Unitarian Universalist Church of Midland TX

Join us for service on Zoom this morning at 11am! Today's theme explores the ways art and music nurture us through hard times.

https://uuma.zoom.us/my/uucom
Meeting ID: 958 368 6410

You will be admitted from a waiting room to protect against Zoom trolls. Please ensure you are using your full and real name in Zoom.

For a low-tech option, you can call in with any phone to this number: 346-248-7799. When it asks for your Meeting ID, enter the above number.

This Sunday's service will explore the power of art and music to accompany us through hard times. The service will be led by Rev. Emily, with a sermon by our member Harry Nutter. Join us at 11 at our usual Zoom link!

https://uuma.zoom.us/my/uucom

Meeting ID: 958 368 6410

You will be admitted from a waiting room to protect against Zoom trolls. Please ensure you are using your full and real name in Zoom.

For a low-tech option, you can call in with any phone to this number: 346-248-7799. When it asks for your Meeting ID, enter the above number.

Join us tonight! Zoom link is on our home page: www.uumidland.org

Tonight at 8pm! You can watch this great film in honor of Earth Day, with UU’s Side with Love movement. Join via Zoom!

TONIGHT @ 9ET! Close out Earth Day 2020 with the award-winning documentary The Condor & The Eagle! Free to all, with sliding-scale suggested donations of $10-50+ benefiting Indigenous climate justice movements. RSVP @ https://bit.ly/2RTr06h Join us tonight!

“While the Earth Breathes…” |

It's Earth Day! Check out Rev. Emily's sermon from this past Sunday. 10 minutes - you can read or listen!

http://www.uumidland.org/blog/2020/04/22/while-the-earth-breathes/

uumidland.org

Our mid-week check in is starting soon! I’ve shortened the time but we will still have a great opportunity for a short meditation and check in. Join us! - Rev. Emily

UUCOM Weekly Announcements

UUMidland Weekly Announcements - https://mailchi.mp/6af46395b010/5uqg2qurkh-6404924

mailchi.mp Learn what is happening this week and the rest of the month at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Midland.

This Thursday! Game Night on Zoom! Join us! 7-8:30 pm at the link on our home page. Hosted by Rev. Emily.

Today’s online Zoom service will invite us to embrace a time of pause while we consider the way our human lockdown is enabling the rest of the earth to breathe deeper. 🌱

Join us for a time of community, support, and contemplation! All are welcome!

You will be admitted from a waiting room, so please make sure you use your full and real name so we know you are not a Zoom troll. 🙂

https://uuma.zoom.us/my/uucom
Meeting ID: 958 368 6410

For a low-tech option, you can call in with any phone to this number: 346-248-7799. When it asks for your Meeting ID, enter the above number.

This Sunday's online Zoom service will invite us to embrace a time of pause while we consider the way our human lockdown is enabling the rest of the earth to breathe deeper.

Join us for a time of community, support, and contemplation! All are welcome!

You will be admitted from a waiting room, so please make sure you use your full and real name so we know you are not a Zoom troll. :)

https://uuma.zoom.us/my/uucom
Meeting ID: 958 368 6410

For a low-tech option, you can call in with any phone to this number: 346-248-7799. When it asks for your Meeting ID, enter the above number.

Happening now! Zoom Mid-week check-in! I’ll start with a grounding meditation and then invite you to check in about how you’re doing. Come for connection and support. Link is our usual link and is on our home page: www.UUmidland.org

UUCOM Weekly Announcements

UUMidland Weekly Announcements - https://mailchi.mp/cfe326a39e30/5uqg2qurkh-6404588

mailchi.mp Learn what is happening this week and the rest of the month at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Midland.

CER Online Engagement Series Offers Rooted For This World, April 18, 2020, 10 am-12:30 pm

Central East Region of our UUA is hosting an event this weekend to bolster resilience, and it is open to you! And very affordable. People who cannot attend, but want a recording are free to register.

"Paying attention to our bodies can help us to nurture the resilience we need in these challenging and troubled times. Megan draws on her experience as a UU minister, and training in embodied somatic healing work.

In this online engagement studio, Megan will be sharing body-based practices that invite our bodies into the conversation about how we're coping in this present moment. These practices are grounded in social justice principles and scientific responses to trauma and oppression. She'll offer you opportunities to "try on" these practices in your home - while still being connected online. ...."

https://www.uua.org/central-east/events/webinars/rooted-world-2020

uua.org Paying attention to our bodies can help us to nurture the resilience we need in these challenging and troubled times. Megan draws on her experience as a UU minister, and training in embodied somatic healing work.

The Work of the People

We used this prayer in our service this morning.

FREE PRAISE SONG FOR THE PANDEMIC

written and read by Christine Valters Paintner, from Abbey of the Arts
music by Giants & Pilgrims

// stream and share video YouTube here:https://youtu.be/zCYoikGaI6U
// download & explore more films at: www.theworkofthepeople.com

ENDORSEMENTS for Travis and The Work of the People...

BRENE BROWN - “I think Travis’ work is critically important, soulful and beautiful. Thank you for what you do. It matters so much. We need your vision and voice.”

RICHARD ROHR- "The Work of the People" represents a new era of honest and wonder-filled Christianity, that is indeed of the people and not from the usual company men. Watch, listen, and be guided toward wisdom!” -

GLENNON MELTON DOYLE - “Working with Travis is a holy experience. His vision is truth, his warmth is comfort and his energy is FIRE. I believe Work of the People to be the most important, sacred project on the web today. Our time with you made us bigger and better and deeper and wider.”

GRACE JI-SUN_KIM - "The Work of The People films are crucial assets to churches, organizations, schools and groups who are interested in understanding Christianity for today. These films are artistic, provocative and heartwarming!"

ROWAN WILLIAMS - "Travis’s films are a resource of deep and thoughtful reflection, helping us see religious faith as a matter of far more than bare belief in abstract truths, but as a whole perspective on the possible riches at the heart of our human existence."

BARBARA A. HOLMES - "Through TWOTP's lens, we are able to view the many manifestations of wisdom and hope from women and men, who are also on the journey and are engaging the mysteries of life."

BARBARA BROWN TAYLOR - "Travis Reed is a genius behind the camera. In ways that bypass ordinary logic, he sees with his heart, makes connections between apparently unrelated things, and produces films that nourish the life of faith without putting anything sticky sweet in them. You can trust him to move you and make you think at the same time, but above all you can trust him. I did and do.”

Easter: Joy, even amidst Despair |

Missed our online service this morning? Emily's sermon is now online - there is video, audio, and text at the below link!

uumidland.org “In my own worst seasons I’ve come back from the colorless world of despair by forcing myself to look hard, for a long time, at a single glorious thing: a flame of red geranium outside my bedroom window. And then another: my daughter in a yellow dress. And another: the perfect outline of a full,...

"Be joyful though you have considered all the facts."
- Wendell Berry

Join us this Sunday at 11 am on Zoom for a service on Joy, even amidst despair.

https://uuma.zoom.us/my/uucom

Meeting ID: 958 368 6410

More details on our home page: uumidland.org

"Be joyful though you have considered all the facts."
- Wendell Berry

Join us this Sunday at 11 am on Zoom for a service on Joy, even amidst despair.

https://uuma.zoom.us/my/uucom

Meeting ID: 958 368 6410

More details on our home page: uumidland.org

Guthrie Theater

“Promise this world your love.” 💙

A UU minister’s poem, Pandemic, went viral (unfortunate choice of words, we know) and is now also on this LED screen. Thank you, @Lynn Ungar for your words, shared in our first online service.

We hope this line from Lynn Ungar's recent poem “Pandemic,” now illuminating our LED towers, will remind us all that in spite of being isolated, we are all in this together. Read the full poem here → guthrietheater.org

[04/09/20]   עולם חסד יבנה
olam chesed yibaneh
we will build this world with love

It is Enough
by Dana Faulds

It is enough right now
to taste one moment of
peace. Of course I want
more, but at least the
door is open.

It is enough to draw a
conscious breath and
let my hands relax,
fingers releasing their
tight grasp on things
outside of my control.

It is enough to shed a
layer of stress as if
taking off a jacket or a
pair of too-tight shoes.

Ease of being has to
start somewhere.
This breath is my
first step.

Starting soon! We'll start with a loving-kindness meditation and then do check-ins and conversation. Come for a few minutes or the whole hour.

UUCOM Weekly Announcements

UUMidland Weekly Announcements - https://mailchi.mp/63380ef8d237/5uqg2qurkh-6396816

mailchi.mp Learn what is happening this week and the rest of the month at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Midland.

Mindful Poetry | UCSD Center for Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a helpful spiritual tool in these times. Start your day with a poem from this beautifully curated list, like this one:

Forget about enlightenment

Sit down wherever you are
And listen to the wind singing in your veins.
Feel the love, the longing, the fear in your bones.
Open your heart to who you are, right now,
Not who you would like to be,
Not the saint you are striving to become,
But the being right here before you, inside you, around you.
All of you is holy.
You are already more and less
Than whatever you can know.
Breathe out,
Touch in,
Let go.

By: John Welwood

https://medschool.ucsd.edu/som/fmph/research/mindfulness/mindfulness-resources/Pages/Mindful-Poetry.aspx

medschool.ucsd.edu I go among trees and sit still. All my stirring becomes quiet around me like circles on water. My tasks lie in their places where I left them asleep like cattle. Then what is afraid of me comes and lives a while in my sight. What it fears in me leaves me and the fear of me leaves it. It sings and I....

Join us online this morning! My short reflection will focus on what the Jewish tradition of Passover has to teach us about this time of hardship and possible liberation. Looking forward to being with everyone online!
– Rev. Emily

https://uuma.zoom.us/my/uucom

The Meeting ID is: 958 368 6410

For a low-tech option, you can call in with any phone to this number: 346-248-7799. When it asks for your Meeting ID, enter the above number.

Garden tour

[04/01/20]   A number of recovery meetings have been impacted by COVID-19. If this is the case with yours and/or you are looking for online recovery meetings, in the comments below we will link to online meetings for AA, Refuge Recovery (Buddhist based), NA, SMART, Al-Anon, and Al-ateen.

April Newsletter

April Newsletter - https://mailchi.mp/906e7514545f/zoatr00id2-6390376

mailchi.mp Read more the learn about what is happening all month in the newsletter.

UUCOM Weekly Announcements

UUMidland Weekly Announcements - https://mailchi.mp/b4a85f4a3f36/5uqg2qurkh-6388364

mailchi.mp Learn what is happening this week and the rest of the month at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Midland.

It’s Transgender Day of Visibilty! Click below to head to Out in West Texas’ page to tell them why this day is important to you!

Today is Transgender Day of Visibility, and although we can't be together today--although we can't be physically visible in our communities as we are practicing social distancing--we wanted to take some time to share with one another our thoughts on why Transgender Day of Visibility is important to us. Tell us in the comments why Transgender Day of Visibility is important to you.
#transgender #tdov

Trans Plus

Always remember: you are not alone. ❤️

Shared from @transgender_together.

This is what Sunday service looks like on Zoom! Next Sunday join us in your pajamas with your coffee!

The second photo is from the tail end of coffee hour after service and the congregational meeting. Yes, that’s a rooster! 🐓

During these strange and hard times it’s so important to find community, comfort, joy, and laughter.

Join us this Sunday online - 11am! We've been having over 40 people at our Zoom services, creating connection, community, and comfort in new ways.

https://uuma.zoom.us/my/uucom
It will ask you to download an app to your computer. Just follow the steps. On your phone, download the Zoom app, and then use the meeting ID to join. If it's your first time, try to get there by 10:50.

The Meeting ID is: 958 368 6410

Or you can call in with any phone to this number: 346-248-7799. When it asks for your Meeting ID, enter the above number.

Children’s Space: Every Sunday from 10:15-10:45, at that same Zoom link, Rev. Emily will host a casual time for show-and-tell, check-ins, fun, and conversation.

Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting now

Happening now! (6pm central)
(Sharing from other UUs)
Needing a break tonight? Wed., Mar. 25, 7 p.m., Zoom Hymn Sing facilitated by Laura Weiss. All are welcome. Click this Zoom link: [https://zoom.us/j/136913078](https://zoom.us/j/136913078?fbclid=IwAR3-qn1IQeAI4Rh9Wix7m91axqzRMSfI71ckJ-rRtA4h1c7a_SoQ2mYJAXE). Enter Meeting ID: 136 913 078.

zoom.us Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution used around the world in board, confer...

UUCOM Weekly Announcements

UUMidland Weekly Announcements - https://mailchi.mp/837b10ad91a8/5uqg2qurkh-6381452

mailchi.mp Learn what is happening this week and the rest of the month at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Midland.

Make time for community and connection today!
Every Wednesday I will open our Zoom room (same link as the Sunday service, below) for a casual space to check-in and connect. We will start with a brief reading and meditation at 2:05, and then invite people to check-in and chat. Children are welcome. Come anytime between 2-3, and stay the whole hour or just for a bit. - Rev. Emily

To join us:
Click on this link: https://uuma.zoom.us/my/uucom
Or if you already have the Zoom app on your computer or phone, Join with our meeting ID: 958 368 6410

If you can’t or don’t want to use a computer or smartphone with a camera, you can call in with any phone to this number: 346-248-7799. When it asks for your meeting ID, enter 958 368 6410

Good Enough (My Hands Are)

Take a minute for spiritual uplift and listen to this song sung by Lea Morris.

Check out her work at thisislea.com

It's becoming a daily gift. When I take my morning walk, the sweet, generous Muse sends me a chant. Then, we adorn it using Garageband layers. Session 2 came...

Churches move services, ministries online

Our church is included in this article spotlighting local churches’ efforts to help flatten the curve but stay connected.

mrt.com St. Nicholas' Episcopal is among area churches that are moving services and outreach to online for the foreseeable future.

Join us online every Sunday at 11 am! Let's Zoom through this time together! We'll focus on connection, spiritual uplift, and community. If it's your first time, try to arrive by 10:50.

Sunday, March 22:
10:15-10:45 am Children's Space: Show-and-tell, Check-ins, Fun, and Conversation

11 am Service led by Rev. Emily and our Music Directors

12 pm Ministerial Transition Info Session led by the Board

To join:
https://uuma.zoom.us/my/uucom
Meeting ID is: 958 368 6410
More detailed instructions on our home page: uumidland.org

[03/18/20]   Many new and important updates in our weekly announcements this week! Check it out!

https://mailchi.mp/f45aaae541d1/5uqg2qurkh-6376348?e=6848f6ea9e