Upcoming Services
Oct
Rev. Dana Worsnop
Rev. Dana Worsnop
DIY Religious Education lesson
Dear Families,
Here is a DIY Religious Education lesson from a colleague Andrew Coate! If children complete all seven, they will earn an embroidered badge!!
To ensure folks have adequate resources, are feeling safe, and to see what type of support you’d like from us, from digital worship video, Hangouts for your children/ youth, activity kits, and book bundles, please let us know! Huge shout out to Krista Mendelsohn, Kendall Lynch, and Tim Holmes for helping me reach out to all families
The story on Sunday involves a family making a bird feeder at home! Laurie Lemson and I are going to put some kits together on Wednesday morning, and folks are welcome to pick up bird feeders from the church on Wednesday afternoon! Please be in touch.
Lastly, I’d love for the UU Ventura Parenting Group to be a space you can ask for help. If you need supplies, someone to watch your kids, if someone falls ill and you need support, or if you just need to vent, I am here for you. We are here for you!
Armfuls of love,
Emily, Director of Religious Education
Pronouns: She/ her/ hers
Every Person Is Important
Our First Principle
There are 7 principles in Unitarian Universalism. Our first principle is “Every Person is Important.” Read or listen to Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña and then complete two of these three challenges.
Challenge 1: CJ and his grandmother travel from their church to a soup kitchen where they help out. There are a lot of different places and ways you can help out, too. Think of a way you could help out or volunteer and then draw a picture of that activity. Examples might be donating clothes, writing letters to lawmakers, or helping fix up a trail you like to hike on with your family. Have your parents send me a picture of your art!
Challenge 2: While they’re traveling CJ and his grandmother are on the bus they travel down familiar streets across their city. Use Google Maps Street View to take a virtual walk around the neighborhood. Then pick somewhere else far away. It may be a city in another country you don’t know anything about or an address near a faraway friend. Take a virtual walk around that neighborhood and talk about what it might be like to live there. What is similar to your neighborhood? What is different?
Challenge 3: At first CJ is bored on the bus, but then he starts noticing the people around him on the bus. Call a friend and ask them how they are doing. Maybe make plans to talk again soon or try playing a game together on the computer or via video chat.
Which challenges did you complete?
Streaming Sunday Services Online
PLEASE NOTE: We will be streaming Sunday Services live on Facebook at “Unitarian Universalist Facebook of Ventura.”
Here are instructions on how to join us…
Current members of this Facebook group, do this:
- Click this link: “Unitarian Universalist Facebook of Ventura.
- You will see the livestream starting about 9:50 (service starts at 10am), and will continue to end of Sunday Service.
On Facebook, but not a member of our group…do this:
- You need to request membership to join our UU Facebook Group page.
- Click on this link to go to the Facebook group page: Unitarian Universalist Facebook of Ventura
- Once there, under the large banner image, you will see a button that says “join“.
- Click on that. An administrator will approve your request (may take a couple of hours).
Not on Facebook, but want to sign up to see services?
- Go to facebook.com/reg to create a Facebook account.
- Enter your real name so we know who you are.
- Enter your email or mobile phone number.
- Select your gender and date of birth, and choose a password.
- Tap Sign Up.
- To finish creating your account, you will need to confirm your email or mobile phone number.
If none of this is working for you, please feel free to contact Evan Austin, Kitty Merrill, Joe Osborne ( or weekdays Jennifer Luce) by phone, text or email. We will be happy to help you out.
Between Sundays 3-5-20
Will This Be an Actual Pandemic?
It’s hard to know if we are over- or under-reacting to the coronavirus CoVid-19.
For years, the World Health Organization and other public health organizations have worried about the possibility that a new, highly-contagious, and deadly disease could spread quickly through our closely connected world. And it keeps not quite happening. First there was SARS and then MERS and then H1N1, none of which managed to be the worst combination possible. (Actually, first there was AIDS, which was utterly lethal though not air born contagious. Ebola was frightening and yet containable.)
Scientists call CoVid-19 a novel corona virus, as in new enough that humans have no immunity to it, and a vaccine is a year or more away. It is also contagious, perhaps as much or more than the flu. It is currently not clear what the death rate is or will be.
- There are good reasons that the WHO and others are very concerned about it and taking extreme measures to contain it.
- How bad will it be? Will it mean closure of public spaces – like schools and churches? Will there be quarantine orders?
- We can’t know, though this one seems serious enough to make plans for us to respond.
To that end, we have created a Coronavirus Response Team, including Jessie Austin, Melissa Ruiz, and Janice Frank who are all in the medical profession and represent the Safety Committee and Religious Education. Others on the team are Yukio Okano, Board member and Pastoral Associate; Worship Associate Sue Brinkmeyer, and Kitty Merrill from the Publicity Team.
For now, we are looking into ways for the church to be as safe as possible and considering how we will respond if there are closures and/or quarantines.
Even if this does not turn out to be “the Big One,” so to speak, it’s a good idea to be proactive. So, follow the suggestions below, and we’ll let you know plans as they develop. A good link for local information is http://www.vcemergency.com.
As always, we will be in this together, and we’ll find our way through together.
With love and caution,
Rev. Dana
Coronavirus and UU Ventura
As new cases of the coronavirus (CoVid-19) are reported in the United States and around the world, the congregation is called to education and caution.
Here are a few basic guidelines. We ask that you follow these precautions even if you yourself are not at risk, as many members of our community are at a high risk:
- Wash your hands frequently — use soap and water and scrub for at least 20 seconds. Humming the tune of Come, Come Whoever You Are takes about 20 seconds.
- Sneeze or cough into the crook of your elbow or a tissue, not your hand. Wash immediately after coughing, sneezing, or blowing your nose.
- Avoid touching your face, especially your mouth or nose or eyes, with unwashed hands.
- Regularly disinfect frequently touched surfaces, including keyboards, phones, elevator buttons, door knobs and light switches.
- Use hand sanitizer or hand wipes.
- Avoid close contact with individuals who are sick.
- Stay home if you are sick.
- Greet others in non-physical or low-contact ways, especially during coffee hour.
UU Ventura will follow best practices as recommended by health authorities. Sections of our service may be changed to reduce the spread of germs. Hygiene practices in our kids’ programs are being increased. If the suspension of large gatherings is recommended, we may suspend services and other programming, or they may be live-streamed.