This Week on the Peak

This Week on the Peak – Wednesday, February 19, 2020
This Week on the Peak
Mission Peak UU – Fremont, CA
The Home of Liberal Religion in the Tri-Cities and Beyond!
February 19, 2020


Ministerial Musings
 
Someone said in passing the other day that generosity was the flip side of gratitude. We went our separate ways and there the discussion ended, but it got me to thinking. What could they have meant by that? I had not coupled these two words together with any interpretation of meaning before.
 
Generosity has a couple of different definitions. To be generous is to be giving, to be kind and to be lavish and magnanimous. It also has a definition of bounty, of abundance, of being plentiful, having a generous amount of something. Gratitude is being thankful for someone or for what someone has done or something that has happened. They can be similar but they also are different. Both generosity and gratitude make me feel better, they make me feel happy. When I am generous, I am not thinking about myself, I’m thinking about the other person and feeling that I am helping in some way. When I am grateful I am thinking about my own abundance, seeing how much I really have in making an abundant life, and appreciating all that life is giving me. Generosity is a quality we possess and gratitude is an emotion. They do go hand in hand. When someone is generous to me, I feel gratitude to that person. When I am generous to someone else, I can feel their gratitude towards me.
 
What happens when we feel we are being generous to someone and we don’t feel any gratitude coming back? It actually shouldn’t matter, as being generous is generally not done so that someone will be grateful to you. And if that is the case, that you are expecting someone to be grateful, then are you really being generous? Generosity comes with no strings attached, no expectations; it’s a matter of going one step beyond what is expected from, as they say, “the goodness of your heart.” That’s the part sometimes that we forget and the part of generosity that we always need to remember. When we are generous we do feel good, we are doing it for the benefit of others and not for something in return. We are doing it because we see someone or something in need and want to help. That should be the only reason.
 
And I’m feeling a bit these days that that quality, for generosity is a quality, is lost in our culture. I want everyone to experience that feeling of joy and abundance when giving to someone else and expecting absolutely nothing in return. That quality should be part of the human experience, part of raising our children, part of our society. Generosity is probably one of the most important qualities to have as human beings.
 
Let’s revive the quality of generosity. And I’ll bet any money that when we do, our gratitude meter will also go up. They are the flip side of each other in many ways and if we can hold both the quality and the emotion in our hearts, we will be grateful and generous to others. And that is what I believe the world needs right now.
 
Generous and grateful blessings to you all,

Rev. Jo
Please feel free to contact me
By email:  minister@mpuuc.org
By phone: 510-972-3890
This Sunday’s Service:
 

Predictions, Prophecies, and Promises
   
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.
      
Rev. Ranwa Hammamy, Exec. Director, UU Justice Ministry of California will lead the service and assisting will be Worship Associate Allysson McDonald. Peak Rocks will provide our music.
 
 
 
 Please note:  Rev. Jo will be on study leave February 20 and 21, 2020 
 
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 11:45 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 Tricity 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
Urgent Need: Temporary Housing for Asylum Seeker in Fremont, CA

MPUUC’s Asylum Seeker Accompaniment Team is looking for temporary (3-6 months) housing in Fremont/Newark/Union City starting March 1 for an Egyptian man in his late 20s with a BA in marketing, looking for a place to stay for free as he pursues his asylum case and gets back on his feet after 18 months in detention, with plan to pay rent once he is working. Speaks English fluently. Please contact Allie King at  allie.king@gmail.com  or 561-901-5446 if you have any leads. Ideal housing would be a room in a home with bathroom and kitchen access. Roommates are a plus — he is lonely after his long stay in detention.
Just Mercy Discussion this Saturday


The Mission Peak UU discussion of the Just Mercy book and movie will take place on Saturday, February 22, at 10 am. in the youth room (located next to Cole Hall.)

 
 
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