July 2026 UUFA Newsletter

 

Sunday Services for July 2026 –  All services begin Sundays at 11:00 AM- 184 Longview Hts., Athens, OH 45701

Reminder:  As you travel this summer please bring a small amount of water from your summer travels.  At our September 6 service we will share the small samples and pour them together into one as a symbol of our covenant to one another and our congregation.  Participation is optional of course.

 

Sunday July 5 –  250 Years of Pursuing Life, Liberty, and Happiness

The words that begin the Declaration of Independence, while hopeful and inspiring, have not been realized by some Americans. Join us this Sunday as Jessie Roberson reflects on the words of Frederick Douglas and others in response to the conflict between our nation’s aspirations and its practices.
Sunday July 12 –  Unmoored and Anchored in Community
Are Unitarian Universalists “unmoored” because we don’t have a fixed creed? Yes—and that is our strength! Join us as Pete Mather shares ideas emerging from a queer commentary reading of the book of Ecclesiastes to explore the beauty of living without rigid dogmas. When we stop policing who is “in” and who is “out,” we free up our energy for what truly matters: loving each other, standing up for justice, and celebrating life together. We are unmoored from creeds, but deeply anchored in our covenant to one another.
POTLUCK SUNDAY ...immediately following service on July 12th.  Please bring a dish to share if you can if not just come anyway! Please label any food you bring with the ingredients so that those with dietary specific needs can stay healthy and enjoy.
Sunday July 19 –  TBA
Sunday July 26 – UU Principles: Hand in Hand with Wildlife 
When wildlife flourishes around us in Southeast Ohio — including once-thought long-lostspecies like the bobcat – those related success stories reconnect us with UUFA Core Values. Those values incorporate the UU Seventh Principle – “respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part,” and the Sixth Source, “spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions.”  On July 26th , we will review how UU core values are interlaced with environmental justice, protection of habitats, and advocating for endangered species. Using the recent success of the bobcat as it continues to repopulate our area, Larry Di Giovanni, a local journalist who has covered bobcats overcoming hunting and trapping efforts in his writing, will draw from lessons learned in the push for bobcat resurgence and protection. Included will be a shout-out to some local heroes who helped make it happen.
Copperheads Night – July 15 – 7:05 PM
Celebrate community and connection at the Copperheads Faith & Family Night as we play the Flag City Sluggers!  our own Andy Ray plays in the live band that accompanies each home game !
UUs go to the Ballpark.  On Wednesday, July 15 come on out to the ballgame with others from the fellowship.  We will be joining the Southern Ohio Copperheads as it is “Faith Night” at the game.  The fellowship will cover the cost of up to 15 tickets.  Reserve your’s now and your family and friendyour tickets now, by letting Barb Harrison or Jessie Roberson know of your interest.  Refreshments are on your own but we can sit together and cheer on the Copperheads and enjoy the time together.
UUFA Summer Workday – Saturday July 18th – please join others at the fellowship from 10 – 2 on Saturday, July 18 .
Projects include; childrens area spruce up, outdoor clean-up and care, inside tidying as well. Most of all a chance to come together on this common task and learn a bit more about one another.  We hope to see you then. For question please contact Jennifer Watson or Sara Berens who are coordinating this workday.
   
 UUFA Celebrates June  2026 Pride Month in Athens, Ohio
Our partners for social justice, SEORA made PRIDE events happen in Athens. They are an amazing group of volunteers who worked diligently to make it happen for our community. UUFA participated in the street fair on Saturday, June 6, 2026.  Many thanks to Susan Westenbarger for coordinating our participation in the event and Volunteers Roberta & Jessie Roberson and Richard Thieret for personing the booth.  We interacted with many folks who seemed interested in what we are all about.
                                                                                                     Athens Pride Fest tabling. UUFA volunteers speak with community member                        
Thanks to all UUFA members and friends for supporting Athens Pride ! 
 
July 1 “Welcomes New UUFA Year”    As of July 1, 2026 the new year begins for our UUFA schedule.  We are on a fiscal calendar.   We also welcome the new volunteer leaders service period.  Congratulations to the new and returning leaders who have agreed to serve this coming year.
Richard Thieret – President
Pete Mather – Vice-President
Susan Westenbarger – Treasurer
Roberta Roberson & Barb Harrison – Co-recorders
Members At Large: 
Jessie Roberson
Roberta Roberson
Andy Ray
Barb Harrison
Jeff Wunderly
Nellie Werger
For more information on our congregational by-laws visit your Elvanto page and this link is under Membership Documents

Inspiration from the UUA

Communion at the Drag Show

By Kim Mason

“When it’s time to go onstage,
know that you’re not ready but
this is not about being ready,
it’s not even about being fierce,
or fearless, it’s about being free.”
—Dean Atta, The Black Flamingo

Three religious professionals walk into a bar: a queer UU minister, a female priest from the Ecumenical Catholic Communion tradition, and a trans nonbinary Disciples of Christ minister. It’s amateur drag night and we’re all there to see our friend perform. In the tiny back room of the newest gay bar in town, we crowd in with strangers and friends to celebrate these drag newbies.

For some this is their first drag show—both performers and audience members—but everyone claps loudly, cheers enthusiastically, and generously offers wadded up cash to the brave kings and queens strutting their stuff on the stage.

The Catholic priest asks, “Should I have brought dollar bills?”

“Here,” I say, handing her mine. She hands the money into a drag king, who palms the money and kisses the back of her hand. “Oh!” she exclaims, fanning herself and blushing.

Our friend takes the stage, eliciting shouts of appreciative laughter as they sashay across the stage to the TLC song “No Scrubs” wearing a jacket covered in sponges and a skirt made of rubber gloves. There’s joy in the celebration of creativity, and we yell with pride: “We know them!”

Then it’s the final act. A tall, elegant drag queen strides on stage in massive, spiked platform heels and an ornate black cassock to the opening refrain of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus”: Reach out, touch faith. Everyone screams in recognition.

With each stride and squat, the cassock splits to reveal black garter straps and a leather bustier. She is glorious. She looks at each one of us as though she can see beyond the bright lights of the stage and into our hearts.

Your own personal Jesus / Someone to hear your prayers / Someone who cares

She slides and grinds, genuflects and bows, praying with her body the prayer that all LGBTQ+ folks say at some point: See me as I am. Accept me for myself. Love all of me.

The song continues, Feeling unknown / And you’re all alone / Flesh and bone. This is why we gather, in the back rooms of bars and on the streets during Pride: to be known, to be free to be fully ourselves, to feel deep in our bodies the truth that we are not alone. When the world tells you your love is a sin, that your body is a transgression, to be seen is baptism; to be accepted is grace; to be loved is the Holy made real.

The song winds down—Reach out, touch faith—and our drag show priestess brings out a tray laden with wafers. My friends and I turn to each other in wonder: “We get to have communion?” So often in the position of giving, we religious professionals, on this night, get to receive. We line up at the stage, leaning forward, mouths open to receive the host. “Take. Eat. You are loved,” she says, over and over.

That night an Ecumenical Catholic, a Disciple of Christ, and a UU each received communion: the blessing of being seen, the blessing of being accepted, the blessing of being loved. That night, the blessing of belonging brought the holy into being. That night, reaching out for community, we touched faith.

Prayer

Spirit of Life and Love, Source of Pride and Well of Power, may we always find the places where we belong. In a world struggling to find hope, may each and every one of us be known. May we be free. May we be loved. In the name of all that is holy and life affirming, amen and blessed be.

Direct Link: https://www.uua.org/braverwiser/communion-drag-show