9/3/2018 This week, Rev. Mike Adamek made his monthly visit to our Fellowship and introduced our theme for September: Vision.  He gave thoughts on vision as our focus in life; how do we keep our eyes on the proverbial ball when tasks and distractions are constantly grabbing for our attention?  Rev. Mike challenged us to…

2/26/2018 Our March Newsletter and Calendar are now ready to view or download: NewsletterCalendar

2/26/2018 This Sunday, our own Alexis Engelbrecht wrapped up our month of reflections on “Perseverance” with a message about the balance of perseverance and discernment.  Some of the paths we need to follow are indeed hard and uncomfortable and call for us to carry on in the face of adversity.  However, our desire for mission…

2/10/2018 For the sake of everyone’s safety in this wintry weather, we have canceled our services for this Sunday, February 11th.Please stay safe and warm!

2/19/2018 Sunday morning we gathered again after last week’s unfriendly weather, and we continued our monthly theme of Perseverance with a message from Rev. Nancy TannerThies.  Nancy reminded us how challenging Perseverance can be in our daily lives — those of us who do crafts may have embarrassing stashes of “UFOs” (UnFinished Objects), but most…

2/12/2018 This weekend offered us a reminder that our monthly theme, Perseverance, does not mean moving forward no matter what.  Sustainable perseverance requires us to use discernment and care to keep ourselves and others safe and well. With that in mind, Sunday’s services were canceled due to the wintry weather and dangerous road conditions.  We hope that…

2/5/2018 Sunday morning, Rev. Mike Adamek began exploring our Soul Matters theme for this month: Perseverance, and he asked an important question.  How do you tell the difference between the virtue of Perseverance and not-so-virtuous stubbornness or obsession?  Easy answers are difficult to find.  It is wise to ask ourselves why we persist, what makes…

1/29/2018 Our February Newsletter and Calendar are now available to view or download: NewsletterCalendar

1/29/2018 Sunday morning, we finished our month of reflections on Intention with our annual Fire Communion.  In her message, Alexis reminded us of the primal nature of fire — these days many of us no longer have to feed a fireplace or keep a wick neatly trimmed to give light without smoke, but looking back…

1/22/2018 Amid Sunday morning’s beautiful weather, Rev. Nancy TannerThies continued exploring our monthly Soul Matters theme of “Intention.”  With the new year still fresh, Rev. Nancy reflected on the “split second” of transition that happens again in our lives.  We notice the transition from old year to new, but transitions can happen at any moment;…

1/15/2018 Sunday morning, your writer was snowed in yet again, and our invited speaker, seminarian Andy Grizzle, was also unable to make it.  We were able to have a good service, though, as Katherine Connor and Jim Davis offered readings in honor of Martin Luther King Day. Both honoring King’s legacy and inviting new speakers are…

1/8/2018 Sunday began our new monthly Soul Matters theme: Intention. Rev. Mike Adamek began the month with reflections about Intention and decisiveness, but unfortunately your writer wasn’t there due to the weather.  I’m not sure it amounted to as much as was feared, but at such times we all weigh our chances. In this season…

1/1/2018 Our January newsletter and print calendar are now available to view or download: NewsletterCalendar

1/1/2018 Sunday morning, as we stood at the edge of a new year, Nancy Ellis-Ordway concluded our month of reflections on Hope by looking beyond and forward.  She defined hope as “belief that positive change is possible,” and we’re often told that hope is a virtue, even a moral duty — but some changes in…

11/27/2017 Our December Newsletter and print calendar are now available to view or download: NewsletterCalendar

12/24/2017 This morning, on Christmas Eve, we had a special Winter Holiday service, gathering perspectives from various members and friends through reflection, song, and a sharing of hope ceremony. We UUs tend to be “Happy Holidays” people, and for good reasons.  One of our core values is to welcome those with different perspectives and beliefs,…

12/18/2017 Sunday morning, Rev. Nancy TannerThies continued exploring our monthly theme of “Hope” with a title that she couldn’t seem to get out of your head: “Mustering the Minions.”  The word “minion” conjures up images of servility (and yes, maybe those little yellow guys from the movies), and while may we often feel that we…

12/11/2017 Sunday morning, our own Alexis Engelbrecht continued exploring our monthly theme of Hope.  It’s easy to think of Hope as just a happy feeling about a bright future that will “somehow, eventually” happen, but this kind of hope is hard to sustain and hard to be satisfied by.  For Alexis, a more inspiring kind…

12/4/2017 Sunday morning, Rev. Mike Adamek began exploring our monthly Soul Matters theme for December: Hope.  The winter holiday season is a time to celebrate hope, Rev. Mike reflected, whether that hope is the Christian coming of the savior, the Passover deliverance, or the Earth-centered watch for the return of the sun.  Like the same…

11/27/2017 Sunday morning, Alexis Engelbrecht concluded our monthly theme of Abundance with reflections and our annual Bread Communion.  The Bread Communion, Alexis said, is a symbol of the nourishing support and diversity of our community, but she also led us inward, toward the abundance of possibilities within ourselves and how we can nourish those possibilities. …

11/20/2017 Sunday morning, as we entered this Thanksgiving week, Rev. Nancy TannerThies continued our monthly theme of Abundance with reflections on the harvest — but, she reflected, the harvest is not a single event; its different phases bring us different lessons about abundance. The work of tending and weeding burgeoning plants reminds us of the…

11/13/2017 Sunday morning, we continued exploring our monthly theme of Abundance with one way Unitarian Universalists work to spread abundance in the world.  The UU Service Committee is an independent nonprofit organization that works with the UU Association to promote human rights and equity throughout the world.  Supporting refugees, deportees, and communities affected by climate…

11/6/2017 Sunday morning, Rev. Mike Adamek began exploring our Soul Matters theme for November: Abundance.  Abundance means something more and better than just having lots of stuff — as many of us know, having too much can be more curse than blessing.  So where is the “sweet spot” of Abundance as a virtue?  Rev. Mike’s…

6/28/2015 Dear UUFJC Members and Friends,Recently, the news has been an emotional roller-coaster for many of us, from the shock of the murders in Charleston to the elation of marriage equality.  In her message this morning, Rev. Nancy asked, how can we take it all in?  How can we responsibly “hold tension” between our core…

6/21/2015 Today, our own Jan Harcourt addressed the Fellowship on the topic of trauma and the body.  We often think of psychic scars as affecting the mind, but as Jan showed us through a series of brief exercises, the mind and body are not separate.  The body responds to shocks with a natural cycle of…

6/15/2015 Sunday morning, Father George Kramer returned to share his thoughts on “the new Pope” another year into Pope Francis’ tenure.  In his last visit, Father Kramer said that change in the Catholic Church would take a generation, and today he reminded us to judge leaders by their actions and not just their words, but…

6/8/2015 Sunday morning, Rev. Mike’s message was entitled “How Are You Using Your Future Today?”  As UUs we can have many different visions and ideas about the future, including that age-old religious question of what happens after we die.  Such questions may seem far on the horizon, but Rev. Mike argued that our ideas about…

5/25/2015 Sunday morning, Rev. Nancy got a bit “meta” with a message about how we approach our time together on Sundays.  She described worship as “a crossroads between the apprehension of the holy and daily life.”  In our sort of Fellowship, we don’t necessarily agree on what (or whether) “the holy” might be, but we…

5/17/2015 This morning, we held our Annual Business Meeting and elected a new Board for the 2015-2016 term, with some people continuing in their offices and others stepping up to do challenging jobs: President: Katherine Connor (returning)Vice President: Alexis Engelbrecht-VillafañeTreasurer: Bob Antweiler (returning)Secretary: Laura Gilkey (returning)Director of Religious Education: Kim Connor This year’s meeting saw…

5/10/2015 This morning, Sultan Ahmad visited our Fellowship to talk about the looming ecological crisis from an Islamic point of view.  While Ahmad’s interpretation of Islam — like common interpretations of Christianity — sees humankind set apart as the greatest of God’s creation and given Nature for the purposes of human wellbeing, he sees this…

5/4/2015 Yesterday morning, our Adult Forum tried to engage our Fifth Unitarian Universalist Principle (“The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large”), as we discussed whether to create for ourselves an Adult Forum Policy.  While the members present felt that we didn’t need a formal…

5/31/2015 This morning, our own Alexis Engelbrecht-Villafañe brought us a message harking back to the great Romantic poets and thinkers, from William Wordsworth to Henry David Thoreau.  Alexis reminded us that the Romantics were not fluffy, nature-loving sentimentalists, but rebels in the age of the Industrial Revolution.  “The world is too much with us,” wrote…

4/27/2015 Yesterday, Essex Garner, a retired National Guardsman and professor of Art Education at Lincoln University, visited the Fellowship to talk about his award-winning paintings of the Buffalo Soldiers.  In an engagingly personal talk, Garner described how existing images of African-Americans in the military just didn’t cut it for him as a black man or…

4/19/2015 This morning, Rev. Nancy brought us a message about “The Cost of Spring.”  Nature nurtures the softly sculpted petals, the delicate vibrant colors that we see emerging all around us, but Nature also brings the battering rains and the harsh summer sun.  Nature is both nurturing and implacable, and we are no exception.  Will…

4/12/2015 Spring is here, plants are growing, and that means it’s time to start tending our gardens.  At today’s service, our own Bob Boldt and local farmer Mike Oney came to talk about the NEEED Project’s Heart of Missouri Gardens, a community garden that last year supplied fresh produce to local senior centers.  They’re looking…

4/6/2015 Happy Easter! Yesterday, when Christians celebrated the resurrection of Jesus, Rev. Mike brought us a message exploring the Christian roots of Unitarian Universalism, and what part of that Christian inheritance we might embrace as universal.  We can take universal lessons from Jesus’ teachings about how to treat one another, but Rev. Mike argued that…

3/29/2015 Today, retired reporter Bob Priddy visited the Fellowship to talk about the largest religious revival in Jefferson City history.  Invited by an alliance of what were then the four main Protestant Churches in town, a renowned revivalist preached for more than a month in 1915, urging repentance from such sins as drinking, cigarettes, card-playing…

3/22/2015 Today, Rev. David Avery, a retired Disciples of Christ minister, visited our Fellowship to give us a talk about Light and Darkness.  So often, our language equates light with goodness and darkness with evil and fear (and what does that do to the way we view dark-skinned people?), but Avery encouraged us to embrace…

3/16/2015 Sunday, Rev. Nancy brought us a message about “Intelligent Sensibility” — about the challenge of opening ourselves to awe and mystery while also keeping a responsible grip on our critical faculties.  The senses, the intellect, and the realms of mystical experience can all be gateways to that awe and mystery, if we resist the…

3/8/2015 Today, Dr. Serese Smith-Haxton, OB/GYN of Capital Region Medical Center, visited our Fellowship to talk about “Empowerment of Women.”  In her work, she sees that most immediately in the area of healthcare, where she said women have more opportunity than ever to take charge of their health in critical ways.  Advances in technology allow…

3/1/2015 Due to the wintry weather, today’s services have been canceled. Stay safe and warm! Next Sunday, March 8th: Daylight Saving Time Begins – Remember to “spring” your clocks forward! Adult Forum – 9:15 amTBA – Leader Needed! Service and Religious Education – 10:30 amMessage: “Empowerment of Women,” Dr. Smith-HaxtonDr. Smith-Haxton is an OB-GYN with Capital Region…

2/22/2015 Today, Doctor-in-training Taisei Suzuki visited our Fellowship to talk about his years of humanitarian work in Africa.  Suzuki opened and closed by inviting us to ask ourselves: “What is ‘Aid’?”  He made the crucial point that, in our desire to help others, we must not simply impose our ideas of what’s good on them;…

2/15/2015 I missed services today.  I always hate to miss Rev. Nancy, but I was spooked by the weather forecast.  Everyone, stay safe and warm! Next Sunday, February 22nd: Adult Forum – 9:15 am“Understanding Nonviolence,” Betty CooperNonviolent understandings are needed to displace misunderstandings.  We will examine the work of two pioneers of nonviolence, Badshah Khan…

2/8/2015 Today, friend of the Fellowship Dr. Cliff Cain returned to deliver the message for our annual Evolution Sunday, exploring the impact Darwin’s theory has had on many worldviews shaped by Christianity.  For someone who believed the story in Genesis, Chapter 1, that humans were created special and apart “in the image of God” and…

2/1/2015 This morning, Rev. Mike brought us a message about the progress of science and how it affects our worldviews.  We UUs join spiritual progressives of all stripes in our respect for science and embrace of the truths revealed by its rigorous methods.  However, incorporating it into our worldviews is an ongoing challenge as new…

1/25/2015 Today, author and researcher Gary Kremer of the Missouri State Historical Society visited our Fellowship to give an excellent and challenging talk on the historical background of the racial issues we see today, in Ferguson and elsewhere.  He traces the problem to different experiences of history.  Many white people look to the past and…

1/18/2015 This morning, in both our Adult Forum and Rev. Nancy’s message, we explored the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and reflected that when a “prophet” like him confronts us with profound and challenging truths, it’s easier to praise the prophet as a hero than to absorb their challenging truths into our lives. …

1/11/2015 I hope everyone is keeping warm and safe in this weather!  I myself stayed off the roads today and missed our own Jim Davis’s talk about the Origins of Universalism in America.  According to Katherine Connor, it was very good.  She writes: “Jim started with Origen of Alexandria, went on to John Murray who brought…

1/4/2015 This morning, we began the new year with a look back at the history of Unitarianism.  As Rev. Mike argued, Unitarians have always aspired to universality of religion, ethics, and inclusion, but as we forge our identity, it necessarily creates a boundary, a wall between who we are and who we aren’t.  Through our…

12/28/2014 This morning was our last Sunday service of 2014 — I can hardly believe it!  We marked the occasion with an open mic on the topic,”Thoughts for the New Year.”  Among the diverse thoughts shared, several of us were especially concerned about the needs for justice that were revealed in this past year, and…