Upcoming Worship Services
July 5 The High School Graduation Speech That I Should Have Received in 1981
Tim Geiselman
What would you tell your 18-year-old self now that you’ve navigated the minefield we call adulthood? This service will focus on that question and will reflect on who we were compared to who we have become.
Music: Helen Kho and Elaine Held
Tim Geiselman has been a member of UUCMC since 2016. He lives in Middletown with his wife Rosane.
July 12 Church and State: How Our Faith Informs Our Actions
Rev. Cindy Terlazzo, guest minister
What does it mean to have a separation between the Church and the State? And how does that impact us as we seek to live the values of our faith in the public square? Join us today as we consider such questions.
Music: John Terlazzo, guest musician
The Rev. Cindy Terlazzo is an ordained UU minister who is currently serving two small congregations in upstate New York (near where she lives with her husband, John). Rev. Cindy has been wrestling with questions about the relationship between public witness and personal faith for some time. She is delighted to be returning to UUCMC to engage in an exploration of these questions with this beautiful community.
John Terlazzo is a Singer/Songwriter, Poet, Painter, and Storyteller who has just recently celebrated fifty years of songwriting. He performs and records with his band, Voices in the Hall, and is presently working on his 14th album—a double album of 29 original songs called In the House of the Lions. John also leads writing retreats called “The Flame in Every Hand: Writing as a Contemplative Act,” and has been doing so for thirty years.
July 19 The Theology of Relationship
Rev. Rosemarie Newberry
The shared values of our Unitarian Universalist faith require us to be in relationship. It is central to our faith and those values of Interdependence, Pluralism, Justice, Transformation, and Equity. Doing the work of our faith requires us to be in relationship, centered in love. Unfortunately, in today’s “cut off” culture, relationships are broken, severed, suddenly and severely. As a UU, this creates a crisis of faith, breaking our hearts, wounding our souls, and cracking our identity. We need to recognize the depth of the pain of broken relationships, how we support each other, and how we mend as individuals and as a community.
Music: Dan Kader, guest musician
The Rev. Rosemarie Newberry has been a member of UUCMC for over 30 years. She is a retired UU minister having served congregations in NJ, NY, and OH. She also worked as a chaplain for adults with developmental disabilities for over a decade. She lives in Red Bank with her 13-year-old rescue cat, Lovey Dovey. She loves visiting grandkids in Virginia, reading and watching science fiction, and eating al fresco. During the school year, she volunteers through an AmeriCorps program to read to kindergarten and first grades once a week at Marlboro and Red Bank elementary schools.
Dan Kader is a graduate of the University of Miami Jazz Program and he also has an MBA from Fordham University. He has won several awards throughout his career and has performed both solo and with different artists. He is excited and honored to play at UUCMC.
July 26 How Do We Keep Going?
Rev. Dr. Craig Rubano
Fresh from what should have been a marvelous milestone of our experiment in democracy, I have been inspired by Substack author Lisa Olivera’s manifesto of sorts—“How Do I Keep Going?”—to wonder, how do we keep going?
Music: Ian Kanev, guest musician
Ian Kanev is a pianist who earned an Associate in Music degree from Ocean County College under Brian Gilmore before continuing his studies at the Cali School of Music at Montclair State University with David Witten. Beginning in the fall, he will complete his Bachelor of Arts in Music at Dickinson College, where he will study with Jennifer Blyth. As a performer, he is particularly drawn to under-appreciated composers and neglected repertoire and is interested in collaborating with living composers on works that engage deeply with contemporary social and artistic questions.
August 2 A Letter to James Baldwin
Rev. Mary Tiebout, guest minister
In recognition of James Baldwin’s birthday, the justice for which he fought and the causes about which he wrote will be uplifted in both a personal and a more widespread acknowledgement of what, over recent decades, we have learned and how we might bring about meaningful change, at last.
Music: Michael Rosin, UkUlele Orchestra
The Rev. Mary Tiebout serves the UU Fellowship of Sussex County in Newton, NJ, as part-time minister. She participates in UU FaithAction NJ’s efforts to pass justice-related legislation in Trenton and is a member of the Immigrant Justice Task Force. Mary lives in Bucks County, PA, where her garden is growing well.
August 9 Writing as Communal Practice: Life and Love
Kristine Binaco, Suzanne Bless, Allison Mitchell and Jane Reskof
UUCMC boasts two writers’ groups which meet monthly, members reading aloud their writings on either a pre-chosen group topic or free to write on whatever is pertinent to their personal interests and concerns. For this service, four of one group’s members will share a few of their selections.
Music: Dan Kader, guest musician
Dan Kader is a graduate of the University of Miami Jazz Program and he also has an MBA from Fordham University. He has won several awards throughout his career and has performed both solo and with different artists. He is excited and honored to play at UUCMC.
August 16 A UU History of Courage
Patricia Hennigan, guest speaker
We come from a lineage of theological radicals, heretics, and advocates for social change. It’s a long history of innovative thinking and struggling for religious tolerance, individual conscience and social justice. We have a right to be proud of our history, and some of it we need to grapple with. Today, we will think about how our history, successes and failures, can encourage us in the present political moment.
Music: Evan Schwartzman, guest musician
Patricia Hennigan became a Unitarian Universalist over twenty-five years ago and has been a member of the UU Congregation of Princeton for 17 years. She is a Candidate to UU ministry, pursuing a Master of Divinity degree at Drew University Theological School in Madison, NJ.
Evan Schwartzman, pianist and composer, received his Masters in Theory and Composition from Rutgers University. As a pianist, he has given recitals as soloist and chamber musician throughout the NY metropolitan region. His work can be found on CGNJ Recordings, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, and all the usual streaming services.
August 30 Do You See What I See?
Rev. Charlie Dieterich, guest minister
I’ve been re-reading the chapter called “The Way of Social Action,” which I found in How Can I Help?, a book by Ram Dass and Paul Gorman. How do we keep alignment with the bigger goals of love and social change when our egos try so hard to distract us? Social change requires training and attention. Be prepared for another episode of “Charlie’s Learn-by-Doing Theater!”
Music: Michael Rosin
The Rev. Charlie Dieterich is a retired UU minister living in Kingston, a village on a canal south of New Brunswick, NJ.
September 6 Love Letters: How God Speaks to Us!
Roosevelt André Credit, Kirsten Norberg, Joel DeWitt, and Music Director Emerita Elaine Held
A Music Service of solos and duets from Porgy and Bess, ensemble music by George Gershwin, and more, interwoven with sharing words of how music inspires our lives.