UUFJC: A Welcoming Congregation
Like us!
  • Home
  • This Sunday
  • About Us
  • News Updates
  • Joys & Concerns
  • Visit Us

April 12th Newsletter

4/12/2025

 
Picture
Rev. Tom Bozeman, our guidance Minister will be visiting the weekend of May 31-June 1. He plans to try to meet and greet every member of our congregation during that weekend.

Schedules & Sermons

This week's Adult Forum: Susan Roemer, executive director of the Independent Living Resource Center.​ Susan will inform us of the many services they provide for people with disabilities.

Next week's Forum: Betty Cooper, Earth Day. Each year on April 22, citizens worldwide will examine the Earth Charter’s 16 principles as a way to create and maintain a sustainable world.

This week’s sermon: Finding Joy in the Struggle by Rev Gail Marriner

UU Moment: Active Hope by Rev. David Schwartz. We are a people of hope, and often it's an ordinary thing: woven into the fabric of daily living as an active practice, not just something that happens to us.

​Children's Religious Education - 10:30 am Children attending in-person are welcome to join RE Instructor Dr Samantha Porter for a lesson during the service hour. This month's theme: Joy
Chair Yoga with Alberta
begins Tuesday, April 15 @ 11 am
​by donation

Annual Meeting May 18, 2025

We will be voting on our board members and a proposed change to our by-laws. That change would be increasing our board from five members to seven members. Please plan to attend the meeting.

Joys and Concerns

If you have a joy or concern that you would like to have read during a service or shared in our weekly email, please submit it by noon on the Friday before through our website here. We will also have paper forms available Sunday morning for submissions. Submissions made after noon on Friday may not be read or shared until the following week.

Book Club

The Inter-generational Classical Book Study has chosen the next great read. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo. Next meeting date is April 13, 2025, at 2:00 pm, in the Forum Room in our UU Building. Join them for an invigorating hour of book study.

Caring Committee

Contact Heidi Atkins-Lieberman for assistance.

Lunch After Services

Please join us for lunch after the service. This week’s lunch is at Panera Bread.
Picture
Blessings Always,
Mary Jo LaCorte
Administrator

Support us on Venmo

April 5th Newsletter

4/5/2025

 
Picture

Joy
Madison Morrigan​

I was convinced that life
Was meant to be hard.
​
Relationships like sandpaper
Joy - fleeting
Pleasure - sinful
My body - bad
Ease - not to be trusted
Rest - earned

I crumbled up all those beliefs, threw them in the fire.
Watched them burn bright until they were nothing
​and began again to claim my joy.
I choose to believe Heaven was always here.

Schedules & Sermons

This week's Adult Forum: Melinda Jennings, campaign director of the
Salvation Army will speak about plans to update their facility.

Next week's Forum: Susan Roemer, executive director of the Independent Living Resource Center. Susan will inform us of the many services they provide for people with disabilities.

This week’s sermon: "No Time Like the Present" by Intern Minister Steve
Sieck. What does it mean to be present? What does presence feel like? How
does the practice of Presence help us to put love at the center in our lives?

UU Moment: How shall we be known? By the Rev. Molly Housh Gordon pastor of UU church in Columbia MO. Rev. Molly Housh Gordon explored how we might extend our webs of real, felt relationship further and further outward to express our love and connection to every corner of our community. She said, "It is time now to be the love people. And this is not a call to go out and save the world. The love people are the people who show up – who show up at every frayed edge, who sit down there, who stay vulnerable together, who listen to the stories and weave them into our own lives until the web begins to glow, to sparkle once more with the love that nurtures, grounds and frees us."

Children's Religious Education - 10:30 am Children attending in-person are welcome to join RE Instructor Dr Samantha Porter for a lesson during the service hour. This month's theme: Joy

Lunch After Services Please join us for lunch after the service. This week’s lunch is at El Espolon.

Joys and Concerns

​If you have a joy or concern that you would like to have read during a service or shared in our weekly email, please submit it by noon on the Friday before through our website here. We will also have paper forms available Sunday morning for submissions. Submissions made after noon on Friday may not be read or shared until the following week.

Annual Meeting May 18, 2025

We will be voting on our board members and a proposed change to our by-laws. That change would be increasing our board from five members to seven members. Please plan to attend the meeting.

Book Club

​The Intergenerational Classical Book Study has chosen the next great read. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo. Next meeting date is April 13, 2025, at 2:00 pm, in the Forum Room in our UU Building. Join them for an invigorating hour of book study.

Caring Committee

Contact Heidi Atkins-Lieberman for assistance.
Blessings Always,
Mary Jo LaCorte
Administrator

Support us on Venmo

April Newsletter

4/5/2025

 

Flame on the Water

UU Day of Advocacy

Wednesday, April 23, 2025 10 am - 3 pm Come build community with UU’s from all over the state. Hear from special guest UU’s in state government. Then we’ll continue to the capital to visit with legislators about our UU values.

​Keeping Our Connections Strong
Sean Parker Dennison

All we need, all we need is hope
And for that we have each other…
And we'll rise up, rise like the waves
We'll rise up in spite of the ache
We'll rise up… and we'll do it a thousand times again.
—Andra Day, "Rise Up"

I feel like I'm on a constant hunt for hope these days. I have to be: every time I look at my phone or open my laptop, I’m overwhelmed by stories of violence, disrespect for life, greed, and selfishness. When I listen to my friends and loved ones or to conversations in coffee shops, it feels like everyone is dispirited and disheartened. And that is dangerous.

The danger of hopelessness is a double danger. First, hopelessness makes us feel it’s useless to take action. It fools us into believing there’s nothing we can do, or that our efforts won’t make a difference. Once we abandon hope, there’s no stopping the momentum of the unscrupulous who are willing to cooperate with evil in order to get ahead.

The other danger of hopelessness is that we can lose each other. In times of hopelessness, it’s easy to get scared of everything and everyone. It’s easy to start believing that your neighbor is the problem and that hoarding is a better strategy than generosity. The problem is that when community starts to break down, we lose the most important source of hope we have: each other.

The message of hope that still blazes bright for me in these hard times is that I am not alone. I don’t have to face the world alone and I don’t have to fix the world alone. When I need hope, I find it in on the faces of my people. I find it in their hearts, when we find each other again and stop hiding out, thinking we are the only one. I find it when we come together in community to sing, to bless one another, to mourn, to strategize. All we need is hope... and for that, we have each other.

Prayer
​Spirit of Life and Love, in these times when so much seems difficult, help us remember that we are not alone. We have each other. Help keep our connections strong and remind us that kindness, generosity and trust are antidotes to fear. Help us remember that our hope and our power grow when we are faithful to our deepest commitments and to each other. May we rise up to do the work of Love again and again. Amen.
Do you need a donation report for your taxes? See Bob Antweiler

Beauty Is Our Birthright
Rebekah Savage

Sometimes we awake in the morning with a heaviness in our chest.
Sometimes we awake in the morning with the endless to-do list rattling through our thoughts, the nagging reminders of what was left undone yesterday,
and the pangs of “I have to do it all again today?” pinching at our insides.
Sometimes we awake in the morning, and we’d rather go back to sleep,
We would rather escape under the covers, a rock, the bottom of the closet.
And then,
The first sliver of sunshine may dance across our face. Beautiful.
And then,
The wafting scent of a new day may glide over us. Beautiful.
And then,
Signs of life blossom around us, to include inside of us. Beautiful.
Beauty is our birthright. Just as we are born in love, through love To love;
To nurture beauty is to return to our essence,
To touch, taste and experience creation as beautiful,
As the fragile, wonderful and wild interdependence with the Spirit of Life,
that which is so much greater than ourselves.
May beauty wrap and delight us, and guide our way.
May beauty be yours now and forever.
Amen and ashe.

April Adult Forums

4/6/25 - Melinda Jennings, Campaign Director of the Salvation Army, will talk about plans to update their facility.

4/13/25 - Susan Roemer, executive director of the Independent Living Resource Center will let us know about the many services they provide for people with disabilities.

4/20/25 - Betty Cooper on Earth Day. Each year on April 22, citizens worldwide will examine the Earth Charter’s 16 principles as a way to create and maintain a sustainable world.

4/27/25 - Bob Priddy will speak on “Missouri Steamships”. We will learn about plans to excavate the Steamship Malta as well as a possible Steamship Arabia museum in Missouri.

If you would like to schedule a forum, please see Frank Rycyk

Religious Education, 10:30 am

Children attending are welcome to join RE instructor Dr Samantha Porter for a lesson during the service hour.

Lunch After Services

If you would like to join other members and friends for lunch, watch for postings and announcements, or ask about each week's lunch location. If you have a particular place you’d like to recommend, please let us know.

Message from Frank Rycyk

We create much JOY at UUFJC. We affirm the “Quest for Truth”! How much more JOYFUL can you get? It is a JOY that we have a newsletter which helps us to share our IDEAS. I see the potential for JOY as infinite. UUFJC is a good start.

Our Intersectional Justice Priorities

Climate Justice (inclusive of Indigenous sovereignty and Climate Resilience) with Create Climate Justice

Democracy and Electoral Justice (inclusive of Voting Rights and electoral participation) with UU the Vote

Decriminalization (inclusive of Racial Justice and Immigration Justice) with Side With Love

LGBTQIA+ and Gender Justice (inclusive of reproductive justice and abortion access) with UPLIFT Action

The work that we do together to build a world in which all of us are free and thriving is interrelated. When we ground our spirits, grow our skills, and act strategically for justice in deep relationship with each other and our Movements, we choose to Side With Love.

Action Center is a place where we unite in work towards a world where we all thrive. Together we take action, Side With Love, and make deep impacts in this critical moment.

Joys and Concerns

If you have a joy or concern that you would like to have read during a service or shared in our weekly email, please submit it by noon on the Friday before through our website here. We will also have paper forms available Sunday morning for submissions. Submissions made after noon on Friday may not be read or shared until the following week.

Insight Meditation

Thursday evenings at 7 pm A meditation group led by Joe McCormack meets weekly in our building, when possible. Zoom may also be available. Contact Bob Antweiler.

UUFJC Board of Directors

President: Logan White
Vice President: Lisa Sanning
Secretary: Amanda Landrum
Treasurer: Bob Antweiler
Director of Religious Education: Samantha Porter
Administrator: Mary Jo LaCorte

    RSS Feed

    Stay Up to Date!

    Check here for updates on Monday mornings, or contact us and sign up for our news direct to  your e-mail inbox.

    Donate

    Support us on Venmo
    Support us on Paypal:

    Contacts

    Need to contact the person listed for an event?  Use the contact form on the Visit Us page and our administrator will forward your message.

    Calendars

    View our Google Calendars to see upcoming events:
    ​UUFJC Events
    Affiliated Events 
    Religious Education
    Building Use (other)
    Community Events

    Categories

    All
    Annoucements
    Calendars
    Newsletter
    Weekly Events

    Archives

    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012

Site powered by Weebly. Managed by Bluehost