FYI: The Church Parking Lot Has Been Cleared

• If you have a meeting scheduled, contact your group to see if your meeting is still happening when scheduled.
• While the church parking is cleared, staff members and volunteers may not be at church as some live in areas that have not been cleared and/or have children at home because schools are closed.
• If you call the church and don’t get a response, feel free to leave a voicemail – it goes directly to the church office email. Leave your email address in addition to your message to speed up the response. Contact the Church Office (Barbara), Building Supervisor (Kristi) or the Volunteer Desk.
• Rev. Liz is out of town at a professional development conference and is scheduled to be back Monday, February 2.

Postponed Lunch 

We are postponing First Sunday lunch to the second Sunday, February 8.

First Unitarian Book Club: Monday, February 9

We will meet in the church library (the room behind the sanctuary organ) at 6pm. All are Welcome! Our February book is The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters. E-mail the office if you need a copy.

Resources from Sunday, January 18

• Side with Love Minnesota Resource Kit
• Rev. Ashley Horan’s posts UUA VP for Programs and Ministries
• Minneapolis mutual aid fund

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 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 by 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.

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.

The Nursery:

The Tadpoles Room will be open for babies and pre-k  from 9:30am-12:15pm on Sundays. Registration Forms. are required for each child, including those in the nursery.

Contact Loren Crawford, Director of Religious Exploration (DRE)

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.

No Other Land won the 2025 Oscar for Best Documentary at Academy Awards – See acceptance speech 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).

• Sunday February 1 at 2:30pm 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.

Justice Center Film Festival at All Peoples

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

• 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 12 – “We’re All Plastic People Now”
  Investigates the hidden story of plastic and its effects on human health.
• March 8 – “No Other Land” at First U at 3pm
  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.

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.

RITI Louisville is now an independent 501(c)(3) organization, able to accept charitable donations. One 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.