Rev. Molly requests Discretionary Fund contributions
Every year at Christmas time we take up a collection for our Discretionary Fund that allows us to meet immediate, urgent survival needs for our members and neighbors. These are things like utility assistance, emergency short term housing in very hot and very cold weather, grocery gift cards, gas gift cards and other transportation assistance, help with medical and prescription expenses, and more.
Every year our community is beautifully generous. And every year, the needs keep coming. And this year, under cruel federal and state budgets and administrations, the need will keep growing even more. Our safety nets are being slashed. And as a community we are committed to opening up our arms to catch as many of us as we can.
Every year by July our fundraising from December is nearly depleted, and I turn to ask your generosity again. If you have some resources to spare, I would be grateful to help direct them to those in our community suffering under the violence of this system and these federal and state policies.
You can give by check to the church with “Discretionary Fund” in the memo line, or online at uucomo.org/give by selecting “Discretionary Fund” in the drop-down menu. If you have spare gift cards to grocery or big box stores, you can drop them by or mail them the church, and I can also pass those along to those in need.
Thank you for your care,
Rev. Molly
2025 Honduras Service Trip report is now available
Allie Gassmann, leader of the Honduras Ministry Team, provided this report on the team’s March 22-29 service trip, which includes 15 photographs. This is the sixth trip our church has sponsored to aid the people in a rural area of Honduras by building latrines and working on other projects.
Thirteen UUCC members and friends went on the trip. This year the travelers painted a school and got a good start on building 10 latrines in the upper hills area of El Pital and in Las Mangas, which were finished by the local residents.
Rev. Molly receives 2024 Skinner Sermon Award from UUA
Click to enlarge
Our minister, the Rev. Dr. Molly Housh Gordon, is the recipient of the 2024 Skinner Sermon Award from the Unitarian Universalist Association for her Oct. 20, 2024 sermon “How to Have an Enemy,” the UUA has announced.
The announcement said the sermon was recognized “…for its powerful clarity, deep power analysis, and unwavering solidarity with vulnerable communities. The award committee praised her bold affirmation that on the path away from empire and toward liberation, naming our enemies can be not only necessary—but empowering.”
The Skinner Sermon Award honors sermons that boldly express Unitarian Universalist social principles. Since 1959, it has uplifted prophetic voices that speak truth with courage and care.
Monica Clark-Robinson will be our new intern minister
Monica Clark-Robinson
Rev. Molly has announced that we will be serving as a teaching congregation once more for the 2025-2026 program year. In September we will be welcoming Monica Clark-Robinson to UUCC to complete the second year of her two years of ministerial internship. She completed the first year at Church of the River UU in Memphis, Tenn.
This is something of a beautiful full-circle moment, as Monica was a member of our congregation from 1999-2001 while living in Columbia before graduate school. UUCC was, in fact, the first Unitarian Universalist congregation that Monica and her wife Greta joined as members! She remembers the warmth and creativity of our congregation fondly.
Monica currently lives in Little Rock, Arkansas (where she has been a long time UU lay leader), and will be with us for a part-time, hybrid-style internship: She will be in residence here in Columbia for an intensive 8 days each month, spanning two Sundays, and then will offer a limited amount of virtual ministry in the remaining weeks of the month. Monica will be with us on this schedule from September through May.
Monica is a seminarian in her final year at Meadville Lombard Theological Seminary and was also previously the Intern Minister at the Church of the River in Memphis. Before seminary, Monica received an MFA in Acting from Michigan State University and an MFA in Writing from Hamline University.
She’s the author of several children’s books, including “Let the Children March,” illustrated by Frank Morrison, “Standing On Her Shoulders,” illustrated by Laura Freeman, and the forthcoming “Teaching for Change: Septima Clark’s Legacy of Literacy and Liberation,” co-written with Yvonne Clark-Rhines, Septima Clark’s granddaughter. Monica’s books have won an International Literacy Association Debut award and a Coretta Scott King Honor award for illustration.
She has also worked with two different organizations teaching and mentoring incarcerated writers. Monica has spent time as an actor, theatre and English professor, unschooling mom, and vegan cook.
For fun and leisure, she loves to write poetry, read, cook, watch episodes of The Walking Dead, sing, act, work on her stand-up comedy set, and go thrifting. Monica lives in a yurt in the woods of Arkansas with her wife and daughter and is currently pursuing an honorary doctorate in Kitty Snuggles.
For Meditation, Forum meetings and Worship,
drop-in childcare is provided. No reservation needed.
9 a.m. – Mindfulness Meditation – Fire Circle or Lower Level-Centering Room
Mindfulness Meditation takes place at 9 a.m. every Sunday. Beginners and experienced meditators are welcome. If the outside temperature is 55° F. or higher and weather permits, meditation will take place at the Fire Circle behind the church. Otherwise, meditation will be in the Lower Level-Centering Room. For more information, email Anna Lingo or Susan Pereira.
10:30 a.m. – Worship Service
The Sermon-in-YOU Series “Flying Through Space on a Rock” Steve Scott
Astronomers estimate there are between 100 billion and 200 billion galaxies in the observable universe. Our Sun – one of an estimated 100 billion to 400 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy – orbits the center of the galaxy at a speed of 483,000 miles per hour along with its planets, including Earth. We are literally flying through space on a rock. What do these facts imply about how puny humanity should behave?
10:30 a.m. – Youth Religious Education- R.E. at the Park
Our summer children’s programming is all about giving children an opportunity to connect with each other and with our adult R.E. volunteers in a relaxed way, giving friendships and fun a chance to flourish. This takes the form of Park R.E., where, weather allowing, we will head to Shepard Boulevard Park after a centering time in the worship service for some fun and games. On rainy days (or extra hot days!), we will stay inside with Legos, board games and craft supplies for some indoor fun. Free nursery care for infants to 3-year-olds will be available until 11:45 a.m. Read about our Youth Religious Education program.
11:30 a.m. – Coffee Hour – Greeting Area
Enjoy beverages and chat in the Greeting Area.
Noon – LGBTQ Collective – Sanctuary
The LGBTQ Collective will meet in the Sanctuary on July 20 immediately after worship. Childcare will be provided. Please email Heidi Shearer with any questions or to request childcare. If you would like to help with UUCC’s participation in Columbia Pride in October, please let Heidi know. We are starting to plan over the summer for the parade and booth.
4 to 6:15 p.m. – Loaves & Fishes – Ashley Street Center
Our Social Action Team organizes volunteers to provide the evening meal at the Loaves and Fishes Soup Kitchen on the third Sunday each month. Click the button below to sign up to prepare food for this meal and/or to help set up, serve, and clean up.
Both the volunteers providing food and those who will serve and clean up are asked to be at the Ashley Street Center,1509 Ashley St. (view map) between 4 and 4:15 p.m. The meal will be served at 4:30 p.m. Cleanup is expected to be complete by about 6:15 p.m.
Please submit receipts for all food items, and some or all of your expenses may be reimbursed by the church. Email the Church Administrator :uuchurch@uucomo.org to obtain the church’s sales tax exemption certificate to use when purchasing food for Loaves and Fishes. If you have questions, email Fred Young or Gregg Suhler of the Social Action Team.
Board of Trustees issues public statement on our commitments in these times
Members of our Board of Trustees unanimously adopted a public statement regarding our commitments in these times at their March meeting. The statement was circulated by email to church members and friends on April 29. You can also view a video version of the statement. The statement also was published on April 29 on the editorial page of The Columbia Missourian.
2025-26 budget adopted, new board members elected
The 2025 Annual Congregational Meeting was held in the Sanctuary and via Zoom after worship at noon on Sunday, May 18, 2025. Business conducted at the meeting:
The proposed 2025-26 operating budget was approved. (To protect the privacy of staff members, the linked version of the budget omits individual payroll details. Upon email request to the Website Administrator, voting members can obtain a copy of the full budget.)
Shannon Mulvania-Beck, Sarah Oldfather and Jeff White were elected to three-year terms on the Board of Trustees starting July 1. (Biographical sketches and photos appear on the Annual Meeting page.)
The Rev. Dr. Molly Housh Gordon presented her annual report.
Rebecca Graves presented a preliminary report from the Mission and Vision Task Force.
Office hours are by appointment only from June 13 through Aug. 14, 2025. Schedule an appointment by emailing Rev. Molly.
Regularly scheduled office hours will resume Aug. 15 as follows:
2:30 to 4 p.m. Tuesdays at church.
11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Fridays at Uprise Bakery downtown.
Gentle Yoga with Karen Dwyer – Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday
Gentle Yoga takes place at the church from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Tuesdays and Fridays and from 6 to 7:15 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays (except the first Thursday each month). Additional information is available from Karen Dwyer, or contact the church office.
Living Earth Meditation – 9 a.m. Saturdays
Living Earth Meditation holds weekly sessions at 9 a.m. Saturdays at 1400 Gary St., facilitated by Peter Holmes, Ph.D., Jared Belden, M.A., and Tricia Straub. Sign up to attend by email. During cold weather months, the Living Earth Study Group meets on first and third Saturdays from 9 to 10:30 a.m. at Show-Me Dharma, 1600 West Broadway. It is facilitated by Peter Holmes, Ph.D. and Jared Belden, M.A. Sign up to attend by email. The meditation and study group programs are a joint project of UUCC, the Columbia Friends Meeting and Show-Me Dharma.
Scheduled events coming soon
Gaza War book discussion – 3:30 p.m. Thursday, July 17
UUJME announces that Nancy Browning will facilitate a discussion of One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad (discussing the war on Gaza), Thursday, July 17, 3:30 to 4:30 p.m., as part of the Osher Social Justice Book Club. As described by the publisher: “New York Times Bestseller. From award-winning novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad comes a powerful reckoning with what it means to live in a West that betrays its fundamental values.” This one-hour discussion on Zoom is being made available even if you are not an Osher member:
Board of Trustees – 7 p.m. Thursday, July 17
Our Board of Trustees will hold its regular monthly meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 17. Per church bylaws, church members are welcome to attend and observe board meetings.
Life Writer’s Group – 10:30 a.m. Saturday, July 19
The UU Life Writer’s Group meets from 10:30 a.m. to noon on the first and third Saturdays of the month to write and share at the church. For questions email Mary Herde.
LGBTQ Collective – noon Sunday, July 20
The next LGBTQ collective meeting will be July 20, immediately after worship. Childcare will be provided. Please email Heidi Shearer with any questions or to request childcare. If you would like to help with UUCC’s participation in Columbia Pride in October, please let Heidi know. We are starting to plan over the summer for the parade and booth.
Loaves and Fishes – 4 p.m. Sunday, July 20
Our Social Action Team needs volunteers to prepare servings of various dishes and other volunteers to serve the meal and clean up afterward.
The location of Loaves and Fishes is the Ashley Street Center, 1509 Ashley St., behind the city power plant (view map). The meal time is 4:30 p.m.
Both the volunteers providing food and those who will serve and clean up are asked to be at the Ashley Street Center between 4 and 4:15 p.m. Cleanup is expected to be complete by about 6:15 p.m. Please sign up here.
You can also support this effort by making a donation to the church specifying “Loaves and Fishes Fund.” For more information, email Fred Young or Gregg Suhler.
Men’s Group – 8:30 a.m. Saturday, July 26 – online
The UUCC Men’s Group meets online via Zoom on the second, fourth, and fifth Saturdays of each month. For more information, contact Wiley Miller at 573-864-8574 or by email.
Milestones Circle – noon Sunday, July 27
The Milestones Circle is an open, drop-in small group for older adults to meet, share thoughts and concerns, and receive support and friendship in a UU setting. The group meets each month on the fourth Sunday after the worship service in the Forum Room/Library on the lower level of the church. Bring a brown bag lunch and help explore the spirituality in your life.
Milestones materials are available here. For more information, contact Kathie Bergman at 573-999-3938 or by email.
Disability Justice and Inclusion Team – 12:15 p.m. Sunday, July 27
UUCC is restarting and revamping the Disability Justice and Inclusion Team (DJIT), which will meet on the fourth Sunday each month. The July meeting will be in person in the Lower Level-Centering Room and via Zoom from 12:15 to 1:45 p.m. Sunday, July 27.
The group will be specifically for people with various types of disabilities including chronic illness, neurodivergence, cognitive issues, brain injury, mental illness, physical disabilities, sensory disabilities, and more. This includes people who were born with or acquired a disability or are disabled through aging. The group will serve as a support group, advise the board and minister on accessibility issues, provide the congregation education opportunities on disability rights issues, and potentially participate in activism.
We always need community, but even more so with the new wave of disability injustice that’s been growing since January. Come and share what your spirit is feeling and needing in this new, disabled and chronically ill-only space. The early members of the group will help determine the focus and scope of activities.
You can read the Joys and sorrows shared with the congregation by clicking the button below. The page is also accessible from the Members/Friends drop-down menu. The Joys and Sorrows page is password-protected, so you must be logged in as a registered user of our site to see it. If you have not already registered, you can do so here.
