Third Thursdays for as long as the weather holds out, we’ll be gathering in person, outside, behind 1 Edwin Place on the paved parking lot, to drum! All ages welcome!! Bring your own or borrow a noisemaker from us. Next date, October 21.
It’s true! Our Coming of Age youth will be offering some modified “Soup-er Events – Sundays and other days!” to raise funds for a future youth trip. Coming soon, on Third Thursdays, at the Remembrance Service/Halloween Celebration, and for the evening of the Auction, get fed by and support our youth. We will take pre-orders for “drive thru” pick up at UUAsheville on all of the days listed below. We will also host on-site dining at the Remembrance Service/Halloween Celebration on October 31. Order your soup now for our first event, happening Thursday, October 21. Details and order here.
Save the dates for all of the Soup-er Events:
Thursday, October 21
Sunday, October 31 – on-site dining or drive thru — you decide what works for you!
Saturday, November 6
Thursday, November 18
In hopes of a youth trip while they’re still in high school, we appreciate your support! AND we are happy to serve you and offer some more opportunities for UU fellowship.
Join a new study group reading Widening the Circle of Concern, the book-length report of the UUA Commission on Institutional Change. Led by Mary Alm, member of the Board of Trustees, this reading circle will dive deep and explore the 36 recommendations proposed after analyzing structural and systemic racism and white supremacy culture within Unitarian Universalism. Read the attached description here. Contact Mary Alm to register.
All Creatures Great & Small, We Will Bless Them All!
In the UUAsheville Parking Lot, 1 Edwin Place
We’re in person for an Animal Blessing service at 11am in the paved parking lot. Bring your chairs and your pets!
If things work out right, the service will also be live streamed. If you’re on our email list, you’ll get the link on Sunday morning at 9am. To sign up for worship service links, head back to the home page and give us your email address.
Photo by Tim Hüfner on Unsplash
October 10 marks the 19th World Day Against the Death Penalty. The NC Council of Churches will host a panel of voices with lived experience to discuss faith and the death penalty. Panelists include George Wilkerson, who is living on NC’s death row; Andre Smith, who teaches Buddhism to men in prison and lost his son to homicide; and Rev. Sharon Risher, who lost her mother and two cousins in the shooting at Mother Emmanuel AME church in Charleston. Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove, noted writer and leader in the Red Letter Christian movement and the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, will moderate. Please register here and invite others to hear this powerful panel.
Amá tells an important and untold story: the abuses committed against Native American women by the US Government during the 1960s and 70s. The women were removed from their families and sent to boarding schools. They were subjected to forced relocation away from their traditional lands and, perhaps worst of all, they were subjected to involuntary sterilization.
CONTACT Charlie Wussow at mnpopi@icloud.com for the Zoom link by Wednesday, October 6. This event is free. Donations accepted.
The result of nine years painstaking and sensitive work by filmmaker Lorna Tucker, the film features the testimony of many Native Americans, including three remarkable women who tell their stories – Jean Whitehorse, Yvonne Swan and Charon Asetoyer – as well as a revealing and rare interview with Dr. Reimert Ravenholt whose population control ideas were the framework for some of the government policies directed at Native American women.
It is estimated over a twenty-year period between 1960 and 1980 that tens of thousands of Native American women were sterilized without their knowledge or consent. Due to poor record keeping during this era the number may in fact be much higher. Many of these women went to their graves having suffered this incredible abuse of power.
“The beginning of every hierarchy is controlling reproduction, and racism in this country has often restricted brown and black women through sterilization, while refusing sterilization to white women unless they had several children and their husbands’ written permission. AMÁ proves that democracy begins with our bodies. All who care about democracy should see it.” Gloria Steinem
“I would like to pay respect to the elders, both present and past, who have had the courage to tell their stories — we need more documentaries like this. We offer classes in American Indian Health and Wellness, and without fail, my students state that they had no idea of these atrocities, and the fact that they are still happening in the United States is beyond their belief. The US must apologize for the horrendous actions of their medical staff, and admit to the vast amount of indigenous knowledge that has been lost due to their lack of funding for health services.”
Dr. Linda Bane Frizzell, Eastern Cherokee/Lakota, Assistant Professor, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota
Official Trailer https://ama.bullfrogcommunities.com runtime: 74 minutes
We’re dedicating and celebrating our new patio and sculptures in our Memorial Garden.
It may not be fully completed (benches and a railing will take months to arrive) but we sure do need to celebrate. All are welcome to have lunch at Maria and Estaban’s Food Truck, dance to the music, and see your friends. Even though it’s an outdoor event, social distancing or masking is required. We’ll also dedicate new sculptures in the Memorial Garden. See you there!
UU Asheville’s Anti-Racist Immigration Justice Action Group (A-RIJAG) invites you to a free Faith4Justice virtual event on Thursday, September 30, 6:30-8pm, Zoom
This is an opportunity to explore a painful and controversial topic , “white women’s tears,” from a biblical and historical perspective with a diverse group of local women including progressive clergy. The presenters are Ashley Cooper, Keaton Hill, Libby Kyles, Marta Acala-Williams, Rev. Marcia Mt. Shoop, and Rev. Tami Forte Logan. Register here.
Rev. Claudia will be available on Zoom the following Monday evening to facilitate a discussion among UUAshevilleans who attend the event and want to go over it with others. The Zoom link will be in the Worship eNews on Monday, October 4.
Rev. Cathy will lead a monthly “Taste of Soul” session. Even if you don’t join a small group for the whole church year, you can still try an experience. The monthly Soul Matters packets that we use as resources for our Soul Matters groups are a wealth of resources for self-reflection and exploration. Send an email to Rev. Cathy for the Zoom link. She definitely wants to meet you!
Before Christine Hallquist was running for Governor of Vermont, she was David Hallquist, the CEO of the largest locally owned electric utility in Vermont. A self-described “closet environmentalist,” Hallquist is dedicated to addressing the way electricity use in America contributes to climate change. In this 2017 film directed by his son, Hallquist as CEO works to balance climate change with the utility’s charge to provide affordable and reliable service. As Hallquist struggles to build a transparent company whose honest approach can get stakeholders to accept the realities of how we generate and deliver electricity, he realizes he must apply that same transparency to his personal life and reveals to his son a lifelong secret. Dave Hallquist, who presents as a chainsaw-wielding, hard-hat-wearing CEO in a male-dominated industry is a woman inside.
“Stunningly well-made. Denial is that rare documentary that actually shows us change. People and understandings, as well as climate and sexuality, are represented as fluid – messy and disruptive, but life-giving. This is an eco-film where science and technology, personal and political conflict, humility, love, and aesthetic virtuosity forge unexpected and beautiful alliances.”
Marguerite Waller, Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies, University of California, Riverside
“Denial compellingly merges our country’s refusal to accept the truth of gender’s complexity with our denial about climate change and a failed energy system…The themes of transparency, honesty, compromise, and complexity in relation to gender identity/expression and climate change render this film a perfect fit for courses in environmental justice, women’s and gender studies, queer theory, and environmental studies.
Dr. Katie Hogan, Director of Women’s and Gender Studies, Professor of English, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
There is no charge for viewing the film. Donations are welcome (click DONATE on the left-hand menu or text UUAVL to 73256).
Send a request for the Zoom link to Charlie Wussow at mnpopi@icloud.com by Wednesday, September 8th. There will be a discussion after the screening of the film. Runtime: 92 minutes
On Wednesday, September 8th from 7:00-8:30pm, UU Justice Ministry of NC is partnering with All on the Line to host a Redistricting Workshop for UU congregations in Western NC.
In the coming months, politicians in the North Carolina legislature will redraw the maps for Legislative (NC House, NC Senate) and Congressional (US House) districts because the US Constitution requires that US voting districts be redrawn every 10 years, using the updated population information from the U.S. Census count. The process is a little complicated, but the outcomes will have a huge impact on our system of government and the lives of people in our state for the next decade.
During this workshop we will:
We have a mighty trio of volunteers who are working to produce a cookbook by and for UUCAers. No one needs to 
be a creative chef here. Just send in recipes that you either use a lot, that get rave reviews from friends, or are just fun! Omnivores, vegetarians and vegans welcome! We want ’em all.
Sally, Sherry and Fredda will be coordinating the creation of this fabulous hardcover cookbook as a fundraiser for our congregation in conjunction with the November Auction. We invite you to send us as many favorite recipes as you’d like. Time is of the essence, so start choosing your recipes now! These cookbooks (which also make great gifts ) will be available to purchase at the auction in November for $15 each. To make this even more fun, there will also be a raffle for everyone who submits recipes, so the more recipes you send in, the better your chances are in the raffle! Send those recipes to one of us so you can be a part of our UUCA cookbook!
Questions? Email anyone on the cookbook committee! Sh
We are going to need you. Yes, you!
As I’m writing this, it’s been two days since our Religious Education Celebration service. I’ve been reflecting on the service and thinking about how all the pieces and participants were what made it so special. It felt like the perfect culmination of this strange and extraordinary year in RE. Some of us cried, all of us laughed, and everyone gave what they could. We are extremely grateful not only to the volunteers who helped make it happen, but also to the children and youth of this congregation who participated in RE in whatever way felt right to them this year.
When Jen Johnson and I were planning for RE last summer, we must have scrapped our plans at least three times to start over. When things began to shut down in March, we already had the 2020-21 RE year planned. We were just about to start recruiting volunteers. Obviously that went right out the window when the seriousness of the situation became apparent. Things were changing so fast and the timeline for when we might reopen kept getting pushed further back. We knew that we had to offer a program that would meet as many needs as possible, but also that we would need help. Once we decided what to do, we started looking for the helpers. We were blessed to have so many folks step up to help with everything from leading online sessions to stuffing and delivering our “church in box”.
We don’t know quite what we’ll be up to in RE next year yet, but we’re working on it. Jen and I will be spending the next few weeks planning for the fall and beyond, and we’d love to hear from parents and kids about what you want to do in RE next year. We’ve been thinking about it over the last few months, but now is the time to make decisions and put things in motion. It’s definitely still going to look different than what we did pre-pandemic, but I think that’s a good thing. We’ve learned a lot about doing this work in a different way this year, and it has only made our program stronger and more committed to the faith development of children, youth, and adults at UUCA.
Not only do we need input on what our program should include, we will need folks to make it happen. We’ll need people to teach in RE, help out with family ministry outside of Sunday mornings, and help behind the scenes. If cleaning and organizing is your thing, we’ll definitely need you in August. Many of our rooms haven’t been inhabited in over a year and could use some love and attention. Please reach out to us if you know how you’d like to pitch in or what age group you’d like to work with. Being able to offer our program is largely dependent on having dedicated volunteers. Teacher training is on the schedule for Saturday, August 28, so mark your calendars! We are going to need you.
In faith,
Kim Collins, Lifespan Religious Education Coordinator
So, do you need a break? We thought so! As we near the end of the 2020-’21 church year, we come to a major transition in our congregational life together. With the departure of our lead minister, Rev. Mark Ward, in June and the exhaustion that all of us – staff, volunteers, and . . . well, everybody – are feeling after a year of coping with the COVID pandemic, we are planning on doing something that, as far as we can tell, we’ve never done at this congregation: We’re going to cancel weekly worship in July.
That’s right. After we say good-bye to Rev. Ward on June 13, we’ll take a break in worship until August. Actually, we recommend that you connect for Sunday worship at General Assembly on June 27 – we’ll post the link on our Web site – but other than that no services are planned. We’ll begin Sunday services again on August 1 with our traditional Poetry Sunday. In the meantime, if you need a break from the hiking trails and you’re hankering for some UUCA time, we will send a selection of videos in late June from the past year that you can watch.
Any covenant groups, social groups or other committees that would like to continue meeting are welcome to, but we’re giving all staff members a chance to breathe so they won’t be at those meetings.
So, let’s all plan our camping trips, or bicycle or hiking adventures, or just chill by the pool and recharge our batteries so we’ll be ready for an exciting fall with our new interim minister.
PS: Administrative staff will still be paying attention to things like processing donations and paying bills and reserving Sandburg Hall for meetings. So it’s not a break from donating. Just in case you were wondering….
Racially Charged: America’s Misdemeanor Problem exposes how our country’s history of racial injustice evolved into an enormous abuse of criminal justice power. 13 million people a year – most of them poor and people of color – are abused by this system.
Through first-person accounts of those charged under the Black Codes of the Reconstruction era paralleled with the outrageous stories of people trapped in the system today, the film brings to light the unfolding of a powerful engine of profits and racial inequality. With the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement, this film provides historical context and examines America’s history of racist oppression.
“A revelatory film, directed by Robert Greenwald, exposing, with searing history and staggering facts, the invidious, disproportionate impact of minor offenses on people of color. Brave New Films creatively marshals eloquent scholars, passionate activists and fascinating historical footage to challenge us all to continue working for systemic changes to our criminal justice system.”
~ Katrina vanden Heuvel, Editorial Director & Publisher, The Nation“A powerful, emotional and important film… Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films leading the charge, once again. The film powerfully illustrates that every year America arrests, prosecutes, and jails millions of people, overwhelmingly Black and Brown, for minor offenses. This is neither an accident nor inevitable.
Watch, absorb, and then go out and take action…”
~ Anthony Romero Executive Director, American Civil Liberties Union
Note: This film will be viewed on Zoom. Send a request for the link to Charlie Wussow at mnpopi@icloud.com by Thursday, June 17th. There will be a discussion after the screening of the film.
This screening is free. Donations are gratefully accepted.
UUCA’s Racial Justice Advisory Council, working with the Board of Trustees, is asking for your participation in helping us work toward becoming a transformative, liberating congregation for all. The Council has a two-step process for us. Step One is to read this Glossary so that everyone at UUCA is working with the same definitions of words and acronyms. The Council is encouraging all committees and groups (social and spiritual deepening groups) to examine the glossary together. You may invite a member of the Racial Justice Advisory Council to attend if you’d like their support. (Contact Rev. Claudia to book someone.) Glossary conversations open to all will occur as the Wednesday Thing programs on the second Wednesdays of May and June (May 12 and June 9) at 7pm.
Step Two is coming soon…. (don’t you love suspense?)
FAR EAST DEEP SOUTH follows Charles Chiu and his family as they travel from California to Mississippi to find the grave of Charles’ father, K.C. Lou. Their search leads to stunning revelations about their family and they get a crash course on the history of Chinese immigrants in the segregated South. Through encounters with local residents and historians, this Chinese-American family not only discovers their family’s important role in the Mississippi Delta but they also learn about the symbiotic relationship between the Black and Chinese communities during the Jim Crow era.
The film provides a window into the struggles of Chinese immigrants in the American South during the late 1800s to mid-1900s and the discrimination they faced. The Chiu family’s history demonstrates how exclusionary immigration laws like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 separated their family for generations. This deeply moving and unforgettable story offers a poignant and important perspective on race relations, immigration and American identity. (Runtime is 76 minutes.)
“Its intimate, as-it-happened cinéma-vérité style draws you in, and soon this family trip takes the twists and
turns of a compelling detective story. A surprising, sobering history lesson, it is painfully relevant at a time
when anti-Asian hate is on the rise.” ~The Boston Globe
This film will viewed on Zoom. Get the link by contacting Charlie at mnpopi@icloud.com. There will be a discussion after the screening of the film.
The event is free. Donations welcome by clicking Donate on the main menu or texting UUAVL to 73256.
The Board has not come up with the full details yet, but we will follow the same general procedure as last year. That means we will have remote voting ONLY, either through an electronic ballot that will be provided soon or a paper ballot that you send back to UUCA. All is in process….. 
Right now, check out this slide presentation of the 2021-2022 proposed budget you will be voting on. Send any questions/comments to Linda Topp, Director of Administration.
SHOW UP to voice your opposition to these three proposed NC bills:
Here’s the Sunday schedule:
1pm Gather at Pack Amphitheater
2pm March in Defense of Trans Youth
3pm Speeches – including one by a UUCA youth
Wear masks and your Side with Love (or older Standing on the Side of Love) t-shirts. Maintain social distancing.
Read up on the bills & other action steps you can take:
Come one, come all! It’s May Day, it’s Beltane, it’s a puzzle swap, it’s a food truck. Do we know how to party?
Here’s more information about Beltane, including ideas for rituals.
UUCA-May-Day-flyer
This week, call on your state legislators and tell them to Vote NO on the Anti-Trans Bill SB 514. This bill is a cruel attack on transgender youth that would prevent them from taking steps to affirm their gender identity. Learn more and take action here.
Here’s a Washington Post article with more information about the bill.
Story Medicine is an Indigenous healing modality blending ritual with the written word. Medicine begins with words in Indigenous cultures. Myth and legend heal because they remind us of balance and right relationship. In Western culture, we are disconnected from our ancestral stories, and from the value of our individual story. To reclaim our story is to reclaim the lost self. This is what makes Story Medicine so transformational.
Meta Commerse is a Blues Doula. A former professor of History and English, she’s an award-winning author. Meta is a social entrepreneur, creator of Story Medicine Worldwide, a community-based healing movement.
UUCA’s Anti-Racism Immigrant Justice Action Group is sponsoring this free three-hour workshop as we explore th
e work of becoming an anti-racist congregation. For an optimal experience, the workshop will be capped at 21 individuals. The workshop provides a taste of thetransformative work of Story Medicine. Expect to encounter community learning and healing through the sacredness of story. Meta uses memory as raw material and community resource, along with heart-centered language for what has happened to us.
It’s a Flower Communion Ceremony, IN PERSON!!! We’ll have a food truck, ice cream, and maybe some activities (we’re looking for volunteers right now). Come for the ceremony at 3:30, stay for the food and fellowship! Bring a chair if you don’t like standing around. And for heaven’s sakes, bring flowers!!!! Rain date is April 18.
Sometimes Uuny arrives for sad events.
Grief is a fact of our lives these days with all the losses we’ve suffered with the COVID-19 pandemic, but it doesn’t have to consume our lives. It can be the key to growth if we understand it as Francis Weller suggests as “a threshold emotion” that can help open up our lives.
“The Five Gates of Grief” is sponsored by UUCA’s Pastoral Visitors and will be led by facilitators Jan Booth and Trish Rux. Booth and Rux are holistic nurses and end-of-life doulas in the Asheville area. The class is intended to explore the weight of griefs that we carry and the way that those griefs impact how fully we love and live our lives.
Contact Rev. Mark Ward to register. Space is limited.
This is a 3-session book discussion group using the book Turning Point: Essays on a New Unitarian Universalism, edited by Fredric Muir. We’ll pull a few essays from the book for each session as we explore the three sins of today’s Unitarian Universalism, its three promises, and examples of organizations trying to live the promises. We’ll also learn more about what “Beloved Community” means and how being an iChurch is not a good thing. Contact James Cassara to register for the link and get the book. Brought to you by the Leadership Development Committee.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, churches and faith communities have had to move many of their ministries online, including worship and faith formation. As we look forward with hope as vaccinations are distributed and something resembling normal appears on the horizon, how can congregations carry what they have learned from this time, from new technologies to new skills, and ways of connecting with local and distributed communities the future? How do we stay connected to those with whom we have forged relationships online when our ministries begin to return to in-person gatherings? What have we learned, what will we carry forward, and what can we leave behind? Join us for this webinar as we discuss these questions, and more, with two thought leaders who have been working on extending community and welcome to people near and far well before the pandemic began.
This event is brought to you by the department of Lifelong Learning at Virginia Theological Seminary. It will be using a Christian perspective but addressing issues that affect all religious communities.
ABOUT THE PRESENTERS:
Rev. Jim Keat is the Digital Minister at The Riverside Church in New York City and the Director of Online Innovation at the Convergence Network. He is also a Digital Consultant to various progressive faith agencies and organizations. He is the producer of original media projects from The Riverside Church like Be Still and Go and Church Talk as well as the creator of the Thirty Second Bible project and Thirty Seconds or Less.
The Rev. Zack Nyein is Associate Rector for Community Engagement and Children and Youth Formation at All Saints Episcopal Church in Atlanta. Zack is enthusiastic about developing creative ways of connecting and communicating the Good News of God in Christ across generations and difference as the church lives into its new and ancient calling as a community of reconciliation and renewal. Active in the wider Episcopal Church, Zack currently serves on the Task Force for Prayer Book and Liturgical Revision, the Board of the Episcopal Evangelism Society, and as Director of Worship for Imagine Church, an innovative online worship experience sponsored by the Diocese of Atlanta.
For this event, Lifelong Learning offers a voluntary three-tier fee program. You choose the rate that best suits your needs. No matter your choice, you will receive the same experience. Those who pay more will help support the content and costs of Lifelong Learning events. Thank you.
Friend – $0
Supporter – $10
Champion – $20
– The film is 2040, about the future we could create if we embraced the best climate solutions available today. This film cannot be shown on Zoom so please watch it on your own and join the discussion on Friday, March 12 at 7pm. Contact Charlie Wussow to obtain the links to view the film and the guided Zoom discussion.
Award-winning director Damon Gameau (That Sugar Film) embarks on a journey to explore what the future could look like by the year 2040 if we simply embraced the best solutions already available to us to improve our planet and shifted them rapidly into the mainstream. Structured as a visual letter to his 4-year-old daughter, Damon blends traditional documentary with dramatized sequences and high-end visual effects to create a vision board of how these solutions could regenerate the world for future generations.
Many academics believe that people become inactive or paralyzed on this topic because it all just feels too overwhelming and alarming. 2040 is an aspirational film full of hope about the possibility to make changes that will shift the course for humanity and the planet. This is the narrative the next generation needs to see, to aspire to, and to believe is possible.
Join a continent of UUs as we explore next steps in creating Beloved UU Communities
On Your Own:
Watch compelling video TED-talk style testimonials from selected congregations around the continent sharing their learnings, hopes and next steps in their quest for racial equity in their congregations
Together on February 27, 2021
Register Now
Do note that youth need to have permission forms signed before they can attend.
Our Justice Ministry Film Night is returning to second Friday evenings at 7pm. Our first offering is a film by Kathleen Dowdey. John Lewis: Get in the Way is the first biographical documentary about John Lewis. It is an inspiring portrait of one man cast into extraordinary times and his unhesitating dedication to seek justice for the marginalized and ignored. The film spans more than half a century, tracing Lewis’ journey of courage, confrontations, and hard-won triumphs. A discussion period will follow the film.
Mr. Lewis was the youngest speaker at the historic 1963 March on Washington, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his legendary “I Have a Dream” speech. And in March 1965, Lewis led the Bloody Sunday march in Selma, where Alabama State Troopers attacked peaceful protesters with billy clubs, bullwhips, and tear gas. Their horrific actions were broadcast on nightly news reports into living rooms across America; eight months later, the Voting Rights Act was signed into law.
Contact Charlie Wussow for the Zoom link.
Official Trailer: https://www.pbs.org/video/john-lewis-get-way-official-trailer/ Runtime: 54 minutes
There is no charge for viewing the film but donations are welcome. Or text UUAVL to 73256. Or send a check to UUCA, 1 Edwin Place, Asheville, NC 28801. You may donate to our General Fund or to our Community Plate outreach program. In February we will be donating all Community Plate income to an Asheville High School scholarship fund established by UUCA to be awarded once a year to a student who will attend a North Carolina publicly funded college, has financial need, has participated in community service, and has a weighted GPA of 3.0 or better. Extra consideration is given to first-generation college attendees.
Fear not. UUCA is not in any financial danger. But there ARE dangerous shoals u
p ahead as we find ourselves in a new normal after COVID times. Members of the Leadership Development Committee will lead a discussion about the near-future of UUCA using this article as a conversation starter. All are invited to attend. We’ll use breakout groups if necessary. Contact James Cassara for the session link. Brought to you by the Leadership Development Committee.