312 FILLMORE STREET, STATEN ISLAND, NY 10301 PHONE: 718-447-2204
Grand Reopening on the Church’s 169th Anniversary
Because Staten Island’s test positivity rates have been below 3% for several weeks, your COVID Taskforce and UCSI Board are excited to announce the church will be hosting in person services for our anniversary, on Sunday October 24th.
All are welcome to join us, in person at the church. We will also make our service available online for anyone who can join us on Zoom. All in person services will also be available online.
Please review the COVID policies which will make returning to in person services possible.
Remember these key rules:
Masks Are Required: To be inclusive of kids and people of all ages, including our children, masks are a simple and effective way to keep everyone safe.
Maintain Social Distancing: Whenever possible, maintain social distancing.
No communal singing, or food or beverages: While our choir will be able perform, no congregational singing is available at this time. And no food and beverages are to be consumed on the premises.
On a personal note, I want to thank the care and dedication of our congregation’s leadership that made this all possible. And I want to thank the incredible care of this community that prepared us all for this moment to happen, and cared enough about each other’s health to wait until it was safe enough to gather.
-- Reverend Emily DeTar Birt, Minister of the Unitarian Church of Staten Island
Listings are in reverse chronological order. Scroll down to the date you want.
Because Staten Island’s test positivity rates have been below 3% for several weeks, your COVID Taskforce and UCSI Board are excited to announce the church will be hosting in person services for our anniversary, on Sunday October 24th.
All are welcome to join us, in person at the church. We will also make our service available online for anyone who can join us on Zoom. All in person services will also be available online.
Please review the COVID policies which will make returning to in person services possible.
Remember these key rules:
Masks Are Required: To be inclusive of kids and people of all ages, including our children, masks are a simple and effective way to keep everyone safe.
Maintain Social Distancing: Whenever possible, maintain social distancing.
No communal singing, or food or beverages: While our choir will be able perform, no congregational singing is available at this time. And no food and beverages are to be consumed on the premises.
On a personal note, I want to thank the care and dedication of our congregation’s leadership that made this all possible. And I want to thank the incredible care of this community that prepared us all for this moment to happen, and cared enough about each other’s health to wait until it was safe enough to gather.
-- Reverend Emily DeTar Birt, Minister of the Unitarian Church of Staten Island
Listings are in reverse chronological order. Scroll down to the date you want.
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Sunday Services
Sunday October 24, 2021 • 11:00 am
Many Happy Returns: Celebrating 169 Years of the Unitarian Church of Staten Island With Rev. Emily DeTar Birt In- Person Service with Virtual Option Return to the church for our first in person service in 18 months! It’s our congregation's 169th birthday! We are so grateful that we will be back in person to celebrate our congregation’s anniversary together. In times of celebration, on birthdays and anniversaries, people often renew their vows and promises to themselves and others about who they wish to become. As a congregation, we don’t have a specific creed where everyone agrees to believe in the same thing. Instead, we have a covenant, a series of promises we make to each other about how we practice our deepest values together. What are the vows we are making as a community? What do we promise to each other as we think about our future? Let’s celebrate as we look to the future together! If you cannot join us in church, please join us online. We will post the Zoom link just as we have been doing for the past year and a half, or you can view the service on our Facebook page. 
Sunday October 17, 2021 • 11:00 am
All In for Climate Justice: Food Equity and Sustainability With Allison Hess from the UU United Nations Office Virtual Service on Zoom United Nations Sunday celebrates the work of the United Nations and your Unitarian Universalist Office at the United Nations (UU@UN). Each year at the UCSI, we try to have a service and/or event to celebrate the work of the UU Office! This year's UN Sunday theme is based on the April Intergenerational Spring Seminar topic. The 2021 theme is All In for Climate Justice: Food Equity and Sustainability. This is what the UU Office at the UN has to say about the importance of this theme: Food systems and the Earth's climate are deeply intertwined. The changing climate is negatively affecting farmlands through unpredictable weather patterns that can cause floods, drought, contamination, and unseasonable temperatures. Meanwhile, unsustainable food systems are accelerating the rate of climate destruction through methane emissions from cows and other livestock, deforestation to expand grazing and croplands, and polluting distribution channels. The solutions that lead us to sustainable farmland—land that is healthier and more biodiverse—are also healing for our planet and building resilience for our food crops and our communities. Critical in all of this is the role that systems of oppression have historically played and continue to play in how food is grown and distributed. Capitalism has created a system that prioritizes profit, leading to the exploitation of land and farm workers. In a similar strain, this obsession with profit has made it so that the food that’s easiest and cheapest to get is ultra-processed and low in nutrients. Lack of access to fresh and nutritious foods is especially prominent in Black, Indigenous, and other people of color communities, where centuries of oppression have created environmental and economic harm. 
Sunday October 10, 2021 • 11:00 am
Spirited Sundays: Voting Rights for Indigenous Peoples With journalist Stephanie Woodard and Staten Island OutLOUD A Virtual Service on Zoom This Sunday, October 10th, in honor of Indigenous Peoples Day, we will join Staten Island OutLOUD's Spirited Sundays virtual event in place of our regular service. UCSI Members and Friends can log onto this lay-led service as usual, via the link we provide every Wednesday and Sunday. Staten Island OutLOUD is presenting this special series, which we will access via a link on its Facebook Page, in conjunction with The Big Read, a National Endowment for the Arts program presented in partnership with Arts Midwest. Today's event, the final installment in the Staten Island OutLOUD series, focuses on voting rights for some of our most isolated and marginalized citizens. It includes an interview with Barb and Oliver (OJ) Semans, both enrolled citizens of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, or Sicangu Oyate, in South Dakota, and co-directors of the Native voter-advocacy group Four Directions. Their federal voting-rights litigation has helped tribes nationwide win court-ordered voter registration as well as voting sites on their reservations. During the videocast, you will also hear the host, award-winning investigative reporter and St. George resident Stephanie Woodard, read excerpts of American Apartheid: The Native American Struggle for Self-Determination and Inclusion, her book chronicling 20-plus years of reporting in Indigenous communities. Woodard will join us for a Q&A directly following the videocast. Most of this material is unknown to the general public. We thank Beth Gorrie of Staten Island OutLOUD for making this videocast possible and Stephanie Woodard for joining us in conversation afterwards. Photo: On steps of a federal courthouse before a hearing for voting-rights lawsuit Wandering Medicine v. McCulloch, from left, Michaelynn Hawk, Crow; Bret Healy, Four Directions consultant; Barb and OJ Semans, Rosebud Sioux; Mark and Ilo Wandering Medicine, Northern Cheyenne; and Tom Rogers, Blackfeet. |
Upcoming Events
Loving Staten Island Friendship Coffee and Dessert Hours
Hosted online by various Staten Island faith communities For a number of years, the Staten Island Inter-Religious Leadership Council has been hosting Loving Staten Island Friendship Dinners, with the aim of getting people of different faiths and backgrounds together and forming connections. The pandemic curtailed the in-person gatherings, but not the gatherings themselves! So, grab your favorite dessert and login to Zoom to meet other Staten Islanders. To support each other through the pandemic. To learn about different houses of worship and community centers in your borough. And to have meaningful conversation and make new friends. Date: Sunday Oct 17, 2021 Host: Central Family Life Center Date: Sunday Nov 21 Host: Communities United for Respect and Trust Date: Sunday Dec 19 Host: Unitarian Church of Staten Island Date: Sunday Jan 16, 2022 Host: Temple Israel Reform Congregation Time: 7:00 - 8:30pm To join any Friendship Dessert Hour: Go to zoom.us and enter: Meeting ID: 931 9985 7416 Passcode: 135731  UCSI Women gather for fun and Christmas cheer, 2018
Get/Stay Connected with the UCSI Women's Online Gatherings
Every Wednesday at 7:00pm Through weekly meetings of the Women's Group, during this time of social distancing, we enjoy getting to catch up with each other and to get to know one another better. You can either video call or phone call in to these gatherings. Please contact Kathy Santo at membership@uucsi.org for more details. 
Virtual Children and Youth Programming resumes.
Children's Chapel Children's Chapel and Workshops Every Sunday with CCNY • 9:30 am Sunday Chapel starts at 9:30am. It is a sacred space for kids to share Joys & Concerns and to connect with friends old and new. We light the chalice together, sing hymns, and make way for movement or meditation as time allows. Our chapel welcomes young people ages 5-17, and we invite families with children younger than 5 to attend with their little ones too! Religious Education Workshops for grades K-8 begin right after Chapel and run until 11:00am. This year in our workshops, we’re celebrating the interdependent web of existence! Using a Circles & Cycles curriculum, kids will be making connections between our 8 UU principles and 6 UU sources of inspiration to build a network of understanding about what was, what is, and what can be. We’ll explore tenets of Judaic and Christian teachings, other world religions and cultural traditions, and examine the words and deeds of prophetic people both past and present to strengthen understanding of how we can live faith into action on matters of social and environmental justice. UU Kids Connect Every Third Thursday • 7:00 pm Starts on Thursday October 21st This fall UU Kids Connect is the place to be for kids in grades K-8 who want to meet new friends from new places, share their joys & concerns, show & tell what they’ve been up to, and have FUN! The UU Kids Connect Team creates a safer online space for social support and spiritual development as kids journey forward through their years. The UUKC GATHERINGS will happen every third Thursday of the month from 7:00 pm-8:00 pm (Eastern) beginning on Thursday, October 21st. Registration is FREE and open! |
