First Unitarian Church of San Jose

Worship with the First Unitarian Church of San Jose Sunday, May 2, 11:00 a.m. with Time for Gathering at 10:45 a.m. Join Us https://bit.ly/FUCSJ-Sunday-Worship-and-Social-Hour... Meeting ID: 970 0872 9249 / Password: 096695 By phone: (669) 900-6833 US (San Jose area) Find your local number: https://uuma.zoom.us/u/abeU54lCqn How Do We Tell Our Own Story? What stories do we tell about ourselvesabout who we are and what we’ve experienced, about what it all means and how our story, up to this point, can guide us? Have we chosen the stories we tell about ourselves, or are we defined by some limiting story that someone else tells about us? Who directs the plot twists, and how do they change our story? This Sunday, Director of Faith Formation jo mosher offers a story that proves, once again, the power of storytelling itself. Worship Associate Mary Martin asks, Am I writing my story, or is it happening to me? Rev. Nancy revisits the very first sermon she preached for FUCSJ, on April 17, 2005, when she described her story as a mythic search for a common language. How has her story changed in the last 16 years? Would she tell it the same way now? And what about your story? What story do you want to tell about yourself? The music includes India.Arie’s I Am Light and a new arrangement of the hymn My Life Flows on in Endless Song (How Can I Keep from Singing?). Please join us! Join Us https://bit.ly/FUCSJ-Sunday-Worship-and-Social-Hour Meeting ID: 970 0872 9249 / Password: 096695 By phone: (669) 900-6833 US (San Jose area) Find your local number: https://uuma.zoom.us/u/abeU54lCqn

Worship with the First Unitarian Church of San Jose "The Motivation to Become" Join Us https://bit.ly/FUCSJ-Sunday-Worship-and-Social-Hour Meeting ID: 970 0872 9249 / Password: 096695 By phone: (669) 900-6833 US (San Jose area)... Find your local number: https://uuma.zoom.us/u/abeU54lCqn 10:45 a.m.--Gathering: Dear ones, if you haven't heard this month's Music for Gathering from Chris Pasillas, please do show up super early so you can receive this great gift of uplift and insight and joy! 11:00 a.m.--Worship: "The Motivation to Become" This service has evolved in beautiful ways since I first wrote up a description for the newsletter a month ago! jo will share a Hopi Origin Story; Bill Bowman will reflect on where and how he's found the inspiration to become more of who he wants to be; and I will wrestle with the mixed gifts we receive from our actual ancestors and others who inspire us. The MUSIC, oh my, what glories: A beautiful upbeat offering right at 11:00 of "Spirit Says Do" from our own singers and musicians; our own Frank Farris singing "Filled with Lovingkindness"; Ysaye Barnwell and last year's General Assembly Choir singing "We Are"; and the Alegria Singers bring a gorgeous inspiring song from our friend Lea Morris "Be the Light." It's a great day to be together! Join Us https://bit.ly/FUCSJ-Sunday-Worship-and-Social-Hour Meeting ID: 970 0872 9249 / Password: 096695 By phone: (669) 900-6833 US (San Jose area) Find your local number: https://uuma.zoom.us/u/abeU54lCqn

This Sunday, November 1, 2020, 11:00 am, Live ONLINE! Día de los Muertos / Day of the Dead: Making Space for Our Beloveds! Join us live https://bit.ly/FUCSJ-Sunday-Worship-and-Social-Hour... Meeting ID: 970 0872 9249 / Password: 096695 In this online Día de los Muertos / Day of the Dead service, we first make space for grief over the recent losses of beloveds in our Ritual of Compassion. We’ll share the names of beloved people or pets who have died in the last three years, and sing Nada te turbe / Nothing Can Trouble to each other. Then we experience the joyful, funny, celebratory spirit of the true Día de los Muertos. We share calaverassatirical poems about those still livingand we take time to remember the silliest quirks of our beloveds and ancestors who have died. Please bring to worship photos or mementos of beloveds who have diedthe items you would have placed on our altar. We’ll have time to share these photos and memories in small groups during worship. Music includes an anthem from former FUCSJ members Heather and Nayo Bridger-Ulloa, along with many other special treats! Worship Leaders: Rev. Nancy Palmer Jones, Ervin Barrios, and Marta Norment Join us live https://bit.ly/FUCSJ-Sunday-Worship-and-Social-Hour Meeting ID: 970 0872 9249 / Password: 096695

Join us https://bit.ly/FUCSJ-Sunday-Worship-and-Social-Hour Meeting ID: 970 0872 9249 / Password: 096695 Voting is a Religious Act... Voting is central to our religion. To be a Unitarian Universalist is to affirm and promote the democratic process. We will explore the vote as religious people. As Michelle Obama says in Becoming: We all play a role in this democracy. We need to remember the power of every vote. I continue, too, to keep myself connected to a force that’s larger and more potent than any one election, or leader, or news storyand that’s optimism. For me, this is a form of faith, an antidote to fear. Worship Leader: Julia Rodriguez, Alice Lynch, and Joyce Miller Join Us https://bit.ly/FUCSJ-Sunday-Worship-and-Social-Hour Meeting ID: 970 0872 9249 / Password: 096695

You can join us here: https://bit.ly/FUCSJ-Sunday-Worship-and-Social-Hour Meeting ID: 970 0872 9249 / Password: 096695 Please bring to worship:... --some paper (any color!) --scissors (or your best skills at folding and tearing) --something to write with --and enough of each of these for everyone in your household! We'll use these supplies during jo's Time for All Ages. In this service, we remember to *breathe.* As Valarie Kaur ("See No Stranger") says, "Deep breathing, and paying attention to sensations in our bodies as we breathe, increases our resilience and connects us to a sense of agency." Just what we need in these final weeks before the election! Arrive between 10:45 and 11:00 a.m. Pacific to breathe and listen deeply to Chris Pasillas's beautiful medley of UU hymns about ... deep listening. And then: Worship Associates Inés Zapiola, Chloe Morel, and I share stories of times when we've learned to breathe and listen to the inner wisdom that can take us by surprise and change our lives. We'll hear a new song from the Rainbow Women's Chorus--"Stronger" by Ruth Huber--and an instrumental of Christopher Pasillas's beautiful song Listening. Bev Clifford delights us with "Hazme un instrumento de tu paz" ("Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace"), and a quartet of choristers guides us through the meditative "Winds Be Still." What a wonderful service for filling the well! Please join us https://bit.ly/FUCSJ-Sunday-Worship-and-Social-Hour Meeting ID: 970 0872 9249 / Password: 096695

This Sunday, October 18, 2020, 11:00 am, Live ONLINE! Listening to Ourselves Join us https://bit.ly/FUCSJ-Sunday-Worship-and-Social-Hour Meeting ID: 970 0872 9249 / Password: 096695... How can we hold a space for listening to each other if we haven’t made space for listening to our own hearts? In the crush of urgent matters and scary changes this year, we can forget to ground ourselves in an authenticity and inner wisdom that may take us by surprise. Worship Associates Inés Zapiola and Chloe Morel, along with Rev. Nancy, share stories of how they have learned to listen to themselvesand how it has changed their lives. And we listen to an original song called Listeningfrom a poem by Amy Lowellwritten by Christopher Pasillas and sung by John Ector. A wonderful service for filling the well! Worship Leader: Rev. Nancy Palmer Jones Worship Associate: Chloe Morel and Inés Zapiola Join Us https://bit.ly/FUCSJ-Sunday-Worship-and-Social-Hour Meeting ID: 970 0872 9249 / Password: 096695

This Sunday, October 11, 11am, LIVE online... Join us https://bit.ly/FUCSJ-Sunday-Worship-and-Social-Hour Meeting ID: 970 0872 9249 / Password: 096695 When We Listen, We Are Changed... At the beginning of this service, we honor Edgar Cruz for his decades of service as our custodian, as well as his contributions as a member, which have changed the nature of this Beloved Community! Then Worship Associate Eloise Pelmulder shares a story about how, by listening to friends and to her own inner wisdom, she’s discovered a quiet practice of resistance that reduces despair and restores her energy. Rev. Nancy adds Sikh activist Valarie Kaur’s teachings about listening to our stockpile of resources for strength and resilience. And we’ll have time to listen deeply to our Joys and Sorrows, too. Please join us for this healing service! Worship Leader: Rev. Nancy Palmer Jones Worship Associate: Eloise Pelmulder Join us https://bit.ly/FUCSJ-Sunday-Worship-and-Social-Hour Meeting ID: 970 0872 9249 / Password: 096695

This Sunday, September 27, 2020, 11:00 am, Live ONLINE! Listening Deeply to the Call to Vote! Join us https://bit.ly/FUCSJ-Sunday-Worship-and-Social-Hour... Meeting ID: 970 0872 9249 / Password: 096695 The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society, Representative John Lewis wrote in his final message to us all. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it. In today’s service we lift up some of the down-ballot state and local issues and propositions that are crucial if we want to change people’s lives for the better. We can help make it happen! Guitars Aloud offers an original song by our own Sally Cooperrider, Which Way, which speaks to our confusions. We congregants answer with Love Will Guide Us, by Sally Rogers. The Alegría Singers steer our path with A Cleansing Rage, by Jason Shelton, and the UU the Vote Thrive Choir brings us home with It Is Time Now, by MaMuse. Worship Leaders: Rev. Nancy Palmer Jones, Chris Logan (PACT organizer), and FUCSJ’s PACT Local Organizing Committee (LOC) Join Us https://bit.ly/FUCSJ-Sunday-Worship-and-Social-Hour Meeting ID: 970 0872 9249 / Password: 096695

**A Note from Rev. Nancy to the First Unitarian Church of San Jose Following Tuesday Night’s Presidential Debate** Dearly Loved Community, Before I dive in, please let me remind you: *This congregation and its leaders will never endorse a candidate for any office.* We honor the free choice of every individual to vote their conscience, and we will continue working to ensure that every citizen has access to the vote. ... At the same time, *we raise our prophetic voices* to call out the words, behaviors, attitudes, and policies of candidates and elected officials when they run in direct opposition to the principles of our faith. And *we must offer each other, and those of our kindred who are most impacted, the utmost care* when a candidate or elected utters words or behaves in a way that threatens the lives of people we love. Last night’s presidential debate was neither presidential nor a debate. The nation and the world witnessed bullying, name-calling, ableism, incivility, and an endorsement of white nationalism initiated by the current president. If we have seen or heard even a small portion of Tuesday’s chaotic exchange, we are probably wrestling today with anger, fear, despair, or a tangle of other responses. Beloveds, *this is the time to draw on all our sources of resilience.* Reach out, ask for help, offer companionship and assistance, and connect with our communities of strength. Action is an antidote to fear. Get in touch with Jan Theiss-Guffey or Madeline Morrow to join our UU the Vote team. For those of us already writing postcards and letters and making phone calls to get out the vote, let’s redouble our efforts. Most of all, *join us this Sunday for worship: Listening Deeply to the Call to Vote.* Be educated on crucial down-ballot measures; be energized by a concert of glorious music. Come see the faces and hear the voices of kindred congregants who, in the words of Pat Humphries’s song, are gonna keep on moving forward. Tonight, dear ones, *please create a time and place for even a moment of quiet reflection, alone or with your loved ones.* Remember the ancestors who have made a way out of no way, who in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds survived to give all of us the chance to live. Remember the North Star of your own faith and purpose in life. And remember to rest. Now more than ever the world needs our ministry of Making Love Visible. Together, we have a life-force that will continue to create the changes we need. I love you! Warmly, Rev. Nancy

This Sunday, September 27, 2020, 11:00 am, Live ONLINE! Rise Up Singing: The Healing Power of Songs Join us https://bit.ly/FUCSJ-Sunday-Worship-and-Social-Hour... Meeting ID: 970 0872 9249 / Password: 096695 Bay Area singer/songwriter Steve Seskin (https://www.steveseskin.com/news/) will share his music and experiences tapping into the power of song and songwriting. Early in his career, Steve wrote Don’t Laugh At Me (https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-58246-058-1) a song and then a children’s book that launched an anti-bullying curriculum for schools called Operation Respect. A songwriter, singer and educator, Steve regularly donates part of his time to programs in which he travels to schools to write songs with children and youth fostering respect and kindness. Through Operation Respect, he helped conduct songwriting workshops for students after the shootings in Parkland, Florida and Pittsburgh PA. He also has worked with groups such as Braver Angels (https://braverangels.org/) trying to heal the red/blue divide in the U.S. Worship Leader: Rick Merritt

This Sunday, September 20, 2020, 11:00 am, Live ONLINE! Renewing the Resources of Our Resilience Join us https://bit.ly/FUCSJ-Sunday-Worship-and-Social-Hour... Meeting ID: 970 0872 9249 / Password: 096695 Each of us has a story of resilienceof a time when we weren’t sure we’d make it through, but we did. How do we tell those stories now? Do we emphasize the disaster and lossor do we recognize the strengths and gifts that got us through? It’s time to dust off our old stories and lift them up to the light. What can they show us about where we find and build resilience in tough times? After we hear several voices offer their short personal stories, we’ll have a chance to share our own in small groups. Ask yourself: What helped me to get through a tough time? What resources from that story can I draw on now to help me in these days? We can do go deep and be brief at the same time! Let’s get to know each other better and come away with renewed hope and determination! Worship Leader: Rev. Nancy Palmer Jones Worship Associate: Alice Lynch

Beloveds, please join us this morning at 10:45 a.m. Pacific for a meditation filled with images and songs of water--so restorative in these days of fire--as well as a chance to greet each other and gather our minds and hearts for a service, at 11:00 a.m. Pacific, called "Homecoming Sunday: What Will We Gather? Gifts and Learnings." Every single person in your household gets to offer one sentence--25 words or less--that begins with either "This summer I learned ..." or "To th...is community I bring ..." Just imagine what an abundance of wisdom and practical skills, as well as gifts of the heart and mind, tangible offerings and spiritual ones, that we will add to this ever-expanding community. Imagine what capacities for resilience, for hope, and for Love we will gather! Please join us! I can't wait to see you there! with love, Rev. Nancy Join Us https://bit.ly/FUCSJ-Sunday-Worship-and-Social-Hour Meeting ID: 970 0872 9249 / Password: 096695