Hello Friends:

 

Today is the December newsletter deadline. Please send your photos, articles and announcements to Chris Follett at chrisf2828@yahoo.com.

 

Six of us attended the Sacred Reckonings training this past weekend. We got some great ideas about how to take the next steps in our reparations work.

 

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving this week.

 

Speaking of which, several churches including UBC will be gathering on Tuesday evening at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church (2315 Chicago Ave S. MPLS) for a service entitled, Honoring Sacred Voices. The event will support All Nations Indian Church UCC. Starting at 5:30pm there is a pizza dinner. Then there will be a 6:30pm program featuring Bear Runner drum group, dancers, and guest speaker Rachel Dionne-Thunder of the Indigenous Protector Movement, followed by a 7:30pm Sunflower cookie reception.

 

This week we are gearing up for our Faithful Hospitality month (December). As you know, we will be housing several families seeking asylum throughout the month.  They will sleep in the lounge and nursery thought the month. We still have some openings for overnight hosts, especially later on in the month. If you want to sign up for a shift, please do so at this link: : https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0A4DA4AB29AAF5CE9-52725705-university#/ We plan to complete the moving of the nursery and readying the lounge after forum on Sunday, so if you can, please help us out. After this Sunday, the temporary nursery will be in room 309.

 

The forum will actually be a church meeting and will be held in the sanctuary following the service. Refreshments will be available in the sanctuary.  Here’s what we’ll be talking about:

 

Here’s a note from the UBC Council:

Throughout our discernment process, one recommendation was constant - we need a person whose training and expertise are in marketing and communication to help us do what we have not yet been able to do ourselves - get out the message of who we are to people who are looking for a church community like ours. Hiring a marketing / communication professional became one of the main action items for this year under our Direction #1: Refocusing People Power.

 

The eventual goals for engaging a marketing / communication professional is to communicate about UBC and our work to people and organizations who might want to join our ministries.  We see, as a long-term goal, an increase in resources: 1) people (volunteers and potential members), 2) financial funding to help the financial solvency of UBC, and 3) organizations (i.e. other non-profits) with whom we can collaborate with in ministry.  The work of marketing and communication will be ongoing, but to start, we are proposing a one year position with re-evaluation after the first year.

 

The Personnel Committee took this direction and created the attached job description, which has been approved by the Council. This is not a position for which we already have funding.  Therefore, there will be a congregational meeting on Sunday, Dec. 1, at 11:30 to discuss this proposal and make decisions about the funding.

 

If you have questions about this proposal before Dec. 1, please contact Jean Lubke, UBC President or Megan Dahlberg, Personnel Chair and UBC Foundation President.

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This Sunday is the first Sunday in Advent.  The candle-lighting liturgy will come from Womanist Theologian Cole Arthur Riley’s book “Black Liturgies.” Throughout the Advent Season, we’ll focus on the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel where he lays out the events that lead up to the birth of Jesus. This Sunday, we’ll look at the story of the Annunciation (Luke 1:26-38). I think of people with planned and unplanned pregnancies and the weighty decisions that surround parenthood. What might young teenage Mary have been thinking? Did she have options? Choices? Support?  Gayla Marty will be there worship leader and the UBC Chorale will sing an original setting of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” by Kim Donley.

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This week:

 

Tuesday—5:30pm Honoring Sacred Stories event at Our Saviors Lutheran Church

 

Wednesday—no choir or bells this week

 

Sunday—10am Service at UBC

11am (or so) Joys and Concerns—not live-streamed but on Zoom 

Meeting ID 839 4725 7444 passcode 257750 

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83947257444?pwd=cFZCWEdqUkR0RDgwT0JwT3hrQ3FpUT09

11-11:30am Refreshments in the sanctuary.

11:30am Bible Study (library) Church meeting

Blessings and Peace,

 

Doug Donley