Following services Sunday and Christmas Eve,
the church and center will be closed
Wednesday (December 26) through Saturday
(December 29).
Making Life Matter
Sunday, December 23 at 11 am in the Church Sanctuary
service conducted by Rev. Gregory Stewart
What makes a truly significant and satisfying
life?
Sunday we will take our cues from composer
Gabriel Faure, Far Side creator Gary Larsen,
writer Alexander Dumas, Rabbi Harold
Kushner, and Unitarian Martha Moody Emerson.
Advent is a great time to consider if we are
good enough to live the good life. Are we?
The answers may surprise you.
The choir will sing accompanied by bells.
Joining Rev. Stewart on the Chancel will be
Pastoral Care Minister Rev. Fred
Rabidoux, Affiliated Community Minister
Rev. Alyson Jacks, Acting Director of
Religious Education Betty Skwarek, and
Worship Associates Sue Anthony and
Hillary Buffum.
Now is the time to bring a friend to church
and share our holiday message with them.
During the service
the Congregation will welcome members who have
joined since Easter. This is a chance to put
names with faces and to meet those people
whose photos have been posted on the bulletin
board in the gallery. New members are
invited to come to church at 10:30 and sit
together in the front pews on the right
side.
Following the
service, everyone is welcome to the
Hospitality Lunch catered by
Donald Johnson in the King rooms. Our
newest members will receive a complimentary
lunch, and $5 will be the modest charge for
delicious homemade soup and a special dessert.
Holiday Music Sing-a-Long
Forum Sunday at 9:45 in the Martin Luther King Room
from Karen Melander-Magoon
Come and enjoy singing the old holiday songs
at Forum with Erich Sylvester, Eric
Shackelford, and friends. Children and
adults are welcome!
Doors open in the Martin Luther King Room at
9:30 for conversation, coffee, light breakfast
(for a small fee), and the holiday singing
with guitar and fun will begin at 9:45. The
Forum will offer cookies for the kids, young
and old!
Music Sounds in Religious Education Classes
Sunday Starting at 10 and Singing Until Noon
from Betty Skwarek
Acting Director of Religious Education
Children and their families are invited to
attend the carol singing sponsored by the
Forum (see above)
starting at 10 am. So come
join the fun as we raise voices together
in song in the Martin Luther King Room. Art
and youth choir will not meet.
Carolyn Jayne, youth choir director
(pictured above with the choir at the Holiday
Faire),
will lead songs of the season for Religious
Education classes in the Chapel after the
children leave the Sanctuary. Parents,
children, and youth from other groups are
welcome to join the festivities.
Sunday's Chapel program will include a dress
rehearsal of the Nativity tableau for the
Christmas Eve performance. The pageant's
producers are still casting actors to fill a
few key roles in the tableau including Joseph
and two wise-ones. The House Manager is also
recruiting young people (3rd grade and up) to
be Ushers for the Christmas Eve
service. If you know a child or youth who
has the talent to star in one of these roles
please contact Betty Skwarek at the 776-4580
or email
her.
O Mary Don't You Weep
Christmas Eve (December 24) Candle Light Service at 4:45 in the Sanctuary
Please join the community for the annual
festival of candle light and Christmas
carols! Enter the sanctuary by 4:45 when the
trumpet sounds and the wonder of Christmas
begins.
The choir and bell choir will provide sounds
of the season. The celebration will feature
music played by William Harvey on trumpet and
Madeleine Gerlach, Maria Solis,
and Laurel Sprigg, soprano soloists.
They will all be assisting the choirs with
the music of Handel, Boyce, Schubert, and a
special arrangement by Moses Hogan.
You'll hear stories old and new, sing
familiar carols, and share the light of
candles at the darkest time of the year.
This Christmas, find a new reason for the
season with us! And let your friends know
there is a place here for them, too.
Christmas Eve coffee
hour will start at
3:30 - before the 4:45 service.
Bring a plate of cookies or other holiday
treat to share, and the Society will provide
coffee,
milk, and cider. Look in the gallery and the
Chapel for refreshments, music, and
activities. (The King rooms will not be used,
as they will be set up to welcome 1,000
guests to Tenderloin Tessie's Christmas Day
meal.)
St. Mary's Cathedral has generously allowed
us to use their parking lot on Christmas Eve
from 3:30 to 6 pm. Enter the lot from Gough
Street, south of Geary. Street parking around
the church is "tow away" during this time. It
is very important that we leave promptly as
St. Mary's has their own Christmas Eve
service later that evening. We are extremely
grateful for their generosity.
Remembering the Homeless
Memorial 5:30 Tonight (December 20) at City Hall
from Sister Carmen Barsody
The Faithful Fools invite you to join them
and others in the community to commemorate
the San Francisco homeless who have died
during the year.
Please come, dress warmly, and bring a
candle. Bring the names of those who have
passed in 2007 without a place to call home.
Fools Celebrate the Winter Solstice
Saturday (December 22) at 3 pm at Fool's Court, 234 Hyde Street
The Faithful Fools invite you to celebrate
the growing light marking the solstice. As
the earth turns, hearts are urged to expand
with greater light.
At 3 o'clock the ceremony will begin with an
opening
ritual. Celebrants will be invited to make
masks before they share soup and tell
solstice stories. The gathered Fools will
make a musical procession to Civic Center
Plaza and then end back in Fool's Court where
they will burn their masks in a closing ritual.
You're invited to show up without
reservation. Or, for more information contact
the Fool's at 474-0508.
Pastoral Letter from Rev. William Sinkford
Holiday Message from the President of the Unitarian Universalist Association
Unitarian Universalist Association President
William G. Sinkford reflects on the apostle
Paul's Letter to the Ephesians (6:11-15)
which called people to "fasten the belt of
truth around your waist, and put on
the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes
for your feet put on whatever will make you
ready to proclaim the gospel of peace."
Sinkford suggests, "There's something
incongruous about a battle metaphor for
spreading the good news. We argue against
those religious fundamentalists who wield
religion as a weapon. But on the other hand,
I have "fought" for peace, and I know many of
you have as well."
In the face of mounting death tolls in Iraq
and the failure to successfully rebuild New
Orleans, in the face of poverty and
malnutrition, he says, "The challenge to
people of faith is to transform anger into
action.
"Rather than simply fight, we've got to follow
through with actions committed to end the
fighting. ... [and] When we begin to lose
hope, we need to know that our comrades are
holding it for us until we can carry it again
ourselves. And sometimes we need to be the
one carrying hope for our brothers and sisters."
Loving What Is
from Otto O'Connor
"I can't tell you how excited to visit my
parents for the holidays this year," said
Otto during last Sunday's worship service.
She shares her full credo statement in the
link below.
Wishin' & Hopin'
from Stephen Schwichow
In the face of all of the issues of the day,
Stephen found that putting together a
statement of belief on the subject of hope
was very difficult.
With the help of artists Stephanie McIntosh
and Chumbawamba he found his voice on the topic
during the December 9th worship service.
There's a Penguin on the Loose!
photo by Sonnie
Willis
Last week's Forum presented by Julia
Wald discussed environmental issues in
Antarctica. The group's special guest stayed
through the coffee hour. She is seen here
receiving a warm welcome from animal lover
Dolores Perez Priem.
