On Wednesday night, a group of peaceful protesters gathered outside the LeMay car museum in downtown Tacoma. A “business summit” was being held to air concerns that business leaders have about crime and other issues affecting them. On the agenda was instituting “sweeps” encampments of unhomed people. Members and friends of TUUC took part in … Continue reading Hit and Run
Beloved friends, One of the tabs that’s open in my browser whenever I’m working is the CovidActNow.org site. If you’ve not yet looked at it, the site provides information about the spread of COVID including the 7-day-average of the number of cases recorded, the status of hospitals (including how full the hospitals are overall and … Continue reading Worship Service and Meeting Update for December 28, 2021
Beloved friends, The coronavirus and its waves are hard to predict and the Board, staff, and I continue to navigate through this time. After being in person on December 5th, we’ve seen volatility in the number of cases (https://covidactnow.org/us/washington-wa/county/pierce_county/?s=26811580), and following the policies we’ve set up (https://www.tahomauu.com/tuuc-coming-together-risk-levels-novmeber-18-2021/), and given the holidays, we will be postponing … Continue reading Looking to the New Year
Dear Beloved Friends, Last Sunday was a glorious, giddy day as we held our first in-person service since March 2020, after a full 92 weeks of only online services. The return was not without its bumps (the internet went out at the church only moments before the service was meant to begin!), and we learned … Continue reading Worship Service Update
September once again has brought beautiful autumn weather our way, and the change in seasons has also brought a few property incidents as well. Earlier this month, we had a homeless woman start a small campfire on the front porch of the church early one morning to which fire and police responded immediately. The building … Continue reading Building Safety Update
Dear Beloveds, Our Coming Together Team has been hard at work determining best practices for keeping our beloved community safe and healthy as our nation navigates the Delta variant of COVID-19. Pierce County has now entered into the Very High risk category for COVID transmissions, and this past week the UUA released its updated guidance … Continue reading Coming Together Update for August 26, 2021
Greetings TUUC! I’m so enthused to be serving as your Sabbatical Minister this summer and fall. Now that my ministry term with you has begun, I thought it’d be helpful to offer some orientation and details on what all of us can expect from the ministry in the months ahead. I know we’re all looking … Continue reading Sabbatical Ministry Updates
When I was working with homeless teens in Chicago early in my ministry, I attended a conference on teen pregnancy hosted by the University of Chicago. The panel of experts included doctors, social workers, psychologists, and front line social service agency workers. I have long forgotten what was said, the notes I took were abandoned … Continue reading Dreaming a Different World
There are times in life when it’s hard to figure out what to say. Comforting someone who has lost a beloved family member, for example. There are no words to meet that grief adequately, the small, clumsy ones we use never feel like they are enough. Or when a catastrophe hits, and whole cities are … Continue reading When Words Don’t Come
A few weeks ago, Barbara Child mentioned that she wouldn’t be going back to Kent for the 50 year commemoration of the killing of four students on the Commons at Kent State University. In a private Facebook group she shared some memories of that day in May, 1970, the sunny hillside, students protesting the escalation … Continue reading Homily: What Gets Us Through
