Authentic Selves: Celebrating Trans and Nonbinary People and Their Families

Through personal stories and striking portraits, Authentic Selves celebrates the love, resilience, and joy that emerge when people live into the fullness of who they are. These voices—of trans and nonbinary individuals and their families—invite us into deeper understanding and call us to help build a more just, compassionate, and inclusive world.

Our discussion series will take place in two sessions following Sunday services—on September 28 and October 5—in the sanctuary. A light lunch will be provided.

Registration is now open online (click here), and a sign-up sheet will also be available in the sanctuary as the dates approach. Because space is limited, we encourage early registration to reserve your spot.

Copies of Authentic Selves are available online and in several formats through local libraries. If you would like to participate and need financial assistance obtaining the book, please reach out to Rev. Margret.

The Catskills Healthy Relations Team HeaRT) is facilitating a participatory process to engage all our voices, all our ideas and commitments, in a shared process to write a covenant of relationship that will support the values and goals of this congregation as a welcoming and inclusive community.

The process will begin with a worship service following by a listening circle on Sunday, September 21. Additional listening circles on zoom will be offered in early October for those who miss the September in-person circle – watch your news for details!

Everyone is invited to be part of this first step in the covenant creation process, sharing our ideas about the values we hold in common for relationship in the congregation. Shared values are the foundation of community relationship, and so the input in the first listening circle will create the foundation for the covenant we create together. All voices, all ideas will be heard as we seek to focus on the values we hold in common.

Link for meeting https://zoom.us/j/96954354063?pwd=STVOVENNVmJZMCtCN250TWRnam54dz09

This is Intergenerational FUN. We try to have something for everyone.  For those who are more comfortable watching and chatting, not playing, no problem. And, the floor Jenga gamers are bound to entertain. There will also be Multimedia Collage making with Debbie.  And, of course, opportunities to play (or watch) Bananagrams, UNO, Scrabble, Mr. Fox, Four Square, Table Soccer and whatever anyone wants to bring with them. Laughter and Joy are suggested.

This is a Finger Foods Only Pot Luck dinner.  No forks or spoons will touch you lips.  The Dinner will again set up in the “back room” with food spread out on the table and cold drinks on the side board. Fill a plate, grab a napkin and join in the FUN in our Sanctuary Game Hall or perhaps the Patio.  Don’t forget to tune up your vocal chord, gather around the piano, and belt out familiar Show Tunes with Catherine.

Look for the Sign Up Sheet in the. Sanctuary.  We want an idea of who can help with set up and clean up, how many are coming, and what people are bringing to eat. Those of you who are not regular Sunday attendees, email us or just come! Questions?  donna.schlachman@gmail.com.

Contact Karen Lindsay, kwykslindsay@gmail.com, for the Zoom link and details.

This is an informal group of people who share an interest in Buddhism and meditation. Through a communal practice (Sangha), we seek to develop and enrich our individual meditation practices as we explore the teachings of Buddha (Dharma). Our meetings consist of a short group mediation (15-20 minutes), after which those who wish to are invited to share their experience, as well as any Buddhist-related thoughts, practices, and/or readings. All those interested are invited to attend. We meet the first Saturday of each month at 11:00 am at the home of Judee Irwin. Contact Judee, judeeirwin@gmail.com, for details. And we meet online via Zoom the third Monday of the month at 5pm. Contact Karen Lindsay, kwykslindsay@gmail.com, for the Zoom link and details.

The Social Action Committee invites everyone to participate in a new Food Justice effort we learned of through Rev. Margret called Food on the Fourth. It is a new way for UU Catskills to collectively respond to the growing food insecurity in our area by bringing our individual generosity together on the 4th Sunday of each month. If each of us brings one can or one box of a nonperishable food item on the 4th Sunday, together, we can fill a shopping cart.  

Each year at our Unitarian Universalist General Assembly, the President of the UUA invites a distinguished voice to deliver the Ware Lecture—a profound honor with deep roots in our history. Past Ware Lecturers have challenged and inspired us with their vision and courage. Among them: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., poet Mary Oliver, novelist Kurt Vonnegut Jr., activist Holly Near, and environmental leader Winona LaDuke. 

This year, we were honored to hear the words of Imara Jones—an Emmy and Peabody Award–winning journalist, visionary thinker, and fearless advocate for justice. As the founder of TransLash Media and a powerful voice at the intersection of race, gender, and public policy, Imara Jones pushes us to question what we take for granted—so that we might transform not only our understanding, but our world.

Her Ware Lecture, delivered at GA in June, offered a bold and urgent reflection on how we got to this moment in history, and where we must go from here.

Our LBGTQ+ Working Group will be presenting the full lecture on Monday evening, August 18, at 5:00 pm in the sanctuary. All are warmly invited to gather, listen, and engage with her compelling vision for a more just, liberated future.

Come with open hearts. Leave with renewed clarity and courage.

Contact Karen Lindsay, kwykslindsay@gmail.com, for the Zoom link and details.