Between Sundays 3-5-20

by Admin | Mar 5, 2020 | Between Sundays

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.

Between Sundays

by Admin | Feb 27, 2020 | Between Sundays

There is a new team on the block at church – the Generosity Team. Its formation was inspired by the mission statement of a similar group from the First Unitarian Church of San Diego.

“Our mission is to develop financial and spiritual resources for the current and future needs of First Church with integrity and with an awareness of the joy inherent in cultivating generosity as a spiritual virtue.”

Our new team read this, thought it works perfectly, and they didn’t need reinvent the wheel, and so adopted it as their own mission statement. So how do we cultivate generosity as a spiritual virtue? Many of us relate to money with a sense of scarcity because it can feel like there is never quite enough of it – in our lives or in the church. Yet being generous – as individuals and as a church – can be joyful. Generosity is indeed a spiritual value that can make us feel abundant, not just with enough, but overflowing with gratitude and, yes, joy.

So how do we cultivate and nurture a sense of generosity as a part of our spiritual lives and our connection to UU Ventura? This is the very question that our new Generosity Team will be asking us all.

Our first opportunity to answer will be on March 22 at Celebration Sunday.

It will be a grand day at church. Rev. Julia Hamilton from our church in Santa Barbara will be preaching. (I’ve been dying to bring Julia to our pulpit, and am looking forward to leading worship with her.) We’ll have wonderful music from the Marsh Brothers, coming off a wonderful showing at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee.

We’ll make our pledges in the services and then retire to Berg Hall for a luncheon to celebrate our individual and collective generosity. This is intentionally ­not a pot luck because it is meant as a great big Thank You. For some, just sitting and being fed can be a bit awkward. Yet we want everyone to feel thanked and appreciated for all the ways you are generous – with some lunch and perhaps a little bubbly. This particular Sunday is about the giving of our financial resources, though we can’t create the fullness of community without hearts that are generous in many ways.

So, between now and March 22, I invite you to consider what this church community means to you and how you will contribute of your financial resources for 2020-2021. Consider how you find joy in generosity as a spiritual value.   
Rev. Dana

Between Sundays 2-20-20

by Admin | Feb 20, 2020 | Between Sundays

TWO LENSES…

All the work we do in the church should be viewed through (at least) two lenses: How do we promote anti-racist and anti-oppression values? How do we live sustainably on our “Blue Boat Home” in the face of a growing climate crisis.

Both of these questions address the deepest theological work we are called to as Unitarian Universalists in our times. My sense of this grew more and more clear while working with the 545 Force and church leaders to create our next Five-Year Plan. The plan that is nearing its final draft, and which the congregation will vote at the Annual Meeting in June.

We are in a third or fourth wave of a Civil Rights movement. Great work was done in the 1950s and 60s, though the work was not finished. People of color knew that all along, and are asking all in our culture to deepen the work and get farther down the path, keeping our “eyes still on the prize.” Using this lens on all we do will help keep that prize in focus.

The climate crisis is lurching toward catastrophe. This is an existential crisis for us all. We face a sense of the mortality of our very species and much of the life on Earth. This lens will help us focus on our actions lead us in positive, earth-healing directions.

We have groups in the church directly addressing these issues: the Seventh Principle Environmental Action Team, the Action Team for Immigrant Rights, the Social Action Coordinating Committee. Classes and workshops help deepen our understanding – our second round of Beloved Conversations about racism, the class Coming Back to Life about being hopeful and active in the midst of environmental crisis.

Yet we also need to look through these lenses in all we do. How do auction events deepen this work? What does our worship look like through these lenses? How do we welcome people into the church? What goals should the Board of Trustees set? How do we bring this awareness to our children and youth? The lenses can guide choices of books for book groups and movies we watch together, topics for the UUniques, women’s and men’s groups.

These lenses are not our only focus, of course. The church is always about caring for one another; building community through fun and music and food; weaving a tapestry of love that holds us in joy and sorrow; deepening our sense of spiritual connection; strengthening us for our work in the world. Still, these lenses can lead us to questions that help us make decisions and choices. They may give us direction in creating an embracing, inclusive, spiritual community that transforms lives and transforms the world.

May it be so,
Rev. Dana