Jamestown, N.Y. – Before his retirement, social psychologist Dr. Jeffrey Victor taught about loneliness in his course at Jamestown Community College on the psychology of intimate relationships. 

Since then, loneliness has become a national health crisis, as reported recently by the United States Department of Health. 

Victor will present “Loneliness in America: Myths and Realities” during the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Jamestown (UUCJ) 10:30 a.m. hybrid service on Sunday, October 8. 

Based on current social science research findings, the teacher, researcher and writer will address why, in addition to being a personal problem, loneliness is a social problem, that is, a problem in the way society is organized. He will show how the stress caused by loneliness is linked not only to suicide, alcoholism and heart disease, but also to today’s extremist politics. 

The message most closely relates to the second and fourth of the seven Principles that Unitarian Universalist congregations affirm and promote: Justice, equity and compassion in human relations; and a free and responsible search for truth and meaning.

There will be an opportunity for discussion after the talk. All are welcome. 

A former president and member of the UUCJ since 1966, Victor taught at Jamestown Community College for 52 years. A recipient of the New York State University’s Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence, he received his Ph.D. in Sociology from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1974. He has been an invited speaker at conferences in Canada, France, Scotland, and the Netherlands and has appeared on national television programs including Larry King Live, The Maury Povich Show and The View. His many publications include the book Satanic Panic: The Creation of a Contemporary Legend.

Pianist Rosemary MacKown provides the music for the service. A social time follows.

Participation can be in person at 1255 Prendergast Avenue in Jamestown or online. To join virtually, use the link at UUJamestown.org/calendar. 

The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Jamestown is a progressive, liberal religious community serving the southern tier of Western New York and Warren County, Pa. The UUCJ’s mission is to support and celebrate each other, encourage spiritual and individual growth, and serve the wider community.

Jamestown, N.Y. – Rev. Alex Holt speaks again to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Jamestown (UUCJ) at their 10:30 a.m. hybrid service on Sunday, October 1, 2023.

Holt's topic is “It's the End of the World (and I Feel Fine).” 

He says, “Post apocalyptic songs and movies are very popular these days. Why? The 1987 song ‘It's the End of the World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine)’ by R.E.M. expresses joy that apocalyptic times are here. What would this mean for us in 2023? Why is the apocalypse so very alluring to us now?"

The message most closely relates to the fifth of the seven Principles that Unitarian Universalist congregations affirm and promote: The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large.

Until this past summer, Holt was the interim minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Meadville, Pennsylvania. After guest preaching at UUCJ last spring, he was invited to serve as the “first Sunday” preacher for their 2023-2024 church year and will be speaking virtually from his home in Eugene, Oregon.

Holt is an Accredited Interim Minister with training through the Unitarian Universalist Association and the Interim Ministry Network. Before his four years in Meadville, he was most recently interim minister in Seattle, Washington; Fort Worth, Texas; Bend, Oregon; and Clemson, South Carolina. He grew up on a farm in rural Maine and attended University of Southern Maine, Penn State and University of California, Berkeley in his academic work. He has a Master of Divinity from Starr King School for the Ministry as well as an M.A. in Comparative Literature from Penn State. A long-term Buddhist student, Holt has focused on dharma work in addictions ministry. 

Pianist Julie Anderson provides the music for the service. A social time follows.

Participation can be in person at 1255 Prendergast Avenue in Jamestown or online. To join virtually, use the link at UUJamestown.org/calendar. 

The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Jamestown is a progressive, liberal religious community serving the southern tier of Western New York and Warren County, Pa. The UUCJ’s mission is to support and celebrate each other, encourage spiritual and individual growth, and serve the wider community.

Jamestown, N.Y. – In June, Janet Forbes and Emily Garrick, both long-time members of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Jamestown, represented their church at the Unitarian Universalist Association’s 2023 General Assembly in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

At the 10:30 a.m. service on Sunday, September 24, they will share their experience with the congregation. Their message is “Faithfully Becoming: Reflections on General Assembly 2023.”

Forbes has been a member of UUCJ and the UU Fellowship of Chautauqua for more than 40 years and is a long-time Unitarian Universalist Service Committee supporter. She received her nursing degree from Jamestown Community College and her B.S. in Human Services from SUNY Empire State College. Now retired, her work experience included WCA Hospital, Cassadaga Jobs Corps Academy, and Chautauqua County Health Network. Her many volunteer activities include American Association of University Women, Audubon Community Nature Center, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Chautauqua County Master Gardeners, James Prendergast Library, YWCA Jamestown and New Neighbors Coalition.

The board secretary of the UU Young Adult Revival Network and former president of the UUCJ’s Board of Trustees, Garrick is a graduate of Jamestown High School and Wells College. She received her M.S. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from the University of Rochester. A teacher of English as  a New Language at Jamestown’s Washington Middle School, she will receive her M.S. in Adolescent Literacy from SUNY Oneonta in December. She volunteers for the Girl Scouts of Western New York and the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation.

A social time follows the service.

Participation can be either in person at 1255 Prendergast Avenue in Jamestown or online. To join virtually, use the link at UUJamestown.org/calendar.

The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Jamestown is a progressive, liberal religious community serving the southern tier of Western New York and Warren County, Pa. The UUCJ’s mission is to support and celebrate each other, encourage spiritual and individual growth, and serve the wider community.

Jamestown, N.Y. – Ruby Wiles returns to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Jamestown (UUCJ) to deliver the message on Sunday, September 17.

Wiles’s will address “Becoming a Poverty Abolitionist: Taking a look at how America is in a disgraced class by itself.” Her message relates most significantly to the first and second of the seven Principles that UU congregations affirm and promote: The inherent worth and dignity of every person; and justice, equity and compassion in human relations. She will share a Story for All Ages. 

In 2017, Wiles received the UUCJ Richard T. Parker Award for Social Justice for her work in founding and directing Free Books for Kids Town. This organization has provided thousands of free books to children in Warren County, Pennsylvania. Inspired by her passion to encourage kids’ reading by having books that belong to them, the church’s Social Justice Committee gives books to Jamestown’s Fletcher Elementary School kindergarteners and has two free book boxes in their front yard. 

Wiles graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, interned at Community of Christ in Washington, D.C., while a student at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, California, and completed work in Clinical Pastoral Education at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Maryland. Her first call at a two-point parish in North Dakota was followed by 12 years at Calvary Lutheran Church in the Bronx. Returning to her roots in rural Pennsylvania, she served Tabor Lutheran Church in Kane before founding Free Books for Kids Town in 2013.

Pianist Julie Anderson provides the music for the service. 

Participation can be in person at 1255 Prendergast Avenue in Jamestown or online. To join virtually, use the link at UUJamestown.org/calendar. 

The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Jamestown is a progressive, liberal religious community serving the southern tier of Western New York and Warren County, Pa. The UUCJ’s mission is to support and celebrate each other, encourage spiritual and individual growth, and serve the wider community.

Jamestown, N.Y. – After taking the summer off and encouraging their members to attend services at Chautauqua Institution, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Jamestown (UUCJ) resumes its Sunday services on September 10. Participation can be in person or online.

Parishioner Anne Kenefic continues the tradition for the first fall service of leading a water communion/ingathering at 10:30 a.m. at the 1255 Prendergast Avenue location. 

This annual celebration springs from a ceremony created in the 1980s. It began as a service to empower women and celebrate connectedness. Water symbolized the birth waters, the cycles of moon, tides and women, the solidarity with women globally, as women the world over traditionally draw and carry water.

Many Unitarian Universalist congregations now hold a Water Communion once a year, often at the beginning of the new church year in September. 

Members bring to the service a small amount of water from a place that is meaningful to them. During the appointed time in the service, people one by one pour their water together into a large bowl. As the water is added, the person who brought it tells why this water is special to them. The combined water is symbolic of a shared faith coming from many different sources. 

The Water Ceremony/Communion Service is an opportunity for Unitarian Universalist congregations to express their commitment to their sixth of the seven Principles they affirm and promote: the goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all.

Kenefic was a Sister of Social Service for more than a decade. A graduate of California State University, Hayward, with a BA in Political Science, Religious Studies and Women’s Studies, she received her Doctor of the Law from the University of West Los Angeles. She practiced various types of law in California and taught various subjects at the Paralegal Studies Program at California State University, San Bernardino. 

After moving to Jamestown in 2008, Kenefic worked as a paralegal for the law offices of Arthur N. Bailey & Associates, Legal Aid of Chautauqua County, and Fessenden, Laumer & DeAngelo, PLLC, until her retirement. She has been a UUCJ member since 2008 and was a board member for three years.

A social time follows the service.

Participation can be either in person at 1255 Prendergast Avenue in Jamestown or online. To join virtually, use the link at UUJamestown.org/calendar.

The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Jamestown is a progressive, liberal religious community serving the southern tier of Western New York and Warren County, Pa. The UUCJ’s mission is to support and celebrate each other, encourage spiritual and individual growth, and serve the wider community.

Jamestown, N.Y. – The Flower Communion, also called the Flower Ceremony or Flower Festival, is an annual ritual in many Unitarian Universalist (UU) congregations that celebrates beauty, human uniqueness, diversity, and community.

Sunday, June 18, congregant Anne Kenefic will lead the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Jamestown (UUCJ) in a Flower Communion service at 10:30 a.m.. 

One hundred years ago, on June 4, 1923, the Flower Communion was initiated in Prague by Norbert Čapek, the founder of the Unitarian Church in Czechoslovakia. He saw the need to unite the diverse congregants of his church, from varying Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish backgrounds, without alienating those who had left these traditions. For this reason he honored the universal beauty of nature by having a communion of flowers instead of the Eucharist. 

The ritual was brought to the United States in 1940 by the Rev. Maja Čapek, Norbert’s wife, and was widely adopted by American Unitarian churches and their successor Unitarian Universalist congregations.

In this ceremony, everyone in the congregation brings a flower. Each person places a flower on the altar or in a shared vase. The congregation and minister or leader bless the flowers, and they are redistributed. Each person takes home a different flower from the one they brought.

Celebrating the Flower Ceremony is an opportunity for UU congregations to express their commitment to the sixth of seven principles they affirm and promote: The goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all.

Kenefic was a Sister of Social Service for more than a decade. A graduate of California State University, Hayward, with a BA in Political Science, Religious Studies and Women’s Studies, she received her Doctor of the Law from the University of West Los Angeles. She practiced various types of law in California and taught various subjects at the Paralegal Studies Program at California State University, San Bernardino. 

After moving to Jamestown in 2008, Kenefic worked as a paralegal for the law offices of Arthur N. Bailey & Associates, Legal Aid of Chautauqua County, and Fessenden, Laumer & DeAngelo, PLLC. She has been a UUCJ member since 2008 and was a board member for three years.

Pianist is Julie Anderson. A social time follows the service.

Participation can be in person at 1255 Prendergast Avenue in Jamestown or online. To join virtually, use the link at UUJamestown.org/calendar. 

The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Jamestown is a progressive, liberal religious community serving the southern tier of Western New York and Warren County, Pa. The UUCJ’s mission is to support and celebrate each other, encourage spiritual and individual growth, and serve the wider community.

​Jamestown, N.Y. – “Summer is a good time to restore our spirits, by resting, playing, learning, and giving our brains time to put things together,” says Ruby Wiles, founder/director of Warren, Pennsylvania’s Free Books for Kids Town. “It is a time to be aware of opening doors and opportunities that might come our way.”

The former Lutheran pastor, who served in North Dakota, New York City and Kane, Pennsylvania, will deliver the message “Restoring Our Spirits in Summertime” when she addresses the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Jamestown’s (UUCJ) hybrid service Sunday, June 11, 10:30 a.m.

Wiles’ message relates primarily to the second and third of the seven Principles that Unitarian Universalist congregations affirm and promote: Justice, equity and compassion in human relations, and acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations.

Passionate about encouraging children to read by having books that belong to them, Wiles will share a Story for All Ages. 

In 2017, Wiles received the UUCJ’s Richard T. Parker Award for Social Justice that recognizes individuals whose volunteer work for social justice has not been widely acknowledged. The research she shared on the importance of books in the home for a child’s future success inspired the church’s Social Justice Committee to prioritize giving away books, most recently during Jamestown’s Memorial Day parade.

Rosemary MacKown, UUCJ’s longtime pianist who is now retired, returns to share her music with the congregation this Sunday. 

Participation can be in person at 1255 Prendergast Avenue in Jamestown or online. To join virtually, use the link at UUJamestown.org/calendar. 

The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Jamestown is a progressive, liberal religious community serving the southern tier of Western New York and Warren County, Pa. The UUCJ’s mission is to support and celebrate each other, encourage spiritual and individual growth, and serve the wider community.

​Jamestown, N.Y. – With the beautiful weather for Jamestown’s 2023 Memorial Day parade, the Social Justice Committee of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Jamestown (UUCJ) was able to set up their book giveaway on the sidewalk in front of their building. 

At 1255 Prendergast Avenue, the church is near Lakeview Cemetery, the parade’s destination.

Dozens of children and adults looked through the wide selection of books for all ages and chose ones to take home with them for free.

Committee members John Anderson, Dan and Linda Fellows, Linda Hiers and Susan Kalfas set up the display and were on hand to encourage participation.

“I was thrilled with how many folks stopped by, and we gave away so many books!” Hiers said. “Everybody needs to read to be a fully functioning citizen, and it’s very important for kids to have books of their own.”

Inspired by research that shows growing up with more books in their home increases a child’s literacy and educational achievement, one of the committee’s primary projects is to see that more children in the Jamestown community have books by giving them away for free. 

On Halloween children are welcomed inside the building by costumed parishioners for a Halloween Read and Treat where they can choose a book, receive a treat, and do some simple crafts. The committee has “adopted” Fletcher Elementary School’s kindergarten classes, providing each student with at least three books during the school year. 

There are two book boxes in front of the church, one with books for adults and the other for children. Anyone is welcome to keep books of their choice. 

​Jamestown, N.Y. – June is LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer) Pride Month.

Pride Month is celebrated to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan that was a tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States. 

The weekend-long 2023 Jamestown Pride Festival is June 9 – 11. For information, visit MHAChautauqua.org/JamestownPride. 

The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Jamestown (UUCJ) will recognize Pride Month at its 10:30 a.m. hybrid service on Sunday, June 4 when Verdis LeVar Robinson preaches on “Born This Way.”

As anti-queer bills, laws, and policies are on the rise across the country, this affirming service will reach into Unitarian Universalist ancestry to seek guidance, hope, and inspiration. 

The message relates to the first and seventh of the seven Principles that Unitarian Universalist congregations affirm, promote and hold as strong values and moral guides: A free and responsible search for truth and meaning, and the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

Robinson speaks from Vermont, where he serves as the ministerial coordinator of worship arts production and adult religious education at the Unitarian Church of Montpelier. He was the National Director for The Democracy Commitment, the Director for Community College Engagement at Campus Compact, and is currently an Associate of the Kettering Foundation specializing in deliberative democracy in community colleges and interfaith institutions. 

Prior to leading community college civic engagement nationally, Robinson was a tenured Assistant Professor of History and African American Studies at Monroe Community College in Rochester, New York, for ten years.

With a B.M. in Voice Performance from Boston University, a B.S. cum laude and M.A. in History from SUNY College at Brockport, and an M.A. in African-American Studies from SUNY University at Buffalo, Robinson received his Master of Divinity from Chicago’s Meadville Lombard Theological School this May. 

Emily Garrick is the service leader, and Julie Anderson the pianist.

A social time follows the service.

All are welcome. Participation can be in person at 1255 Prendergast Avenue in Jamestown or online. To join virtually, use the link at UUJamestown.org/calendar.

The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Jamestown is a progressive, liberal religious community serving the southern tier of Western New York and Warren County, Pa. The UUCJ’s mission is to support and celebrate each other, encourage spiritual and individual growth, and serve the wider community.

Jamestown, N.Y. –  Shatriya Smith is a married Black queer handicapable spiritualist, born and raised in Springfield, Illinois.

The community advocate will perform original poetry and ebonic renditions of favorite poets at the Sunday, May 28, 10:30 a.m. service of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Jamestown.  The work of Paul Laurence Dunbar, one of the first influential Black poets in American literature and internationally acclaimed for his dialectic verse, will be included in her presentation.

“As the poet laureate of Springfield, Illinois,” Smith says, “I stand with activists, allies and advocates of humanity, from BLM to women's rights, housing equality and racial equity, voting rights and LGBTQIA+. I speak for those who are too afraid to speak for themselves, and I bring my specific activities with poetic pose.” 

Smith has worked with Action Illinois, Resistor Sisters, Illinois Indivisible, Pantsuit Nation, Planned Parenthood, Poor People's Campaign, Illinois Trans Radical Activist Network, Phoenix Center and many more. This past year she was tasked to recite Paul Lawrence Dunbar and Amanda Gorman to K – 6 graders and led a team to produce The Underground Railroad Poetry Program that hosted a monthly workshop, open mic and field trip.

Smith adds, “I am also a mother to the first openly transitioning young person in my family. I am blessed to be the bearer of that responsibility, to showcase how to break generational curses while teaching each family member outwardly about individual rights to dignity and respect.” 

Shatriya Smith is executive director of Springfield’s Garvey Tubman Cultural Arts and Research Center. The Center provides services for low income families and young people ages 5-13 for music classes and to teach them to become young entrepreneurs. She is a member of the Abraham Lincoln Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Springfield.

The presentation relates primarily to the first two of the seven principles that Unitarian Universalist congregations affirm, promote and hold as strong values and moral guides: The inherent worth and dignity of every person, and justice, equity and compassion in human relations.

Pat Brininger is the service leader. A social time follows.

All are welcome. Participation can be either in person at 1255 Prendergast Avenue in Jamestown or online. To join virtually, use the link at UUJamestown.org/calendar.

The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Jamestown is a progressive, liberal religious community serving the southern tier of Western New York and Warren County, Pa. The UUCJ’s mission is to support and celebrate each other, encourage spiritual and individual growth, and serve the wider community.