Welcome to CrossCurrents!

This monthly communication is intended to keep you informed about significant happenings and initiatives.

Your thoughts and comments are welcome – please forward them to communications@uucwc.org.

This is the Story We Tell Each Year

Rev. Kim Wildszewski

Nobert Capek is one of the great names of our tradition. He was a Baptist, then a Heretic, and then much later, the man who founded Unitarianism in the Czech Republic during World War II after learning of it here in Orange, NJ. It is because of him that every year at this time, Unitarian Universalists gather for our annual Flower Communion.  Read more...

The Religious Education Year in Review
Robin Pugh, Director of Lifespan Religious Education

We have had a wonderful year in children’s RE.  Our program is growing. We have 117 children and youth, that is15 children more than last year. We have several classes that are bursting from the seams with over 15 registered children. Some highlights from last year:  Read more…

Robin Pugh, Director of Lifespan Religious Education, can be reached at dre@uucwc.org. Please contact her to volunteer to help teach a children’s religious education class, or if you want more information about UUCWC’s Adult and Children’s Religious Education programs.

From your Board of Trustees

At the Annual Meeting, We Faced Our Growth

Michael Dalzell, Secretary, Board of Trustees

Congregational growth — and how we can harness it for good internally and beyond our walls — was a recurring theme at the UUCWC Annual Meeting, June 4. Ninety-nine members attended the meeting, exceeding the count for a quorum.  Three of the board’s goals this year related to our growth either directly or indirectly. At the meeting, Acting Board of Trustees President Pam Shadzik reviewed those goals and, with the help of other church leaders, detailed our progress toward them.  Read more…

LGBTQ+ Potluck & Group Forming

by Ana DelCorazon

UUCWC has a long history as a Welcoming Congregation; embracing and providing space for the LGBTQ+ community for decades. In this tradition, new efforts are underway to gather LGBTQ+ members and friends of all sexual orientations and gender identities. Over twenty members of all ages attended a potluck at the church in mid-May to break bread, meet new friends, and make posters for the Lambertville/New Hope Pride Parade the next day. A huge success with anticipation of greater participation in the future!  Read more…

Strategic Vision Task Force
UUCWC’s Home Improvement Project
by Jamie Trott, SVTF Chair

In late 2016, the Board of Trustees appointed a group, which came to be named the Strategic Vision Task Force, to undertake a series of tasks, the first of which was to identify facility concerns that interfere with our ability to fulfill the mission and vision of UUCWC.  As of May, we have identified many preliminary needs aligned to our Mission & Vision, refined them into specific projects with estimated costs, and briefed the congregation in early April on the task force, its purpose and activities.  We now are ready to start gathering input from the congregation.  Sign up for a cottage meeting and read more here…

General Assembly’s Ware Lecture: Bryan Stevenson will speak on Saturday, June 24 9:20pm-10:30pm

Bryan A. Stevenson is an American lawyer, social justice activist, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, and author of the acclaimed book Just Mercy. The Ware Lecture will be televised LIVE, on Saturday, June 24 at UUCWC. This will NOT be re-broadcast or recorded, so here’s your chance. Yes, it’s late, but worth it. If you’re interested in sharing this experience as a group at church, please RSVP no later than June 21 to DA@uucwc.org.

General Assembly is the annual meeting of our Unitarian Universalist Association. Follow along at www.uua.org/ga.

Beautiful Struggle: Building Knowledge and Courage for a Better World

The Racial Justice Initiative is hosting guest speaker Dr. Ruha Benjamin on Sunday, July 9 from 12noon to 2 pm.

Professor Ruha Benjamin will pair social scientific insights on racism and inequality with spiritual insights on human oneness and justice which, taken together, offer tools that we urgently need to create a better world.  Childcare available. Pizza will be served. Contact Nathalie Edmond to RSVP as space is limited.

ARE  will be offering the 8-session class Beloved Conversations: Meditations on Race & Ethnicity in September. The mandatory training for all participants (no exceptions) will be the evening of Friday, Sept 22 and all day Saturday, Sept 23. If you are considering taking Beloved Conversations, please save these dates and contact Robin Pugh at dre@uucwc.org. 

The Summer Reading Challenge Has Begun!

This summer we are exploring more intentionally the vast, rich territory of books by and about people of color. Capitalizing on the concept of summer reading, this is a low pressure read-a-thon, where we set our own goals and read what we like. The idea is simply to challenge ourselves to read more books by and about people of color.

Left to the traditional literary canon taught to us in school, our exposure to authors and characters of color is minimal. Likewise, the books most often advertised and displayed prominently in libraries and bookstores (outside of a “diversity” focus) are usually about white characters and by white authors. Read more…