The Justice League of Greater Lansing will return for a followup to our October 8 discussion on Sunday, January 14 at noon. Founders Willye Bryan and Prince Solace will be here to discuss the rapidly growing movement for faith-based reparations in the greater Lansing area and the various ways that liberal congregations are participating in that.

Everyone is welcome. Healthy snacks will be served.

All are invited to participate in the Southside Community Kitchen’s annual Holiday Celebration, as a donor, a volunteer, and/or a guest! We will enjoy singing, gift bag distribution for guests, and another great meal.

You can help us prepare for this joyous day by bringing in donations of items for the gift bags (and overflow to be distributed through our blessing box along the driveway) to UU Lansing on Sunday mornings before worship:

• winter hats

• gloves, hand warmers

• socks

• scarves

• sanitizer

• washcloths

• toothbrushes, toothpaste

• shampoo, conditioner

• soap

• deodorant

• large Ziplock bags

We are looking forward to another shimmering holiday performance in our Sanctuary by local LGBTQIA+ -affirming choir LanSINGout! This year’s festive show, “Sparkles, Shimmers, & Songs of the Season,” will be on Friday, December 8 and Saturday, December 9 at 7:30 p.m.

We are looking forward to another shimmering holiday performance in our Sanctuary by local LGBTQIA+ -affirming choir LanSINGout! This year’s festive show, “Sparkles, Shimmers, & Songs of the Season,” will be on Friday, December 8 and Saturday, December 9 at 7:30 p.m.

Sharing Sunday is a chance for you to bring in unwanted items (home and kitchen goods, garden tools, decor, arts and crafts, clean clothes, decorations, etc.) to share with others. You can drop items off in the Social Hall before worship and then browse other people’s donations that you may take home free of charge after worship. After everyone has taken what they want, the remaining items are boxed up by volunteers and taken to local charitable organizations.

The Southside Community Kitchen:

• Serves meals on a reliable schedule, with no cost or prerequisite requirements for guests.

• Provides a beautiful dining experience where people are served with kindness and respect.

• Offers a safe and nurturing environment.

The Southside Community Kitchen serves meals four days a week to anyone hungry in Lansing without any prerequisites, qualifying questions, or documentation. If you are hungry, and in need of a hot meal for any reason, for any length of time, we are here to welcome and serve you with care and respect.

For more information, call the SCK hotline: (517) 944-1805

The Interfaith Clergy Association of Greater Lansing invites all neighbors and friends to its annual interfaith worship service in November. This year’s service will take place at Eastminster Presbyterian in East Lansing. Offerings will be taken of supportive letters to our Jewish and Muslim neighbors as well as financial gifts to help with increased security costs of Jewish and Muslim houses of worship in our community.

Please join State Representatives Kara Hope and Christine Morse and a variety of panelists for a town hall on Community Violence Interventions.

Panelists include:
- Sen. Sarah Anthony
- Mike McKissic, Mikey23 Foundation
- Ben Shuldiner, Lansing Superintendent
- Cordelia Black, Lansing Schools Executive Director of Student Culture and Climate
- Dr. Paul Elam, Michigan Public Health Institute and Advance Peace
- Rep. Christine Morse, Co-chair of the Firearm Safety and Gun Violence Prevention Caucus

The last half of this event will be dedicated to listening to your questions and concerns.

You can RSVP for the event here: https://forms.gle/HnKnor93pX2zc5W1A

November is Native American Heritage month, and Sunday Morning Forum is focusing on Native American topical issues. This Sunday, Forum has invited special guest Marcus Briggs-Cloud, a Maskoke language revitalizer, scholar, musician, and co-director of Ekvn-Yefolecv, an intentional eco-village community of Indigenous Maskoke persons. He returned two years ago to live in their ancestral homelands in Alabama to practice linguistic, cultural, and ecological sustainability. A graduate of Harvard Divinity School and a doctoral candidate in interdisciplinary ecology at the University of Florida, his publications address issues of liberation theology, linguistics, ecology, race, and gender identity.

You may join the Forum conversation in the Chapin Room at 9:00 a.m. or virtually, facilitated by new interactive technology. Please submit your email using this form to request to join the Forum email list for the Zoom link and other details.

Weather permitting, come out and help our gardeners from the congregation and neighborhood to put our community garden to bed for the season.

Sharing Sunday is a chance for you to bring in unwanted items (home and kitchen goods, garden tools, decor, arts and crafts, clean clothes, decorations, etc.) to share with others. You can drop items off in the Social Hall before worship. After worship, everyone is invited to browse other people’s donations to take home free of charge. After everyone has taken what they want, the remaining items are boxed up by volunteers and transported to local charitable organizations.

Inclusive Justice Michigan is partnering with the Michigan UU Social Justice Network to present a conference, “Pursuing Inclusive Justice: Crisis of the Moment, Impact for the Movement” on Friday, October 20 at Zion Lutheran Church in Ferndale. All are invited to register here to attend in person or online.

The Unitarian Universalist Association has called on UUs to support faith-based reparations for slavery, and other churches in the Lansing area have already begun to do so. The Justice League of Greater Lansing is inviting area churches to support reparations. Learn more about what is happening and what UUs can do. Should UU Lansing support reparations? How would we do that? Join a discussion about this issue in the Kiva. A light meal will be provided.

All are invited to a service led by Rev. Neal Anderson and Volunteer Engagement Coordinator Laura Ray on “Connecting in Authentic, Loving Relationships.” Afterward, coffee hour will feature a Hospitality Fair!

Volunteering on a warm, friendly team of morning people is one of the best ways to enhance your own health and happiness while serving a vital role in our community. Try spending some time on our Hospitality team to help create an inviting and welcoming Sunday morning experience for everyone who joins us, while making friends in the process. Stay after worship to learn more, or contact Ms. Laura at volunteer@uulansing.org to get started right away.

Weather permitting, come out and help our gardeners from the congregation and neighborhood to grow food and flowers!

Weather permitting, come out and help our gardeners from the congregation and neighborhood to grow food and flowers!

All are invited to purchase tickets at lansingout.com/see-us.html#/ or at the door.

All are invited to purchase tickets at lansingout.com/see-us.html#/ or at the door.

Our Community Garden has begun its fifth season, with returning gardeners from around the world and some UU congregants.

If you'd like to come meet our gardeners and pitch in, we would love to have you join us, weather permitting.

Stay after worship to meet representatives from our many partners in ministry to the South Lansing community! Several of our partner organizations will have information tables set up during coffee hour. Please take this opportunity to learn more about our community partnerships and to meet and greet our church neighbors and friends.

Meanwhile, enjoy a treat for Sundae Sunday! This annual tradition marks the completion of spring classes for children and youth with ice cream served to everyone who stays for coffee hour.

This will be our final Sharing Sunday before our hardworking volunteers take a summer break. Sharing Sunday is our chance to share household objects with fellow congregants in the spirit of reusing things for the good of the world. Bring unwanted items from your spring cleaning to church before worship, and browse the treasures left by others to take home after worship. After coffee hour, volunteers will take leftover items to local charities that will continue distributing items for free or minimal cost:

• kitchen, living room, and bathroom items to the International Student Lending Center at MSU

• clothes and shoes to The Bread House South Church on Martin Luther King, which distributes them on Fridays, 12:00 - 2: 00 p.m.

• remaining items to Volunteers of America or St. Vincent de Paul

Every day and all through the year, you are also invited to leave, and take items from, our Blessing Box along the driveway. This is a great place to share pantry foods, personal hygiene items, and other things that a person might need.

Our Community Garden has begun its fifth season, with returning gardeners from around the world and some UU congregants.

The next two spring work days will be April 29 and May 27, 9 - 11 a.m., weather permitting. If you'd like to come meet our gardeners and pitch in with spring cleanup, we would love to have you join us. 

The Indigenous Justice, Recognition, and Reconciliation Team invites all who are interested in conservation and how to be in right relationship with Indigenous groups to join our next meeting in the Chapin Room. We will welcome special guest Nichole Biber, a local East Lansing activist and member of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, who was instrumental in renaming the Abbott Road Park to Azaadiikaa (Many Cottonwoods) Park last year.

The next meeting of the Committee to End the New Jim Crow will welcome special guest Ashia Wilson, Community Engagement Specialist for Nation Outside, to talk about a local housing initiative designed to limit the discrimination that people with criminal records face when attempting to access housing.

All are invited to join this Zoom meeting and future meetings of the CENJC, which focuses on addressing issues related to the mass incarceration of Black and Brown people. You may request to join their email list here for Zoom links and future meeting details.

It's finally spring, and that means that our Community Garden is beginning its fifth season! We are already fully subscribed with returning gardeners from around the world and some UU congregants.

Spring work days will be April 22, April 29, and May 27, 9 - 11 a.m., weather permitting. If you'd like to come meet our gardeners, help install woodchuck fencing, or just pitch in with spring cleanup, we would love to have you join us. 

All are invited join Julia Miller, the founder of Punks with Lunch, and UU Lansing member Kelsea Hector in a ministry to save lives. This sacred time will consist of training that will teach you how to recognize the signs of an opioid overdose and administer the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone (brand name Narcan). This begins a beautiful partnership between Punks with Lunch and UU Lansing as we refit the old blessing box in the front of the church to house Narcan so it can be readily available to our community. Bring an open mind and loving heart along with any questions you may have.

Sharing Sundays take place on first Sundays through May. This is our chance to share household objects with fellow congregants in the spirit of reusing things for the good of the world. Bring unwanted items from your spring cleaning to church before worship, and browse the treasures left by others to take home after worship. After coffee hour, volunteers will take leftover items to local charities that will continue distributing items for free or minimal cost:

• kitchen, living room, and bathroom items to the International Student Lending Center at MSU

• clothes and shoes to The Bread House South Church on Martin Luther King, which distributes them on Fridays, 12:00 - 2: 00 p.m.

• remaining items to Volunteers of America or St. Vincent de Paul

If you have any questions, contact Nathan Wood. See the church directory for his phone number, or find him on Sundays at coffee hour.

Can you point? Can you click? If so, you’re already 90% trained to operate our tech equipment! Let us help you with the other 10% and in turn, you can help provide the assistance we need for in-person worship and live streaming to our members and friends participating from home.

Please stop by the AV Booth in the Sanctuary on Tuesday, March 21, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. to learn how to run the slides for Sunday services and review the cameras/streaming station that enables people to see the service on YouTube. Each position has a how-to guide. If you’ve ever forwarded slides for a PowerPoint presentation, you can do this on Sunday mornings! That will free up some of our current PowerPoint volunteers to move to the cameras/streaming station. We would love to have you join our team.

Remember to “spring forward” one hour for Daylight Saving Time so you don’t miss worship at 10:30 a.m. DST! Join us for a worship service that will provide an overview of all the rich ministries of this church and how you can participate in any that call to you. Coffee hour will feature a volunteer fair with food, fellowship, and opportunities to talk with representatives of church teams that are making our lives and communities better in a personal way.

We do great things because we do them together! You are valued, you are appreciated, and you are needed. We invite you to share more of who you are so our whole community can benefit from your talents. If you’d like to get involved sooner, consider connecting with a ministry such as:

• Sunday Morning Hospitality (contact volunteer@uulansing.org)

• Tech Team to run A/V equipment for worship services (contact music@uulansing.org)

• Handy People (contact kmcwilliams@uulansing.org)

• Memorial Service Care Team (contact kmcwilliams@uulansing.org)

• Auction Team

• Green Team