This Week at OUUC
Church Activities
Profound Human Rights Implications of America’s “War on Drugs”- A pair of films and discussion sessions are offered respectively on May 20 from 6:30 – 9:00 pm (The House I Live In) and on May 26 from 3:00 – 5:30 pm. (Michelle Alexander, the author of The New Jim Crow) to the broader community as the impassioned response of participants in an Olympia Unitarian Universalist Congregation (OUUC) Adult Education Class led last month by Molly Gibbs. The focus was Michelle Alexander’s arresting book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Her book was selected as the 2012–2013 nation-wide Unitarian Universalist Association Common Read.
May Community Dinner - Friday, May 31 at 6:00 pm. Everyone's invited! We'll gather together in the Commons the last Friday of May to say thank you to each other, to say thank you to those of us who keep our congregation vital and in the world. Our main course: curry will be cooked by our own Bill Arensmeyer. What could you bring? You could bring a side dish to share with everyone, and no, it doesn't have to go with curry. We look forward to seeing you there! Please RSVP by emailing connectionscoordinator@ouuc.org to tell us how many chairs to set up!
~Labyrinth~ Save the Date - We have the opportunity to walk a Labyrinth right here at OUUC. It will be set up in the Sanctuary on Saturday, June 1 from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. The Labyrinth is not a maze - it has just one path and no dead ends; the path to the center is also the return path. The path winds throughout and becomes a mirror for where we are in our lives. It touches our sorrows and releases our joys. Walk it with and open mind and an open heart. There is no charge, but a donation will be gratefully accepted to cover the cost of bringing the Labyrinth here from Spokane.
Join Our Youth in Olympia’s Pride Parade - This year the Pride Parade occurs on June 22, Saturday, 12:00 – 1:00 pm (line up at the State Capital the hour before) rather than Sunday as occurred in past years. As our Youth Group is small this year, they need your help carrying our Standing on the Side of Love Banner, and they and all LGBTQ folks need your support. I am sorry that I will be unable to participate this year, as I will be out of town over that weekend, attending our Association’s General Assembly. I have always found it a great thrill to participate in this delightful and important community event – being cheered by thousands just for showing up, but then, showing up is what life is mostly about. -Arthur
Volunteers are now being accepted for the 2013-2014 Religious Education program. Our wonderful children and youth need teachers, classroom assistants, and advisors - in fact we need 50 volunteers to staff our fabulous Religious Education Team fully. You do not need to be a parent, or a trained teacher, or an expert on UUism or religion. All you need is to enjoy kids, be willing and able to be here for about one Sunday a month, have been around OUUC for at least six months, and be able to pass a background check. Look for the display board and application forms in the Commons. Don't let the chance to be part of the learning, fun, and community happening in Religious Education pass you by!
For those of you who didn't make it to the OUUC auction dinner and would like to participate and/or to those who were at the auction but did not know about the silent auction item, there are still good seats available for OUUC Caberet II at Traditions Cafe' on Sunday, June 16, 7:00 pm. There will be hors d'oeuvres and beverages. An evening of merriment and good cheer is planned for but not guaranteed*. Purchase tickets in the church office. *(posted as a legal disclaimer)
“When you laugh, you change, and when you change the whole world changes around you.” – Dr. Madan Kataria Did you know Laughter Yoga meets weekly? Please join us at 10:30 am every Sunday! Questions? Talk to Trish Kelso-Wright or Justin Wright.
New to OUUC? Please join the third Sunday of the month at 10:45 am for our Introduction to OUUC class, where you will meet interesting people and learn more about OUUC. The session lasts about an hour and childcare is available.
In the Larger Community
Quixote Village Groundbreaking Celebration – Saturday, June 8 at 2:00 pm at 3350 Mottman Rd SE, ¾ miles west of South Puget Sound Community College.
Olympia Shape Note Singers invite you to the 4th Annual Olympia All-Day Singing and Dinner on the Grounds. Saturday, June 1, 9:30 am to 3:30 pm at the historic Woman’s Club of Olympia, 1002 Washington St SE. All sessions are open to the public and admission is free. Registration begins at 9:00 am, singing begins at 9:30 am, with a potluck dinner on the grounds at noon. No experience necessary. Questions? Contact Marla Elliott.
Request from the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice - One of our Foundation's guiding principles is to foster connections between peoples on global and local levels. With this in mind, we are creating a study abroad program to bring a person to Olympia from Rafah, in the Gaza Strip of Palestine. This Leadership Studies Fellowship is an opportunity for Social Work and Education field workers from Gaza to observe, volunteer, interview and access local nonprofit organizations in Olympia centered on Education and Trauma Therapy, to study the ways in which they are managed and projects are implemented while simultaneously improving English language skills. It is an exciting program that will bring greater diversity to our community while increasing all of our global awareness and ability to communicate across differences. We are currently looking for home-stay families that can offer one participant a home-stay for anywhere from two weeks to three months. For more information email Justin Mauger.
General Information
Photo Use - The Olympia Unitarian Universalist Congregation occasionally takes photographs during services and other congregational events. These photos of members and other individuals are intended for use in various forms of church-related media. OUUC obtains implied consent for this use of photos by advising in announcements or other congregational publications that photos may be used for OUUC purposes. Members not wanting their images or images of their children under the age of 18, so used may add their names to a list by notifying the church administrator. When a single image is used, or an individual’s image is dominant in a group photo, OUUC will make a good faith effort to contact the individual for courtesy notification and express consent prior to the photo’s placement in a public medium.