The play that spawned a global movement to end violence against women and girls will be presented in the sanctuary each night at 8 PM. At least 30 women and girls from a wide diversity of backgrounds will speak the powerful words of Ensler, one of America’s leading “artivists,” a creative artist whose works promote women’s freedom from violence around the world.

In its first three years, V-Day Fourth U’s fundraising efforts garnered nearly $35,000 for local organizations which work to end violence against women and girls. The beneficiaries from last year’s benefit were Centers Against Domestic Violence and Men Can Stop Rape. The two organizations will benefit from this year’s production as well.

Each local V-Day group around the world gives 10% of its proceeds to V-Day at the national level for its annual Spotlight Campaign. The focus chosen for the spotlight campaign is a country where women and girls are at greatest risk. This year, the Spotlight shines on Haiti, where the female population is working with courage and strength to improve opportunities for survival and safety. Haiti was also the focus of the 2011 V-Day Spotlight.

The 2012 production of “The Vagina Monologues” is organized by Deborah Roth, a Fourth U member and interfaith minister. Co-directors are Erin Bigelow and Ege Maltepe.   Among the 40+ V-Day groups in New York City, V-Day FourthU is the only group based in a house of worship. Other V-Day groups are based on campuses and community organizations. Some presentations take place in Spanish. See www.vday.org.

Fourth U is accessible to persons with disabilities. For more information, call 212-665-9660.
For tickets, please click here

We are a diverse, welcoming spiritual community, inspired to live meaningful lives of service while striving to create a world of peace, love and joy.

Looking forward to your contribution and support.

Soulful Sundown, Meditation Service
“What Am I Here For?” is the title for Sunday’s Soulful Sundown meditation service.  Join Rev. Julie at 5pm on Sunday for a service of meditation and reflection connected to this month’s worship theme: What do we stand for?

Religious Exploration Program
RE classes are back in swing this Sunday after several weeks off for the Hanukkah pageant and holidays.  Welcome back to kids and teachers alike!

Youth Group Returns
The Fantastic Fourth Youth Group will resume meeting this Sunday after a two-week holiday break.  Youth Group meets upstairs in the youth room from 1:30p-3:30p.

Sunday, Dec. 25^th is Christmas Day—and we’ll be right here, with a joyous Worship Feast at 10:45 am. Join us for good food, sacred conversation and songs of good cheer at our “At Table” service.  And we’ll be here on New Year’s Day, too, to welcome the New Year, our new worship time—11 am—and new opportunities to deepen our spiritual lives in 2012.

Soulful Sundown, December 25 & January 1
There will be NO Soulful Sundown services on Christmas or New Year’s Day.  Fourth U’s evening service will resume on January 8th at 5pm.

Fantastic Fourth Youth Group
Due to school vacations and the holidays there will be no Youth Group for the next two weeks.  We will gather together again on Sunday, January 8th from 1:30p-3:30p.

Religious Exploration Program

The RE program is on a holiday hiatus and will resume classes on January 8th.

Fourth U’s Religious Exploration classes will be presenting this year’s holiday pageant, “The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming,” as part of this Sunday’s morning service.  Everyone in RE has been working hard to make this a great Hanukkah pageant.  Please make sure you’re at Fourth on time to get a good seat and cheer on our young people, then stick around for coffee hour with latkes!

Soulful Sundown, 5pm– Jazz Vespers

Fourth U is participating in this week’s “Occupy the Pulpit” endeavor put forth by NYC’s Occupy Faith.  The theme for Jazz Vespers is “Seeking Justice, Singing Justice.”  Please join musicians Suzanne and Jeff Pittman along with Rev. Julie for an evening of jazz and protest.

The Rev. Rosemary Bray McNatt

Our theme for December is “Why Do We Rejoice?” and in these times there is good reason to both ask and answer this question.  I’ll be preaching about how it is that we are called on to rejoice, even when life circumstances, even the world situation, suggests otherwise.  We’ll be joined by Fred Johnson, member of the UU Church of Clearwater, Florida and a fellow at Intersections International, a multi-faith program of the Collegiate Churches of New York.  (It is thanks to Intersections International that we’ve been enjoying three panels from the Ribbons of Hope Project.) Fred is a widely respected musician, artist and healer who will help to create a very special worship time for all of us. It’s a wonderful Sunday to invite a friend!

 Following worship, at 1 pm, we are privileged to present a performance of “Under the Veil: 9/11 and Beyond.” This deeply moving piece, created by the Te’a Project with musical direction by Fred Johnson, is a powerful accompaniment to our morning service.  In words taken from its website, the play “uses theatre, music, and spoken word to dramatize the everyday clash of cares and threats that divide Americans from each other in the wake of 9/11. But beyond dramatizing those barriers, it also functions dramatically to foster the curiosity, insight and compassion that audience members need to transcend them.”  I hope you’ll go to the following website to learn more about the Te’a Project and its creative team: http://teaproject.com/projects.html

NO Soulful Sundown This Week
There is NO Soulful Sundown worship service this week, December 4th, to make time for the Te’a Project’s performance of “Under the Veil: 9/11 and Beyond.”  Soulful Sundown will resume on December 11th at 5pm, led by the Youth Group.

This Sunday, we continue our monthly theme, “Where Do We Come From?” with a very special guest: The Rev. Nihal Attanayake, the Director of the Faith in Action Department for the UU Church of the Philippines, and member of the Executive Committee of the International Council of Unitarian and Universalists. Rev. Attanayake will tell the story of how Universalism was born in the Philippines, and invite us to contribute to the building of the Quimada Dormitory, the church’s economic justice project. Rev. Rosemary will join us as worship associate, and a special collection for the dormitory project will follow the sermon. Our 5 pm Soulful Sundown will feature our popular Jazz Vespers service. We look forward to seeing you Sunday!

“The Guys on the Wall”

The Rev. Rosemary Bray McNatt

What a busy Sunday this is! We’re celebrating not only the new members who are joining us today, but the members and ministers of days gone by, and thinking ahead to the future of our ministries.  At worship, we’ll be talking about some of the people who helped to create Fourth U. They live with us in tangible ways; in fact, you walk by memorials to them every day you’re here.  The bronze plaques we look at without seeing include names of people foundational to our faith.  Do you know Edwin and Thomas, Charles and Frank, John and Julia?  We’ll introduce you to them, to their work and their witness—and we’ll welcome our newest members too. Our worship begins at 10:45 am.

Later, after you’ve had coffee and cake, join our church leaders for our next Mission Statement Workshop at 12:15 pm.  Many of you have written and posted your dreams for our congregation on the mission statement boards.  This afternoon, we’ll be refining those dreams into the first draft of mission and vision statements that will guide us in the months and years ahead.  Finally, our Soulful Sundown worship ends the day at 5 pm with a hymn sing conducted by our UU seminarians. We look forward to seeing you Sunday!