 |
Mission Peak UU – Fremont, CA
The Home of Liberal Religion in the Tri-Cities and Beyond!
September 4, 2019
|
Come join us this Sunday for our annual Water Communion Service! It is the beginning of a brand new Congregational Year and an opportunity to worship together with this sacred ceremony of community. Bring a vial of water to merge with other waters; if you forget, we will also have water provided. Let us celebrate and honor how much love and joy we have together as a community.
Leading the service will be Rev. Jo Green and assisting will be Worship Associate Jay Steele. Peak Performers will provide our music.
|
|
|
| Celebrating Mission Peak’s 25th Anniversary – This Sunday!! |
2019 marks 25 years of MPUUC’s existence as a congregation and we think that’s a milestone worth celebrating. We have had many different celebrations throughout the year and we have one more this Sunday.
September 8 – 25th Anniversary Picnic Celebration
After the annual Water Ceremony service at Cole Hall on September 8th, please join us at picnic area D2 at Lake Elizabeth/Central Park (maps will be provided at the service) for a potluck BBQ celebrating Mission Peak UU’s first 25 years as a congregation. We will provide hamburgers, veggie burgers, and hot dogs with all the trimmings as well as non-alcoholic beverages. Please bring a side dish to share (chips, fruit, salad, dessert, etc.). You are also welcome to bring beer or wine if you so choose. Please also bring a chair or blanket to sit on (there are tables, but probably not enough and you’ll want to avoid the goose poop). Activities will be provided. Please bring instruments for ‘jamming’; and frisbees, kites, and other lawn/outdoor games. Join us for food, fun, and fellowship and plan to hang out for the afternoon.
|
|
An Update from the Ministerial Search Team
Greetings from your ministerial search team. We want to update you on what the team has accomplished so far. Back in May, we had a full-day retreat to get to know each other better and to find out what strengths we could each bring to the task of searching for our next settled minister. Roles were assigned, and our work soon began. We have been meeting about twice a month to prepare for the tasks required of us in our ministerial search. Two important tasks that involve the entire congregation are coming up: the congregational survey and the Beyond Categorical Thinking workshop. For more information on the workshop, see article below.
The congregational survey is a three-part questionnaire that we have created to gather information about our congregation as it pertains to our search for a settled minister. It is extremely important that you all participate. It is a long survey, so we recommend that you get a glass of lemonade, or your favorite tea or coffee, and set aside twenty to twenty five minutes to complete it. The survey is purposefully detailed so that it will tell us a lot about you, how you feel about Mission Peak, and what you believe we need in a new minister. The survey will become available online on September 8. There will also be a few hard copies available to those who would rather fill it out by hand. You will have until September 23 to fill it out. We will send reminders.
Please talk to any of us if you have any questions or comments about the ministerial search process.
DeAnna Ilze Lance Stephen Tiffany Megan Don
Alm (chair) Duarte Holliday Longfield Longfield McMillen Ramie
|
|
Bring A Friend Sunday – September 29
Help share the good news about our caring and vibrant community! Invite a friend, relative, or acquaintance to attend the Sunday, September 29th service and learn more about Mission Peak UUC. There will be a potluck luncheon following the service. Visitors are our guests. Food will be provided by members and friends.
|
|
Beyond Categorical Thinking
on September 22
Our congregation is looking for a new minister, and perhaps distinct images come to mind of what a minister is. A particular gender? Race? Age? We can have biases we’re not even aware of, and limit ourselves in finding the minster who is really best for Mission Peak.
On Sunday, September 22, there with be a free workshop to help us be fair and open-and heard. The Unitarian Universalist Association is sending a facilitator to conduct “Beyond Categorical Thinking.” This will help us consider our hopes, expectations and concerns about a new minister.
After the Sunday service, there will be a light lunch provided for all attendees, with the program to run from noon to no later than 3:00 p.m. Childcare will be available if you RSVP. Use the online form link below to RSVP, or contact Don Ramie.
If you want to have input that will help the Search Committee find a great new minister, this workshop is for you! All are strongly encouraged to attend.
|
|
Children & Youth Religious Education (CaYRE)
Shawn Snavley (our DRE from 3 years ago) has agreed to work as our interim DRE until we hire a permanent DRE. He will be working a reduced schedule of 10 hours most weeks. He is scheduled to start today.
We will be starting our fall curriculum “A Joyful Path” on Sept. 15th. It is a spiritual curriculum for young hearts and minds from The Center for Progressive Christianity.
|
|
Board Meeting Notes
Our next board meeting is Thursday, September 12 at 7 pm. Please let Steve Wallcave know if you want an agenda or want to attend. All members are welcome.
Our last board meeting was July 11th. We approved Rev. Jo’s new contract for this coming year (Aug 2019-Aug 2020). We created an assistant treasurer position and appointed Drew Wilson to it. We updated the Interim committee charter to reduce the number of members in the committee. We also appointed Lance Holliday, Melissa Holmes and Steve Wallcave to the Settled Minister Negotiating Team, with Paul Davis serving as a contractual advisor. For more details on what our board of trustees do at our meetings go to the mpuuc.org web site and navigate to about–>Members only–>Board Documents
.
We have had 4 email votes since our July board meeting. We approved a modified job description for our DRE search. We approved 2 different motions to support the Homeless Navigation Center. We approved hiring Shawn as our interim DRE. These email votes will be confirmed at our September 12 board meeting and go into those meeting minutes. For more information about the email votes before then contact Steve Wallcave.
|
|
Black & White Gala – November 2, 2019 – Save the Date!
This year’s Black & White Gala will be Saturday, November 2 starting at 6:00pm. Please put the date on your calendar and start picking out your outfits, making items for the boutique, and thinking up offerings for the auction. I’ve been making jam…what have you been doing to get ready?
For those of you who are new to the congregation, our annual Black & White Gala is our biggest fundraiser of the year. It’s a great opportunity for you to dress up (if you’d like) and support Mission Peak by participating in our service auction, buying unique, handmade items at our boutique, and testing your luck by participating in our basket raffle. All while enjoying yummy sweet and savory snacks and alcoholic
and non-alcoholic beverages.
Jen King
|
Appreciative Inquiry Committee
If you all recall, last June we held an Appreciative Inquiry workshop where many of the members interacted and answered questions about their memories of MPUUC, their hopes for the future and what they saw as this congregation’s strengths. I have compiled all of the information you all contributed and now I am looking for a committee to be formed to gain conclusions about what this congregation needs and wants and sees in their future.
As your Interim Minister, I have been guiding you through the journey of grieving, of healing, and preparing to transition you all for a new settled minister to come. This workshop gave us some answers as to how you see yourselves, what you value, what stories in this congregation are life-giving, and how this congregation has made a difference in your lives.
Appreciative Inquiry is a way to keep a congregation thriving and recreating itself by its conversations and its stories. It is a process that you can apply and look back on in the future and use in any walk of life. This is an opportunity for this congregation to define itself, to hold those memories which are most important and to define your future!
Please contact me, Rev Jo, and notify me if you would like to be on this committee. This work is very important for this congregation and will give you new insights and direction in moving towards the future you wish to have.
I look forward to meeting with you all!
Blessings,
Rev Jo
|
|
The Fellowship Committee Needs YOU!
Do you enjoy the social events we have at Mission Peak? Would you like to see more events? The Fellowship Committee needs more members. Many hands make light work, and we could use a few more hands. We meet around once a quarter and try to plan or support 2-3 events a quarter. Best of all we have a lot of fun together. If you’re interested in joining our ‘merry band’, please contact Jen King.
|
|
WE NEED VOLUNTEERS!!
We NEED your help! Cole Hall does not magically transform into a special place for our services each Sunday. It requires a small army of volunteers. We’ve had a few ‘retirements’ lately and we have some spots
to fill. PLEASE let Jen King know if you can fill in for any of the following:
URGENT: We have no one to do set-up for the 2nd Sunday of each month!
We also need people for the following:
Additional Set-up assistance for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Sundays of each month
Additional Greeter for the 1st and 3rd Sundays of each month
Powerpoint Clickers & AV Technicians for many Sundays (We will train you! We
promise!)
Additional Take-down assistance for the 2nd Sunday of each month.
You can sign up on an ongoing basis for the Sunday’s indicated above by contacting Jen King, or you can sign up on and ad hoc basis by following this link:
|
|
Introduction to Accompaniment Team Training
and September 15th Share-the-Plate
On Sunday, September 15, 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM in Cole Hall (after our service), Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity (IM4HI,
http://www.im4humanintegrity.org/) will hold an intro session on their Nueva Esperanza Accompaniment Team (NEAT) program. The event will be open to the public.
An accompaniment team is a group of 4-5 people who commit to help an asylum seeker or family of asylum seekers adjust to life in the U.S. Especially when the asylee(s) first arrive, there is lots to do: finding a lawyer, connecting with local services, going to medical appointments, getting kids signed up for school, signing up for English classes, learning the local mass transit system, ICE check-ins, court dates, and more.
The NEAT program prepares accompaniment teams logistically but also emotionally and politically. Asylum seekers are often fleeing threats on their life, and they may have experienced significant trauma. The root causes of their plight can often be traced to policies of the United States over the past decades. It is the goal of NEAT to address root causes as well as immediate needs of asylum seekers through education.
To help support this program the September Share-the-Plate will be held on Sunday, September 15 and the proceeds will go to IM4HI.
|
SUPPORT OUR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHT TO BOYCOTT
The UU Association has published its 2019 Actions of Immediate Witness which includes supporting our first amendment right to boycott.
The UU define immediate witness as “the public profession by word or deed of the convictions of an individual or group regarding a particular issue. Actions of Immediate Witness profess convictions grounded in Unitarian Universalism” and “requires immediate action to make an impact.”
SUPPORT OUR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHT TO BOYCOTT
(UUA 2019 Action of Immediate Witness)
UUA defines Immediate Witness as “the public profession by word or deed of the convictions of an individual or group regarding a particular issue. Actions of Immediate Witness profess convictions grounded in Unitarian Universalism” and “requires immediate action to make an impact.”
For those who are willing and able:
Then UUA is distributing a petition
Petition in Support of Our First Amendment Right of Free Speech!
…We affirm our commitment to the constitutional right to free speech. We affirm that boycotts and divestment in support of human rights are free speech and are aligned with UU principles upholding democracy in human affairs and the right of conscience…
Copy of the full petition will be available after the worship service on Sunday for all those interested in signing.
You can also print and sign a copy to mail at
|
|
How to Support the Homeless Navigation Center
If you are a Fremont resident please consider attending the City Council meeting this coming Tuesday evening. Our congregation supported the Niles Discovery Church’s quest to host a Homeless Navigation Center, by formal motion adopted by the Board. That option has been blocked, but the City is still considering a Homeless Navigation Center somewhere. Our congregation supports this, also by formal motion adopted by the Board. It is expected on the City Council meeting this Tuesday, Sept. 10. The meeting is scheduled for 7:00 PM at the City Hall, Building A, City Council Chambers, 3300 Capitol Ave. I will be there and hope to see other MPUUC members. — Paul K Davis
|
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!
Join the Interfaith council as we stand together for the
WE ARE ONE RALLY – CLIMATE JUSTICE
Thursday, September 26, 2019
5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Paseo Padre & Walnut, Fremont
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
|
|
|
|
|
|
