Here are new events and activities you might like to put on your calendar. See our previous Outside 1st Universalist announcements for other upcoming events.

• October 4, 2008 from 9:30am-4pm — Politics and Liberal Religion in the Wake of Knoxville. This is a SLD event hosted by First Unitarian Society of Schenectady. Per the SLD website, “”Politics & Liberal Religious Values in the Wake of Knoxville” will be the focus of the third annual Social Justice Conference with an address by Blair Horner, Legislative Director of the New York Public Interest Research Group.  He has held this position for 21 years, interrupted only by a stint in Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office to create Project Sunlight, an interactive website that allows New Yorkers to learn more about state politics.  He has been a driving force behind NYPIRG’s successful campaigns to protect consumers, preserve the environment, reduce tobacco use, reform and make government more accountable, improve healthcare quality and provide the public with information on how state government works.  This will be an opportunity for social justice people to consider the implications of their faith in a critical election year.  Brochure & registration form.”

• October 10 & 11, 2008 – NYSCU (New York State Convention of Universalists) Annual Meeting, hosted by the UU Fellowship of Poughkeepsie. Please see bulletin board for agenda and registration forms.

We hope you’ll join us in these activities. Some are educational, some are purely social and some are both. Inter-generational activities include children of all ages, while other activities are of interest to adults only. Check the details to see if childcare is provided.

• Sunday, Sept. 21, 2008 — Social Justice Plate Offering during service. Money collected will benefit children in the Rochester City School District with their back-to-school needs.  Sarah Singal and Santosha Kuykendall will also be collecting in-kind donations (backpacks and school supplies) after church.
• Sunday, Sept. 21, 2008 — deadline today — First U T-shirt order will be placed today. The navy blue t-shirts are $15 each. If you’d like to put your t-shirt check in the plate during the offertory, please write “T-shirt Fund” and size on the memo line of the check.  Contact: Santosha.
• Friday, Sept 26, 2008 at 6:30p.m. — in the adult lounge — Movies to Inspire and Uplift will show “Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story” followed by discussion.  There is no charge, but donations of snacks to share are gratefully appreciated.

  Dorothy Day is no saint. She lives hard, makes mistakes, endures the consequences. But the unquenchable fire burning within her cannot be contained. Dorothy wants to make a difference. During the Depression, she vows to house the homeless, feed the hungry, tend the sick. Easily said. Not easily done when her total finances amount to 97 cents in a battered canister. Yet Dorothy persists, walking on frequently stormy waters of faith.

  Popular stars and important themes combine in this compelling true story of the “American Mother Teresa,” filmed by Paulist Pictures (Romero) from a script by ER writer and executive producer John Wells. Moira Kelly plays Day, the impassioned New York journalist who launched the activist newspaper “Catholic Worker” and put the words she wrote into controversial action. Martin Sheen, Melinda Dillon and Brian Keith join Kelly in this moving saga of a faith not just believed, but lived. RATED PG-13 for a range of thematic elements, some sexuality and brief language.

  RSVP to Linda Lorenzo

• Sunday, Sept. 28 to Oct. 5, 2008 — RAIHN host week at 1st Universalist. See our Social Justice page under Congregational Life for details. There are many volunteer opportunities available. If you are able to help, please contact Matt Comeau.
• Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008 — Small Group Ministry based on the Seven Principles of Unitarian Universalism begins today. Please see the sign up sheet on the bulletin board in the Clara Barton Lounge.
• Friday, October 10 & 11, 2008 — NYS Convention of  Universalists (NYSCU) Annual meeting of the NYSCU hosted by the UU Fellowship of Poughkeepsie. Please see bulletin board for agenda and registration forms.
• Thursday, October 16, 2008 — deadline today — UUA Principles and Practices: The UUA Commission on Appraisal has recommended changes and invites feedback. Please go to http://www25.uua.org/coa/ and click on the word “draft” in the first paragraph.
• Friday, October 17, 2008 — in the adult lounge, Movies to Inspire and Uplift will show “Iron Jawed Angels”, starring Hilary Swank  We will be viewing this movie in the sanctuary at 6:30 PM and will move to the Clara Barton Lounge for discussion directly following the movie.  There is no charge for movie viewing and discussion time. Anyone wishing to bring a snack to share will be gratefully appreciated.

  Said reviewer Bret Fetzer, “The fight for women’s voting rights has rarely been given as dramatic a treatment as in Iron Jawed Angels. Hilary Swank (Boys Don’t Cry) and Frances O’Connor (Mansfield Park) star as second-wave suffragettes Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, who led the final fight for the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.  The mounting energy of the fight–and the increasingly nasty opposition–gains real momentum when a wartime picket line leads to Paul, Burns, and their sisters-in-arms being arrested on trumped-up charges and imprisoned. The actors–including Julia Ormond (Smilla’s Sense of Snow), Angelica Huston (Prizzi’s Honor, The Grifters), and Brooke Smith (Vanya on 42nd Street)–give fervent, determined performances.”

  RSVP to Linda Lorenzo

Here is a sampling of activities you might want to put on your calendar. For more information about St. Lawrence District (SLD) activities, visit www.sld.uua.org, or ask Michael Scott or the individual contacts listed for events below.

September 15 – deadline for Chalice Lighter Grants. The deadline to file an “Intent to Apply” is Monday September 15. An “Intent to Apply” must be filed in order to obtain a Chalice Lighter Grant application. For more info visit www.sld.uua.org

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