Fun fact: the first time a crèche, a nativity scene, was ever used as part of a Christmas Eve service was in 1223. It was a living crèche – with a real donkey, a real ox, a real mother and father, and a real baby – and it happened in...
We, the TJMC-UU and the UU Community Church, are delighted to invite you to attend the Ordination of Pamela K. Philips into the Unitarian Universalist ministry on Saturday, June 3, 2017 at 2 pm in the TJMC sanctuary. A reception will follow in the Social Hall. Ordination is the act...
Ever since I served as your President, I’ve wanted to continue the discussion about our solar panels. Thanks to John Semmelhack’s expertise and industry, we have some facts to share. Thanks to others “who were there,” we have some history and perspective to share. So on Earth Day 2017, as...
Then and There I called out letters blurred and less blurred. My eyes were examined. Machines and I agree. I can see the written page, the threading needle, the paved road. I look and look for, but what I can’t see is the later, the after this. I am blind...
For my non-Unitarian Universalist friends (whom I still love anyway!), the faith tradition I serve is currently embroiled in what I’m calling a struggle for the soul of our faith. I don’t think that that’s hyperbole. I think at question is no less that whether we are truly the people...
On Current Events in the UUA, and the Recognition of White Supremacy Before beginning the annual IMPACT service on April 9th, 2017, I spoke briefly to the current events and conversation(s) going on within our wider Association. This post from the Youth and Young Adult Ministry’s blog Blue Boat, “Reflections on White...
Show your UU pride and help support our youth programming! The YRUU (Young Religious Unitarian Universalist) Youth Group is selling custom designed TJMC t-shirts. On sale now for a limited time. Orders can be placed in the Social Hall after services or by emailing redirector@uucharlottesville.org. Include style, size and quantity desired....
Here are the questions asked during the “question box” sermon, Questions in Search of Answers, on March 26, 2017. For those who weren’t there, at the beginning of each service people wrote questions on index cards, and when the time came for the reflection, the cards were gathered together and...
Janice Walker “Quilts as Art” I make art for the challenge of seeing what I can do next with my palette of commercially printed fabrics. The originally designed works are sewn using a layering process similar to quilting, but made to hang on the wall like fine art. After the initial design is constructed, I add additional color and...
This month’s theme is “transformation,” and as I sat to write I found myself curious about the difference between change and transformation. The word change means, “to make or become different,” and it comes from the Old French changier, which means essentially the same thing. Transformation is defined as, “a...