Inside Books Project is a local Austin nonprofit that sends free books to persons incarcerated in Texas prisons. Last year Inside Books sent approximately 55,000 books in response to letters from persons incarcerated in Texas. People requested dictionaries, text books, study guides, fiction, poetry, self-help books, religious and spiritual guides, trade manuals and every other sort of reading you could name or imagine. 99% of these books are donated to Inside Books by people like our own congregants who have contributed both books and financial donations to Inside Books for over a decade. There is a tub in our First UU Greet Center where you can leave books you would like to donate to Inside Books Project. Inside Books is a project supported by First UU Green Sanctuary Ministry as it recycles books and inspires lives.

In return, prisoners have sent notes of appreciation such as, “I appreciate everything ya’ll do, not only for me, but for all the souls who are locked up doing time. Thanks for giving us a little taste of freedom. May God bless all your days.” We also receive art, poetry, and stories of their lives. Many prisoners receive no mail other than the books we send, so we write each prisoner a personal letter as part of the package of books they receive. The books become the personal property of each incarcerated person and can be shared and traded. With 66% of Texas prisons lacking air conditioning in their living quarters, reading is also a welcome diversion from the baking heat.

The biggest expense Inside Books has is postage, including mailing related costs like packaging and tape. The project works out of Vesper Church in east Austin where they pay a moderate rent and the church views the project as part of their service to the larger community.

Volunteers gather on Thursday and Sunday evenings to send books to Texas prisoners. You can
sign up online to attend either of these sessions as a Volunteer for Inside Books Project. There is also a session on Thursdays from 10am-2pm. Email green@austinuu.org if you are interested in volunteering at this session.

Volunteers from Inside Books also drive boxes of books to Texas prisons for their libraries. Not all Texas prisons have libraries, but the ones that do generally rely on book donations to fill their shelves. Additionally, we drive boxes of paperback books to county jails like Harris, Bexar, Tarrant and Dallas counties where there are tens of thousands of persons locked up. These jails usually do not have libraries, but distribute books directly to prisoners who keep them.

This year several volunteers from Inside Books worked to revive the library at the Travis County Jail in Del Valle which had become defunct during Covid. Now they have a library that is set up and functioning again, staffed by outside volunteers.

Inside Books Project gets a lot done on a small budget and we appreciate every dollar we receive in donations and every book that comes in the door. Thank you for your soul saving generosity.

The Search Committee thanks those of you who completed the Congregational Survey. The
committee is studying the results. The next phase of the search for which we need your help
will be the Search Parties and Focus Groups.

The Search Parties are meetings at which structured conversations are facilitated by Search
Committee members. They are open to all congregants. Multiple dates are offered for in person
meetings at the church or via Zoom to give everyone an opportunity to attend a party. The first
Search Party will be Thursday, August 31. The last one will be September 22. Please sign up in
Church Center or at the Search Table in Howson Hall.

Focus group meetings are targeted at specific groups within the church who represent various
demographic communities and ministries within the congregation. They help the Search
Committee in its discernment of the ministry needs at First UU by giving the Search Committee
the benefit of the lived experience of members of these groups. Meeting invitations are sent to
these groups. Sign up in Church Center or at the Search Table in Howson Hall is appreciated.
If you don’t receive an invitation but see a meeting for a focus group with which you identify,
you can sign up. Focus groups will be in September.

One more activity we encourage you to attend is the Breaking Barriers: Building Beliefs
workshop. It is designed to help us examine current biases in our congregation and give those
present an opportunity to discuss what they would do when these biases occur in our
congregation’s ministry. It will be facilitated by a UUA trainer via Zoom. Everyone is
encouraged to participate. The date is Saturday, Sept. 9 from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM. More
information including a Zoom link will be sent soon.

Our church has not done this type of in-depth exploration of what we need in our settled
ministry since our last search for a settled minister 13 years ago. We are not the same church.
That is why the Search Committee wants to hear from you in order to discern what our
congregation needs in its next settled ministry. The charge to the Search Committee from the
Board is to present a candidate to the congregation to call as its next settled minister. The
Board also charged the Search Committee with giving first consideration to Rev. Chris as our
Inside Candidate.

The Search Committee will conduct its discernment of the Congregational Survey, Search Party
and Focus Group meeting results and feedback from the Breaking Barriers: Building Beliefs
workshop, identify the qualities needed in the ministry at First UU, and review the Ministerial
Record provided by Rev. Chris in early October.

The committee will meet with Rev. Chris to discuss its discernment as well as the
Congregational Record and his Ministerial Record. If the Search Committee and Rev. Chris
mutually agree that he is a good match for the congregation’s needs in its ministry, the Search

Committee will ask the Board to announce a congregational meeting to vote to call Rev. Chris
as our Settled Minister. We will announce our decision to the Congregation on Sunday, Oct. 8.
The potential congregational meeting is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 29.

For more information, please refer to the Search Committee FAQ’s and the list of important
dates related to the search which are available on-line.

Because personal spirituality is sacred and evolving, you can think of spiritual direction as an intentional, confidential conversation about your inner, divine wisdom. Group Spiritual Direction is sometimes called a sacred listening circle. A larger field of vision emerges in a group. It incorporates soulful listening to the depths of human experience— your own, and that of others in the group.

Homework between monthly sessions, September through May, is simply to be attuned to the spiritual nature of you and/or the world. Two options:

2^nd Mondays from 1 – 3:15 p.m. (in person at the church)

3^rd Tuesdays from 6 – 8:15 p.m. (on Zoom)

There will be an opening reading, silence, and a brief check-in to begin. Participants will then have an opportunity to share their individual spiritual reflection for 7-10 minutes. Others will listen wholeheartedly, then have more silence for the story to seep in and for everyone to reflect on what we heard and helpful ways we might respond. What wisdom might we offer?The cycle will continue until each participant has a chance to share (thus, a limit of 4-5 folks). Stories told by others will be held in confidence.

You are warmly invited into a conversation with me to answer your questions, get to know one another, and decide together whether Group Spiritual Direction is right for you at this time. Thank you for considering this opportunity. Sign up here!

Blessings, Kathleen Ellis
Spiritual Companion/Director

Check out the August 22nd e-news from the Texas UU Justice Ministry. Meet new BIPOC Organizing Intern, Taylor Huntley, take action against Operation Lone Star, and more! Join the new FREE virtual round of Transgender Inclusion in Congregations (Monday evenings starting September 11 through October 16 on Zoom). Click to learn more and register here!

Register for TXUUJM e-news straight to your own inbox, and if you missed it, get the August 14th TXUUJM e-news here.

• Headaches
• Heavy sweating
• Cold, moist skin, chills
• Dizziness or fainting
• A weak and rapid pulse
• Muscle cramps
• Fast, shallow breathing
• Nausea, vomiting or both

• Warm, dry skin with no sweating
• Strong and rapid pulse
• Confusion and/or unconsciousness
• High fever
• Throbbing headaches
• Nausea, vomiting or both

Plan to attend Search Parties and Focus Groups, share ideas on what First UU needs in a Minister

The Ministerial Search Committee thanks you for completing the Congregational Survey! Very soon we’ll be announcing dates and times for Search Parties – gatherings where you’ll have another opportunity to share your opinion and help us discern the qualities needed in our ministry. Likewise, we will also be hosting a number of Focus Groups to hear from specific, targeted populations.

Stay tuned for more information about these opportunities. Your honest feedback about what you want and what you think First UU needs in a Senior Minister is a critical part of our search. 

Click here for the Monday, August 14th e-news from TXUUJM . A new virtual round of Transgender Inclusion in Congregations is now open for registration and will be held Monday evenings starting September 11th through October 16th! This is a free class and open to all members of TXUUJM congregations. Register now!

Register here for TXUUJM e-news to be delivered straight to your inbox.

We want to remind all First UU Austin members and folks attending our worship services about the online Congregational Survey and to encourage everyone who hasn’t filled it out to do so today or at least by the deadline next Sunday, August 13. If you haven’t received an online copy of it, please visit Ministerial Search Committee members in Howson Hall this Sunday, and we’ll give you a paper copy of the Survey.

The Congregational Survey is one of three ways you can inform us of the qualities our First UU Church needs in a Settled Senior Minister as we use your information to discern what our congregation wants and needs.

A second way we want to hear from you will be for you to attend a Search Party and/or Focus Group meeting. We’ll share more about these meetings soon, and the Search Committee will rely heavily on the information we gather from these activities.

The third way you will give us feedback will be by VOTING if you are a member! We want to stress this because you may not know that in our UU faith, the only way a candidate becomes settled minister is through an affirmative vote of the voting members of our congregation present and voting at a congregational meeting, which will be called by our Board.

The Search Committee will complete its discernment and have conversations with Rev. Chris, our Inside Candidate, the first week in October. If both the Search Committee and Rev. Chris mutually agree that he is a good match for the congregation’s needs in its ministry, the Search Committee will ask the Board to announce a congregational meeting to vote to call Rev. Chris as our Settled Senior Minister. The meeting is tentatively scheduled for Sunday, October 29.

If Rev. Chris receives 90% of the vote, he will be our settled senior minister. If he does not receive 90% of the vote, it will be considered a failed search. The church will extend its interim ministry. The search must start all over, a new search committee must be formed and the earliest we can expect a settled senior minister will be 2025. As is the case with all Inside Candidates, Rev. Chris will resign.

Your elected Ministerial Search Committee will share a FAQ with you online and in Howson Hall this Sunday and future Sundays to help you understand more details in our effort to be as transparent and informative as possible. Thank you for your full participation as we all work together to find what our congregation wants and needs in a new Settled Senior Minister.

We appreciate everyone who has filled out the Congregational Survey sent by email Sunday, July 23 from First UU Church of Austin and look forward to more individuals taking it. Here’s the link for the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin Congregational Survey for Ministerial Search if you missed it.

The survey is how you’ll tell the MSC what you want in a new Senior Minister at First UU. The sooner you take the survey the better. It will be open for three weeks and closes at the end of day Thursday, Aug. 13.  It is only available online at this time and is easiest to take on a computer rather than a phone. If you need help completing it online or if you need a paper copy, please talk to any member of the MSC, who will table in Howson Hall on Sundays. After we tally the results, the MSC will use your responses to plan and conduct a variety of Search Meetings and Focus Groups that we’ll announce to hear more feedback directly from the congregation.

If you’ve missed our ongoing MSC announcements, please read more at austinuu.org. Go to the About Us file and scroll down to click on the Ministerial Search Committee tab. Thank you!

Green Sanctuary is part of a team of organizations and individuals who, for the past ten years or so, have been advocating to decommission the Fayette coal fired power plant. We just received a report* documenting the millions of tons toxic emissions this out dated fossil fuel burning catastrophe pumps into our atmosphere. We are writing this piece to share this info with you. We believe, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead