Grounded in the past, we rest in the present, looking toward the future. To help us with that grounding in the past, please join us — whether you are new to the church or been here for decades — for a history workshop on January 14, 10 AM to noon in Howson Hall. Please register on church center (click here) so we can plan for how many are coming. We especially need to know if you need childcare.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is recommending that we take precautions over the next months, as the spread of viruses such as the FLU, Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and Covid-19 is increasing. Here are some tips to help protect yourself and others:

• Wash your hand frequently with soap or hand sanitizer.
• Maintain social distancing when possible.
• If you are feeling sick or having symptoms, stay at home and get plenty of rest and hydration.
• Keep your vaccinations up to date.
• Carry tissue and cover your mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth.
• If you think you may have been exposed or just want to be even more cautious to avoid getting an infection and/or infecting others, wearing a mask when outside your home is a reasonable and perfectly acceptable practice.

To help stem the spread of potential infections, our religious education department is expanding the use of Force of Nature, a people-safe, hospital-grade disinfectant. 

If we all take these simple and sensible precautions, we can help protect ourselves and one another.

Annual Christmas Pageant – On Sunday, December 18, at 10:45, we will have our annual Christmas Pageant Service. Join us for this all-ages service that is always fun for, well, people of all ages!

Also, please join us  after the service at 1:30 p.m. for the fall congregational meeting.

Christmas Eve Service – On Christmas Eve, Saturday, December 24 at 7:00 p.m., we will hold our annual Lessons and Carols service, featuring beautiful, holiday-related readings and singing carols together. We’ll end by diming the lights and lighting candles together as we sing, “Silent Night” and then join together for some holiday fellowship afterward.  Please join us for this magical evening.

Christmas Day Service – Christmas Day falls on a Sunday this Year. On December 25, we will hold a service at our regular 10:45 a.m. time. We will repeat the Lessons and Carols service and again join in holiday fellowship afterward. So, if you cannot make the Christmas Eve Service (or if you just enjoy singing carols with your fellow church folks and think some Christmas Day fellowship would be fun) please join us.

New Year’s Day Service – New Year’s Day also falls on A Sunday this time, so on January 1, 2023, we will hold our annual burning bowl service at 10:45 a.m. We will contemplate what we would like to let go so that we may more easily find our center. Then we will whisper that which we would like to let go into pieces of flash paper, toss them into a fire and watch them burn away. Join us for this much lover annual ritual.

Church Building Holiday Schedule – The church building will be closed for regular operations from Christmas Eve through New Year’s Day. Because the Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day holidays fall on weekend days, we will also close December 22 and 23, as well as January 2, to allow our staff to take regular days off for these holidays. 

A Message from Revs. Chris, Erin, and Jonalu

   The holidays may bring joy and peace, family and cheer…. 
And they may not.

For many people, this time of the year includes stress and sadness. The season may remind us of loved ones who have died. Gatherings may bring too much drinking or new or renewed family tensions. Or since the season is supposed to be filled with joy, the normal human challenges —  illness or job loss or financial stress or relationship issues — that can come at any time of year feel extra hard. 

    Your church wants to be there for you. That includes us as your ministers, and it includes First UU Cares, your lay pastoral care providers. During the pandemic, our lay pastoral care volunteers did their best to maintain connection and outreach. However, people couldn’t visit hospitals or provide much of the human connection that means so much during a crisis. That means we lost volunteers and organization. We’re working to rebuild our First UU Cares Team and rolling out services as quickly, caringly, and appropriately as we can. 

    If you have attended any recent memorial services – and there have been quite a few —  you know that church members and friends have come through with plenty to feed to those who are grieving and celebrating a life. That’s organized through First UU Cares, as are cards that are sent out to people in a variety of circumstances where they could use comfort. 

    We are starting again to provide meals to those who are sick or juggling a new baby. And to make visits to those who are sick or recuperating.

    For the team – and the ministers! – to provide the needed pastoral care, we need two things. First, we need volunteers who are willing to make (or buy) meals and deliver them, and people willing to make home or hospital visits. Providing care to those in our church community offers a chance to deepen ties, to reach out with love. If you are interested in being part of the First UU Cares Team, please send an email to caring@austinuu.org. Or express your interest through the volunteer survey. 

    The second thing we need is to know when someone needs care. Many UU’s are reluctant to ask for help so fail to notify their church when they go into the hospital, experience a loss, or have other concerns. During the pandemic, many of us even forgot that receiving caring from our church was an option. We need to remember that others care, and to do that, everyone needs to name when they have needs. It is a gift to those who have love to give to let us know what you need. And, let us know if it’s OK to share your needs with others in the congregation who may want to help. 

    And maybe you’re fine, but you know someone else who could use care. You, too, can let us know what’s going on. To let us know of needs – yours or someone else’s – contact one of the ministers or caring@austinuu.org. 

    Whatever the season, we at your church want to be part of caring for you. It’s part of what a church community does. 

One important way First UU lives its mission to do justice is through our Monthly Special Offerings. These offerings are collected during service(s) on the second Sunday of the month separately from regular offerings.

Nomination forms and instructions are available here.

Members of First UU may nominate nonprofit social justice organizations that promote our UU values in the larger community. To nominate an organization, please complete this form and return it to us at the Social Action table on Sunday, by email (mover100@aol.com), or in the Social Action mailbox at the church.

Nomination forms must be received by Sunday, December 4, 2022

Flyer Jubilee 3 November 2022 – Wildflower TX

Senior Lunch is starting up after a long hiatus due to the Covid Pandemic.

We will meet in Howson Hall on the 2nd Wednesday of the month, from noon to about 1:30.  Attendees will need to bring their own lunch and drinks, as we do not have staffing to prepare food and drinks and clean up afterward.  Lunch will be about 20 minutes, then we will have a program, either in Howson Hall or in the Sanctuary.  Please note that food and drinks are not allowed in the sanctuary.

This coming season most of the programs will be presented by members of the congregation, with the object of getting to know them better.  Q and A can be a part of their presentation.

The first meeting is on Sept. 14th.  It will be a Singalong of favorite Broadway songs, by Charles Palmer, Baritone, and Kathryn Govier, Pianist, in the Sanctuary.  Word sheets will be provided.

The October program will feature our Rev. Erin, and we will learn about the “many hats” she wears, and what she will be doing with the congregation, while we are int he interim transition period.

November will feature Donna Carpenter and Okey  Nwanyanwu

December will feature Katrina Saporsantos and Benjamin Dai. 

You certainly don’t have to be a “Senior” to attend.  If the program interests you, Please Join Us!!!!!!!

First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin approved the Unitarian Universalist 8^th Principle during our May Congregational Meeting. 

“We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote: journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.”

Read more here.

This is your Official Notice for our Fall Congregational Meeting on Sunday, December 20, 2020 at 1:00 p.m., to be held live on Zoom. 
Zoom Link: www.zoom.us/my/firstuuaustin
Password: 512452

Meeting Materials:
Agenda
Eligible Voter List

The church bylaws specify the following regarding voting eligibility: “Individuals who have been members of the church for 30 days or more and who have (as an individual or part of a family unit) made a recorded financial contribution during the last 12 months and at least 30 days prior to the meeting, have the right to vote at all official church meetings.”

Thus to be eligible to vote, you must have made a documented contribution between December 21, 2019 and November 20, 2020.

If you are not on the voter list and feel that you should be, you may direct questions to Rev. Chris Jimmerson, Minister for Program Development, chris.jimmerson@austinuu.org.

We look forward to seeing you at the meeting!

We offer here the poems shared in the November 29th worship service.

Eagle Poem by Joy Harjo

To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more
That you can’t see, can’t hear;
Can’t know except in moments
Steadily growing, and in languages
That aren’t always sound but other
Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River. Circled in blue sky
In wind, swept our hearts clean
With sacred wings.
We see you, see ourselves and know
That we must take the utmost care
And kindness in all things.
Breathe in, knowing we are made of
All this, and breathe, knowing
We are truly blessed because we
Were born, and die soon within a
True circle of motion,
Like eagle rounding out the morning
Inside us.
We pray that it will be done
In beauty.
In beauty.

Can you do construction in the rain? by Sage Hirschfeld

Can you do construction in the rain?

Will screws sewn into softened wood hold up,
when earth turns to dry?
When pliable hardens,
and stakes take shapes in unexpected ways.

Will you become brittle when we leave this place?

How does a name forged in open-hearted uncertainty sound
In the light of day
At the grocery store
In your mothers voice.

How will it temper in the open air 
When everyone, 
and no one at all,
Is listening.

Will it crack?
Or kindle

When moments wedge decades into fractured foundations
Steel whines under weight unexpected
Wind whipped stained glass windows,
turned windchimes

Will you become brittle when we leave this place?
Or simply changed.

Wild Geese by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem
By Dr. Maya Angelou

Thunder rumbles in the mountain passes
And lightning rattles the eaves of our houses.
Flood waters await us in our avenues.

Snow falls upon snow, falls upon snow to avalanche
Over unprotected villages.
The sky slips low and grey and threatening.

We question ourselves.
What have we done to so affront nature?
We worry God.
Are you there? Are you there really?
Does the covenant you made with us still hold?

Into this climate of fear and apprehension, Christmas enters,
Streaming lights of joy, ringing bells of hope
And singing carols of forgiveness high up in the bright air.
The world is encouraged to come away from rancor,
Come the way of friendship.

It is the Glad Season.
Thunder ebbs to silence and lightning sleeps quietly in the corner.
Flood waters recede into memory.
Snow becomes a yielding cushion to aid us
As we make our way to higher ground.

Hope is born again in the faces of children
It rides on the shoulders of our aged as they walk into their sunsets.
Hope spreads around the earth. Brightening all things,
Even hate which crouches breeding in dark corridors.

In our joy, we think we hear a whisper.
At first it is too soft. Then only half heard.
We listen carefully as it gathers strength.
We hear a sweetness.
The word is Peace.
It is loud now. It is louder.
Louder than the explosion of bombs.

We tremble at the sound. We are thrilled by its presence.
It is what we have hungered for.
Not just the absence of war. But, true Peace.
A harmony of spirit, a comfort of courtesies.
Security for our beloveds and their beloveds.

We clap hands and welcome the Peace of Christmas.
We beckon this good season to wait a while with us.
We, Baptist and Buddhist, Methodist and Muslim, say come.
Peace.
Come and fill us and our world with your majesty.
We, the Jew and the Jainist, the Catholic and the Confucian,
Implore you, to stay a while with us.
So we may learn by your shimmering light
How to look beyond complexion and see community.

It is Christmas time, a halting of hate time.

On this platform of peace, we can create a language
To translate ourselves to ourselves and to each other.

At this Holy Instant, we celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ
Into the great religions of the world.
We jubilate the precious advent of trust.
We shout with glorious tongues at the coming of hope.
All the earth’s tribes loosen their voices
To celebrate the promise of Peace.

We, Angels and Mortal’s, Believers and Non-Believers,
Look heavenward and speak the word aloud.
Peace. We look at our world and speak the word aloud.
Peace. We look at each other, then into ourselves
And we say without shyness or apology or hesitation.

Peace, My Brother.
Peace, My Sister.
Peace, My Soul.