We invite everyone to join our “Zoom Sanctuary” at 9:45 am
The service begins at 10 am. You will come in muted, please don’t activate your microphone.
We will be in a Breakout Room, so the Zoom Sanctuary will be empty until 9:45am.
Join Zoom Meeting HERE.
Meeting ID: 974 5262 1413
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
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?
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…
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.
Efforts are gearing up for the primary elections in March and the presidential and congressional elections in November. The UU Church of Ventura has helped to create positive change in our community throughout the years, including fighting for justice issues that we as Unitarian Universalists hold dear. The Unitarian Universalist Association’s new “UU the Vote” effort is encouraging UUs to get involved.
We at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ventura will provide a variety of ways to answer this call. Are you interested in finding out more or volunteering to help in any way? Come to the Jan. 12th information session or contact Jimmy V.
“How Deportation has banished thousands of U.S. Veterans to Mexico”
Speaker: George J. Sandoval, Vietnam War veteran and documentary film maker
Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2020 6pm – Berg Hall
About the topic: Mr. Sandoval has embarked on his latest project taking him to Tijuana to film and interview U.S. military veterans deported by our government. Mr. Sandoval joins a growing number of American elected representatives, veterans and civil liberties groups demanding justice for military veterans and to Bring the Deported Veterans Home! 
Thousands of veterans of the U.S. armed forces have been unceremoniously deported. Many are combat veterans who sustained physical wounds and emotional trauma in conflicts going back to the war in Vietnam. Many were decorated for their service. But service records notwithstanding, the U.S. has seen fit to kick them out of the country they swore to defend. The largest number of these veterans live exiled in the border cities of Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
The vast majority had been in the United States lawfully for decades and long ago lost any ties to the nations in which they were born. Many do not speak Spanish, and Mexico is a foreign land far from home.
Our federal government failed to ensure that service members were naturalized during military careers, or shortly thereafter, although nearly all deported veterans were eligible to naturalize during their service. Deportations have denied veterans comprehensive medical care they would receive in the U.S., leaving many to die or suffer. Nearly all deported veterans have left behind families who have struggled with the absence of a spouse, sibling, parent or child.
About George J. Sandoval: Mr. Sandoval is the executive director and founder of the non-profit Oxnard Film Society. In 2015, He produced and co-curated the exhibit, We Remember- Ventura County to Vietnam and Back, for the Museum of Ventura County, which included a memorial wall honoring the 114 soldiers from Ventura County who died in the war. From 2001-2014 he was a member and past president of the Ojai Film Society. He has produced and directed numerous documentaries including El Campo: A Brief History of the Piru Labor Camp built during the Bracero Program; The Chinese in Ventura County; Oxnard -The Changing Face of an American City; and The Moment a 30-min. film in collaboration with writer/poet Aram Saroyan.