Blog Archives

April 26th Newsletter

4/26/2025

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.

This week's Adult Forum: Will begin at 9:05 this week only!!

Bob Priddy, “Missouri Steamships”. Bob will speak about plans to excavate the Steamship Malta as well as a possible Steamship Arabia museum in Missouri.

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

Next week's Forum: Marissa Peterson, Aging Best. “Mental Health and Senior Citizens”. Marissa will address the many changes which occur over the years, and how to deal with them.

This week’s sermon: The Practice of Joy by Reverend Ed Brock

My sermon this Sunday follows the theme of the month for our Soul Matters groups, which is “The Practice of Joy.” It may seem counter to the spirit of our times to speak about joy. Our current political and social context does not inspire joy but rather the opposite. However, at any given moment, many things around us have the potential to inspire joy. What is needed, perhaps, is the intention to notice these things and allow them to nurture us. And don’t we need joy in our lives to sustain us in the difficult, and sometimes hard, challenges of life? I think that is what is meant by the practice of joy – joy requires our inclination, willingness, and perhaps persistence, to take in the joy of life wherever we may find it and as often as we may find it.

UU Moment: A Spirituality Rooted in Wonder | Rev. David Schwartz

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

Lunch After Services

Please join us for lunch after the service. This week’s lunch is at Prison Brews

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.

Caring Committee

Contact Heidi Atkins-Lieberman for assistance.

Chair Yoga with Alberta
Every Tuesday
@ 11 am
by donation

Book Club

The May Intergenerational Classical Book Study is Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. The group will meet in the Forum Room on May 11 at 2pm; join us for an invigorating hour.

Blessings Always,
Mary Jo LaCorte
Administrator

Support us on Venmo

April 19th Newsletter

4/19/2025

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.

Join us for a Flower Communion celebration this Sunday at our 10:30 am service.

Schedule

This week's Adult 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.

Next week's Forum: Bob Priddy, “Missouri Steamships”. Bob will speak about plans to excavate the Steamship Malta as well as a possible Steamship Arabia museum in Missouri.

This week’s sermon: Rev. Joanna Fontaine Crawford, from the Live Oak UU Church in Cedar Park, Texas.

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 Panera Bread.

Joys and Concerns

Book Club

The May Intergenerational Classical Book Study is Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. The group will meet in the Forum Room on May 11 at 2pm; join us for an invigorating hour.

Caring Committee

Contact Heidi Atkins-Lieberman for assistance.

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.

Blessings Always,
Mary Jo LaCorte
Administrator

Support us on Venmo

April 12th Newsletter

4/12/2025

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

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.

Blessings Always,
Mary Jo LaCorte
Administrator

Support us on Venmo

April 5th Newsletter

4/5/2025

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

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

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

April 26th Newsletter

This week's Adult Forum: Will begin at 9:05 this week only!!

Annual Meeting May 18, 2025

Lunch After Services

Joys and Concerns

Caring Committee

Book Club

April 19th Newsletter

Schedule

Joys and Concerns

Book Club

Caring Committee

Annual Meeting May 18, 2025

April 12th Newsletter

Schedules & Sermons

Annual Meeting May 18, 2025

Joys and Concerns

Book Club

Caring Committee

Lunch After Services

April 5th Newsletter

JoyMadison Morrigan​

Schedules & Sermons

Joys and Concerns

Annual Meeting May 18, 2025

Book Club

Caring Committee

April Newsletter

Flame on the Water

UU Day of Advocacy

​Keeping Our Connections StrongSean Parker Dennison

Beauty Is Our BirthrightRebekah Savage

April Adult Forums

Religious Education, 10:30 am

Lunch After Services

Message from Frank Rycyk

Our Intersectional Justice Priorities

Joys and Concerns

Insight Meditation

UUFJC Board of Directors

Stay Up to Date!

Donate

Contacts

Calendars

Categories

Archives

Joy
Madison Morrigan

Keeping Our Connections Strong
Sean Parker Dennison

Beauty Is Our Birthright
Rebekah Savage