Did you get to the NOAH Mayoral Candidate Meeting this past Sunday with David Briley and John Cooper?   You can see the video HERE and the Tennessean article HERE.

BUT THE METRO COUNCIL IS ALSO A CRITICAL DECISION-MAKER!

Each of us has a District Council Member (Find yours HERE.)  But ALL OF US vote for the five AT-LARGE COUNCIL MEMBERS who are to represent the city as a whole!

On August 1st, only one At-Large Candidate received enough votes to be elected (Bob Mendes).  In order to fill the remaining FOUR At-Large Council seats, EIGHT people are running in the Run-Off Election on Thursday, September 12. 

Want to know more about these eight candidates?

“At-Large Forum – Chicken and Biscuits”

SUNDAY, AUGUST 25 – 5 PM

Nashville Farmers Market

900 Rosa. L. Parks Blvd

5:00 PM – Forum

6:00 PM – Chicken & Biscuits

Chicken & Biscuits provided by Vice Mayor Shulman

This is a chance to meet the At-Large Candidates, get answers to questions submitted by NOAH and others, and have a little FUN!

RSVP at WPCTN.com.

Please tell others!  A flyer is HERE.

Early voting times and locations are HERE.

 
NOAH
http://www.noahtn.org/

“When you open up your life to the living
All things come spilling in on you
And you’re flowing like a river
the Changer and the Changed
You’ve got to spill some over…….
Spill some over
Over all” from “Waterfall” by Chris Williamson

When it rains it pours. At least it has the last few weeks when the baking heat builds for several day until we can no longer stand even the short trips from air conditioning to air conditioning and then we are relieved by a down-pour. Maybe relieved isn’t the right word, because some of those down-pours have been downright scary and I am not even talking about the violent thunder, lightning and wind. It rained so hard one day last week that the whole church campus was one big waterfall, flowing 360 into the diagonal ditch/river that runs through until there were powerful white-water currants roiling from one corner to the other. It was awesome—literally—beautiful and frightening at the same time. Then rain often stops as suddenly as it started, it is a bit cooler and a bit less humid, with a bit less pollen in the air, for an evening or, if lucky, a day or two. Then the heat builds again. I wonder if we will eventually have a monsoon season.

Life often feels like that awesome waterfall. People moving away. Lots of new people around. Betrayals and break-ups. Falling in love. Getting divorced. Planning a wedding the second time around. Becoming deathly ill. Seriously injured in an accident. Leaning on friends to get through the day. Losing a job. Starting a new one. Becoming a new parent. Children doing active shooter drills at school. As the singer-songwriter Chris Williamson sang “When you open up your life to the living, all things come spilling on you.”

That is why most weeks we mark our joys, sorrows and concerns by placing a stone in water. Living is like standing in the middle of all that water falling and spilling 360 from heart to soul, roiling currants threaten to sweep us away, powerful white water knocks us upside down or flowing waters spilling over fling us up onto unfamiliar territory. We are the changers and the changed. But the water we use on Sunday morning is in a beautiful bowl that holds all of those experiences ever so safely in community, in support, and in love.
This Sunday we hold our annual celebration of Water Communion for the 25th year. Each person is invited to bring water that symbolizes your life. It may be from a special place you have gone or from your sink, you name its meaning in your life. We mingle the water together that each person brings. By its mingling, it becomes this community’s holy water. Then we spill some over—over all—as we use that water to bless our children, remember our dead and hold the stones of joy, sorrow, and concern that you place there week after week, for the year to come.

With faith and love,

Gail

September Theme: Vision, Perspective
Sept 1: Perspectives on Labor in the Market, Household, Commons and State. Rev Gail and Worship Associate Rachel Rogers.

 

“When you open up your life to the living
All things come spilling in on you
And you’re flowing like a river
the Changer and the Changed
You’ve got to spill some over…….
Spill some over
Over all” from “Waterfall” by Chris Williamson

When it rains it pours. At least it has the last few weeks when the baking heat builds for several day until we can no longer stand even the short trips from air conditioning to air conditioning and then we are relieved by a down-pour. Maybe relieved isn’t the right word, because some of those down-pours have been downright scary and I am not even talking about the violent thunder, lightning and wind. It rained so hard one day last week that the whole church campus was one big waterfall, flowing 360 into the diagonal ditch/river that runs through until there were powerful white-water currants roiling from one corner to the other. It was awesome—literally—beautiful and frightening at the same time. Then rain often stops as suddenly as it started, it is a bit cooler and a bit less humid, with a bit less pollen in the air, for an evening or, if lucky, a day or two. Then the heat builds again. I wonder if we will eventually have a monsoon season.

Life often feels like that awesome waterfall. People moving away. Lots of new people around. Betrayals and break-ups. Falling in love. Getting divorced. Planning a wedding the second time around. Becoming deathly ill. Seriously injured in an accident. Leaning on friends to get through the day. Losing a job. Starting a new one. Becoming a new parent. Children doing active shooter drills at school. As the singer-songwriter Chris Williamson sang “When you open up your life to the living, all things come spilling on you.”

That is why most weeks we mark our joys, sorrows and concerns by placing a stone in water. Living is like standing in the middle of all that water falling and spilling 360 from heart to soul, roiling currants threaten to sweep us away, powerful white water knocks us upside down or flowing waters spilling over fling us up onto unfamiliar territory. We are the changers and the changed. But the water we use on Sunday morning is in a beautiful bowl that holds all of those experiences ever so safely in community, in support, and in love.
This Sunday we hold our annual celebration of Water Communion for the 25th year. Each person is invited to bring water that symbolizes your life. It may be from a special place you have gone or from your sink, you name its meaning in your life. We mingle the water together that each person brings. By its mingling, it becomes this community’s holy water. Then we spill some over—over all—as we use that water to bless our children, remember our dead and hold the stones of joy, sorrow, and concern that you place there week after week, for the year to come.

With faith and love,

Gail

September Theme: Vision, Perspective
Sept 1: Perspectives on Labor in the Market, Household, Commons and State. Rev Gail and Worship Associate Rachel Rogers.

 

Choir rehearsals for Water Communion and our Fall season resumed on Thursday, Aug. 15,  7 p.m. Choir is open to members and friends age 16 and up. Never sung in a choir before? That’s okay. If you are enthusiastic, willing to commit to weekly rehearsals, sing at Worship two Sundays a month, and can carry a tune, you are welcome. Email Jaie at music@firstuunash.org to schedule a brief meet and greet for voice placement.

Some of our staff telephones are not functioning.  If you attempt to call and do not reach anyone, please email staff instead until further notice.

Thank you.

Operations Council invites you to participate in our fun bi-annual Spiff-Up Day and lunch, Saturday, Oct. 12, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. Everyone is invited to come join the fun sprucing up our space! We’ll be painting, cleaning the windows, deep cleaning and working on the grounds. Lunch will be provided around noon, so please let us know if you will be here. Sign-ups will take place before-hand in the social hall on Sundays, but walk-ups are always welcome. Many hands make for quick work!

We have one shift this time. Work the whole or part of the shift and plan to enjoy the community lunch at noon. Please bring your mops, buckets, gloves, sponges, and any other cleaning armaments you wish. If you don’t have those, we’ll have extra. We hope you can be part of the party. Let us know by emailing operations@thefuun.org or signing up below so we can plan for the day and for the lunch.

On July 7th, a guest minister named Marti Keller conducted a service at FUUN called “A Feminist Fandom.” Many folks felt uncomfortable while watching the service, in which Rev. Keller dressed in a Frida Kahlo costume and encouraged the consumption of Mexican culture. The Worship Committee values these concerns. We have decided to remove the video as well as increase our level of care when it comes to guest speakers and services about marginalized cultures. We apologize for any harm this may have caused, and appreciate your patience and feedback.     

Choir begins rehearsals for Water Communion and our Fall season on Thursday, Aug. 15,  7 p.m. Choir is open to members and friends age 16 and up. Never sung in a choir before? That’s okay. If you are enthusiastic, willing to commit to weekly rehearsals, sing at Worship two Sundays a month, and can carry a tune, you are welcome. Email Jaie at music@firstuunash.org to schedule a brief meet and greet for voice placement.

Caitlín Matthews will be speaking at FUUN on The Healing of the Grail: The Sacred Hospitality of Nature and the Restoration of the Wasteland. Saturday, Sept.14, 7- 9:30 p.m. Her talk will be based on material from her book “The Lost Book of the Grail: The Sevenfold Path of the Grail and the Restoration of the Faery Accord” due for release summer 2019. Copies of the book will be available at the event. Please do not contact FUUN with questions regarding the event. The event is hosted by Celli Sanctaidd O Gerridwen A Lleu Druid Grove: Grove@DruidryNashville.org or 615-502-2163.

Nonviolent Communication (NVC) Practice Groups: Register now at the Sunday Faith Development table in the social hall or with the online form which will be posted here soon.

Covenant Groups: Register now at the Sunday Faith Development table in the social hall or with the online form which will be posted here soon.

A Fabulous New Year for Children’s Religious Education is Right Around the Corner

Great things start happening in September, and we need to know who is coming. Why? Because we need to have enough supplies, enough Teacher Assistants, enough space, and we need to know who may have allergies or learning differences, and, well, we’d just like to know your names.

Sunday school and Youth Group both start on Sept. 8. Please plan to register and/or confirm your existing information by Sept. 1.

Here’s what’s happening:

Sunday school for PreKindergarten* through 8th grade starts at 9 a.m. on Sept. 8.
*Includes 4-year-olds and those who have turned 3 by Sept. 30.

Youth Group for 9th – 12th grades starts at 11 a.m. on Sept. 8.

Coming of Age for 7th-8th Grades is coming soon! Calendar TBA.

Our Whole Lives (OWL) for Kindergarten-1st Grade, and for 4th-5th Grades, will take place in Winter/Spring 2020, but classes fill up quickly, so register now to reserve your space.

It’s easy. You can do it all at the same time by completing the online registration form.

It is necessary to confirm your information at the start of each church year. This is an important part of our efforts to best serve and ensure the safety and well-being of our church community’s children and youth.

We want to do a great job for you, and we want to make this the very best year yet… please help us by registering as soon as you possibly can. If you have any questions, we’d love to hear from you:

Marguerite Mills 
Director of Lifespan
Religious Education
MMills@firstuunash.org
615-383-5760, ext. 304

Jonah Eller-Isaacs
Religious Education Coordinator
RECoordinator@firsuunash.org
615-383-5760, ext. 315

As part of our faith journey as Unitarian Universalists, we are regularly challenged by the ways race and racism affect our lives and our spirituality. Within our congregations we are creating space to build a community of care among UU People of Color, opportunities to explore deeper questions around race, culture and our religious values.

We invite UU People of Color in the Greater Nashville area to gather for dinner and facilitated meeting. We will have a worship led by local UU Religious Professionals of Color. Our goal is to nurture new relationships between UU People of Color in the area, discuss some of the historical development of UU People of Color and anti-racism efforts, and learn more about what the community needs and interests are among those who attend. We will share a new working timeline chronicling the major milestones and development of UU People of Color ministries.

Please RSVP with Rev. Joseph Santos-Lyons jsantoslyons@uuma.org or +1(503)512-0490 ideally by August 10, 2019. We ask participants to bring a side dish to share if they are able for dinner. We will have several main dishes catered. The event is open to UU People of Color and People of Color interested in Unitarian Universalism.

***

DRUUMM is the Diverse & Revolutionary Unitarian Universalist Multicultural Ministries, a volunteer led national organization dedicated to serving the spiritual growth of UU People of Color and fulfilling the our vision of an anti-racist/anti-oppressive/multicultural faith. Learn more at www.druumm.org

DRUUMM recognizes every Community of Color is impacted differently, and each community maintains their own unique identity and culture. People of Color/Person of Color/Community of Color is a political identity of survival and being in resistance to racism and colonialism, one that builds solidarity and create positive change.

Are you new here? Interested in learning more about our congregation or becoming a member of the church? The New Member Class on Saturday, Sept. 7, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. in the social hall is a great opportunity to learn more and meet interesting people. Join Assistant Minister Denise Gyauch and others for an orientation to Unitarian Universalism and First UU Church of Nashville. Brunch, childcare, and good company provided. Those who attend this class may choose to sign our membership book in New Member Celebrations during Sunday services on Sept. 22. Please email Denise at assistantminister@firstuunash.org to register by Wed. Sept. 4.

 

Guided look at our new website and optional tutorial 

Aug. 21, 7-8:30 p.m., social hall

Join our Director of Communication for one or both parts of this class. The first part (7-7:30 p.m.) is a guided look at our new website (firstuunash.org). Hear firsthand about our communication strategy (for seekers and current members) and the fabulous options now available to our community leaders on this site such as blog pages, categorized post displays, and interactive, animated additions. 

Part two is a behind the scenes tutorial on our user-friendly (Divi Builder) website featuring real-time changes, layout and design options which enable easy updates to your pages (no prior knowledge of WordPress is required). Even if you do not wish to update your own website information, understanding how it works better enables you to work with the Director of Communication who values your input and is here to meet your communication needs.  Childcare is available.

Our lead minister Gail Seavey will be retiring in about a year and the Board will be hiring a Developmental Minister. The Board will soon be in the process of considering candidates to serve on the Developmental Minister Task Force which will present a candidate to the Board for consideration. We hope that this task force will be representative of the diverse groups in our church. If you are interested in serving on the Developmental Minister Task Force, please watch here where we will post an application.

The office will be closed Thursday, July 4 for Independence Day. Have a safe and fun holiday.

Everyone welcome! Bring a snack to share; kids and instruments encouraged. Gather & set up at 7 p.m., opening circle at 7:30, then lots of drumming and dancing in the social hall. The Hot Moon is all about what happens when we turn up the heat. If our lives are expanding up to a boil, what transformations, intentions, or other changes are emerging? What are we releasing and what are we hoping for?

The Book Group meets on the third Tuesday, noon-1:30 p.m. in the Fireside Room. All are welcome.

Please join us on June 18 when we discuss Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

Aug. 20 when we discuss A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.

Our Sept. selection is Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng.

                      –Liz Schneider

 

This is a very exciting time for our congregation.  At the January congregation meeting a decision was made to build a new church facility at our current location.  To achieve that goal, the Building For our Future (BFF) Task Force was created by the board with the job of coming up with a plan for a capital campaign to accomplish this, and staged architectural plans for constructing a new facility and dramatically reforming the grounds to properly support it.

As you can imagine, this project will be the work of the entire congregation – over the next year our task force plans to work hard at soliciting input from many directions.  We will try to communicate in a variety of ways to make sure people know what is happening, and also to hear their voices.

Our initial step has been to contact a capital campaign consultant to help determine a realistic fundraising goal, and how to proceed with that campaign.  A grant from the Endowment Trust will make that consultation possible.

Over the next few months we will start trying to identify architects that are interested and appropriate to help us with this project.  As that progresses, we hope to share potential visions of our church-to-be with you.

Our charge from the board is to present a plan for a capital campaign and staged construction plan by next June 1.  That is an aggressive time line, but we will try to meet it.

If you wish to discuss this project, please look for announcements of community meetings or reach out to a member of the task force to share your thoughts and questions.

 

-Building For our Future Task Force

Mike Bolds – Chairman

Rob Connor

Christopher Cotton

Jacob Hathaway

Phyllis Salter

Chas Sisk

Vicky Tataryn

Dear Beloveds, As a nonbinary, queer seminarian who only officially became a Unitarian Universalist four years ago, I've had to navigate a wide array of relationships and communities in which I've felt varying levels of acceptance. While Unitarian Universalism's welcoming stance on LGBTQ+ issues was one of the aspects that drew me to the denomination, I would be lying if I said I've always felt fully accepted as a nonbinary person in UU spaces. This year, I joined TRUUsT, a group for trans* UU religious professionals, and I was fortunate enough to attend the annual TRUUsT retreat. The feeling of being surrounded by other trans and nonbinary folks who are called to be religious professionals was a mixture of relief, joy, and determination. While it was amazing to meet and befriend these powerful, beautiful individuals and to share common experiences, I was struck by how many of us had had similar ambivalent or downright negative experiences within UUism. It was clear that while a lot of progress had been made, Unitarian Universalism as a whole has a long way to go to be fully welcoming of trans people. TRUUsT recently released a Report on the Experiences of Trans Unitarian Universalists. This report was based on a 2018 survey that TRUUsT conducted along with the UUA’s Multicultural Ministries office. You can read the full report here and TRUUsT’s Executive Summary HERE. I'm hopeful that uplifting these findings will help the UUA and UU congregations to do the work to become more completely welcoming. Amen & Blessed Be, Jade Let’s Get to Work! These results show that Unitarian Universalism still has a ways to go to be a fully welcoming faith. However, TRUUsT also points the way forward, and lists....
Five Concrete Ways to Support Trans UUs starting now. Learn more here. The UUA and TRUUsT will engage in a strategic conversation about where the UUA’s work over the next 5 years could help lead to different outcomes and impacts for trans UUs. Likewise, we urge you to read TRUUsT’s Executive Summary and full report and consider its immediate and long range implications on trans persons in your congregation and throughout Unitarian Universalism. Thanks to this informative report, we can now begin to truly move forward. Jade (they/them/theirs) Jade Sylvan, TRUUsT Member
LGBTQ+ Ministries Intern
Unitarian Universalist Association <!--

 The Trans Affirming Collective (TAC) is June’s Share the Plate recipient.

 TAC is a Social Justice Action Team at FUUN formed in 2017 and dedicated to creating community through activities that let our transgender and gender nonbinary siblings feel welcomed and needed at FUUN.

In March, we worked with Rev. Denise Gyauch on the Transgender Day of Visibility service, which was the only such event in Nashville this year. We were grateful to celebrate the importance and beauty of our trans and nonbinary friends at FUUN and throughout metro Nashville.

On June 16, TAC and Chalice Fire hosted a Rainbow Tent, a space to gather for communal healing and Nurture Spiritual Growth. Intentionally inclusive of folx of all ages and across the gender spectrum, the Rainbow Tent included energy healers, pet therapy, and readings from inclusive children’s books.

Thanks to a grant from the LGBT Action Team, we are excited to offer coursework beginning Fall 2019 that will help our congregants and TAC create a wholly inclusive community at FUUN.

Part of the donations you make through the Share the Plate during June will go towards providing tasty treats to participants, future education, and community building efforts. Thank you.

 

 

Are you looking for ways to get involved?  Maybe looking for an opportunity to help support the church? Our Staff always welcomes your time and talents!

Office relies heavily on our amazing volunteers to help out by answer the phone, greeting guests and assist with easy special projects. We are looking to add to our team! Volunteers serve one day a week – either morning or afternoon shift. If interested please contact Mary in the office at 615-383-5760 or office@firstuunash.org

Here are a few more details:

These positions are usually filled during weekday hours, in the FUUN Office and are ideal for adults and young people who are able to work in an office setting with little or no supervision

• Weekly: Our committed and busy staff appreciate some helping hands. Volunteers use their time as our smiling faces greeting guests and answering phones as well as assisting with a variety of business office related tasks and projects as needed.

          Time commitment: 4 weekday hours, once a week.

• Bi-Monthly: Volunteers are needed to join the team assembling the bi-monthly newsletter.  Treats and drinks are provided along with lots of appreciation!

          Time commitment: 2-4 weekday hours, 3^rdThursday of May, July, Sept., Nov., Jan., and March

• As-Needed: Occasionally our regular weekly office volunteers need a day off and office subs are needed to support the office.  Also, from time to time large office projects come up where many hands are needed.

         Time commitment: 1-4 weekday hours, monthly