The Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica

Featured Articles - January, 2008

Dining for Dollars Auction is coming

Hark UU members, each man, woman, kid. Dining for Dollars is awaiting your bid. The biggest fundraising event of them all Will be holding its auction in — most likely — Forbes Hall.

After each service — two Sundays — real soon, Early service at ten; later one starts at noon. Our generous hosts are offering you Many oldies but goodies, and some are brand new.

These events will delight you no matter your taste, So come to the auction; there’s no time to waste. On February 17 and the following week, There are dozens of choices; come on, take a peek!

There are hikes, tours, and brunches, a snack or a tea, Elaborate dinners, just wait ‘til you see! Read a play, have a wedding, or just sing a song, The choices are many, so bid high and bid long.

Soon we’ll be showing you the list of them all So plan to do bidding like you’d shop in a mall! If you have questions, or still want to host Helen Burns is our chair, she can help you the most.

So come whet your appetite, get ready to win, On your mark, get set, go, let the bidding begin!

When: February 17 and 24
After early service: 10 to 11 a.m.
After late service: 12 to 1:15 p.m.
Don’t miss this!

Annual Budget Drive Update

Thank you to more than 150 community members and families who have already made their financial commitments to support our budget for 2008. I’m really pleased to say we’ve matched last year’s participation in the drive.We are more than halfway toward our goal of $442,000 and still hope that by mid-January we’ll hear from many more of you so that we can begin to develop our next fiscal year budget.

Feedback from the process of holding one-onone and small meetings has been incredibly valuable. Those who have participated — around 1/3 of the congregation — have been really pleased to be asked for their thoughts, and overall the feedback is positive.

Let us remind ourselves of what a wise person once said, “A faith community is not a problem to be fixed but a mystery to be embraced.” By embracing the mystery, observing, taking notes, sharing and imagining a new future, we create the community we want step by step.

• Community — We have much room to grow in becoming a community that’s not just welcoming, but actually supportive. It seems we’re really good at “being there” for people when they come to church, but when they’re out of sight, they’re out of mind and many are feeling isolated or forgotten about.

• Outreach — Many new people are having a hard time navigating our Faith in Action opportunities. They’re not sure how to plug in, what may be asked of them or what the impact is of our outreach program, but they desire to be doing visible work for social justice and improving the human condition in the community.

• Resources — Between the first and second capital campaigns, many people are feeling pretty tapped out. They want to be generous. They want to support expanded programs and ministries — especially as they relate to more robust ministry efforts and religious exploration for all ages. But leadership really has to prioritize needs and spread them out because of the variety of aggressive fundraising efforts over the past years.

On a personal note, my thinking about fundraising and our church’s budget has really shifted this year. As my family has undergone its own transformation, I’ve learned that I can rely heavily on this group of people to support me: to be with me in comfort and joy, to support me and my kids with loving care and babysitting, to listen compassionately and share their own stories. Many of the people participating in leadership of this year’s budget drive were undergoing their own transformations. Because of this church and because of our work together, we were able to support each other.

Offering generous support of this congregation’s budget is a way to ensure that the community provides for its people in terms of spiritual and personal growth. It’s a way to say thank you for this exceptional community of people at all stages in their lives. It’s a way to keep us here for each other.

If you want to help strengthen this community that helps make you more whole in whatever manner it does, and you have not yet made your commitment to our 2008 budget, please do it today. You can call or drop by the church office and get a form. Thank you.

With gratitude,

Jacki Weber, Annual Budget Drive Co-Chair

Letter to the Editor:
"Shall We Remove 'Church' from Our Name?"

I submit that the strength of the Unitarian Universalist tradition, and that of our church in particular, has come and will always come, not in spite of the Christian root system of our faith, but as a result of it. To consciously sing out a message of humanism and liberal theology from the base of the same tree that has sought to, and continues to, question us, burn us, deride us, or trivialize us, has made our message stronger, not weaker. So much is implied, if not directly stated (I’ll not insinuate words out of her more than able tongue), in Judith’s sermon of Sunday December 16, 2007. Channing, and others who followed, made a conscious decision to acknowledge and speak from the Christian soil they stood in, and to glean from it a new possibility of a more openended divinity (explicitly conscious of the other faiths/paths around it), and a Jesus who inspired dedication to humanism (as a living practice) — a new kind of “Word” per se.

Secondly, if the logic is that the word “Church” offends, how much more offensive is the word “Universalist,” with its direct imputation of Salvation to all (forged in opposition to the draconian Calvinist plan), not to mention the word “Unitarian,” which originally derives from a response to the doctrine of the Trinity. What references could be more “Christian” than those? To the avid humanist maintainer of our UU decorum, wouldn't those be the first plants to be set outside? In other words, Christianity, for better or worse, is surely our roots. (It’s good to remember sometimes that Dr. King and Mother Teresa, as well as Pat Robertson, bloom from the same soil.)

Finally, it seems to me, considering the logical arguments expressed for this change, that fundamentalism — as a principle — sometimes infects the rationalist (with honor and due respect to those in disagreement here), as well as the Baptist. The latter becomes intoxicated with the slicing power of the Bible's “Word,” while the former, with the cutting power of his own rhetoric. Both, are at their peril when, a little unconsciously, perhaps, their instruments stray too close to their own nose or feet. With deepest love and respect to all of my Santa Monica Unitarian (Yes) Universalist (Yes) Community (Yes) Church (Yes!) friends,

Jeff Greenman

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