The Within Phase of Beloved Conversations: Virtual will continue in the Spring Term. We would love to have you (and everyone you know!) join us for another term of this program, with a continued focus on personal learning and growth!
Some of the best storytellers from the past were those who needed to call upon a prophetic vision for hope and justice in dire circumstances. Our country faces equally dire circumstances today, especially around eco-justice. Join us as we explore creative ways to envision a more promising narrative for America grounded in the moral imagination around race, gender, ecology and theology.
What’s going on in Nepal? If you are the sponsor of a Nepali student now going through the ANSWER program, you’d probably like to know. Let’s find out together!
Does your garden need some plants? Our annual plant start sale has gone virtual! Starting April 19, look in the eblast for a catalog of what is available. Place your "order" by April 26th and pick up at the church the first week of may! Plants available will include: tomatoes, dahlia tubers and a few other veggies.
Meaningful Movies Bellevue Presents RGB. Join us for an evening of tribute for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who created a breathtaking legal legacy for women’s rights while becoming an unexpected pop-culture icon. The personal journey of this diminutive, quiet warrior’s rise to the nation’s highest court during a hostile time for women, is revealed in this inspiring and multi-dimensional portrait.
Come help with East Shore’s garden. Plant seeds, veggie starts, and perennials being relocated from the old P-Patch. We will practice safe health precautions by wearing masks and distancing.
How to be reconciled? With ourselves? Our family? Our fellow citizens? And is reconciliation always a virtue, or are there some betrayals so egregious that they brook no repair?
Join us for an opportunity to experience Restorative Practice! This practice supports a culture in which we come together to share and hear about people’s perspectives on key issues before they become sources of conflict and hurt. Members of the Right Relations Team are presenting an explanation and demonstration from 10 to 11:30 on Saturday, May 8. Come and learn and lend your voice to ways the process can work better, and share applications you envision for this process. Together, we can turn differences of opinion into a source of creativity, vitality and deeper understanding.
Rev. Furrer preaching on the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone to illustrate some of the attributes good motherhood calls for, and calls out of all parents. With a few memories of his late mom.
Grief GroUUp
Wednesdays, May 12 & June 9, 4:00-5:30 pm
Rev. Furrer and Milly Mullarky are convening a Grief GroUUp we suspect may interest some of our membership and help meet their current emotional needs. These are people who have recently lost a loved one and are in various stages of grief. You or someone you know might benefit from a supporting/listening/caring small group where we can offer ourselves to one another, including insights and strategies gleaned, and shoulders upon which to cry.
Would you like to learn more about climate politics and reality? Come join a group to discuss the book, “The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back our Planet” by Michael Mann, distinguished professor of atmospheric science at Penn State. The book explains what has brought us to this point and how to address the systemic issues fueling climate change. We'll invite some guests who can speak to possible solutions and offer hope! Let's learn how we can fight on behalf of the planet! Come share your thoughts with us!
Have you contemplated the value of growing the number of East Shore members, or the value of growth of our own individual and collective spirit(s) and awareness? Have you been curious about what others in our community have thought as well? How do we get where we want to go?
Join together planting at the Food Bank. It's a chance to get outside, and off the screen, enjoying the fresh air, learning about food growing and how far generosity can go! Planting is done standing up by using a tool that makes a hole in the ground and drops the plant into the hole. No bending down required! Farmer Jim says this work is suitable for children with supervision, youth, families, adults....everyone! We have a chance to work and learn outside at The Food Bank Farm in Snohomish. Please RSVP by emailing Grace Colton.
Paula Cole Jones and Rev. Stephen Furrer will preach on the 8th Principle, a proposed addition to Unitarian Universalism's seven faith principles. Come hear a bit of history, context, and why we should covenant to build the Beloved Community free from racism and oppression.
Margaret Fuller was an early feminist “Influencer” in the 19th Century. Two sisters fulfilled her philosophy by becoming our nation’s first and third medical school graduates and then went on (among other inroads) to found a women’s hospital in New York City that continues to this day. These are the doctors Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell. Learn about them and about some of our current ESUC sisters who work in the medical field at our tea.
America’s history books need a major update, especially when it comes to Native American history. Adam will show us some really messed up parts of the history and WHY that’s what we learn. Plus, there’s a very weird reason Mount Rushmore exists!
These kindly folks need your help! Spring is bursting out all over, and our wonderful Grounds Team and onsite staff are a bit overwhelmed. Join this welcoming team of nature lovers to help make our beautiful property even more so. Show up any time between 10 and 3 and stay for any amount of time that fits your schedule. Grounds Team members will be available to point you in the right direction. No experience necessary. Children and youth are welcome but should be accompanied by a parent of other adult. Come enjoy a fun and invigorating time outdoors with East Shore members and friends.
How do we reckon with a history of racial injustice in a way that invites us to imagine a more hopeful, just and equitable future? This question sparked a personal journey for Khari Wendell McClelland as he traced his great, great, great grandmother Kizzy’s escape from slavery from Detroit, Michigan to Vancouver, Canada in the 1800s. Music served as his soulful guide for courage and resilience as Khari researched the fugitive slave songs that Kizzy and others carried with them following the Underground Railroad.
The award-winning PBS documentary, Orchestrating Change, from Bullfrog Films, highlights the world's only classical orchestra created by and for people living with mental illness. The Me2/Orchestra was co-founded by Ronald Braunstein, a world-renowned maestro whose own career was affected by mental illness. The orchestra's mission is to erase the stigmatization of people living with mental illness through the creation of beautiful music, community, compassion, and understanding...one concert at a time. The film will be followed by a discussion with a special guest from NAMI Eastside (National Alliance on Mental Illness). This family-friendly Meaningful Movies Bellevue film is free to all viewers.
In 1942, the Gestapo sent out an urgent transmission: "She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her." The target in their sights was Virginia Hall, a Baltimore socialite who talked her way into Special Operations Executive, the spy organization dubbed Winston Churchill's "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare." She became the first Allied woman deployed behind enemy lines and--despite her prosthetic leg--helped to light the flame of the French Resistance, revolutionizing secret warfare as we know it. Based on new and extensive research, Sonia Purnell has for the first time uncovered the full secret life of Virginia Hall--an astounding and inspiring story of heroism, spycraft, resistance, and personal triumph over shocking adversity. A Woman of No Importance is the breathtaking story of how one woman's fierce persistence helped win the war.
Vocal activist Melanie DeMore has traveled the world, was a founding member of the Grammy -nominated vocal ensemble Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir, and is constantly amazed by her life. But nothing is closer to her heart than bringing people together wherever she is to experience the healing power of music. Her mission is to make sure you unlock the key to experiencing yourself in all your glory and return home with the very same excitement and passion for living that she herself has. Her energy will charge the very air you breathe like a meteor shower, so get ready to rise up!
Please join us outside, at East Shore, next to the Sanctuary, or virtually for a look at some of what we’ve collected over the years from our church partner in Torockószentgyörgy. We’ll have conversation about the items and images we have and make some decisions about what we want to keep, what we’ll let go of, and how to preserve or display it at East Shore. If you’ve pilgrimed there or participated in past partnership events, please join us.