On-Going Activities

Book Discussion Group    

Meets online via Zoom on the second Thursday of each month at 6:30 p.m. All enthusiastic readers are welcome.

If you’d like to join the group, please email bookgroup@uuhagerstownmd.org to be added to the log in list.

February 8: And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle by Pulitzer-Prize winning biographer Jon Meacham chronicles how and why Lincoln confronted secession, threats to democracy, and the tragedy of slavery to expand the possibilities of America—and includes many examples of Parker, Emerson, Channing, and other UU leaders influencing Lincoln and his development.
March 14: Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr. A tale of hope and of profound human connection. Constantinople, 1453: An orphaned seamstress and a cursed boy with a love for animals risks everything on opposite sides of a city wall to protect the people they love. Idaho, 2020: An impoverished, idealistic kid seeks revenge on a world that is crumbling around him. Unknown, sometime in the Future: With her tiny community in peril, Konstance is the last hope for the human race. To find a way forward, she must look to the oldest stories of all for guidance.
April 11: Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano. In an homage to Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, a young man’s dark past resurfaces as he gets to know the family of his college sweetheart. Hello Beautiful is a gorgeous, profoundly moving portrait of what’s possible when we choose to love someone not in spite of who they are, but because of it.
May 9: Old Babes in the Woods by Margaret Atwood. Short stories give us scenes from a marriage, following a couple with grown children through several decades. The other stories highlight the author’s imaginative range with a grab bag of subjects: aliens, ancient thinkers, witches, and animal souls. (The Book Group will also select the next round of books.)
June 13: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, was a co-recipient of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and won the 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction. Kingsolver was inspired by the Charles Dickens novel David Copperfield. While Kingsolver’s novel is similarly about a boy born into poverty, Demon Copperhead is set in the American South and explores contemporary issues.
Previous selections
2024 Books
Jan. Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See; February: And There Was Light: Abraham
Lincoln and the American Struggle by Jon Meacham; March: Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony
Doerr; April: Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano; May: Old Babes in the Woods by Margaret
Atwood; June: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver.
2023 Books
Jan: Liar’s Dictionary, by Eley Williams; Feb 9: My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma & the Path to Mending Our Hearts & Bodies, by Resma Menakem; March: West with Giraffes, by Lynda Rutledge; April: Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest, by Suzanne Simard; May: Hamnet: a Novel of the Plague, by Maggie O’Farrell; June: The Bowl with Golden Seams, by Ellen Prentiss Campbell; July: Invisible Life of
Addie La Rue, by V. E. Schwab. August; first hour: Zoom Conversation with Ellen Prentiss Campbell, author of The Bowl with Golden Seams. Second hour: selecting books. Sept. My Antonia by Willa Cather; Oct. The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson; Nov. Starless Sea by Eric Morganstern; Dec. Sharing favorite Children’s Books.
2022
January: The Last Days of Night: a Novel by Graham Moore. February: Oh William by Elizabeth Strout. March: The Great Bridge: the Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge by David McCullough. April: Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead. May: This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger. June: Quiet: the Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain. July: Dear Life: Stories by Alice Munro; August: Our Town by Thorton Wilder; Sept.: Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro; Oct.: The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek: A Novel by Kim Michele Richardson; Nov. The Sentence by Louise Erdrich; Dec. Sharing Classic Children’s books.

2021

January All Adults Here by Emily Straub. February: Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger. March: My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg. April:  The Dutch House: A Novel by Ann Patchett.  May: Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. June: Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier. July: A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell. August: The Mystery of Mrs. Christie: A Novel by Marie Benedict. September: Pachinko by Mi Jin Lee October: The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann. November: Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler. December: staged reading of Two Christmas Plays

 2020

January: Cancelled because of weather. February: The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West by David G. McCullough. March: Clock Dance by Anne Tyler.  April: At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson. May: Book Bingo. June:  Book Title game  July:   “The Garden Party” by Katherine Mansfield  and “Rain” by Somerset Maugham. August:   “The Necklace”,  “Misery”, and “A Work of Art” by Anton Chehov:  September:  Zoom meeting  Five Short Stories.  October:  Edgar Allen Poe Mystery Stories. November:  The Island of the Sea Women by Lisa See. December:  Holiday Potpourri: short stories, legends, and traditions

2019: January: The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore. February  cancelled because of snow. March: The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman. April: The Wright Brothers by David McCullough. May: The One-in-a-Million Boy by Monica Wood. June: Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of The FBI by David Gann. July 10: There, There by Tommy Orange. August: The Library Book by Susan Orlean. September: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. October: Varina by Charles Frazier. November: Manhattan Beach: A Novel by Jennifer Egan. December: Winter Holiday Books for Children.

2018: January: Little Fires Everywhereby Celeste Ng; February: Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson;  March: The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro; April: A Man Called Ove by Erik Backman; May: The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout; June: Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever’s Search for the Truth About Everything by Barbara Ehrenreich. July: George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spy Ring that Saved the American Revolution by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger; August : Purple Hibiscusby Chimamanda Ngozi; September: Commonwealth by Ann Patchet; October: The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks. November: The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir by Jennifer Ryan. December: Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn.

2017: January: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.February: All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely. March: The Things They Carried: a Work of Fictionby Tim O’Brien. April: The Phantom Tollboothby Norton Juster; illustrated by Jules Feiffer. May: Upstream: Selected Essays by Mary Oliver. June: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. July: American Nation: A history of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America by Colin Woodard. August: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. September: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. October: Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen; November: Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan; December: Winter Holiday Picture Books

2016: January: Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf.    Feb. : Poetry That Touches Us.  Cancelled because of weather.   March:  Cane River by Lalita Tademy.   April : A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.   May: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.  June: Mansfield Park by Jane Austin.   July: Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783-1789 by Joseph Ellis.     August: Poems That Touch Us  (rescheduled from February)   September:  Miller’s Valley by Anna Quindlen.     October: Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson.   November: At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier.     December: Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris.

 

Labyrinth Walks

Public Labyrinth Walks are held on the second Sunday of each month from 1 p.m. – 3 p.m. from May through October. Free and suitable for all ages.  

Our two labyrinths allow walkers to experience very different patterns.

Our indoor labyrinth is a Petite Chartres pattern, a smaller version of the 12th century labyrinth on the floor of the Chartres Cathedral in France. The outdoor labyrinth is the older, Cretan pattern.   The indoor labyrinth is only set up for the public labyrinth walks and other special events.

       The outdoor Cretan labyrinth is always open and UUCH members and friends are encouraged to walk it whenever they’re at church.

 

What is a labyrinth?  Unlike mazes which are puzzles with many possible choices, a labyrinth is a single path which winds into the center and out again.

Walking this path can help with relaxation, stress relief and even problem solving. People also walk labyrinths for spiritual reasons, as a moving meditation or prayer.

Labyrinth walking has been a Christian spiritual practice since the early Middle Ages; some area churches set up labyrinths during specific seasons like Lent. However, labyrinths are also part of many other cultures, including Native American, with some patterns dating back to prehistoric times.

For more information, read the labyrinth pamphlet in the rack in the sanctuary foyer or visit labyrinthsociety.org   or  veriditas.org.

 

 Men’s Discussion Group 

Fourth Tuesday, 6:30  p.m.

in the Martin House meeting room and via Zoom.

If you’d like to join the group, please email mensgroup@uuhagerstownmd.org to be added to the email list.

Discussion topics:

March 26: Tim Urban. Inside the mind of a master procrastinator

April 23: Bryan Stevenson. We need to talk about an injustice 

 All UUCH men are welcome. If the topic is a TED talk, the group watches it  during our meeting so no need to preview it to join in the discussion.

The purpose of the men’s group is to give UUCH men an opportunity to meet and share ideas within the context of our Unitarian Universalist scope of interest.

 

previous topics:  

2024
Jan. How to get your brain to focus By Chris Bailey; Feb. How to stay calm when you know you’ll be stressed by Daniel Levitin;
2023
Jan.: More on The Screwtape Letters, book by C.S. Lewis; Feb.: Why We Laugh, Ted Talk by Sophie Scott; March: The Secret to a Happy Life—Lessons from Decades of Research by Robert Waldinger; April: You Don’t Actually Know What Your Future Self Wants by Shankar Vadantam; May: The Surprising Psychology Behind Your Urge to Break the Rules by Paul Brown; June: How to Recognize Privilege – And Uplift Those Without It by Mariam Veiszadeh;
July: Why your life needs novelty, no matter your age by Kenneth Chabert; August: Why having fun is the secret to a healthier life by Catherine Price; Sept.: Why Change Is So Scary and How to Unlock its Potential by Maya Shankar.; Oct.: Ten Ways to Have a Better Conversation by Celeste Headlee;
Nov. Cancelled; Dec. How to escape the cynicism trap by Jamil Zaki

 

2022 topics:

January: Want to Be Happy? TED Talk; February: The Most Important Thing You Can Do  to Fight Climate Change TED  Talk; March: Reality Reconciles Science and Religion TED Talk; April: A Different Understanding of American Patriotism  TED  Talk; May: Four Kinds of Regret by Daniel H. Pink; June How Reliable Is Your Memory? by Elizabeth Loftus; July: How Trees Talk to Each Other by Suzanne Simard;  August 10: How to Speak Up for Yourself? by Adam Galinsky; Sept: Questions No One Knows the Answers To; Oct.:The James Webb Telescope; Nov.: Privilege Loss, TED talk by Thomas Owen; Dec.: The Screwtape Letters, book by C.S. Lewis.

 

2021 topics:

January: How to Tame your Wandering Mind TED Talk; February & March: Caste, The Origins of Our Discontents, a book by Isabel Wilkerson; April: The Surprising Decline in Violence, a TED Talk; May: How Can We Face the Future without Fear, Together?  TED  Talk; June-August: Think Again, a book by Adam Grant; September: Dare to Refuse the Origin Myths That Claim Who You are TED  Talk; October: The Paradox of Choice TED  Talk; November: The Moral Roots of Liberals and Conservatives TED  Talk; December: The Psychological Traits That Shape Your Political Beliefs TED Talk 

2020 topics: (all TED  Talks)

Jan.: Cancelled because of weather; Feb: How We Can Protect Truth in the Age of Misinformation; March: Twelve Truths I Learned from Life and Writing; April: The New Political Story That Could Change Everything; July: Can Prejudice Ever Be a Good Thing?; August: How to Get Better at the Things You Care About; Sept.: The Beauty and Complexity of Finding Common Ground; Oct.: The Dream We Haven’t Dared to Dream; Nov.: The Pursuit of Ignorance; Dec.: Racism Thrives on Silence; Speak Up!

2019 

Jan.: Ted Talk:3 Kinds of Bias that Shape Your Worldview; Feb. Cancelled because of snow. March 11:  Book: Justice on Earth (UUA Common Read; April: Ted Talk: May: Ted Talk:  Embrace your raw, strange magic; June: Ted Talk:  How to disagree productively and find common ground; July:  On Our Loss of Wisdom  August: . Is religion good or bad? (This is a trick question); Sept.: Three Ways to Practice Civility; Oct.: Anjali Kumar. My Failed Mission to Find God…and What I Found Instead. Nov.: A climate change solution that’s right under our feet.; Dec: The risky politics of progress.

2018

Jan. (cancelled because of snow) Feb. 12: How do we deal with loss?  How has the experience changed us? March 12: How do we control our Wildman? When do we let him  out and when do we restrain him?  (rescheduled from January). April 9: Procrastination. May 14:  What should be news?  June, July & August:  Daring Democracy: Igniting Power, Meaning, and Connection for the America We Want by Frances Moore Lappe and Adam Eichen. (Unitarian Universalist Association 2017-18 common read) September 19: Ted Talk: Dissecting Cultures of Hate. October 8:  Ted Talk: A Look into American Politics. Nov. 12: Ted Talk: There’s more to life than being happy.   Dec. 10:  Ted Talk: A life of purpose.

2017

Jan. Scotty McLennan’s book  Christ for UUs: a New Dialogue with Traditional Christianity. Feb.- March: Stephen Greenblatt’s book The Swerve: How the World Became Modern  April through June: Paul Rasor’s book Faith Without Certainty. July – What does our choice of hobbies tell us about ourselves?  August: the Zenith in our lives. September: What were you doing on 9/11 and how did 9/11 affect your life?  October: What did you learn from your father?  November: What does it mean to be a man?  December: Pathways to Spirituality

2016  

Jan.  Thomas Paine’s Common Sense.  Feb. – May:  Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy.  June – July: Colin Woodard’s American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America. August – Sept. Michael Sandel’s Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do. Oct. – Nov: George Lakoff’s The Political Mind: A Cognitive Scientist’s Guide to Your Brain and Its PoliticsDec. – Jan. 2017: Scotty McLennan’s  Christ for UUs: a New Dialogue with Traditional Christianity. 

 

Women’s Spirituality Group

meets on the first Wednesday at 7:00 p.m.

In winter months, only on Zoom. During the summer, in person in the Martin House meeting room.

For more information, email womensgroup@uuhagerstownmd.org

The mission of the Women’s Spirituality Group is to deepen friendships among UUCH women, encourage each other’s spiritual and intellectual growth, and provide comfort and support for life’s challenges and choices.

Upcoming Meetings: 

April 3:  Invent Your Own Religion. Exploring the many components and possibilities of religious experience drawing on what we’ve earned from The World’s Religions by Houston Smith.

previous topics:

June 2023- April  2024: Discussion of The World’s Religions by Huston Smith with the UUA study guide by Rev. Gary Kowalski.
July 2022 –June 2023 topic:  What Moves Us: UU Theology, which explores the experiences that changed people’s hearts and minds and expanded UU religious thought. (course available on UUA   www.uua.org/re/tapestry/adults/moves

 

2021 – May 2022:   Soul to Soul: Fourteen Gatherings for Reflection and Sharing.by Christine Robinson and Alicia Hawkins
2020: A Year of Spiritual Companionship by Anne Kertz Kernion.
2019   Erik Walker Wilstrom’s Faithful Practices: Everyday Ways to Feed Your Soul.

 

2018
January: Discussion of last section of Simple Abundance
February &  March (cancelled because of snow)
April. Planning for 2018.
May – December: Erik Walker Wilstrom’s Faithful Practices: Everyday Ways to Feed Your Soul.
2017
January: UU Women: Elizabeth Perkins Gilman & Maria Cook
February: UU Women: Fanny Farmer and Lydia Pinkham
March – December: Discussion of Simple Abundance: a Daybook of Comfort and Joy by Sarah Ban Breathnach.
2016: Women’s Wisdom, discussion, based on topics developed by the group, exploring the many aspects of our individual life journeys and sharing the insights gained from those experiences.
April: Spiritual Foremothers
May: Courage and Fear
June: Confidence
July: Confidence (rescheduled from June)
August: Feminine Spirituality and Nature
Sept.: Advice for Our Younger Selves
October: Feminism
November. : UU Women: Frances Moore Lappé, Beatrix Potter, Margaret Sanger
December: UU Women: Susan B. Anthony, Dorthea Dix, Elizabeth Cady Stanton

UUCH Drum Circle

Second Sunday of each month,  6 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. in the sanctuary or outside.

The UUCH Drum Circle welcomes all ages and skill levels. Bring your drums, flutes, tambourines, bells and other percussion instruments. A  few extra drums are available for new drummers to use. For more information about the drum circle, contact Bill Pfoutz.

UUCH Book Table

Open on the third Sunday in the sanctuary after the service.

Discover the many excellent books published by the UU publishing houses, Beacon Press and Skinner House.

A variety of popular titles for all ages on both UU and general interest topics are available. Book table manager Meagan Faraone also orders books related to Sunday services and you can request additional titles.

You pay list price but no shipping. Credit cards, cash, PayPal or checks accepted.

 

After Worship Potluck 

on the third Sunday of each month after the service  in the sanctuary

Bring food to share and stay after the service to discuss the sermon, explore the topic of the day, or just socialize. To help those with allergies and special diets, please label your food, especially if it contains animal products, gluten, shellfish, nuts, peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, or eggplant.

Stories in the Round 

Professional storytellers share their tales.

On the Fourth Monday (April – December), 7 p.m. in the sanctuary.  Doors open at 6:30 a.m.

Admission charged. $15 at the door ($12 in advance)

Grand Opening of Season 8:   April 22: Susan Gordon, beloved local storyteller returns to share the new chapters of her nearly completed novel, Finding Laurel Fork.

These are not children’s programs, but children 12 years and older are  welcome when accompanied by a parent or adult group leader.
For more information or advance registration, contact Fanny Crawford (301-730-1638 or fanitsk@hotmail.com).
Previous programs:

2023:

May: Griots Patricia G. Smart, D. Lynn Distance and Grandmother Edna Lawrence Williams;

June: Andy Offutt Irwin;

July Jane Dorfman;

August Fanny Crawford;

Sept. Liars and Tall Tales competition;

Nov. Adam Booth

 

2020-early 2023 cancelled due to pandemic

 

2019 Storytellers:

March 25: Anokwale Anansesemfo will be portraying several different enslaved and free women from Maryland plantations before, during and after the Civil War.

April 22: Janice Curtis Greene has delighted audiences for more than 25 years, telling African, African American and multicultural stories including folktales, original and Bible stories told in syncopated Rap rhythms.

May 27: Elaine Murray integrates movement and narration in stories from around the world, folk tales, and personal stories. 

June 24: Noah Baum will perform her one-woman show, “A Land Twice Promised,” based on her dialogue with a Palestinian neighbor in the U.S., a moving testimony on the complex and contradictory emotional history surrounding Jerusalem, for Israelis and Palestinians alike.

July 22: Donald Davis brings forth his family and Southern Appalachian traditions in iconic, personal and original tales that lay bare the great human mysteries 

August 19: Andy Offutt Irwin, a master raconteur, humorist, singer-songwriter, symphonic whistler, and impresario of mouth noises of all types. 

September 23: Jim May uses personal and traditional storytelling for the grounding and healing needed in our complex modern world.

October 21: Dovie Thomason honors her Lakota Sioux, Kiowa Apache and Scots ancestors with stories that teach, entertain and engage audiences.

Nov. 24: Mitch Capel, a.k.a. “Gran’daddy Junebug”, actor, author, art collector, poet, stand-up comic and Master Storyteller.

Dec. 23: Storyteller Fanny Crawford spent her childhood absorbing family stories, political history and cross-cultural perspectives from an extended circle of loquacious urban, rural and multi-lingual relatives and friends.