Holiday Office Closing: January 19

The Church Office will be closed Monday, January 19 in honor of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday. CLCM will also be closed.

Valentines Day Dinner Opportunity  $100 per couple

There are still 2 spaces (2 couples/4 people) available for the Valentine Dinner, sold at the Auction. There will be appetizers and cocktails, followed by salad, then a tasty entree with sides, and promises of a fabulous dessert. The evening will end with special coffee drinks or other tempting evening libations.  This is a good way to celebrate without going to a crowded and noisy restaurant. There’ll be stimulating conversation and soft music, for only $100 per couple (no tax, no tip), that’s a real bargain. Contact the office if interested.

CLCM’s Souper Bowl Sunday – Food Pantry February 8

Super Bowl Sunday is February 8, and we all tend to enjoy great football, the great half-time show, and great snacks. But for many in our downtown neighborhood, snacks and meals are not reliably available. The food pantry at Calvary Episcopal Church serves the clients of Central Louisville Community Ministries and will be collecting canned soup, canned spaghetti, and all other non-perishable foods through the months of January and February in observance of what we call “Souper Bowl Sunday.”  Food donations are gratefully accepted.

Did Your Lights Turn into Scrooge?

The Solar Array Project will take any strand of discarded Christmas lights you want to get rid of. The copper wire in the strands will be salvaged and kept from the landfill.

Green Sanctuary UU Climate Action zoom meeting January 28

Join us from 7:00pm – 8:30pm via zoom. Register and get the zoom link
The annual Celebration is a time for our Active Green Sanctuary Teams to come together to share what they’re working on. It’s a fast-paced, inspirational review of all the good work our congregations are doing. Come to learn how UUs are transforming our congregations through climate justice or share what your congregation is working on in your GS2030 ministry. Join the fun! — Come together for shared learning and mutual supports with other UUs transforming our congregations through climate justice. Green Sanctuary 2030 community meetings take place on the third Wednesday of the month.

New to UU: Path to Membership

• What: Upcoming workshops for folks who are curious about UU, on the fence about getting more engaged with First U, or seeking a deeper connection at First U.
• Why: Because your next step on the path is going to be different. There’s no universal answer to the “What’s next?” question that satisfies everyone’s needs. Together, we can discover and explore and discover the connection that brings each of us deeper meaning.
• When: Four-Sunday Series: 9:45-10:45  January 11 and 18 and February 8 and 15.
• Where: Room 204 (the “High School Room”) Ask a greeter for directions
• How: Sign-up to register for New to UU or email us at Connections Ministry.

Thank You Dishwashers

Thank you to everyone who helped wash dishes at our last First Sunday luncheon. The number of folks who join us for lunch is steadily increasing, which means that the environmental impact of our decision to use reusable dishes is increasing as well.  Reusable dishes prevent vast amounts of plastic and coated paper products from ending up in landfills, where they take centuries to decompose, so every month we use reusables, the more First U does to protect the environment.  Please join us again and bring a friend! Stop by the kitchen next month to learn more!

Try Out Being a Worship Associate!

Want to go behind the scenes in worship? Spend more time with our ritual rocks and water? Interested (or not) in smaller speaking roles during services? Being a Worship Associate can include any or all of these! Try it out by shadowing a current Worship Associate. Rev. Liz is also available for coaching if you’re interested in speaking roles. To sign up or learn more, contact worship ministry.

Birthday Bash Bakers

Help us celebrate every third Sunday of the month by being a “Featured Baker” for the month you choose. Signup for a turn at the oven or the ice cream machine. Let us know what month will work for you and we’ll arrange for the party! Let us know.

Dinner Club Signup

Our tradition of potluck suppers at some of the region’s finest establishments continues. Register now to be a host or guest for our six exciting dining experiences of 6-8 people during the year. Email us.

Room in the Inn Louisville

See the information on our Justice page for more details how RITI offers life-saving relief from frigid nights on the streets for unhoused neighbors amid a shortage of permanent shelter beds. Contact the office for more information.

In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King wrote: ” We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” On this MLK Sunday, we’ll explore how his network of mutuality intersects with our own Unitarian Universalist value of interdependence and contemporary justice initiatives like mutual aid networks.

Grounded in an understanding of the Jesus story as God’s empathic and liberating initiative towards humanity, the sermon makes the point that those, who live their faith by participating in God’s ongoing work of liberation and healing, need to develop practices of empathy. At a time when democracy is threatened by religious and political actors, such practices of empathy are practices of resistance against the exclusionary and oppressive agenda of white Christian nationalism.

About the Speaker:
The Reverend Dr. Frank Woggon is the director of Chaplaincy Services for UofL Health and Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at UofL School of Medicine. Ordained by the German Baptist Convention and endorsed by the Alliance of Baptists, he is an ACPE Certified Educator and a board-certified chaplain in the Association of Professional Chaplains. Frank is married to Kelley, a colleague in ministry and chaplaincy, and they have two adult daughters, Hannah and Erin, who shine bright in Durham, NC, and in Berlin, Germany.

Did you know that Unitarian Universalists have a long history of supporting abortion rights and reproductive justice, going back to the early 1960s? Come learn about our faithful actions on this issue through time and today.

Children’s RE Contact: Loren  

This begins in the sanctuary at 11:00 with the Moment for Ages. They leave during the Song for the Children.

The Nursery: Tadpoles will be open for babies and pre-k  from 9:30am-12:15pm on Sundays.

Registration Forms. Registration information is required for each child, including those in the nursery.

Adult (RE) Contact: Adult Religious Exploration

• All are Welcome: Members, friends, visitors, curious people, and people lost in the building are all welcome.
• Check-in begins at 9:45. Class meets in the Church Library at 10am.

No Other Land Viewing: March 8
First U Adult RE will be joining the Jewish Louisvillians for Peace (JLP) and the All Peoples Justice Center to host a screening of the film No Other Land at First U at 2:30 pm on Sunday, March 8. A trailer for the movie can be viewed here.  Sign up for tickets here.

KY Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice Events

All Peoples Unitarian Universalist Church in Louisville (4936 Brownsboro Rd). Visit the page of the festival and register for the screening(s).

• Thursday January 22 on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, KRCRC will be participating in the Justice Center’s film festival with a screening of the documentary The Janes (2022) at Doors open at 6:30pm. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion regarding the current context of reproductive rights in KY.
• Sunday January 25 KRCRC will host a virtual conversation with Rev. Donna Schaper who is featured in the documentary The Janes as one of the former members of the Clergy Consultation Service. The conversation will start at 3pm on zoom.
• Sunday February 1 in collaboration with the Justice Center at All Peoples and the Louisville chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women, KRCRC is hosting an Interfaith Forum on Reproductive Rights. It will be held at All Peoples and start at 2:30pm.

Justice Center Film Festival at All Peoples

Unless otherwise indicated, (Feb. 8) doors open at 6:30p, film begins at 7pm
Location: All Peoples Congregation, 4936 Brownsboro Road

• January 15 – “I am Not your Negro”
  Based on some of the later and unpublished writings of James Baldwin about race in America that tracks the lives and assassinations of Baldwin’s friends Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Medgar Evers.
• January 22 – “The Janes” 
  Explores the story of seven women who worked clandestinely to ensure women had access to abortion and other forms of healthcare during the time when abortions were illegal.
• January 29 – “The Territory” 
  An immersive on-the-ground look at the tireless fight of the Indigenous Ure-eu-wau-wau people against the encroaching deforestation brought by farmers and illegal settlers in the Brazilian Amazon.
• February 5 – “The Price of Fairness: Why We Accept Inequality and Social Injustice” 
  Examines why we accept huge levels of inequality and social injustice, beginning with a surprising set of social experiments in Norway, which suggest that our willingness to support systems of inequality is far greater than we are often prepared to admit.
• February 8 – “No Other Land”  (note different location) begins at 3pm at First Unitarian Church
  Made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective, this film shows the destruction of the occupied West Bank’s Masafer Yatta by Israeli soldiers and the alliance which develops between the Palestinian activist Basel and Israeli journalist Yuval.
• February 12 – “We’re All Plastic People Now”
  Investigates the hidden story of plastic and its effects on human health.

Suggested donation: $10/person/film

Room in the Inn Louisville

First Unitarian volunteers will once again have the opportunity to participate in the Room in the Inn (RITI) Louisville winter shelter program, January-February 2026.

• We hope to cover 5-8 nights during the winter months of January and February, spread across the two months. We will need three volunteers for each evening shift (4:30-10 p.m.), two for each overnight shift (10:00 p.m. – 5:00 a.m.), and two for each morning shift (4:45 a.m. – 7:30 a.m.). There are opportunities for men and women to volunteer. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact the office.
• Donation If you want to support RITI Louisville but cannot volunteer, consider making a donation. We are especially looking for mattress donors; each mattress costs $350. But every contribution helps, no matter the size! You can donate HERE.

About RITI
Louisville’s community ministry is modeled after a program initially founded in Nashville in 1985 that has been replicated in nearly 40 other locales, including Washington, D.C., Charlotte, N.C., and the Kentucky cities of Bardstown, Bowling Green and Lexington. Nashville today has more than 100 participating congregations that provide temporary overnight shelter during the winter months for individuals experiencing homelessness.

This year, RITI Louisville is expanding to a second overnight shelter, offering life-saving relief from frigid nights on the streets for unhoused neighbors amid a shortage of permanent shelter beds. There will be a women’s (and children) shelter at Christ Church Cathedral, and a men’s shelter at Grace Immanuel United Church of Christ, doubling the program’s capacity, providing approximately 1,000 overnight stays for 30-50 guests. The program is supported by volunteers from at least 17 congregations and organizations.

RITI Louisville is now an independent 501(c)(3) organization, able to accept charitable donations. One of of our Congregation is the President of its Board of Directors. Feed Louisville will be providing dinners at both sites Mondays through Fridays, while congregation volunteers will provide the meals on Saturdays and Sundays.