The following letter, endorsed by Westside’s Board of Trustees, has been sent to Senior Rabbi Daniel Weiner of Seattle’s Temple De Hirsch. Read letter here.
Continue readingGet in on the ground floor of the organizing of a new communications team. We are looking for people with ideas, communications experience, social networking know how, marketing chops, and get-to-it-ness. Want to make a difference at WSUU, want to make sure everyone knows the low down, want to ensure people know how to get involved, want to make a plan and get something done? Come to a fast 45 minutes meeting, Sunday, March 26, at 12:15 PM in the Fireside Room.
Continue readingSaturdays, April 8 & 15, 9:30 a.m. – 3 p.m. (or as long as you can stay) On two Saturdays in April we will be washing, preppping and repainting the walls in the social hall. Please bring gloves, bucket, sponges, rags, sponge mop, or whatever you think we’ll need for cleaning. Church will supply cleaning products. If you have a favorite cutting in brush, bring it. Extra roller and pan, bring that too.
Continue readingSeveral people who plan to attend the Stewardship dinner on April 1 have asked me whether we have a keynote speaker lined up. I asked a colleague from another denomination if he’d be interested and he said yes. Vincent Lachina has worked with UU congregations and many others in his role as Pacific Northwest Planned Parenthood chaplain. Here’s what he wrote me as an introduction: “As Regional Chaplain for Planned Parenthood, I have had two primary responsibilities during my 13 years here. First, to assist with pastor care for our staff of over 400, and when requested, for patients with
Continue reading“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” spoken by Franklin D Roosevelt in his 1932 Inauguration The famous phrase above spoken by President Franklin Roosevelt has been on my mind for a while now. Here are the sentences that surround those words he spoke to a frightened and weary America: “let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that
Continue reading“What’s in a song? A couple of people asked me recently what I thought the difference was between two songs I had used as central themes of services here. The difference is especially striking given the election and how it’s affected the country. The first song I played in August was “Believer” by the group American Authors. It’s a joyful and upbeat song testifying to a belief that things will get better in our world. The second song I played a couple of weeks ago was “Manifesto” by Nahko and Medicine for the People. It’s optimistic but in a more
Continue readingReligious Exploration at Westside matters to all of us whether or not we have children. We are growing lifelong UUs through our RE programming. Our children – and they are our children – are the future leaders, volunteers, congregants, and members of UU churches. Perhaps they will remain at Westside when they reach adulthood. Perhaps they will land in some other congregation. Wherever they go they will have been nourished by our Unitarian Universalist sources and principles. Our children and youth are learning from the curriculum, from each other, from the teachers, and from the many intangibles (love, concern, attention,
Continue readingA thank you letter and annual report from our Unitarian friends in Torockoszentgyorgy was sent to us by Rev. Emese Finta. The Christmas card and calendars did not arrive until mid January – we will all need to get started earlier on our cards next year. The ‘tea parties mentioned are village winter social gatherings for the entire village, although organized by the Unitarian women’s group. (95% of the village are Unitarians.) ‘Isten áldjon” means God Bless You, a traditional closing. “Magdika Bodor” (is an English speaking villager and former star interpreter for our pilgrimages) who is working with Rev. Emese on English conversation
Continue readingJune 11th is the RE Celebration service and we’d love to find a creative soul to work with us to create a slide show of photographs of all Westside’s volunteers, RE classes (and children and teachers). Are you interested in either creating a slide show (with music) or taking photographs or both parts of this project? I’d love to talk with you! Please contact me at dre@wsuu.org.
Continue reading“Greed” is the Topic for Sunday, March 12, 2017 Multi-generational Service. All children will be in service except for the Nursery and Story Time children. We are looking for children in 5th grade or older to act as Greeters, and help with collecting the offering (in the baskets). For this service we encourage children to bring non-perishable food as offerings for the West Seattle Food Bank. Adults are also invited to bring food March 12th for the West Seattle Food Bank. Please contact Cynthia at dre@wsuu.org if your child can be a Greeter at the door to the sanctuary that day (we
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