Midweek UUpdate 7/15/26

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Proudly Progressive, Boldly Inclusive, Radically Friendly

FYI 
 

July 19: Children’s RE Summer Fun: (Schedule Change)

Build a Fort Day: Build a fort in the Raccoon Room and have a spooky time
See the remaining Summer RE Plans for Children.

CLCM + School Supplies Drive: Collection ends July 23

The drive to collect school supplies by Central Louisville Community Ministries is now in full swing!   Your donations of 10-pack pencils, 24-pack crayons, pens, colored pencils, 3-pack highlighters, packs of post-it notes and looseleaf paper, 3-pack gluesticks, scissors, spiral notebooks, composition books, 2-pocket folders, tissues and backpacks are greatly appreciated! Drop off your donations here at church – they’ll all be donated to 2 neighborhood schools: Cochran Elementary and Coleridge-Taylor Montessori.

Gail Helinger

Gail’s memorial service will be Saturday, August 15th, at 3 pm here at church. A brief obituary is in the July 9 Courier-Journal. We hold all who cared about Gail in our hearts, minds, and prayers. Read more from Rev. Liz.

New Feature: Getting to Know Your Board

Monitor the section below to learn more about those serving on the First U Board.

From the Seventh Principle Team…

See the 7th Principle Section for many interesting activities and information. What is the Seventh Principle?

Reminder: You can still attend virtual GA Sessions for FREE

Click here for a FREE special opportunity to participate in sessions, workshops and worship services, even though GA is over in person.

Getting to Know Your Board
My first thought when asked to write this? “Come find me at coffee hour and let’s discuss how I’m the most boring person you’ll meet today!”

This is my second year on the Board of Trustees.
I love First U’s commitments to many missions and causes and the work people do on a daily basis. Also, I appreciate how many things here “just get done,” quoting Reverend Liz. So many of you contribute in a multitude of ways.

Professionally, my background contains a mix of a long Army career (including four combat zone deployments), a lot of crisis communications/PR work, and a heavy stint in advertising — think Darren Stephens from Bewitched meets a slightly less-dark Don Draper from Mad Men. My “best military deployment” was a cool one: Helping post-war Bosnia rebuild in the ’90s; I’ve been back twice since and have plenty of stories to share.

Have lived in KY before and moved back five years ago to work as a civil servant at Ft. Knox, where I wrangle my old foe, PowerPoint, on a daily basis. I’ve found some progressives there and folks who are Unitarians –They just don’t know it yet! (Working on them).

My passions include all things nerdy: Computers, sci-fi/fantasy, and photography. Lately, I’ve been adapting vintage manual lenses (like a 1970s-era Soviet lens) onto modern digital cameras with some really cool results.

I’m looking forward to continuing to connect with everyone in the congregation!

Join Us This Sunday at 11:00am

July 19

Pride and Pridefulness

Guest Speaker:
Matt Livers
“No, this is not a pun on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. In this sermon, Matt Livers will discuss how seeing a loved one’s shared post on Facebook got him thinking more about the word pride with all its various meanings and implications.

Pride is a powerful word with the ability to build community or to harm it. Do we, as community members, have the courage to love ourselves and celebrate our accomplishments as one meaning of pride suggests? Do we also have the courage to acknowledge when we are living apart from others because we feel we are better than them or we do not wish to feel vulnerable in asking for help, or to apologize for our actions, as another meaning of pride suggests? Please come and feel welcomed.”
 

For the zoom link, Click here. The Meeting ID is 4508929882 if you can’t attend in person.  You will not need a password. Contact the volunteer desk if you have trouble getting online.
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.

Join Us for Upcoming Services
 

July 26

Trek Rules for Living, part 2
Guest Speaker: Jane Martin Buckley

Gene Roddenberry created a story about what our culture could evolve to in the 24th century. This is a follow-up to a recent service.

 August 2

A Lammas Celebration
Speakers: Lady Vanessa and Ron Zorn
 

We will celebrate Lammas, “loaf mass,” (also referred to as Lughnasadh) in circle format as we honor the August holiday. This festival marks the bounty of the grain harvest, which may also manifest as the successes in our own lives. Now as the sun begins journeying to the south, we acknowledge our achievements, and our personal harvest, by coming together in community to symbolically return these blessings to the earth.

About Our Speakers

Lady Vanessa is a High Priestess of the Wica in Louisville where she’ been active since 1981. Transformative and earth-centered practices are the focus of her spell work, tarot readings, rituals, and teachings. As an advocate for Pagan paths, Lady Vanessa has appeared on local media, but more often facilitates public rituals and classes through CUUPs at First Unitarian Church, Louisville Pagan Roots Festival (FKA Louisville Pagan Pride), and Clifton Unitarian Universalist Church.  In addition to being a Unitarian Universalist Church member, she has a M.A.T. and holds ministerial credentials of public record through the New Wiccan Church. For fun, goodwill outreach, and charity, Lady Vanessa regularly dances with Bluegrass Black Hats.

Ron Zorn is a long-time member of First Unitarian Universalist Church and a Co-Facilitator of the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (CUUPS) here at First U. He is Co-Chair of the National CUUPS organization on their Board of Directors. He follows an Earth-Centered Spiritual path and enjoys collecting books on a variety of religious paths that are outside of the Abrahamic faiths.
 

Save the Date: The 2026 Water Communion Service  will be August 30.
 

Seventh Principle Team’s Learning Moment

Plastic-Free July is a global movement that helps millions of people reduce plastic waste through simple everyday choices.  The basic idea is to reduce single-use plastic waste every day at home, work, and even at your local cafe. Here’s just a few ideas: bring your own reusable shopping bag to the grocery store; refuse plastic straws; use your own refillable water bottles; bring your own coffee mug to the cafe.  You can read more tips, and take a pledge to have a plastic-free July.

Welcoming a New (guest) Machine to the Kitchen

The kitchen crew, the solar array funders, and the 7th Principle Team would like to welcome a guest machine to our kitchen crew: The Kitchen Mill.  Staff, renters, and volunteers at First U can now divert food waste from the landfill and sewer stream.

This stand-alone machine will allow us to process the small amounts of food waste we get throughout an average week and on Sunday lunch days so that it is not going into the waste stream.

A mill is a standalone device that is both a food grinder (like your sink disposal) and a dehydrator.  Waste gets “ground up” and “cooked down” to compacted flakes that are ready to further compost. Don’t worry, we’ll still be looking for people to take compost starter after Sunday Lunch.

We’ll be trying it out for 60 days and if we like the way it works, we’ll keep it!

Why not get a sink disposal? 

  • Our plumbing isn’t set up to handle an in sink food grinder.  The grease trap is already pushing it to its limits.
  • Sink-ground food scraps get diverted to a different waste stream, but it’s still a waste stream.

Why not compost our raw scraps on the property?

  • A larger uncovered space inside our garden areas that would be an unsafe and unsightly area.
  • Outdoor compost needs just the right amount of sun which our property doesn’t get in places we’d want an uncovered compost area.
  • Desciating (removing water) and grinding the food means using a small container composter is practical.

Interested in what to add and when?
Contact the office. Read more here.

RE: Religious Exploration
Contact Loren Crawford, Director of Religious Exploration (DRE)
Learn More About RE Here
Families Welcome / Childcare Available beginning at 9:30

Adult (RE) Contact: Adult Religious Exploration

Are you curious about Adult RE? Click here
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.

Children’s RE Contact: Loren Crawford

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

Are you curious about Childrens RE? Click here
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. They will join the older children in Summer RE as appropriate.

Summer RE for Kids!

JULY
  • 19: Build a Fort Day: Build a fort in the Raccoon Room and have a spooky time
  • 26: Board Game Day: A wide assortment of games for all ages
AUGUST
  • 2 Solar Oven Day: Build a pizza box solar oven to make s’mores
  • 9 Peace Stone Day: Paint flat rocks with kind words to hide around the neighborhood 
  • 16: Cooking Day II: Create goodies for a donation-based lemonade stand. Proceeds go to CLCM 
  • 23 Jar Day: Decorate jars for Water Communion. Give to the congregation at coffee hour.
  • 30: Water Day III The Last One:  It’s Water Communion Day!
September 6: RE Classes begin