Drive a Senior ATX

Building Relationships One Ride at a Time

Drive a Senior ATX enables older adults to live independently, avoid social isolation and age in place by providing free, volunteer-based transportation and other support services to senior adults in Austin since 1985, including

• Daily rides to medical appointments and errands,
• Weekly rides to HEB for groceries,
• Monthly rides for social outings and events,
• As needed handyman services, tech assistance, and social visits.

Our mission is transportation, but our impact is relationships. Our volunteer-based rides come with care, empathy, and inclusion. Our clients are treated like family and build meaningful relationships with our staff and volunteers.

First UU is a founding congregation of Drive a Senior, originally called North Central Caregivers. Our congregation formerly contributed annually to its work and has provided many volunteers since its inception in 1985.

The Green Sanctuary Committee has joined a Get Out the Vote postcard-writing project for the November elections. This project will send postcards to environmentalists who are less likely than average to vote and who live in a contested legislative district. Getting the right public officials elected is important for climate justice, indeed, for all social justice work. Come to our table in Howson Hall after the service to get more information and postcards to write.

A Taste of Soul

These two meetings, called A Taste of Soul, will provide a sample experience of a Chalice Circle meeting. They will be held on Sundays, August 4th and 11th at 12:30 p.m. after services. Each meeting will run for about 60-75 minutes and lunch will be provided.

To ensure we have enough food and materials, please be sure to register for the Sunday, August 4th meeting or you can sign up for the Sunday, August 11th meeting when registration opens on Wednesday, July 24th.

Sign up now for Border trips, UU the Vote, and more!

This August, join the Texas UU Justice Ministry and our interfaith partner Texas Impact, in a timely and important border witness trip, one scheduled especially for Houston-area UUs (August 11-14, 2024) and another open to all Texas UUs (August 18-21, 2024). The trips include time in Harlingen, Brownsville, McAllen, and Matamoros (Mexico) witnessing at immigration court, observation at border wall and of Border Patrol, meeting with migrants and local humanitarian groups, community building among fellow UUs and partners, planning for how to share and act on your “courts and ports” witness effectively back home, and more.  Passport required.

UU THE VOTE: TXUUJM is also your source for Texas UU the Vote efforts this election year! Follow our Facebook and Instagram, and Sign up for TXUUJM emails to get the latest news and actions. [Please note: TXUUJM is closed for study leave and rest in July.]

The Monthly Service Offering for July is the Online Abortion Resource Squad (OARS). This trained volunteer group moderates the r/abortion community forum within the Reddit social media website. They oversee what is essentially a peer-based counseling service, where users offer non-stigmatized, accurate information on making decisions regarding accidental pregnancies and safe abortion care.  90,000 individuals visit r/abortion every month. This public forum is a critical resource for the people most impacted by restrictive laws and barriers to access.  These volunteers run the site 24×7, every day of the year, providing high quality information, navigation, and emotional support to folks at all stages of the abortion journey. For more information on OARS and how they operate, please visit oarsquad.org.

While Unitarian Universalism comes out of Christianity, many of us have–at best–mixed experiences with the Christian bible. Whether you are bible-curious or concerned about what’s in there, this workshop is for you.

Join UU seminary student AJ Juraska on Sunday, July 14th from 1-3pm in Room 17 to learn tools for understanding the bible from an academic/historical perspective, rather than a “literal” one. You’ll walk away not only knowing more ways to investigate this commonly referenced text, but also feeling more confident in how to approach the Christian bible on your own terms.

Denominational Connections

The UUA General Assembly was held from June 20 – 23. GA is the annual gathering where UUs gather to worship, celebrate, and make decisions.  This year GA was completely virtual.  

At this year’s General Assembly delegates debated revising Article II of the UUA bylaws, which outlines our UU values and sources.  The revision passed with a strong 80.2% positive vote.  Delegates also adopted a business resolution “Embracing Transgender, Nonbinary, Intersex and Gender Diverse People is a Fundamental Expression of UU Religious Values.”  Three Actions of Immediate Witnesses were approved, addressing climate change, support for Palestinians, and responses to epidemics.  

More information is available on the Article II revision and the three Actions of Immediate Witness.

For 2025, General Assembly will be held in Baltimore, MD, and virtually. Contact David Overton at denom@austinuu.org if you would like more information about General Assembly.  

Hello all Earth Ship travelers,

1.  Decide that our new Climate Protection and Generation Plan will be the fossil free community plan vs. AE’s plan that includes a new gas plant. Come August we will need to begin actions for September votes.
2. Closing, cleaning up and replacing the deadly generation at the Fayette Power Plant (FPP). Actions on this will pick up again in late Summer/ early Fall. View this Harvard study on how coal power.

Meeting Dates:

Unwound Sound presents a multimedia evening by cutting-edge composers Anuj Bhutani (Los Angeles) and Albert Yeh (San Francisco). The program features Bhutani’s performance of his electronic song cycle manu whilst Yeh evokes cinematic sonics from his innovative Motors/Pulses album. The composers will also join forces on a collaborative work with Unwound Sound artistic director, Brent Baldwin.

A freewill offering will be gratefully accepted, the proceeds of which will support the Texas Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry. TUUJM works to bend Texas toward justice  and equity for all.

About Our Guests:

ANUJ BHUTANI is an emerging composer/performer who crafts genre-fluid music with narrative depth. Since 2020, he has won an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, Chamber Music America’s Classical Commissioning Grant, 1st Prize in Cerddorion Vocal Ensemble’s Emerging Composer Competition, and Verdigris Ensemble’s ION Composer Competition. Bhutani has been selected for the American Composer’s Orchestra’s Earshot, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and residencies at Avaloch Farm Music Institute and Atlantic Center for the Arts (twice). His music has been commissioned and performed by Ashley Bathgate, Metropolis Ensemble, and more. 
Anuj earned his master’s degree from University of Southern California and his bachelor’s from University of North Texas. His primary teachers have included Andrew Norman, Ted Hearne, Camae Ayewa (aka Moor Mother), Joseph Klein, Andrew May, Sungji Hong, Drew Schnurr, and Bruce Broughton. 

ALBERT YEH is a performer and composer from San Francisco who makes experimental electronic music. His sonic palette combines diverse influences ranging from the Western musical canon, electronic/electroacoustic genres, and progressive rock. Albert’s solo work is currently focused on examining the intersection between musical procedures and processes, as well as the meeting points between emotional states and qualities. Albert is involved in various musical projects, including the experimental metal bands Lotus Thief, Forlesen, and Wreche, and the chamber music group Insight Chamber Players.

About the Presenter:
UNWOUND SOUND is a forward-reaching arts presenting organization and performing ensemble created by award-winning composer/director/multi-instrumentalist Brent Baldwin. U/S draws upon Baldwin’s extensive collaborative work across all artistic disciplines and genres, promoting a diverse roster of audacious artists while supporting progressive non-profit organizations in Central Texas. In February 2024, U/S performed its sold-out Indie Orchestra series in partnership with KUTX, Austin PBS, and the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians.

Hi Earth, Air, Water, living Things Champions,

Below are few specific easy ways you can pitch in to save our breathable planet home. A positive excerpt from our just published FUUCA Congregant Study and more. 

1. Thank you for your generous books and money support to our books recycling and people’s minds rehabilitating Inside Books Project (IBP). You can bring your gently used book treasures to the gray IBP book bin under the table in the Welcoming Center. Or drop them off at Inside Books Project (IBP), 3106 E. 14 1/2 Street (white church on the NW corner of 14 1/2 and Airport Streets, (Book Donation Bin on East side of building). Austin, Texas 78702  https://insidebooksproject.org/donate

2. Our church membership Report on the 2023-24 Congregational Survey mentions specific areas where we could focus our energy to make more progress. I’ve excerpted text on two areas Congregants say we could do more. The whole survey is worth your time. 

‘Church leadership could do more to focus more energy and investment in dismantling a culture of white supremacy and caring for our earth. Both areas because of their high importance and middling progress. I believe that includes stopping and cleaning up the toxic waste dumped into our earth, air and water by oppressively needlessly burning fossil fuels. An example of this is replacing and rehabilitating our coal burning Fayette Power Plant/site. Austin owns a third of this poisoning plant that a recent Harvard and UT, Austin study says the poison waste is sickening and killing Texans. Check out these links: