We are less than three months away from the General Election on November 3, 2020. All California voters will be sent a vote-by-mail ballot with prepaid postage for the General Election. To make sure that you get your ballot, double-check your voter registration at voterstatus.sos.ca.gov.
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Tip of the Week: Planting a shade tree is a visible and affordable way to take local climate action. Trees absorb carbon, reduce water and air pollution, provide wildlife habitat and help cool the planet. Decades of inequitable investments in San Diego communities can be reduced by planting trees in neighborhoods that lack them. The Kate Sessions Commitment invites communities to plant 100 trees in their neighborhoods. Reserve your five-gallon tree today.
Take some time to reflect on the following questions to help you find your voice:
By Maureen McNair
Last Saturday morning, a woman I had never met drove over to my house and gave me $300 in cash. To be fair, I had spoken with her on the phone earlier in the day when she used her credit card to pay the fees for over a week at a county campground. Her altruism was on behalf of a homeless US Marine and his family who showed up at the South Bay Food Pantry earlier in the day. The Marine, David, with his two year old son in tow, found our pantry through 211 emergency services. One of our pantry volunteers gave David a standard bag of food we create for unsheltered guests. Saturday was a busy day. Our pantry has seen a 25% increase in clients over the last two weeks. Last Saturday when David showed up, we served 127 heads of household, representing about 570 people, in 90 minutes. I did not have a chance to get to know David until he came back later to give me his phone number. He had offered to volunteer. We have assembled a list of the best anti-racism articles, books, social media feeds and videos we know of to help people learn about a wide range of topics relating to racism. Please invest in yourself, your family, your community and our world by viewing and sharing these links and, more importantly, we hope you'll join us in taking the steps shared herein to begin to heal our world.
![]() Join members and friends of the Palestine-Israel Justice team for our first virtual book discussion. We will read: The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East by Sandy Tolan. The discussion will take place on Sunday, August 2 at 4 pm (via Zoom). In 1967, Bashir Al-Khayri, a young Palestinian man, journeyed to Israel to revisit the beloved old stone house, with the lemon tree behind it, that he and his family had fled nineteen years earlier. When he arrived, he encountered Dalia Ashkenazi Landau, a young Israeli woman, whose family fled Europe following the Holocaust. On the stoop of this treasured home, Dalia and Bashir began a rare friendship, forged in the aftermath of war and tested over the next thirty-five years in ways that neither could imagine on that summer day in 1967. As Unitarian Universalists we must speak and act to stop the frequent, state-sanctioned violence committed against members of our shared community. The murders of Breonna Taylor in Kentucky, Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, Tony McDade in Florida, and George Floyd in Minnesota, among so many others, were all committed by police or former police. Here in San Diego, we also see police brutality such as that perpetrated against an individual walking her dog on the beach as well as in La Mesa when a police officer had an altercation with a black man at a trolley station. This is not about a few rogue officers. This isn’t about the need for more training. This isn’t even about a change in leadership. Replacing one police chief with another is not enough if the pervasive racist system that empowers them is unchanged. The work of transforming our law enforcement and justice system into a true JUSTICE system will be long and difficult, messy and painful. We commit to that work, in solidarity with our partners. Violence against Black and Brown bodies, committed by officers of the law, demands this system must be remade.
![]() By Martin Kruming On a warm, sunny day in March, San Diegans went to the polls. After showing identification, they received their ballots, stepped into voting booths, made their choices, handed the ballots to poll workers, and hurried off to work, home, or elsewhere. Thousands of miles away, citizens of Azerbaijan, a former Soviet Republic surrounded by Russia, Iran and Turkey, showed up at polling stations on a cold, blustery day in February to choose members of the Azerbaijan Parliament. They showed IDs, took a ballot which they marked, returned it to the election officials, and stuck around to socialize with fellow voters. Two places-16 hours apart by plane-each trying to make democracy work during a very unsettling and confusing period in history. ![]() By Tony Brumfield I want to begin my reflection on resilience by talking about the tree outside our window. That tree needs certain things to withstand difficult times. For one, it needs to be firmly rooted. The Earth not only holds it in place but provides nutrients. The tree needs water. When a tree doesn't get enough water, or the quality of its water is poor, the tree becomes vulnerable to disease. Trees also need air. Trees breathe. Trees need sunlight. Sunlight, water, and air are needed for trees to generate food. The temperature of the air can neither be too hot nor too cold. But trees need more than physical things. Trees thrive best in a forest. I must say that we human beings need the trees in our lives. Not just the trees but all the other living things in our world. And they need us. The resilience of this world very much relies on us human beings being responsible, not just for us, but for all of life. ![]() By Rev. Tanía Márquez, Assistant Minister When I was 14 years old, while visiting my family's town in Southern Mexico, a group of friends invited me to climb to the church's bell tower from where we could see the procession of people coming into the town to celebrate its annual festival. To get to the bell tower, we had to go through a dark and narrow spiral staircase. While looking forward to the view from the town's highest building, the time we spent in the staircase seemed endless. I was afraid, mostly because it was hard to see beyond the step I was about to take, and it was the voices of the people I couldn't see, but who were there with me, that encouraged me to keep going. ![]() By Maureen McNair In June of 2019, four or five congregants attending the annual meeting in the Meeting House wrote down that their vision for the future of First UU included a food pantry or a soup kitchen. At the time, the primary concerns on the minds of most people at that meeting were things such as how we would respond to the offer from UCSD Medical Center to purchase our Hillcrest campus; whether we would expand our music, dance, and art programs; and, requests that we find more ways to enjoy meals together. I didn't believe those few requests to start a food pantry would make it into the top five goals of the new strategic plan the congregation was providing input for. But, those requests reflected such an acute and immediate need that, as a newly elected member of the Board of Trustees, I thought we should do something about them. ![]() By Kathleen Swift, Family and Lifespan Ministry Director Like most of us, your fears and anxieties over the coronavirus COVID-19 are probably elevated right now. Although the risk for children and young adults appears to be less than for older adults, news of this pandemic is changing daily and is alarming. Many parents are wondering how to talk about it with their children in away that is reassuring, but factual. According to experts at the Child Mind Institute, it's better to talk about it than avoid the subject. Your children have probably already seen people wearing masks and have heard stories from their friends. Not talking about it can make kids worry more.
On Saturday, May 2nd, 2020 we enjoyed a very moving and beautiful online ordination for Reverend Everett Howe. Press the play button to watch the recorded live stream go to our Facebook or YouTube pages to watch and see comments (and add your own). ​Go to our Facebook page | Go to our YouTube Channel | Download the Ordination Order of Service | Traducción al español .
![]() Len and I spent six weeks trying to escape winter weather, on the Sea of Cortez, near Guaymas, Sonora, where it was a bit warmer than here on the Pacific Ocean. We rented a beautiful hacienda style house, steps from the shore. We settled in and adopted a daily routine: sleeping until the sun woke us, Len feeding and walking the dog while I cooked breakfast, enjoying the sun's warmth while eating breakfast on the patio, watching the fishermen, a diver, brown pelicans, seagulls and an occasional bottlenose dolphin begin their daily routine right in front of us. Getting acquainted with a new kitchen is always a bit challenging, but, after a few days, I could fix breakfast without too much difficulty. Until one morning when I lost the can of Pam Cooking Spray. The South Bay food pantry will be open every Saturday in May from 11 am - 12:30 pm.
Our virtual annual meeting will be held on Sunday, June 28th at 1 pm. Please plan on attending to hear about and vote on important issues and learn about how things are going in our church. More detailed information about meeting URL and virtual voting process will be coming soon. See you there!
![]() Hillcrest: bring your food donations to the Hillcrest parking lot every Saturday from 8am-9am. Deliver bags and boxes to the bed of Dana Tomlinson’s dark grey Ford pick-up truck with camper shell. South Bay: deliver donations directly to the food pantry from 9:30am - 10 am. Get directions to either location. Peanut butter is our most frequently requested food! We cannot buy it in bulk, so your individual donations of 1 or 2 jars makes a difference! Our other frequently requested items are:
![]() Please join us on the First UU website home page on Saturday May 2nd, 2020 for the online Ordination of Everett Howe. Many UU ordinations include a laying-on of hands, where the people present give a blessing to the new minister and their ministry by a physical connection. The physical connection part is not going to be possible due to the need to stay safe through social distancing so instead, Everett has requested that anyone who is inclined can write a one- or two-word blessing for his ministry in large thick highly-visible letters on a piece of paper and take a selfie with the message. Messages can be anything from "Good Luck" to "We're With You" to whatever you like. When finished, email the photo to [email protected] by midnight on Monday, April 27. We'll make a slide show of the photos we get and show it as part of the online service. As Everett says, "Seeing your friendly faces and your blessings will be a gift to start me on this new phase of ministry with a sense of the loving community that has supported me throughout. Thank you!" Remember to email your photo in by midnight on Monday, April 27th. It’s time for preparation and submission of your Ministry Team / Affiliate Group / Committee reports for our 2020 Annual Report. Click here for your report instructions and template. Refer to our 2019 Annual Report here, and submit your reports and pictures no later than Friday, May 15 to Rose Riedel at [email protected].
Here are the top 8 jobs where the pantry could use more support.
Here’s your video Easter gift from First UU Church! Take a moment to enjoy the wonderful flowers in bloom on our Hillcrest campus this week. Photos by Ray Evans. Music: “Morning Mood" from the Peer Gynt Suite by Edvard Grieg.
![]() Both one-time and monthly sustaining donations help us stay open! No amount is too small, or too large. To donate by check: Make your check payable to FUUSD, write "SB Food Pantry" in the memo line and mail to to FUUSD, 4190 Front St., San Diego, CA 92101, Attn: Robie Evans. To donate by credit card: Go to firstuusandiego.org/donations.html. Follow the steps and under "Fund" select "SB Food Pantry." Remember to select the frequency for your donation. Photos by John and Peggy Holl. Click for a larger view. Because we’re doing all we can to minimize the spread of COVID-19 and staying at home, we won’t be gathering for our traditional Seder ritual and dinner. And we still want and need to acknowledge this important time. Passover begins tonight at sundown and ends at sundown on April 16th. According to an article in Sunday’s Union Tribune on Religion and Spirituality, many know this year’s Passover will be different. While gathering together with families and strangers for the traditional meals will not happen this year, they can happen virtually. Even in the most traditional practices of Judaism, permission from Rabbis has been given to use social media platforms to gather virtually for the Passover ritual and meal. As Rabbi Laurie Coskey says, “We’ll all have our tables set with our ritual foods, and we’ll all come together as best we can. …Although no theological significance can be attributed to the pandemic, a sense of the vulnerability for our humanity and our need for connection is heightened at a time when we cannot be comforted by our loved ones or beloved rituals in ways we have in the past.” However, she says, “rituals and connections are what nourish our humanity” and so Passover will be observed. Here’s a link on how this year’s Passover can happen for you. May this year’s observance inspire deeper connections to all you hold dear. https://jewishfed.org/news/events/webinar-how-host-virtual-seder
Church member and psychologist Lynn Northrop and her colleague Amanda Mendez are sharing an important tool for self-care in the time of COVID-19. This tool, rooted in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, was created by psychologist Russ Harris. I hope you find this helpful and my deep appreciation to Lynn and Amanda for sharing this tool. ~ Rev. Kathleen Download a worksheet based on the video worksheet en Espaniol | worksheet in English.
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