One way we can help our Coastside neighbors who are struggling during this holiday season is by contributing volunteer time or financial support to the local organizations who provide food, financial support, and other resources to people needing assistance. The Coastside has three core service agencies: Coastside Hope supporting the Mid-Coast, Pacifica Resource Center supporting our North Coast, and Puente, supporting the South Coast. Additionally, there are two organizations located in Half Moon Bay: ALAS, supporting the local Latino community, and Abundant Grace Coastside Worker, supporting the unhoused members of our community. All these organizations welcome volunteer assistance or financial support.
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UUCC Annual Holiday Fundraiser, Odd Fellows Hall
"Light Shining in Darkness"
Sunday, December 18th, 11am
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On Dec. 18th, UUCC holds its annual holiday fundraising service this year, "Light Shining in Darkness," benefiting Abundant Grace Coastside Worker, a Half Moon Bay organization dedicated to helping Coastsiders experiencing or at risk for homelessness.
We'll celebrate the December holidays with poetry, carols, music, dance, and one holiday skit. We pay special tribute to Hanukkah, Christmas, and the Winter Solstice. Participants include Eric DeBode of Abundant Grace Coastside Worker, Rabbi Moshe Tom Heyn of the Coastside Jewish Community, Shauna Pickett-Gordon and members of the Peninsula Scottish Fiddlers, Julie and Brian Novak-McSweeney, Tom Devine and the UUCC Choir, featuring LindaGrace Frost, and other wonderful musicians.
After the service, we'll gather for coffee hour after the service with many treats available, like authentic Norwegian Christmas cookies, krumkake and sandbakkelse. Come, celebrate, eat cookies, sip warmly, and give generously!
This live in-person service takes place at Odd Fellows Hall, 526 Main Street, Half Moon Bay, CA, 94019. Out of an abundance of caution, we require mask wearing for churchgoers throughout the service—with the exception of those actively speaking at the front of the room. Odd Fellows Hall has quite new high-circulation air ventilation system. Since May, with our mask protocols in place, no one attending our in-person services at Odd Fellows Hall has caught COVID. If you are a first-time visitor, we ask for proof of vaccinations. To join us over Zoom, the link is below.
Bruce Rafnel, our Technical Director, will live stream our holiday music fundraiser over YouTube Live. UUCC now has a new customized url at www.youtube.com/@uucoastsidecommunity, which should make it easier to find us.
Please join us at 11:00 am Pacific, 2pm Eastern
Gathering for service and music begin at 10:50 am
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Rae DuFore, a longtime member of UU San Mateo, and a frequent visitor at UUCC, has been placed recently in hospice care. Her daughter Valerie said her family is not yet in need of any direct help from the UUCC Compassionate Caring Committee but will let us know if assistance is needed. Rae is resting peacefully now and is not in any pain. Furthermore, Valerie conveyed that Rae truly appreciated a UU presence on the Coast. All our sympathies are with Rae and her family at this time. May they find peace and comfort in a life well led as Rae's individual light is dimming. That flame will continue to warm the many hearts she has touched.
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UUCC New Year Burning Bowl Ritual, January 1st |
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The Touchstones for January is Wintering. On January 1st, Bill Heavlin offers a homily entitled "Winter Nights: a Personal Reflection." Bill recalls some moments of creativity and perseverance that flowed from stoking a warm hearth on a long winter night.
UUCC also presents a modified Burning Bowl Ritual, which symbolically ushers out the old year and brings forth the new one. This service encourages you to reflect on the joys and sorrows, the changes and transitions and the ups and downs of the past year. Everyone is to be invited to write down words on paper that represent what they wish to let go of from 2022. One by one, these words are to be dissolved as we celebrate the arrival of 2023.
This service takes place in-person at Odd Fellows Hall and also over Zoom. Happily, UU San Mateo is joining us for this service.
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Volunteer Jobs Needed for In-Person Services |
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Now that we are meeting in person on First Sundays, we need help in different ways. Can you commit to helping out in any of the following ways?
- Photograph our December 18th Service
- Greet people as they come in
- Set up chairs before, and/or put them away after, the Service
- Help unload and load video equipment for hybrid service
- Assist with setting up video equipment for hybrid service
- Bring flowers!
- Pass out the orders of service and distribute hymnals
- Assist with hand-held cameras for hybrid service
- Clean up of the hall before closing
To tell us how you can help our Beloved Community come together again, please contact us at uucoastside@gmail.com. And thanks to all who have or continue to volunteer!
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Compassionate Caring Committee: |
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The UUCC Compassionate Caring Committee volunteers are often able to support our members during life events such as post-operative, illness, or being homebound. Do you need food delivery or an errand run? Are you feeling loneliness, loss, or grief that a call might help?
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We Appreciate Your Support: |
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For supporting UUCC financially, we have two options: |
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If you prefer to donate by check, please make your check payable to UU San Mateo, and write UUCC on the memo line. Please mail your check to:
Nancy Palmer
506 Willow Avenue
Half Moon Bay, CA 94019-1648
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UUCC Planning Committee Meeting Highlights |
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Below are some key decisions from UUCC's Planning Committee Meetings for November 2022:
- Appreciation of two wonderful services in November: Ron Ahnen's sermon on "Embracing Grief and Joy in Remembrance" on November 6th and LindaGrace Frost's Water Communion on November 20th.
- Approval of an end-of-year staff gift to UUSM for $100 dollars.
- Decision to fast-track pay-outs by having Nancy Palmer's signature suffice for all established check requests under $250 dollars.
- Approved flyer for publicizing holiday fundraiser.
- Plans to continue to meet in Odd Fellows Hall in person for first Sundays in 2023.
- Plans to reintroduce Zoom-based Gallery View Sundays on third Sundays, starting in 2023.
- UUSM is to join UUCC for our January 1st Burning Bowl Ritual either in-person or over Zoom.
- Decision to skip UUCC Tea by the Sea for December with plans to resume on January 29th, the last Sunday of the month.
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Unitarian Universalist Coastside Community
Half Moon Bay, California
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Bill Heavlin, UUCC Planning Committee
Dave Rokosky, UUCC Planning Committee
Noreen Cooper Heavlin, UUCC Planning Committee
Tom Devine, UUCC Music Director
Bruce Rafnel, UUCC Technical Director
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