This Week on the Peak

This Week on the Peak – Wednesday, February 12, 2020
This Week on the Peak
Mission Peak UU – Fremont, CA
The Home of Liberal Religion in the Tri-Cities and Beyond!
February 12, 2020


My name is Allysson McDonald. You often see me at the podium introducing myself as a member of the board or as a worship associate. Occasionally you see me as worship leader. You may not know that one of the hats I wear as President Elect is Chair of the Justice Council (each member of the Executive Team chairs one of our councils). I’m really excited by all the amazing things members of the Justice Council have been up to this year! February’s worship theme is leadership, and our Justice Council members have been stepping up to leadership in a big way.

We recently arranged for our congregation to give a Courageous Love award to the Fremont City Council just last Sunday for their commitment to create a homeless navigation center. Our Share the Plate that day raised a record $1608 for the Center! Our congregation put our money where our mouth is, LOL. The newly formed accompaniment team has trained 11 folks and is in the process of matching an asylee with a host. Our Civic Engagement team has successfully helped recruit and train volunteers who have registered thousands of high school students to vote, and are in the process of applying for a UUA grant to obtain funding in order to do more of this work. They are also working with the UUA and the UU Justice Ministry of California to make this model available to other UU congregations. Our Sandwich Squad continues to meet regularly to help feed the unfortunate with the help of several folx who have joined through their Meet-Up group. Our Climate Justice folks are meeting with City of Fremont staff to identify ways we can engage in the Climate Action Plan Update process. We’ve just had a well attended book discussion on White Fragility (thanks Rev. Jo!) and are still planning to discuss Just Mercy (see note below) and An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States . Behind the scenes there are other justice projects and activities also going on!

Want to get more involved in making a difference in the world? Want to step into a bigger role as a leader? Let me know what your interests are and I’ll connect you with the other folx who are working on those things. In particular I’d love to train some people to take the lead on our Community Partners programs (Share the Plate and Love Hero Awards), and the Common Read Discussion programs. I can only wear so many hats!

One last thing – We’re very excited to announce that Rev. Ranwa Hammamy, Executive Director of the UU Justice Ministry of California, will be leading our service and meeting up with anyone interested in our UU the Vote efforts on Sunday, February 23! See below for details!
 
Allysson McDonald 
This Sunday’s Service:
 

Reconciliation or Punishment
   
Our criminal justice system is not a system of justice. We have seen the ineffectiveness and harm this system has inflicted on our culture, especially those of People of Color. Let us explore this Sunday how the concept of reconciliation and restitution heals more effectively than punishment.


.     
Rev. Jo Green will lead the service and assisting will be Worship Associate Paul K. Davis.  Mark Kahn will provide our music.
 
 
 
 Please note:  Rev. Jo will be on study leave February 20 and 21, 2020 
 
 
 
Guest at Your Table
 
If you have not already sent in your Guest at Your Table donation, we will be collecting them to send in together from Mission Peak.  Please bring your donations to the next Sunday service and you can place them in the offering basket during our Practice of Generosity time.   
 
Thank you all for your generous donations for this worthy cause.
Coffee Chat with Rev. Jo

This month Rev Jo will meet for coffee and breakfast (if you so choose) to chat about our theme this month of Leadership, how it shows up in your personal lives, how does it show up at Mission Peak.   
 
Let’s meet at Hopping Beans Cafe, 4000 Bay St, Fremont, CA 94538, a hop, skip and jump from our church!!  Let’s meet at 9 a.m. on February 19th, which is a Wednesday morning.
 
I’d love to hear your views about your goals in life, how you lead, or any other topic that is important to you.  Let’s chat over coffee!
 
Rev. Jo 

Mission Peak to Host Rev. Ranwa Hamamy


The Justice Council and Worship Committee are pleased to announce that  Rev. Ranwa Hammamy (they/she), Executive Director of the Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry of California (UUJMCA), will be our guest speaker on Sunday, Feb. 23, 2020. The UUJMCA   supports UUs around the state in their various justice ministries by providing advocacy, education, and witness opportunities to live out our UU values. Rev. Ranwa’s title for their sermon is  Predictions,  Prophecies , and Promises.  They say “today’s social and political atmosphere can generate significant fear, despair, and chaos. The course of our lives may feel uncertain and even out of our control. Drawing inspiration from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, we will explore the power of predictions,  prophecies , and promises in these times, and how to deepen our resilience as Unitarian Universalists manifesting justice and love.”

Ranwa has previously served as President of DRUUMM (Diverse & Revolutionary Unitarian Universalist Multicultural Ministries), a national organization for UU People of Color. A self-described “UU-Muslim,” Ranwa seeks to serve both living traditions in her ministry, encouraging others both to grow and learn from each other’s gifts.  

Following our service we’ll have an opportunity to discuss how we can help “UU the Vote” and learn more about how we can share our very own Youth Voter Movement project more broadly. More details in a future WOTP!

White Fragility Book Discussion

The second of three discussion sessions on the book White Fragility will be held on February 29 from 10:00 AM  – 12:00 PM, Saturday.

It will be held in Ockerman 7/8.  If you missed the first session, please know you are welcome to attend these last two sessions.  We had 20 members attend in our first session with a deep and meaningful discussion by all.  Please feel free to ask Rev. Jo Green any questions you may have.  We would love to see you attend.

Save the Date! Mark Your Calendars!

Do you like to have fun with some great people? If you answered yes, you’ll be happy to know that the MPUUC Annual Canvass event will be held on Saturday, March 28. Mark your calendar! More information will follow.
PASTORAL ASSOCIATES MEETING

We are in the process of rejuvenating the Pastoral Associates committee.  I, Rev. Barbara Meyers, and Melody Yamaguchi met and discussed the process and future of this committee and it’s very exciting that they have agreed to be Co-Chairs of this committee!  We will be holding a general meeting for those who are interested in being on the committee or members of the Caring Circle on
Sunday, March 8th after Coffee Hour after the service around 1145 a.m.  in the MPUUC Office.

The purpose of the Pastoral Associates committee is to extend the care of the church, through one-to-one caring and helping activities by lay members of the congregation to those who are in special need.  This is pastoral care – a ministry of presence and support, not pastoral counseling – which requires counseling certification.  It is a way to reach out to this congregation and to be of service.  As Edward Everett Hale says:
I am only one
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something.
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do. 
 
Please consider attending this meeting on Sunday March 8th after the service around 1145 a.m. in the MPUUC Office.  It could be the one thing you can do.
 
Blessings to all,
Rev. Jo

Search Team

December and January have been particularly busy months for the ministerial search team. In mid-December, we filed our congregational record (a lengthy description of our congregation) for publication on the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Ministry Search website. Our record was then available for review by all UU ministers in search, and in early January, a number of  ministers expressed interest in our congregation. We proceeded to review their ministerial records (a lengthy description of their ministerial experience) and view their sermons online.
After reviewing all this information, the search team decided to interview five of the applicants. In the past few weeks, we have conducted the interviews with the applicants online and talked to their references on the telephone. Following thorough discussions of the applicants’ qualifications, our impressions of them from the interviews, and the information we gathered from the reference checks, we have chosen three applicants to advance to the next phase in the search process. We will be interviewing them further in the next couple of months to get to know them better.
Of these three precandidates, the search team will choose one to present to the board as our candidate for settled minister. If we obtain the board’s approval, we will invite the candidate to meet the congregation and lead a service at Mission Peak. We expect that this will happen in May.
Please contact any of us if you have questions about the search process.
Your Search Team,  
 
DeAnna
Annette
Ilze
Tiffany           
Stephen
Don
Alm
Breingan
Duarte
Longfield 
Longfield
Ramie
 

SANDWICH SQUAD 
You are invited to join Don Ramie and the Sandwich Squad to make sandwiches for Second Chance Addiction Recovery and Safe Alternatives for Violent Environments.
Location: Cole Hall Kitchen
Time: after the worship service this Sunday at about 11:30 AM usually the 3rd Sunday of every month).
It’s interactive, fun and rewarding. Please join us! 

WEBINAR YOUTH VOTER MOVEMENT (YVM) 
Rev Ranwa Hammamy, Executive Director, UU Justice Ministry of California has suggested that we develop a WEBINAR of our highly successful partnership with YVM which helped register over 2000 Fremont Tri-city high school  students to vote this year!  This will allow us to engage with other UU congregations and encourage a similar model in other areas of California, especially the Central Valley. 
Please join us with your ideas and your support!
When:  Sunday, February 23, 2020
Where: Cole Hall
Time:  11:30 AM after the worship service given by Rev. Hammamy
JUST MERCY DISCUSSION POSTPONED!

Various conflicts occurred on Sunday, February 16, so our book/movie discussion has been postponed. Please contact Allysson if you’d like to participate (if you’ve read the book, OR seen the movie, come talk about it!) and she’ll include you in the poll to find a convenient time.  

 
 
Turning Love Into Justice:
 
Attention Alameda County Voters

Please see attached link by clicking here for people from any faith tradition to write a letter to the White House opposing expansion of the Muslim ban. 

Please consider doing so.

Rev. Jo

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 Rally encouraging our community to VOTE on March 3rd!
 
 
WE ARE ONE
❤ 
RALLY
Exercise your hard-won right:
VOTE!
Join us to rally our community to vote!
 
Thursday, February 27, 2020
5:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Walnut and Paseo Padre, Fremont
 
Click here for flyer 


We need your help in communities throughout Alameda County!

Assist your community by volunteering to serve as a Poll Worker for the upcoming Presidential Primary Election on Tuesday, March 3, 2020.

This opportunity allows you to be civically engaged and earn extra money.

Alameda County Registrar of Voters is working diligently to recruit Bilingual and Non-Bilingual Poll Workers to serve on Election Day.

Bilingual Poll Workers must be assessed in English and one of the following languages:
 
Chinese
Khmer
Korean
Punjabi
Spanish
Tagalog
Vietnamese
 
To apply online, or for more information, please visit https://www.acvote.org/community/pw-apply . Should you have additional questions, please email us at  rov.pollworker@acgov.org, or call our office at (510) 272-6971 (option 1).

Further, promote civic engagement among all residents of Alameda County by encouraging your friends and family to serve on Election Day.
 
Follow us Facebook, Instagram, and Facebook
@acvote

 
 
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 
Ro Khanna  (202) 225-2631 
Senator Kamala Harris   (202) 224 – 3553
Senator Diane Feinstein (202) 224-3841
 

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Mission Peak UU | 2950 Washington Blvd Fremont CA | 510.252.1477 | missionpeakuu.org