Sunday morning, George Grimm-Howell led a Memorial Day-themed service titled "The Fierce Angel of Moral Injury." The phrase, from the book Soul Repair, by Rita Nakashina Brock and Gabriela Lettini, reminds us that many of our veterans return home from war alive but morally damaged. As a faith community, we are called to care for these wounded veterans and others who have suffered trauma by making four specific commitments offered by Jennnifer Baldwin in her book Trauma Sensitive Theology. These include: honoring bodily experience, full acceptance of trauma narratives, knowledge that humans are multilayered and inconsistent, and finally that we must have faith in the resiliency of trauma survivors.  (Summary by George.)

UUFJC News and Events this week:

For accessibility and convenience, we have an option to donate to our Fellowship online through PayPal:

Donate to UUFJC
You can also mail donations and pledges to:
UUFJC
Attn: Treasurer
PO Box 1245
Jefferson City, MO 65102

Thank you for being with us and supporting us!


And remember all our ways to stay in touch!  You can visit our website at uufjc.org.  You can also join our open-posting "UUFJC Cafe" Google Group to chat with other members and friends via e-mail and receive additional announcements and reminders (contact the Administrator at [email protected] to join).

An independent Insight Meditation group taught by Joe McCormack meets at our building Thursday nights at 7 pm.  For more information, contact Bob Antweiler.

Our building is reserved by a community group Wednesdays and Saturdays starting at 6 pm.  If you have access to our building, please allow privacy at these times.

For more events, see our online calendars:

UUFJC EventsVirtual Gatherings
Affiliated Events 
Religious Education
Building Use (other)
Community Events  

Dear UUFJC Members and Friends,

Sunday morning, we held our Annual Business Meeting, our annual day to carry out the democratic process we uphold in our UU Principles.

Our outgoing President, Rich Burdge, delivered a report on the past year.  Our Fellowship faced many challenges, especially the still-ongoing recovery from our kitchen fire, but also Nancy TannerThies's indefinite leave of absence, and other issues we have dealt with or need to address in the near future.

However, we also have much to be grateful for.  Our members have risen to the moment to help our Fellowship weather the challenges and grow.  We have a thriving RE program, frequent visitors, and have welcomed several new members.  We finished paying off our building, which put us in a financial position to support a local cause.

Hopefully we can keep this momentum going to help our Fellowship thrive and welcome our community to connect with us.  There are many ways for people to get involved, and every person's unique viewpoint, interests, and talents can help carry us forward!

Many thanks to Rich for his years of service, and many thanks to the incoming board, who has now officially assumed their offices!

UUFJC News and Events this week:

For accessibility and convenience, we have an option to donate to our Fellowship online through PayPal:

Donate to UUFJC
You can also mail donations and pledges to:
UUFJC
Attn: Treasurer
PO Box 1245
Jefferson City, MO 65102

Thank you for being with us and supporting us!


And remember all our ways to stay in touch!  You can visit our website at uufjc.org.  You can also join our open-posting "UUFJC Cafe" Google Group to chat with other members and friends via e-mail and receive additional announcements and reminders (contact the Administrator at [email protected] to join).

Submissions for our June newsletter were due yesterday.  Please email any last-minute items to Laura Gilkey ASAP: [email protected].

An independent Insight Meditation group taught by Joe McCormack meets at our building Thursday nights at 7 pm.  For more information, contact Bob Antweiler.

This Friday, May 24th is our monthly Salvation Army Meal.  Contact Bob Antweiler if you can help provide food for those in need.


Our building is reserved by a community group Wednesdays and Saturdays starting at 6 pm.  If you have access to our building, please allow privacy at these times.

For more events, see our online calendars:

UUFJC Events
Virtual Gatherings
Affiliated Events 
Religious Education
Building Use (other)
Community Events 

Sunday morning, we continued exploring our monthly theme of Pluralism with a sermon from our wider UU community via video: "The Perspective of Pluralism" by Rev. Amy Rio, delivered just the Sunday before at Piedmont Unitarian Universalist Church.  They summarize: "Pluralism celebrates each person's spiritual journey - and Unitarian Universalists try to honor this great American tradition. But we may still fall short, when we fail to see the world through others' eyes. Rev. Amy shares how we can pull off our spiritual blinders."

The message is available to view online:
https://www.youtube.com/live/DypqHPKuEGY&t=2057

UUFJC News and Events this week:

For accessibility and convenience, we have an option to donate to our Fellowship online through PayPal:

Donate to UUFJC
You can also mail donations and pledges to:
UUFJC
Attn: Treasurer
PO Box 1245
Jefferson City, MO 65102

Thank you for being with us and supporting us!


And remember all our ways to stay in touch!  You can visit our website at uufjc.org.  You can also join our open-posting "UUFJC Cafe" Google Group to chat with other members and friends via e-mail and receive additional announcements and reminders (contact the Administrator at [email protected] to join).

An independent Insight Meditation group taught by Joe McCormack meets at our building Thursday nights at 7 pm.  For more information, contact Bob Antweiler.

Next Sunday, May 19th, the UUFJC Board meets at our building at 3 pm.  All are welcome to attend our board meetings.  For agenda and more information, contact our incoming president, Logan White.

Our building is reserved by a community group Wednesdays and Saturdays starting at 6 pm.  If you have access to our building, please allow privacy at these times.

For more events, see our online calendars:

UUFJC EventsVirtual Gatherings
Affiliated Events 
Religious Education
Building Use (other)
Community Events  

Sunday morning, we began our month of reflections on Pluralism with a message from our neighbors at First UU of Springfield, Missouri; on June 14, 2022, Rev. Michelle Scott-Huffman delivered a message titled "Blessings That Arise From Pain."

This was part of a service in which First UU observed the Pulse Day of Remembrance.  (Content note: in what follows, there will be talk of gun violence and death.)  According to the OnePulse Foundation “The Pulse Day of Remembrance is a day of quiet reflection and love dedicated to honoring the senseless loss of innocent life and remembering the horrible attack that occurred on June 12, 2016 at Pulse Night Club in Orlando, Florida.”  Such remembrance is a sobering reminder that our commitment to Pluralism is a radical and vulnerable one, which is at times opposed and targeted.  However, Pluralism also gives us gifts of resilience to weather such tragedy and find blessings on the other side.  The original service at First UU included this blessing, written by Jan Richardson:

Blessing When the World Is Ending
Look, the world
is always ending
somewhere.
Somewhere
the sun has come
crashing down.
Somewhere
it has gone
completely dark.
Somewhere
it has ended
with the gun,
the knife,
the fist.
Somewhere
it has ended
with the slammed door,
the shattered hope.
Somewhere
it has ended
with the utter quiet
that follows the news
from the phone,
the television,
the hospital room.
Somewhere
it has ended
with a tenderness
that will break
your heart.
But, listen,
this blessing means
to be anything
but morose.
It has not come
to cause despair.
It is simply here
because there is nothing
a blessing
is better suited for
than an ending,
nothing that cries out more
for a blessing
than when a world
is falling apart.
This blessing
will not fix you,
will not mend you,
will not give you
false comfort;
it will not talk to you
about one door opening
when another one closes.
It will simply
sit itself beside you
among the shards
and gently turn your face
toward the direction
from which the light
will come,
gathering itself
about you
as the world begins
again.


Recordings from the service and a fuller version of Richardson's writings are available at First UU's website: https://springfielduu.org/2022/06/14/blessings-that-arise-from-pain/

UUFJC News and Events this week:

For accessibility and convenience, we have an option to donate to our Fellowship online through PayPal:

Donate to UUFJC
You can also mail donations and pledges to:
UUFJC
Attn: Treasurer
PO Box 1245
Jefferson City, MO 65102

Thank you for being with us and supporting us!


And remember all our ways to stay in touch!  You can visit our website at uufjc.org.  You can also join our open-posting "UUFJC Cafe" Google Group to chat with other members and friends via e-mail and receive additional announcements and reminders (contact the Administrator at [email protected] to join).
The UUFJC Worship Team meets this Tuesday, May 7th at 4:30 pm at our building.  (Note that this is a different date and time from what was listed in our May newsletter.)  All are welcome to get involved in creating our Sunday services, in ways big and small (and remember, we're a friendly audience!).  For more information, contact our vice president, Lisa Sanning.


An independent Insight Meditation group taught by Joe McCormack meets at our building Thursday nights at 7 pm.  For more information, contact Bob Antweiler.

Next Sunday, May 12th, our Intergenerational Book Study meets at our building at 2 pm.  This month includes two selections: Sounder by William H. Armstrong, and Old Yeller by Fred Gipson.  Contact Emma Regnier and Betty Cooper.
And we are now less than two weeks away from our Annual Business Meeting, coming Sunday, May 19th.  Voting members, please plan to attend.  For the meeting agenda and more information, contact our board.


Our building is reserved by a community group Wednesdays and Saturdays starting at 6 pm.  If you have access to our building, please allow privacy at these times.

For more events, see our online calendars:

UUFJC EventsVirtual Gatherings
Affiliated Events 
Religious Education
Building Use (other)
Community Events  

Our May Newsletter is now ready to view or download:
UUFJC Newsletter: Flame on the Water, May 2024

Sunday morning, we wrapped up our month of reflections on Interdependence with a message from our wider UU community via video: "Interdependent is not Co-Dependent" by Rev. Gail Lindsay Marriner at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Santa Fe, New Mexico.  The message is available to view online:

Outside our own services, the UUA offers these words on coming together in interdependence with each other, the past, the future, and the mystery of creation, by John Daniel:

A Prayer among Friends
Among other wonders of our lives, we are alive
with one another, we live here
in the light of this unlikely world
that isn’t ours for long.
May we spend generously
the time we are given.
May we enact our responsibilities
as thoroughly as we enjoy
our pleasures. May we see with clarity,
may we seek a vision
that serves all beings, may we honor
the mystery surpassing our sight,
and may we hold in our hands
the gift of good work
and bear it forth whole, as we
were borne forth by a power we praise
to this one Earth, this homeland of all we love.

WorshipWeb is grateful to Mr. Daniel for granting permission to publish this poem, which appears in his book Of Earth: New and Selected Poems, published by Lost Horse Press.
Copyright 2018 John Daniel

UUFJC News and Events this week:

For accessibility and convenience, we have an option to donate to our Fellowship online through PayPal:

Donate to UUFJC
You can also mail donations and pledges to:
UUFJC
Attn: Treasurer
PO Box 1245
Jefferson City, MO 65102

Thank you for being with us and supporting us!


And remember all our ways to stay in touch!  You can visit our website at uufjc.org.  You can also join our open-posting "UUFJC Cafe" Google Group to chat with other members and friends via e-mail and receive additional announcements and reminders (contact the Administrator at [email protected] to join).


This Thursday, May 2nd at 7 pm,  we are invited to join our neighbors at First UU of Springfield for their monthly “Date with Death Club” via Zoom.  These are standalone sessions exploring our shared mortality.  More information about the program can be found at https://datewithdeathclub.com.  Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87033373838


An independent Insight Meditation group taught by Joe McCormack meets at our building Thursday nights at 7 pm.  For more information, contact Bob Antweiler.
And we are now only three weeks away from our Annual Business Meeting, coming Sunday, May 19th.  Voting members, please plan to attend.  For the meeting agenda and more information, contact our board.


Our building is reserved by community groups Wednesdays and Saturdays starting at 6 pm and Tuesdays and Thursdays starting at 5:30 pm.  If you have access to our building, please allow privacy at these times.

Community Events this week:

This Friday, May 3rd, at 7 pm in their Art Gallery, Missouri River Regional Library presents their monthly First Friday Film: "The Way."  Martin Sheen stars in this thoughtful film about a California doctor who travels to Spain to recover the body of his estranged son, who died while walking the thousand-year-old Camino de Santiago pilgrimage trail. He decides to walk the trail himself in an effort to deal with his own grief and to better understand his son. The film was directed by Sheen's son, Emilio Estevez.  Contact Madeline Matson.  For more library events, visit MRRL.org. 

For more events, see our online calendars:

UUFJC EventsVirtual Gatherings
Affiliated Events 
Religious Education
Building Use (other)
Community Events