 |
Mission Peak UU – Fremont, CA
The Home of Liberal Religion in the Tri-Cities and Beyond!
May 1, 2019
|
|
|
Ministerial Musings
Celebrations can bring such joy. And we need some joy in the world these days. I don’t know about you, but I have been feeling beaten down lately, by all the violence, by all the sadness, by all the vitriol. It can wear a person down.
In our world, we do have a balance though. Without feeling any guilt, we can also feel happiness and joy. And I’m looking forward to the happiness I will feel on Sunday. I’ve only been with this congregation 8 months, and I feel so privileged to be able to participate in your 25th Anniversary celebration. We CAN feel joy amidst the unhappiness of the world. It seems we will always have unrest, violence, upheaval. And we also will always have joy, happiness and fulfillment. They come at different parts of our lives, sometimes one on top of the other. As a species it almost seems our duty to help spread kindness and happiness even amongst the sorrow. Our theme this month is kindness and that’s what I want to spread across the planet. That’s the latest meme, the latest trend, the latest craze I’d love to see take over the Internet. Kindness. Plain simple kindness. And it will take some effort. It always does. We have to make a conscious choice to be kind. Every day when you are confronted with a feeling, you each decide what you will do with that. There are moments when we feel anger, when things aren’t going the way we wish, we strike out, we attempt to do something to gain control again, to make things go the way we want. Toss a pinch of kindness on those moments. Take a breath, take a moment, and do the opposite of anger. When I was driving my 16 foot Penske truck out to New Jersey years ago, I stopped to get a coffee at a fast food place. And when I pulled in to the drive through, I inadvertently cut in before this car behind me. She yelled at me and I said I was sorry, I had not seen her there. So when I got to the window I told the cashier that I would pay for her order, whatever that may be. It turned out to be only a few dollars, but it was my attempt at redemption. I never saw her again, but I hope it helped to make her feel better.
We don’t intend usually to initiate anger during confrontations, we don’t intend to strike out at others. Relationships sometimes create conflicts and we react accordingly. Let’s start tossing a pinch of kindness on these moments, throw away the ego, and see if the situation improves. I did not intend to cut in front of this woman, but it happened. So instead of yelling back, I threw a touch of kindness in the air.
Let us use this 25th anniversary celebration as a beginning in our recipe for healing the world. Toss a pinch of kindness out into the world dear beloveds.
Blessed be.
Blessed May Day today and I hope to see you Sunday at the 25th!
Rev Jo
Please feel free to contact me
By phone: 510-972-3890
|
Charter Sunday Celebration!
This Sunday is very special in the life of this congregation. We will be celebrating the 25th Anniversary of this congregation joining the Unitarian Universalist Association as a registered congregation! Come to hear and see past leaders and influences in the life of Mission Peak. What will our Future bring?
Leading the service will be Rev. Jo Green and assisting will be Worship Associate Allysson McDonald Peak Performers will provide our music.
|
|
Don’t Forget! May 5 – Charter Sunday – Potluck BBQ
Please join us after the service on Charter Sunday – May 5 as we continue to celebrate MPUUC’s 25th Anniversary. The Fellowship Committee will be providing the Grillables (meat & non-meat), Buns, Condiments, and Beverages. The rest will be potluck. If your last name begins with: A through D – Please bring a Salad, E through J – Please bring a Side Dish, K through M – Please bring Fruit, N through T – Please bring Dessert, and U through Z – Please bring Chips.
|
|
Thank you!
Hello Mission Peak. Thank you so much for the beautiful flowers for Administrative Professional Day last Wednesday. I would have put something in the Peak last week, but I have been suffering from Tendonitis and have had to limit my time on the computer to recover. The flowers are beautiful and brightened my day.
For those new to Mission Peak, most of the work that I do for Mission Peak is done at home. The best email to reach me at is office@mpuuc.org. I respond to email Monday through Thursday from 9 to 6 p.m. and Friday’s from 9 to 1 p.m.
Thank you again,
Sandra Lange
|
|
Proposed Children’s Immunization Policy
CaYRE has written a
draft children’s vaccination safety policy
designed to protect children, teachers and caregivers in the classrooms and nursery. It is on the board agenda to consider at our May 9th meeting. Please contact Steve Wallcave before May 6th with comments, concerns or proposed changes to give to the board.
Steve Wallcave and CaYRE (Children’s Religious Exploration Committee)
|
|
Talk and Book Signing by Author Betty Reid Soskin – May 19 (11:30-1 p.m.) Cole Hall
Fremont’s Mission Peak UU Congregation looks forward to hosting 97 year-old activist, musician, and author Betty Reid Soskin for a talk and book signing on Sunday, May 19. Her book, “Sign My Name to Freedom: A Memoir of a Pioneering Life”, weaves both the wisdom of the ages and the fresh enthusiasm of an always youthful mind into her long journey through an American and African-American life, as well as America’s long struggle to both understand and cleanse its soul.
Soskin is perhaps most famous for her association with the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park which she helped found in 2000 and continues to enjoy sharing with the public. Born in Louisiana but raised in the East Bay she worked in a segregated Union Hall as a young woman. Later she and her first husband founded Reid’s Records in Berkeley, one of the first in the area which was owned and focused on the music of African American, and which remains open until later this year. She is also a musician and songwriter herself. She went on to be a staffer to a Berkeley Council member and then for two East Bay Assembly Members. In 1995 she was named Woman of the Year in California and has received many other honors and tributes.
|
The Tri-City Interfaith Council invites the public to attend their annual Holocaust Remembrance Service on Sunday, May 5, at 7:30 p.m. The service is held at Temple Beth Torah, 42000 Paseo Padre Parkway, Fremont.
This year Jim McGarry will be the featured speaker. He has been a Holocaust educator since 1992 when he heard his first survivor speak. He has trained at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, and at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. He has traveled to Germany, Poland, and Israel several times with students and survivors. In 2007 he founded the Helen and Joe Farkas Center for the Study of the Holocaust in Catholic Schools at Mercy High School in San Francisco. McGarry’s talk is titled “The Holocaust as a Call to Conscience.”
The service is free and open to everyone from all religious backgrounds, and no religious background. A free will offering will be received for The Healing WELL. More information about their work is available at
www.healingwellsf.org.
The Tri-City Interfaith Council, sponsor of this service, is the largest interfaith organization in southern Alameda County. Their mission is to promote an inclusive society in which people of all faiths and traditions respect and appreciate one another.
Download a flyer to print and post in your faith community, your favorite coffee shop, or some other location by clicking
here.
|
You aren’t going to want to miss this! What it takes to do social justice
right!
Susan Bartlett Foote author of The Crusade for Forgotten Souls – Reforming Minnesota’s Mental Institutions 1946-1954, University of Minnesota Press, 2018, will be speaking at Mission Peak
on Saturday, May 11, 2019 from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm. You are warmly invited to attend. The talk will be videotaped for those of you who can’t make it in person.
Susan tells the story of how Unitarians in Minnesota helped to reform snake-pit conditions in state mental institutions, organizing many effective activities working with the Governor, other agencies of the government, the press and other religious institutions in principled activism. This is how it is done when it is done right! She also will tell about how many reforms were later overturned by tightfisted conservative politicians and bureaucrats. But, as she explains, there are many important lessons that emerged and which apply to us today, the chief one of which is the necessity of being eternally vigilant.
Susan dedicates the book to her former father-in-law Rev. Arthur Foote the minister at Unity Unitarian in St. Paul, Minnesota who spearheaded the effort, and whose notes led her to research and write this book when she found them in a closet of her home. You can read a UU World article about the book at
:
https://www.uuworld.org/articles/history-book-reviews-spring-2019
Contact me if you have any questions.
Rev.
Barbara F. Meyers
|
|
|
| Celebrating Mission Peak’s 25th Anniversary – Save These Dates!! |
2019 marks 25 years of MPUUC’s existence as a congregation and we think that’s a milestone worth celebrating. We will have many different celebrations throughout the year. Please reserve the following dates on your calendar now. You won’t want to miss them!
May 5 – Charter Sunday
– Come celebrate the Charter that started it all with a special service and a Potluck BBQ afterwards.
June 28-30 – MPUUC’s annual Campout!
This year we’ll be back at Puma Point at Anthony Chabot Regional Park so that we are close enough for those of you who are not so excited about camping to join us during the day on Saturday, June 29. We will have many fun activities planned and will end the day with a potluck BBQ and campfire.
September 8 – 25th Anniversary Picnic Celebration
– After the annual Water Ceremony at Cole Hall we will gather at one of the reserved picnic areas at Lake Elizabeth for a Picnic/BBQ celebration. We will have games for the kids, a jam session & sing-a-long, and other fun activities. Come join us and enjoy hanging out with friends & family and celebrating MPUUC.
[More details regarding these events will follow closer to the dates. If you have questions or suggestions for additional events or you want to help with an event, please contact Jen King].
|
|
Online Scam Impersonating Ministers’ Accounts
A warning that there is a new email phishing scam being employed against faith communities, misleading congregants into sending money. People set up fake accounts that imitate the minister’s account, and send messages to email addresses they collect from the church website or published newsletters.
This is a pretty helpful description of how the scam has developed and how to avoid it
. Be exceedingly cautious if you receive a message from a leader in your congregation asking for rushed money.
***Please know that Rev Jo Green would never ask you personally for any funding. If you receive one, please notify her immediately.
|
Please see email received from a concerned Fremont neighbor. A pdf is available by clicking
here. In the pdf is information on how to contact Eliot to take action
Hi, my name is Eliot–I am your neighbor in Fremont. I am not a Unitarian, or especially religious, but I am very concerned about climate change.
I am reaching out to you because the City of Fremont is currently considering what to do about reducing carbon in the coming years. My goal is to ask them to make binding commitments, to make city ordinances, that will reduce our carbon to avoid increased harm to the planet and problems for people everywhere.
I am gathering signatures of people who agree, to send to the council to encourage them to take action.
|
Turning Love Into Justice:
The Tri-City Interfaith Council (tcicouncil.weebly.com) is a grass-roots organization bringing together people of diverse religious beliefs from Fremont, Newark, and Union City (California). Rev. Jo Green, Rev. Barbara Meyers and Paul K. Davis are members. Join in!
Call your Elected Officials!
Calls can make a difference! Contact your representatives to alert them to your views!
Congressperson Eric Swalwell 510-247-1388 or go to
house.gov
Senator Kamala Harris
(202) 224 – 3553
Senator Diane Feinstein (202) 224-3841
|
|
|
Mission Peak UU | 2950 Washington Blvd Fremont CA | 510.252.1477 | missionpeakuu.org
|
|
|
|
|
|
