WUU News

by Katrina Landon, WUU Board Vice President, & Austen Petersen, Director of Religious Education Small bats, tall hats, and large puppet masters donned their costumes on October 23!  We had 26 people in attendance, all marching in the WUU Halloween Parade led by Kimberly Richards-Thomas & Jennifer Sims! The resplendent Vanessa Jones donned a feather cap and regaled the youngest WUUs with a short Halloween story, followed by a spooky story for the older folks among us penned by Neil Gaiman. In addition, we had one new family attend, and also greeted some familiar faces we had not seen in awhile! One of…

This has been an awesome month! First, some shoutouts: Our Sabbatical Team and Worship Associates have created some wonderful worship services. Thanks so much for the creativity, energy, and inspiration for your work. A bonus is the importance of being together in the sanctuary and having live music again. Our Auction Team, led by Katrina Landon, has put together an excellent, new online auction. The team has gone out of their way to make this new event accessible for the computer challenged folk. And, of course, thanks to more than 80 donors. Now, it is your turn to register to participate and open the exciting…

by Kanen Craig Thank you to all who came to the Kiss the Ground film screening on September 22, 2022. We had about 25 people in attendance. We were grateful to invite a guest speaker, soil advocate Don Smith from the Kiss the Ground movie, who joined us over Zoom and answered many questions. A special thanks to David Wilcox for making everything tech work great. If you have not yet seen the film you can watch it on Netflix. Kiss the Ground is a hopeful documentary discussing the importance of soil health and how it directly affects our climate, water, food,…

I like to spend a bit of time in each report for some personal reflections. This month, it’s about the Three Stooges. For more than five years, two cockapoos named Curly and Mo have been a part of our household. On walks, folks knew that they had permission to call us the Three Stooges. Last week, we said goodbye to Mo due to his failing health. Jo, Curly, and I are doing well with this adjustment, though we do miss Mo’s infectious smile, his loving nature, and the fact that we knew that the rest of us were just a bit smarter than he was….

by Roy Snyder For the past five months WUU has been flying a flag at the entrance to the Main Building. Here is the background story: The mission of the Rainbow Peace Flag Project is to extend kindness and caring across national borders, with love that includes people of all sexualities, genders, abilities, religions, races, and cultures, and to condemn acts of violence and hatred, embracing peaceful dialogue instead. Since June of 2016 over 27,000 flags and hundreds of magnets have been distributed; they are flying high above homes, spiritual institutions, schools, and businesses. In 2019 the flag was redesigned to include four skin tone stripes…

by Austen Petersen, Director of Religious Education Religious Education is offering a children’s chapel once a month to concentrate on mental, spiritual, and social-emotional wellbeing as one of our goals identified through the visioning circles. Prof. Martha, our special guest star in Religious Education, visited this past Sunday to lead the kids and youth in a mind-body connection for stress reduction children’s chapel. Our next children’s chapel will be led by Prof. Megan Tschannen-Moran, who will guide the children in nonviolent communication. Through listening deeply to ourselves and others, we can begin to slow down and embrace our 4th Principle:…

by Ben Puckett, Finance Committee Chair Our current mortgage was taken out in 2016 in the amount of $800,000 to provide financing for our $2.25 million expansion of the RE wing, offices, kitchen and gathering hall. (The remainder of funds was raised in a capital campaign.) Payments were interest only during the construction period, converting to an amortizing mortgage in Feb. of 2018. The balance has been paid down to $680,844 (as of August 31). The original terms called for an initial interest rate of 3.99% with a 25 year amortization period. The rate was to be ‘reset’ after 7 years based on prevailing interest rates…

by the Soul Matters Sharing Circle team “Courage doesn’t always roar.” – Mary Anne Radmacher Courageous people change the world. So many examples of that this month. October’s celebration of LGBTQ+ history month reminds us of the many who bravely moved (and continue to move) our world toward greater acceptance and affirmation. The revolutionary prophet of peace, Mohandas Gandhi, was born on October 2. Our Christian friends celebrate Reformation Day and Martin Luther’s courage that changed how we all think about religious authority. We rightly honor such giants. The problem is most of us aren’t that tall. Or are we? Here’s what we have to help…

by Maddie Farris, William & Mary UU Circle Co-chair “No, it doesn’t matter if you’re not UU! We’re all at different parts of our journey. It’s not our path to keep people away from us: all are welcome here. All are worthy. And part of our story—of our purpose—is to be an interconnected community that thrives on learning and growing together. You could’ve learned about us just yesterday—and you’d still belong. So welcome!” That’s a paraphrase of one of the highlights of my interactions with new members during the Activity Fair last Tuesday—one of many. But let me backtrack and…