Jamestown, N.Y. – “Your story matters. Your story will outlive you. Let me help you craft it.”

With these words award-winning Canadian journalist and storyteller Anne Bokma invites you to her virtual memoir-writing workshop “Getting Started On Your Story” on Sunday, November 20, 2022, 2 – 3:30 p.m. She welcomes anyone who would like to familiarize themselves with the art of memoir and start thinking about a story they might like to write and tell from their lives. 

As a freelance journalist, Bokma specializes in articles on spirituality, relationships, health and travel. She has written for many of Canada’s major magazines and newspapers and been honored with awards from the Canadian Association of Journalists, the North American Travel Journalists Association, the Canadian Church Press, the U.S. Associated Church Press, the Canadian Society of Magazine Editors, the Canadian Business Press Media Association and more.

Of her workshop, the author of My Year of Living Spiritually: One Woman’s Secular Quest for a More Soulful Life adds, “I will guide you through the process, and it will be joyful and painless! By the end of the 90 minutes, you will have completed – at the very least – the opening line to a story from your life.”

Bokma is the mother of two grown daughters. She makes her home in Hamilton, Ontario, where she is an active member of First Unitarian Church. To learn more about her, visit AnneBokma.com. 

The event is sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Jamestown (UUCJ).

Cost of the workshop is $30, and space is limited. Register at UUJamestown.org/stories by Friday, November 18. The Zoom link will be emailed to you the day before the workshop. 

Bokma will speak on “Why Your Story Matters: The Healing Benefits of Sharing Our True-Life Tales” at the UUCJ’s 10:30 a.m. hybrid service that Sunday, November 20.  Anyone is welcome in person at 1255 Prendergast Avenue, or for a Zoom link visit UUJamestown.org/calendar.

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Jamestown, N.Y. – Verdis LeVar Robinson returns to deliver the sermon at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Jamestown (UUCJ) on November 6, 2022, as he will on the first Sundays of the months through June (exception: January 8 instead of New Year’s Day).

Robinson’s subject at the 10:30 a.m. hybrid service is “Waiting on the World to Change.”

Of his message, Robinson says, “In a time where everything seems urgent and uncertain, it is clear that we find ourselves in a transformational moment. Let’s take a pause, a breath, and gear up for the change in our world...but what are we waiting for and why are we waiting?”

The sermon most relates to the sixth of the seven Principles that Unitarian Universalist congregations affirm and promote: The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.

Robinson serves the Unitarian Church of Montpelier in Vermont as their ministerial coordinator of worship arts production and adult religious education. He is also the new artistic director of the Montpelier Community Gospel Choir. 

Robinson was a tenured assistant professor of history and African American studies at Monroe Community College in Rochester, N.Y., for ten years. Before joining the First Universalist Church of Rochester in 2008, he was a confirmed local minister in the African American Holiness-Pentecostal tradition. He is currently an associate of the Kettering Foundation, specializing in deliberative democracy in community colleges and interfaith institutions. 

Robinson is a candidate for the Unitarian Universalist ministry and a Master of Divinity at the Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago. He earned degrees from Boston University, SUNY College at Brockport and SUNY University at Buffalo.

A reminder to set your clocks back one hour the night before.

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. – “In the Lutheran tradition, the last Sunday in October is Reformation Sunday, when we remember Martin Luther’s courage in publicly criticizing the church and expecting it to do and be better,” says former Lutheran pastor Ruby Wiles, who served in North Dakota, New York City and Kane, Pennsylvania.

In her message at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Jamestown’s (UUCJ) 10:30 a.m. hybrid service on Sunday, October 30, Wiles will explore the question, “Do you need reformation? Do I?” 

Wiles explains that, “I loved this day as a kid, because the church is always in need of reformation and I always had ideas on how to reform it. Now I realize, I am the church and my need for reformation. Based on scientific research, I would like to speak about our personal need for reformation and how to change.” 

The message relates primarily to the second of the seven Principles that Unitarian Universalist congregations affirm and promote: Justice, equity and compassion in human relations. It relates as well to the third – acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations, fifth —the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large, and sixth principle – the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.

As the founder of Warren, Pennsylvania’s Free Books for Kids Town, Wiles is passionate about encouraging children to read by having books that belong to them. She is bringing a literacy quiz and will update the congregation on her literacy work. 

There will be time for questions after her presentation.

In 2017, Wiles received the UUCJ’s Richard T. Parker Award for Social Justice. The award recognizes individuals whose volunteer work for social justice has not been widely acknowledged. Subsequently, she inspired the church’s Social Justice Committee to promote reading by giving books to students in the Washington Middle School English as a New Language program and to Fletcher Elementary School kindergarteners, having a free children’s book box in front of the church, and holding a Halloween Book Giveaway during Jamestown’s Trick or Treat hours. 

A social time follows the service when congregants will celebrate Rosemary MacKown on her last Sunday as regular pianist for the church. Following many years of her musicianship adding beauty to services, she will be wished a wonderful retirement and welcomed back for special occasions.

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. – You are invited to enhance your kids’ trick or treating with a stop at the Unitarian Church’s Halloween Book Giveaway. 

During Jamestown’s Trick or Treat hours – Monday, October 31, 6-8 p.m. –   the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Jamestown (UUCJ) at 1255 Prendergast Avenue will be open for children to enjoy treats, choose a book from a large selection for all ages, and do a simple craft, if they would like.

Inspired by research showing that growing up with more books in their home increases a person’s literacy and educational achievement, the UUCJ Social Justice Committee is committed to making more books available to children in the Jamestown community. 

The two book boxes in front of the church building – one for children and one for adults – are filled with books that are free for the taking. The group also encourages reading by giving books to Fletcher Elementary School kindergarteners. 

There is parking behind the church.

​Jamestown, N.Y. – Rev. Renee Ruchotzke, congregational life consultant in the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), is visiting the 10:30 a.m. service of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Jamestown (UUCJ) on Sunday, October 3. She will deliver a sermon on “Emergent Community.”

The minister asks, “What does it mean to build Beloved Community when we don’t have a common identity?” She notes that creating a sense of belonging among diverse people takes intention and practice, and she promises, “We will explore ways we can transform our understanding of inclusion by engaging with our assumptions about what binds us together.”

The message relates to four of the seven Principles Unitarian Universalist congregations affirm and promote: The inherent worth and dignity of every person; justice, equity, and compassion in human relations; the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large; and the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.

After the service, there will be coffee and Rev. Ruchotzke will host a community conversation around members’ hopes for the future.

Rev. Ruchotzke (ruh-HUT-skee) is the UUCJ’s primary contact with the Central East Region of the UUA. She has been with the UUA since 2010, specializing in leadership development, and she says she “loves working with lay people, helping them to make their congregations awesome.” She is a local community organizer and activist in Kent, Ohio, where she lives with her spouse, Randy. They practice sustainable living with solar panels, an electric car, a backyard permaculture food forest, and a front yard pollinator on their city lot. Before being called to ministry, she was a mechanical design engineer and project manager and was awarded a patent for one of her designs.

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. – Members of the  Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Jamestown (UUCJ) are looking forward to having Verdis LeVar Robinson as their guest preacher monthly, beginning Sunday, October 16.

“Verdis’s most recent time with us was May 15, the day after the mass shooting at the Tops Market in Buffalo,” said UUCJ board president Bruce Anderson. “His presentation was so meaningful and the service so moving, that our Sunday service committee decided to invite him to be with us every month for the 2022-2023 church year.”

All those who heard one of Robinson’s previous sermons with UUCJ (“Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” “Building a Beloved Community on the Red Hills of Georgia” and “The Wrinkle in Our Time”) are looking forward to being both enlightened and inspired by his words. November through June, he will speak every first Sunday (except January 8, instead of New Year’s Day).

The title of Robinson’s sermon at the 10:30 a.m. service on October 16 is “The Storm IS Passing Over.” 

The Rev. Charles Albert Tindley, an African American Methodist minister, is regarded as one of the founders of gospel music and is credited with “We Shall Overcome,” the anthem of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. In 1905, he composed the song “The Storm is Passing Over” that begins, “Encourage my soul and let us journey on.” 

Robinson asks, “How do we find courage in these times to keep journeying toward a world of greater acceptance and affirmation? Perhaps Rev. Tindley’s journey can inspire us all.” He adds, “As a Western New Yorker born and raised in Rochester, New York, I share an affinity in the struggle for justice and equity in the region and am delighted to engage the congregation more with my ministry.”

The message relates to the sixth of the seven Principles that Unitarian Universalist congregations affirm and promote: The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.

Robinson is the Lenora Montgomery Scholar of Excellence at Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago, where he is a candidate for a Master of Divinity and the Unitarian Universalist ministry. He holds a BM in voice performance from Boston University, a BS cum laude and an MA in history from SUNY College at Brockport, and an MA in African American studies from SUNY University at Buffalo.

Robinson served the Unitarian Church of Montpelier in Vermont as Ministerial Intern from 2020 to 2022 and is now their Ministerial Coordinator of Worship Arts Production and Adult Lifespan Spiritual Exploration. He is also the new Artistic Director of the Montpelier Community Gospel Choir. Before joining the First Universalist Church of Rochester, New York, in 2008, he was a confirmed local minister in the African American Holiness-Pentecostal tradition. 

During his career, Robinson 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, he was a tenured Assistant Professor of History and African American Studies at Monroe Community College in Rochester for ten 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. –  Retired Jamestown Community College sociology professor Dr. Jeffrey Victor will share his belief that “It is Darkest Before the Dawn” at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Jamestown’s (UUCJ) 10:30 a.m. hybrid service on Sunday, October 9.

Many religious liberals are a little depressed today by the increasing influence of dark forces threatening our democracy. However, there is a lot of evidence that this is a time of darkness before the dawn. 

Victor will offer some insight into why the culture of white Christian nationalism and racism has become so powerful and such a threat to our democracy. Yet, there is a lot of evidence for hope that the situation is only temporary. It may be the last gasp of a disappearing culture in parts of American society.

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.

A member of the UUCJ since 1966, Victor taught at Jamestown Community College for 52 years. In 1988, he received the New York State University’s Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence. He has been an invited speaker at conferences in Canada, France, Scotland, and the Netherlands. He 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, a sociological research study of rumors and claims about secret criminal satanic cults and false accusations of such crimes.

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. – Carmelo Hernandez will be in person to address the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Jamestown (UUCJ) at their 10:30 a.m. hybrid service on Sunday, October 2.

The Director of Chautauqua County Community Mental Hygiene Services will speak on “Team Building.” Hernandez will stress the importance of a team and recognize that “it takes a village” to accomplish any task, any goal. He will entertain questions after his presentation.

The message relates to the first two of the seven Principles that Unitarian Universalist congregations affirm and promote: The inherent worth and dignity of every person, and justice, equity and compassion in human relations.

Carmelo Hernandez began his position with the Chautauqua County Department of Mental Hygiene last September. Previously he served as a lead therapist at Alssaro Counseling Services in New Rochelle, N.Y., and a mental health consultant at WestCOP in Westchester, N.Y. Earlier he was a program manager for Wediko Children’s Services and a combat stress recovery specialist for the Wounded Warrior Project.

Hernandez earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work and Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. He holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work from New York University in New York, N.Y. A certified Licensed Master Social Worker, he lives in Westfield, N.Y.

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 message at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Jamestown (UUCJ) 10:30 a.m. service on Sunday, September 25, 2022, will be presented by church board member and area teacher Kate Sommer.

Sommer’s subject is: “A Message of Hope:  How Public Schools Are Addressing Economic and Social Inequities.”

As she describes, “My experience includes 29 years of teaching in public education.  Many positive changes have occurred during that time in public education to address social and economic inequities among students, inequities which became exacerbated and also more obvious during the Covid Pandemic shutdown of in-person learning.”

Sommer’s background includes a BA in English with a minor in Education from the University of Buffalo and an MA in English from the Ohio State University.  Experience that informs her talk includes serving as a literacy volunteer and as a volunteer at a house for women and children hiding from their abusers, all in Syracuse. 

The topic is related to two of the seven Principles Unitarian Universalist congregations affirm and promote: Justice, equity and compassion in human relations, and the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.

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.