Fourth Universalist Society in the City of New York

Open your closets and your warm hearts for our holiday fur coat drive. Working with the Humane Society, we’ll send fur items (jackets, stoles, hats, gloves, trim, scarves and muffs), to wildlife rehabilitators, who use them as bedding and nesting material for orphaned and injured animals in their care. Please drop off your tax-deductible donations to Marisa from October 9-December 21.

The Hospitality Committee is currently looking for volunteers to host Coffee Hour.

Would you like to volunteer at Fourth U, to help worthy causes, to meet new people and chat with the congregation? By hosting a Sunday Coffee Hour, you can do all three. It involves bringing milk and light refreshments, setting up before the service, and staying afterwards to clear away the coffee mugs.  The instructions can be found at http://www.4thu.org/hospitality.
This is a great way to volunteer if you only have a small amount of time to give. The money we raise at Coffee Hour is given to charity.

If you would like to see which dates still require volunteers, there is a list on the Hospitality page on this website.

We also need help with organizing our Fair Trade coffee project. We sell ground coffee and whole beans, fair trade chocolate bars and cocoa after church once or twice a month, as a fundraiser for Fourth U. We’re part of the UUSC Coffee Project.

For further details, please contact Lois Coleman (lcoleman@barnard.edu / 212-663-2743) or Spencer Salzberg (smsalzberg@hotmail.com / 718-884-8957).

Rev. Jill Bowden will give a Worship Associate Training on Sunday, August 26 at 10:00 AM at Fourth U. For more information, contact Jill at 845-641-4694 or jbowden16@verizon.net.

The performers of WORD-BEAT, Tom Teasley and Charles Williams, are looking for a place to stay Friday and Saturday night, Sept. 21 and 22.

Word-Beat combines the artistry of singer / actor Charles Williams and global-jazz percussionist Tom Teasley in programs featuring the inspirational texts of such authors as Langston Hughes and Nelson Mandela as well as African folk songs. All are accompanied by inventive percussive rhythms and melodies. The duo has performed their critically acclaimed melding of music and voice at prestigious venues and before academic audiences in the U.S. and Europe. Williams and Teasley achieve a true marriage of ancient melody and future sounds, of Africa, the West and beyond. They have recently added a program featuring the 12th century mystic poet Rumi accompanied by Tom’s original music and inspired by Middle Eastern cultures. Timeless world rhythms evoked by Teasley’s masterful blend of ethnic percussion and cutting-edge electronics underscore traditional verse delivered in spirited performance art mode by Williams. The two artists, each successful in their own right, are both are dedicated educators presenting concerts and clinics throughout the world.

Please contact sara.shumway@gmail.com if you might be able to host these musicians.

See www.word-beat.com for more info about Tom and Charles.

September 16 and 23, once again we’ll be collecting money for school supplies for the kids at the Regent Family Residence on the Upper West Side. Donations can be in the form of either cash or checks made out to Fourth U with “school supplies” in the memo line. Collections will be made at church on Sunday, September 16 and Sunday, September 23.