectrum of solidarity actions including “welcoming undocumented people, advocating to help stop deportations, assisting with legal clinics, and physically sheltering an immigrant in danger of immediate deportation.”
This Society’s Human Rights Working Group, Social Justice Council, and Board of Trustees all urge the adoption of the resolution which was written by Senior Minister the Rev. John Buehrens. Copies of the resolution are available in the church office and online.
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The following Members have been nominated for office:
In this Nominating Committee election there are three two-year terms and one one-year term available. Thus, per our bylaws, whoever among the four candidates receives the 4th highest number of votes will serve the one-year term.
Absentee ballots to vote on candidates for the Nominating Committee and Board of Trustees are available in the church office. They must be completed and returned to the mailbox in the office for the Secretary of the Board of Trustees by 4 pm Saturday, June 10. (The Bylaws do not allow absentee ballots for resolutions such as the proposed Sanctuary statement because those motions could be amended at the meeting before a final vote.)
If you have questions of the issues coming up in the Congregational meetings, please contact Galen Workman, Secretary of the Board at 415.647.8830 or any member of the Board of Trustees.
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Note: Due to the Congregational Meeting, the
UU Humanists Discussion Group will not meet Sunday, June 11th.
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We are saving trees! The annual report is now online, not in print. Activities of all church groups and committees are regularly updated on the website. Therefore, the annual report (link below) consists simply of a joint report by the senior minister and the moderator on the highlights of the year.
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- BUY A BOOK OR TWO. John has to get rid of hundreds of books from his personal library. They simply won’t fit in his apartment! So he is holding a Minister’s Booksale after church on the first three Sundays in June. There will be no specific prices – simply a suggested minimum donation of $2 for hardbacks and $1 for paperbacks. All proceeds will go to the UUSF Ministers’ Discretionary Fund to help congregants in need.
- MAKE A CONTRIBUTION to the Ministers’ Discretionary Fund. It’s currently empty, and John doesn’t want to leave his colleagues and Rev. Southern with no resources with which to assist people in need.
- COME ON JUNE 18 to hear his final sermon as Senior Minister of UUSF. There will be special music, special guests, and John’s reflection on his 45 years of ministry, called “Confessions of a Curious Cleric.”
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We are sorry to report the recent death of the Rev. Dr. Robert Kimball, 89. Bob was the President and Dean of Starr King School for the Ministry. A student of theologian Paul Tillich, and executor of his literary estate, Kimball was a mentor in liberal theology to an entire generation of Starr King students, including our Minister Emerita, Rev. Margot Campell Gross.
Tim DeChristopher, the climate activist and UU seminarian who spoke at the UUSF Annual Spaghetti Supper for Social Justice in January, 2016, has published an important statement following the withdrawal of the United States from the Parish Accord on climate. Thanks to Robin Larsen for calling this to our attention: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/40832-after-paris-pullout-we-must-spread-an-ethic-of-love-and-cooperation.
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Be sure to join us for the service on June 11 when our Lay Chaplains and the Congregation will covenant with each other.
Marty Vanderlaan, Liz Strand, Lisanicole Sarkisian, Jan Oringer, David Jones, Linda Harris and Gino Fortunate.
Pastoral Care-related information you would like the congregation to know? Email
jdbenson@uusf.org before the Tuesday deadline for that week's publication.
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Join Faithful Fools and neighbors at a workshop later this month to design a process for building strategies to limit displacement in its many forms; read about our seven days on the streets last month, and see what happens when the Fools go to Fresno! All this and more in our June E-News.
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UU Community Center – Summer Camps begin! And Kerry gets to take a vacation!
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Did you know that every summer we host 2 or 3 daily summer camp programs for many age groups?
Up on Top,
https://www.upontop.org/, our own after school program provider, arrived June 5 (through July 28) at UUSF (Thoreau and Emerson classrooms) using us as their launch pad - enriching and educating 40 kids with varied summer field trips.
Musical Theatre Works ,
https://musicaltheatreworks.org/ , join our busy building on Monday, June 12 (through August 11) and will host 2 week sessions of singing, dancing and learning about professional Broadway show experiences, sets and rehearsals and the goings-on of presenting a program (mainly to their loving parents!) at the end of each session in the Starr King and Martin Luther King rooms.
SF Shakespeare,
http://www.sfshakes.org/programs/bay-area-shakespeare-camps , arrives in our Chapel on Monday, June 19 (through August 11) – their 2 week camps will cover a lot of ground from the Bard – from
The Witches' Brew, featuring scenes and characters from
Macbeth to Ghost Stories,
Hamlet,
Twelfth Night and King Lear!
Church members please note UU Church committee meetings and other reservations after
June 19 thru July will be being handled by Administrative Assistant Nathan Gandrud and summer intern Charlotte Cramer while I am away traveling to and from a family reunion.
Please send your room requests and set-up details to the attention of
ngandrud@uusf.org or call him at our main number 415-776-4580 x102
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Small Group Ministry
Summer Sampler
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A short term commitment to meet regularly with others as we practice speaking and listening from the heart can create warm ongoing connections. Perhaps you have been participating in small group ministry, and would like to continue during the summer. Perhaps you are relatively new to the community and hope to expand your acquaintances, or you have been around for a while and are interested in getting to know some of the newer folk.
There will be two sessions of Small Group Ministry this summer, each meeting for four consecutive
Sundays after church, 1:30-3:00pm. Teens and adults who are members, friends, or visitors to UUSF
are invited to attend. If you are interested, please send your name and contact information (email address, phone number) to
sgm@uusf.org, with “SGM summer session” as the subject line. Let us know if you’d prefer to join a group in July (Sundays the 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th) or August (Sundays the 8th, 13th, 20th and 27th). You can also leave this information in the Small Group Ministry mailbox
in the church office.
You may send questions to the same address, or speak to a Small Group facilitator in the gallery
after church services in June.
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Please Give so We Continue to Help LGBT Refugees
This Society's Guardian Group has been helping LGBT refugees and asylum seekers settle in the San Francisco area since 2011 when the head of the Unitarian Universalist United Nations Office (UU-UNO) in New York asked our members to assist a group of non-profit attorneys help their clients get established in San Francisco. So far, the Guardian Group has helped 16 LGBT clients from Iran, Iraq, Tunisia, Nigeria, Uganda, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Russia.
The volunteers want to help additional newcomers, but cannot responsibly accept new clients until they have more funds to help pay for items like MUNI cards, cell phone service, food, and other staples of modern life. Can you please help today by donating online to their campaign to raise $5,000.
Go to the Unitarian Universalist crowd-funding Faithify and please be as generous as you can! Link to http://bit.ly/UUSFGG.
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SUPPORT THE MINISTERS’ DISCRETIONARY FUND
The purpose of this fund is simple: It is used by the ministers to help people in need, both congregants and others. Recently, for example, we helped a young man in trouble with substance abuse return to his parents in the Midwest. We helped a homeless immigrant woman and her children. There is a small endowment at UUSF, the Hathaway Fund, “for assistance to the poor of the parish.” It provides only about $1000 a year, however. The needs are greater than that. Currently the Discretionary Fund is entirely empty. There are three ways you can help.
1) Send a tax deductible contribution to UUSF with “Ministers’ Discretionary Fund” in the memo line;
2) Be present for John’s last sermon here on June 18. He has asked that the entire offering that Sunday go to the Fund.
3) Make a donation in conjunction with the Minister’s Book Sale on June 11, or 18.
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June 11 and 18 After Service
John is again down-sizing his library of about 4000 books. Many have been on shelves in the Dutton Study. He needs to vacate that space as he retires and move some of his extensive library to his apartment. Not all will fit. So hundreds will be available for “sale” in the Gallery on June 11 and 18th. There will be no prices; only a suggested minimum donation of $1 for paperbacks and $2 for hardbacks. All proceeds will go to the Ministers’ Discretionary Fund.
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Racial Justice in Times of Fear and Hatred:
A Lee Mun Wah Workshop
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Saturday, August 19, 6:30 PM - 9:30 PM (soup / bread served at 5:30 pm)
$25-$50
Master diversity trainer Lee Mun Wah (producer of the film, The Color of Fear", "If These Halls Could Talk" and "Stolen Ground") will be here at UUSF in August!
Tickets will be available after June 1 for this transformative workshop (through online source, Eventbrite). The event will be on August 19 from 6:30-9:30. Don't miss out. If you cannot attend, consider purchasing tickets for others can attend who otherwise could not afford to do so. Soup and bread beforehand on a first come, first served basis starting at 5:30. Co-sponsored by the Human Rights Working Group and the Social Justice Council.
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Friday, June 16, 6:00 PM
The Corridor is about changing lives through education for adults serving time in jails. It’s about “restorative justice”, shifting away from punishment toward a lasting rehabilitation. It’s a documentary that takes the viewer through a semester in the first custom-built high school by the Five Keys Charter School in San Francisco. Founded by the SF Sheriff’s Dept., Five Keys Charter Schools and Programs are high schools and vocational programs for adults inside county jails and at over fifty post-release sites and community programs throughout SF, Solano, Alameda, San Mateo and Los Angeles counties (
www.fivekeycharter.org
).
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CONGREGATION TO VOTE ON SANCTUARY
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This Society’s Human Rights Working Group, Social Justice Council, and Board of Trustees all urge the adoption of the resolution which was written by Senior Minister the Rev. John Buehrens. Copies of the resolution are available in the church office and below:
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Help Grow Food Security in SF
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Alemany Farm is a four-acre urban farm dedicated to promoting food security, ecological knowledge, and environmental justice. Run by volunteers, it provides fresh organic produce to local residents in need. But they need help! Come join some members of the Environmental Justice Working Group on
Saturday, June 10th, noon to 5pm. Learn about farming, get your hands dirty, and grow some nourishing food. Volunteers of ALL ages are welcome. For more information, including what to bring and directions, see:
http://www.alemanyfarm.org/get-involved/
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An Incentive to Make a Lasting Gift
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The "Wake Now Our Vision" program provides a 10% matching gift (up to $10,000) for designated legacy gifts to the Unitarian Universalist Association or any UU organization or congregation such as UUSF.
This collaborative campaign has been designed with partners throughout the UU network to:
• Nurture new kinds of spirituality
• Minister to the deep alienation, isolation and spiritual hunger of Americans
• Stem the tide of rapid decline in our numbers
• Find new ways to engage UUs in congregational life
• Respond quickly and effectively to emerging Social Justice issues
Learn more about the program in the presentation from the 2016 General Assembly given by the Campaign Director Laura Randall, and UUA Chief Financial Officer Tim Brennan.
When you are ready, please complete
the attached pledge form naming FUUSSF as a recipient on page 2, and return it to our office. We will keep one copy for our records and forward another to the UUA.
Please feel free to contact the churches
Director of Finance & Administration
Saira Malik with any questions as you consider this option.
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Looking for a way to help out your church community and see what happens around here at our busy community center?
Especially in the fall and winter concert season, we often need ushers and traffic directors for afternoon and evening weekend concerts –
EVENT HOSTS NEEDED:
Jun 9-Fri Montessori Graduation
3:00pm Graduation exercises
Chapel/Courtyard
Jun 11-Sun Piano Recital
5:00pm Meikui Matsushima Studio
Chapel
Jun 15-Thu Golden Gate Audubon Lecture
6:30pm GG Audubon Society
Martin Luther King Room
Jun 15-Thu Training Course
7:00pm SF Pride Beverage Training
Starr King Room
Jun 17-Sat Training Course
10:00am SF Pride Beverage Training
Starr King Room
Jun 19-Mon Training Course
7:00pm SF Pride Beverage Training
Starr King Room
Jun 20-Tue Training Course
7:00pm SF Pride Beverage Training
Starr King Room
Jul 15-Sat SF Choral Society
11:00am Silent Auction + Rehearsal
King Rooms
For more information contact:
Center Facilities Director Kerry Parker
reservations@uusf.org
415-776-4580 x202
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Check out the June 2017 edition of
First
News
, our monthly newsletter. See events, sermons and ways to get involved!
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Read this Sunday's Event Schedule
Here
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The Flame
is published by the First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco.
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To submit information, photographs, or essays
-- or to ask a question
please
e-mail the editor
.
Deadline for Flame articles is noon each Monday.
Deadline for FirstNews articles is the 15th of the month.
Listen to our Worship Services here
View our newsletters here
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