312 FILLMORE STREET, STATEN ISLAND, NY 10301 PHONE: 718-447-2204
Our regularly scheduled Sunday Services are at 10:50 in the Sanctuary, with a virtual option via Zoom link. The link is published in the Tuesday night email to our membership list, and on Friday in the newsletter to Members and Friends.
Listings are in reverse chronological order. Scroll down to the date you want.
Listings are in reverse chronological order. Scroll down to the date you want.
Sunday Services and Current Events
Sunday, May 12, 2024 • 10:50 am
Julia Ward Howe, A Woman of Many Contradictions With UCSI Member Ruth Benson in the Pulpit In-Person Service with Virtual Option How did this compliant Boston housewife go from: "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword, His truth is marching on." To this: "Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs." She was a Unitarian Transcendentalist, a poet, an abolitionist who wrote The Battle Hymn of the Republic in support of the North in the Civil War, and a pacifist who wrote her Mother's Day Proclamation in response to the Franco-Prussian War. She was a feminist, who, with Lucy Stone, founded the New England Suffrage Association and stood up to Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton on divisions over the 15th Amendment to the Constitution, which she supported. How did this compliant Boston housewife, who obeyed her chauvinist husband's decree that she was not to speak in public, evolve to become so outspoken, respected and renowned? For in-person gathering: Masks Are No Longer Required in the Sanctuary. Social Distancing. People are still reminded to be conscious of social distancing. For Access to Video Online: A video of the service is subsequently posted on our YouTube Channel. https://bit.ly/3xgePI3 Sunday, May 5, 2024 • 10:50 am
My Spiritual Journey With UCSI Member Mary Hernandez in the Pulpit In-Person Service with Virtual Option As Unitarians we affirm the importance of searching for truth and meaning and the effort towards spiritual growth. To that end, many in our congregation met regularly last year in a “Spiritual Growth Circle” and swapped lessons learned on our spiritual paths. It was a rewarding experience both for those who shared and those who listened. As an offshoot of this, on May 5th, in keeping with upholding the Third and Fourth Principles, we will welcome UCSI Member Mary Hernandez as she shares with us some of the lessons she has learned on her path. For in-person gathering: Masks Are No Longer Required in the Sanctuary. Social Distancing. People are still reminded to be conscious of social distancing. For Access to Video Online: A video of the service is subsequently posted on our YouTube Channel. https://bit.ly/3xgePI3 Sunday, April 28, 2024 • 10:50 am
Earth Day, the UCSI and the Olmsted-Biel House With Guest Speaker Giuseppe Settinieri, Friends of Olmstead- Beil House Advisory Board In-Person Service with Virtual Option Giuseppe Settinieri, of the Friends of Olmsted-Beil House (FOBH) Advisory Board, will be the guest speaker at our Earth Day Service. The FOBH is a nonprofit organization working to preserve the 17th-century farmhouse on Staten Island. The house and surrounding property is what remains of Tosomock Farm, the 130-acre farm where landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted, lived from 1848 to 1855 and where he developed his talent for landscape design. He designed a succession of public parks, beginning with Central Park in New York City, as well as Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Olmsted’s open opposition to slavery led the editor of The New York Times to send him to the American South from 1852 to 1855 to report weekly on how slavery affected the region’s economy. According to the Olmsted Network https://olmsted.org/explore-olmsteds-crusade-against-slavery/ , "Olmsted’s contributions to the anti-slavery movement were significant because Olmsted offered first-hand descriptions and a comprehensive assessment of the deplorable society slaveholding created. Many of his antislavery arguments consisted of moral condemnation and reports of violence and ill-treatment experienced by slaves. After traveling south, he provided an anti-slavery platform for the leaders of the newly forming Republican Party." It's a ‘short trip’ from Frederick Law Olmsted’s values to UCSI principles. Significantly, Carlton Beil and family were prominent members of UCSI. Mr. Beil is fondly remembered by a number of members, some of whom were children during his time at UCSI, for the nature study activities he brought to their youth group. This offers an excellent opportunity to share Olmsted-Beil House’s history and connect with the Staten Island community. For in-person gathering: Masks Are No Longer Required in the Sanctuary. Social Distancing. People are still reminded to be conscious of social distancing. For Access to Video Online: A video of the service is subsequently posted on our YouTube Channel. https://bit.ly/3xgePI3 Friday, May 10, 2024 • 7:00 pm
UCSI Book Discussion Series on the global effects of Imperialism: Nationalism, Capitalism, Caste and Culture, beginning on Friday evening, May 10, 2024, on Zoom. The first two books in the series are The Hundred Years' War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi, discussion moderated by Ghanim Khalil; followed in June by a reading of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson, discussion moderated by Debbie-Ann Paige. In this series, we will examine the rise of the nation-state and nationalism in the 19th and 20th centuries in Europe and North America alongside centuries-old colonialism, imperialism, and exploitative capitalism, as well as the development and crystallization of xenophobic ideologies that differentiated a newly defined “Western Civilization” from the “uncivilized” non-West. These ideologies were met with various forms of resistance, as the books we read and discuss will show. The Hundred Years' War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi upends accepted interpretations of the conflict, which tend at best to describe a tragic clash between two peoples with claims to the same territory. Instead, Khalidi traces a hundred years of colonial war on the Palestinians, waged first by the Zionist movement and then Israel backed by Britain and the United States. Original, authoritative and important, The Hundred Years' War on Palestine is not a chronicle of victimization, nor does it whitewash the mistakes of Palestinian leaders or deny the emergence of national movements on both sides. In reevaluating the forces arrayed against the Palestinians it offers an illuminating new view of a conflict that continues to this day. Purchase on Amazon Formats: Hardcover $21.14, Paperback $10.99, Kindle $12.99, Audiobook $17.71 https://amzn.to/4bqZP9h or on: Barnes & Noble Formats: Hardcover $26.99, Paperback $19.99, eBook $12.99, Audiobook free with B&N Subscription https://bit.ly/44blMq8 or from: Abe Books Format: Paperback New $12.01, Used $10.08 https://bit.ly/3QfQJUw Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people’s lives and behavior and the nation’s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people...she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their outcasting of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity. Purchase on Amazon Formats: Hardcover $17.01, Paperback $16.34, Kindle $13.99, Audiobook $12.99 https://bit.ly/3w5WfSN or on Barnes & Noble Formats: Hardcover $23.99, Paperback $21.00, eBook $13.99, Audiobook free with B&N Subscription https://bit.ly/3JxiDHN or from: Abe Books Format: Paperback New $16.21, Used $6.22 https://bit.ly/4dcRDes For the third book in this series, we are considering: Culture and Imperialism by Edward Said A landmark work from the author of Orientalism that explores the long-overlooked connections between the Western imperial endeavor and the culture that both reflected and reinforced it. For more information on how to register, contact event@uucsi.org |
Upcoming Events
Get/Stay Connected with the UCSI Women's Online Gatherings
Every Tuesday at 7:30pm Through weekly meetings of the Women's Group on Zoom, we enjoy catching up with each other and getting 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! |