What To Do about Rumored ICE Sightings

Let’s not create unfounded fear by spreading “rumors” about ICE sightings that may be unfounded! If you or someone you know thinks they see ICE, please have them call the Siembra ICE watch hotline at (336) 543-0353. They will then confirm, and if it’s a valid sighting send this information out through their networks.

From UUA: Heads of Major American Religious Traditions Issue Landmark Statement Supporting Trans, Intersex and Nonbinary People

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Kitchen Crew Running on Fumes – Let Us Know if You Can Help!

The kitchen crew is seriously understaffed. We need at least two people to make coffee on Sundays mornings and serve refreshments for our 10:00 am Coffee Hour. On the job training will be provided. If you can commit to an occasional Sunday and are willing to learn we’d love to have you on our team.

Please contact Patricia Bartholomew at kitchencrew@uufws.org or text her. Better yet, pop in the kitchen between 9:15-11:00 am, look around and ask lots of questions.

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Sunday Reflections: November

Reflections From 11/2/2025 ~ All Souls Sunday

This past Sunday, we honored all who died, with particular attention to those who died within the past year and had been a part of our Fellowship Community. We read their names, and sang songs of honoring our ancestors.

We also heard the story Popi’s All Souls Song*, the choir sing the gorgeous song In Remembrance by Eleanor Daley, and gleaned some wisdom from Robin Wall Kimerer’s essay Becoming Earth: Experimental Theology (it’s well worth the read!).

*a reminder that just like at a library, you can “check out” this and other stories we read together at the end of the RE hallway, across from the single stall bathroom!

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Sunday Reflections: October

Reflections From 10/12/2025 ~ Our Muddy, Middle World

Want to hear our story from this Sunday, The First Fire, a Cherokee creation story told by the storyteller herself? You’re in luck – here’s Gayle Ross at the Museum of Native American History in Bentonville, Arkansas.

This Week’s Wonderings:

  • Where’s the fun (for me; for us) in living in a muddy world? Where’s the struggle (for me; for us) in living in a muddy world?
  • What do I/we need to do to find more joy in the fun, and more ease in the struggle?

…and where does spiritual practice/ritual/routine fit into these answers for you? How might these help you meet the moments?

Reflections From 10/5/2025 ~ The Hardest Word

This past Sunday we began our month exploring to Stories of Messy Humans by looking at the wisdom from the Jewish High Holy Day of Yom Kippur. We heard a story of the Ziz through the children’s book The Hardest Word: A Yom Kippur Story. We then reflected on what we can learn from the Jewish atonement process of t’shuvah, which is often translated as repentance, and more literally means returning. We discussed the five stages of t’shuvah, from middle ages Jewish Rabbi, philosopher and Torah scholar Maimonides, as explored by Rabbi Danya Ruttenburg in her book On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World.

For a summary of these five stages of t’shuvah, you can read Rabbi Ruttenburg’s blog The Heroic Work of Repentance for the Union of Reform Judaism.

Wondering words for our week:

  • To whom do I need to say “I’m sorry”?
  • What relationships in my life need repair and reconciliation?

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Caring for Each Other

As humans, we each have a deep need for intimacy, friendship and community. As Unitarian Universalists, we fulfill these needs as we give and receive from one another. Contact care@uufws.org if you are in need of a kindness, or would like to be with another as they are facing their storm.

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Reflections From 9/21/2025 ~ Bread and Roses

This Sunday, we kicked off our year’s worship theme of Stories of Bread and Roses, by hearing the story of the origin of the phrase “Bread and Roses”.

We learned that it likely came from Helen Todd, factory inspector turned Suffragette due to her heartbreak over seeing children working in factories. We also learned that it was likely written down by Helen because of Maggie, the hired help of an older woman hosting the Suffragettes on their tour across Illinois. Maggie shared with the Suffragettes that their reflection on how we needed “bread, and roses, too” was her favorite part. The phrase then went on to become a rally cry and song for workers and so many other fighting for justice.

To read Helen’s full article in American Illustrated Magazine, Volume 72, you can go to the Google books link here, and then search for “Helen Todd”. This will take you to her article “Getting Out the Vote” on page 611.

New Year, New Sundays!