January 22, 2020 Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock We aspire to be a loving, religious community where we can grow spiritually and build a more just and joyful world. —UUCSR Vision Statement January Theme: Integrity See the Program and Event List Here Touchstones Upcoming Worship Services The Rev. Jaye Brooks Integrity is an implicit yet central Sunday, January 26, 2020, 9:00 am value of Unitarian Universalism. One remarkable example is the community of Raków, Poland nearly 500 years Peace and Meditation Service ago—before our religious forbears Please join us in the Chapel for a brief claimed the name “Unitarian.” It’s time of reflection and meditation on peace a community that emerged during in a time of conflict and turmoil. All are the tumultuous times of the early welcome. Protestant Reformation, when reading the scriptures was a new thing for Christians not members of the Sunday, January 26, 11:00 am priesthood. Featuring an inspiring sermon A group called the Polish Brethren from Rev. Jennifer Butler, covenanted to take seriously the values embedded in the ethical Founder and CEO of Faith in teachings of Jesus. In 1569, honoring the value of equality, Raków’s Public Life. Please see pages leading landowner gave up his property so that members of the 5 and 12 of this Quest for community could hold land in common. Former serfs had a voice additional information about and vote in the community’s decisions. No longer locked into panel discussion following. socially constructed separation, the former lord of the manor and his former serfs discovered in their shared humanity a basis for Sunday, February 2, 2020, 11:00 am human dignity, social justice, and democracy. These believers in the inherent worth of every person decided that education was essential for informed decision-making. They founded a college that attracted more than 1,000 students, a third of them from the nobility—and two-thirds not. The radical tenet of academic freedom, rooted in the community’s commitment to free religious thought, drew scholars from across Europe. In 1602, this thriving town of 30,000 established a printing press and became an important publishing center. Visitors to Raków wrote about the amazing tranquility and harmony that had emerged from the melding of religious freedom The February monthly theme, Resilience, is introduced in this with social justice. In Raków, they found people who were clear Service. about their values, tolerant of each other’s diverse views, and committed to working in harmony. Into most lives come days of deep discouragement, days when hurt and loss threaten to overwhelm life's joys. And yet the despair of In April 1638, the Polish government closed the college and shut loss is often rooted in love that once was a source of joy. What is down the printing press. Ten years later, Cossacks burned the it about love that invites us not merely to accept but to embrace city to the ground. The survivors fled as refugees, carrying their times of sadness? Love keeps pace through all the stages of life's religious values westward—initially to Prussia, Transylvania, the journey, gently supporting the resilience that empowers us to Netherlands, and eventually to England and America. thrive. Continued on page 2 Continued on page 2 The Quest 1 Upcoming Worship Services Touchstones Continued from page 1 Continued from page 1 Sunday, February 9, 2020, 11:00 am We are their inheritors. Unitarian Universalism today, like the Raków community, is grounded not in doctrine but in shared values. Today’s UUs, like Raków’s citizens, seek to live those values in our daily lives. We, like them, hope for personal transformation and that our community can be an example for the wider world. We expect never to face the repression and hatred they faced. But amidst public discourse that is increasingly partisan, sectarian, and hateful, our challenge is to invite love to guide us in compassionate, life-affirming diversity. In this heritage of the heart, we share the vision of a loving religious In his gospel song, Donnie McClurken sings, "We Fall Down but community that encourages spiritual growth and helps to build a We Get Up... for a saint is just a sinner who fell down and got up." more just and joyful world. We all fall down but what enables us to get back up? What supports our resilience? May it be so. Friday Evening, February 14, 2020 Meditation Thursdays Offered through UUCSR Pastoral Care and Lay Chaplaincy Off ered through UUCSR Pastoral Care and Lay Chaplaincy Meditation Thursdays Monthly Every Third Thursday February only: Second Thursday of the month Where music lies at the heart of religious experience with the Rev. 6:00 PM • Chapel Jennifer L. Brower and The Cosmic Orchestra Next Session: February 13, 2020 Dinner 6:30 PM ($5); Worship 7:30 PM; Free Coffee House afterward features Duke Levine with Kevin Barry. Facilitated by PAUL CARBONE Sunday, February 16, 2020, 11:00 am Lay Chaplain at UUCSR Paul Carbone creates a space for centering and meditation that varies to include guided meditations, stories, music, sound, visual prompts, or other techniques which may be from a number of diff erent religious or spiritual traditions. One’s own authentic experiences are all that matters to determine what practice(s) work best for you. There are events in life that hollow us out, like an old tree that Paul Carbone is a Lay Chaplain at UUCSR, has a hole in its trunk. Yet somehow the tree continues to live, Associate Chaplain at NYU Langone Medical and even to thrive. Resilience is the ability to adapt in the face Center, Co-Chair of the Guild for Spiritual Guidance, and a Primordial Sound Meditation of adversity. To recover from trauma, to heal, to thrive, requires Instructor through the Chopra Center. He has relationships—supportive, engaged, life-giving relationships. given workshops on meditation and stress Creating loving religious community is grounded in relationships. reduction techniques. He is currently in the One Spirit Interfaith Ministry Program. UUCSR offers transportation assistance to Worship Services for members who are unable to travel Questions? Contact Kimberly Rossiter, due to physical or financial limitations. Assistant to the Ministers Contact Kimberly Rossiter, Assistant to the Ministers, at 516.472.2941, [email protected] krossiter@uucsr. org, or at 516.472.2941 for an application. 2 The Quest Denominational Affairs Robin Finnan-Jones, Chair A Busy Time for UU-UNO We at the UU-UNO are looking forward to a busy 2020! Aside from the elections in the US we will be honoring many significant anniversaries. Earth Day turns 50 in April, in August it will be 100 years since women got the right to vote in the United States, and in October, the United Nations turns 75! We will also acknowledge some somber anniversaries. It will be 75 years since the first use of a nuclear weapon in Hiroshima, as well as 400 years since the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock and began active colonization of the continent we call North America. This last anniversary will be a big focus of the UUA General Assembly this June in Providence, Rhode Island. Registration for that is open now at www.uua.org/GA. And of course, we also look forward to the UU-UNO’s upcoming This year, the UUA General Assembly (GA) will take place in Intergenerational Spring Seminar, “All in for Climate Justice: Providence, RI, from Wednesday, June 24–Sunday, June 28, 2020. People, Power, Planet,” in New York City on April 16–18 2020. General information and the GA application form are available This seminar will equip participants with the skills necessary to be in the Main Lobby on the Welcome Desk. The application is the meaningful change makers in their communities towards a more last page of the information packet. Please fill it out if you are sustainable and just world. Learn about working together locally attending, even if you are attending independently, and not as a and on an international level to achieve climate justice. This is UUCSR delegate. open to youth and adults age 14 and up. Register for early-bird rates by February 3, 2020. Scholarships are available to offset the cost of Please return completed applications to the submission box on the registration if received by January 27, 2020. Regular registration is Welcome Desk no later than February 1, 2020. Thank you. to be received by March 2, 2020. Details can be found at www.uua.org/unspringseminar. Our UUCSR GA planning team is considering offering a round-trip bus to Providence to attend GA. Details as to the cost (expected Of particular interest to our Congregation here at UUCSR is the to be under $100 per person round trip) are still being explored. “Every Child is Our Child” program, which was a focus of our UN Anyone interested in traveling to GA via bus should contact DAC Sunday service last November. At that time, our offering raised Chair Robin Finnan-Jones at [email protected]. Please $639.76. Since 2005, the UU United Nations Office has partnered watch future Quest DAC announcements for further information. with the Queen Mothers Association in Ghana to ensure that children orphaned by HIV/AIDS are able to obtain an education and go on to live a happier more productive life. The program pays for school uniforms, books, book bags, shoes and other school supplies. In addition, it provides a Ghanaian National Worship Service Donations Healthcare card for free access to the national healthcare system. To promote gender equality, two girls are admitted for every boy.