Fall registration has opened for Children’s RE classes and YRUU (high school youth group). Register online at the HUUC Children and Youth Registration Form for 2021-22. All children and youth must be registered to attend classes and meetings this fall.
Returning families have been sent a link to a pre-filled registration form to make registration easier. Please check your email.
Seeking
Audio Visual Volunteers,
Parking Lot Greeters and More!
With our return to in-person worship services on June 6 comes the need for increased community participation (translation: helpers) to make things work smoothly in-person and at a new, outdoor location. For the past year-plus, a smaller group of volunteers has brought you increasingly sophisticated online Zoom worship services, but the needs of an outdoor, in-person service are very different.
Throughout this summer, with services at Moundview Park planned every-other Sunday, Heritage Church needs you! If you can help with any of the following, please contact Rev. Bill Gupton at:
P.A. and Sound System help. We will be using a church-owned P.A. system plugged into power outlets at the Moundview Park pavilion. If operating a soundboard, running wires and cables to microphones, etc., is something you can do or would love to learn to do, we need you!
Parking Lot attendants. Are you a friendly person? A good problem solver? We’re looking for several folks to be available to help direct traffic and get cars efficiently parked at Moundview Park. You’ll be the first to see your old (and new) friends on Sunday mornings. Sound like fun? We need you!
Videographers. We will have 2-3 cameras set up around the pavilion during our outdoor Sunday services for the livestream portion of these services. It is important that folks at home, who do not come to the service in-person for whatever reason, can still worship with us. These will be static (not roving) cameras, so all you need is a good smart phone or other camera, a well-charged battery, and willingness to set up the camera (tripods a plus) and monitor it, staying in touch with our technician “in the studio” in New Jersey. If this sounds like your gig, we need you!
Ushers. There will be programs and announcements to hand out, seating to coordinate (helping households find accommodating ways to maintain social distance), and perhaps a timely need or two from our Worship Committee on Sunday mornings. People will need to be directed to the Joys & Sorrows Book, the restrooms, etc. Seeking gregarious and helpful souls for this important role. We need you!
What have we forgotten? This is an ever-evolving process. The Worship Committee and your Senior Minister are hard at work on planning outdoor services, but perhaps there are other kinds of help we will need, that we haven’t even considered. If you have thoughts, please feel free to share them with Rev. Bill at the email address above. Everybody, we need you!
June 2021.
Moundview Park picnic shelter
Thanks to the hard work of our Safety and Reopening Team, we will once again be able to gather in-person for Sunday worship, every other Sunday this summer at Moundview Park, beginning on June 6. We offer our gratitude to Board members John Sandman and Mark Buckley, to Worship Committee representatives Regina Pugh, Steph Tacy, Jenn Hester and Lisa Prantl, to our Interim Religious Educator Karen Hager, to Steve Sievers and Marleen Johnson and Jaime Castle, and to our scientific consultant, Ken Martinez, for this exciting opportunity.
On alternating Sundays beginning at 10:30 a.m., outdoor and in-person worship will be held in the large pavilion at the top of the hill at Moundview Park at 3130 Newtown Road, about a mile north of Heritage Church. Please plan to arrive early each Sunday to allow time for parking; most folks should park in the parking lot near Newtown Road, next to the baseball field, but those with accessibility challenges may drive up the hill and park in one of the limited number of handicap parking spaces located there.
Bring a mask with you. You might also consider bringing folding (soccer-type) chairs. While many of us will be eager to hug friends, others will be uncomfortable with close, physical contact. Further, some of us will be vaccinated – and some will not. We must be particularly careful about children, those who are immune-compromised, and so on. And we cannot make assumptions about another person’s vaccination status, health or emotional situation. As a loving community, it is incumbent upon us to be careful, gentle and forgiving with one another.
Below is the text of the current re-opening report the Board of Trustees approved from the Safety and Reopening Team. We ask that you read this document carefully before attending in-person worship services this summer. If you have questions, please ask.
Phased return to in-person Sunday morning worship services
Outdoor services at 10:30 a.m. at Moundview Park large pavilion
Every other Sunday June thru August. (Alternating Sundays continue to be Zoom only)
Our goal is to resume in-sanctuary, in-person services on Sunday, Sept. 12, with Ingathering Sunday / Water Ceremony. Detailed plans for achieving and implementing this goal will continue to be worked out by the Worship Sub-Group of the Safety / Reopening Team, with recommendations to follow on a timely basis.
Posted 5/24/2021.
It has been a year and a half since we welcomed new members into our church family. With the return of in-person Sunday services every-other Sunday this summer, we are ready to once again celebrate a New Member Sunday. All those who have been coming to virtual worship services and other Heritage activities during the pandemic (and perhaps even prior), who feel ready to become official church members, are invited to join us – literally! – on Sunday, June 20 at Moundview Park for a very special, outdoor (but in person) new member ceremony.
If you would like to join the church, or have questions about membership, please contact Rev. Bill Gupton at:
This summer, as you travel – or stay home – be sure to collect a small vial of water for our Ingathering Sunday Water Ceremony on September 12. Whether it’s from grandma’s creek, the Pacific Ocean, the Ohio River, a melting glacier – or your own backyard – just make sure the water has some special significance of location, event, or memory for you and/or your family.
It is our tradition – whether in person or (as last year) “drive-thru” – to ceremoniously gather our waters at the end of summer, in the process creating the next year’s Heritage Church UU “holy water” by merging the powerful energies and intentions and prayers of all of us into one intermingled pool. This sacred water is then used throughout the year for baby and child dedications, memorial services, and other ceremonial, ritual events.
So gather your water – and mark your calendar for Sunday, September 12, 2021, and our annual Ingathering Sunday Water Ceremony!
We have enjoyed gathering together virtually on Zoom and, at times, in person at the Heritage Labyrinth for our evening Vespers services since the pandemic began. We will now take the summer months of June, July and August for some time of rest. We will still see you in July when we lead a Sunday morning Heritage worship service with a Vespers-style theme.
Have a happy and healthy summer!
If you have any questions, please email Mimi Sinclair and Steph Tacy at:
June 2021.
This document contains three policy statements in response to COVID-19. They are:
Heritage UU Church Policy Related to COVID-19
Adult Small-Group Meeting Policy
The following policy shall be reviewed monthly by the Board of Trustees. The purpose of this policy is to assist church groups and individuals with planning.
Posted 5/26/2020. Last revised by the Board of Trustees on 6/14/2021.
PHASE I:
Outdoor services through the summer at 10:30 a.m. at Moundview Park large pavilion
Every other Sunday, June thru August
(Every other Sunday continues to be Zoom only)
PHASE II: Fall 2021 (target)
Our goal is to resume in-sanctuary, in-person services on Sunday, Sept. 12, with Ingathering Sunday / Water Ceremony. Detailed plans for achieving and implementing this goal will continue to be worked out by the Worship Sub-Group of the Safety / Reopening Team, with recommendations to follow on a timely basis.
Established by the Board of Trustees on 6/14/2021.
Beginning July 1, 2021, church groups of up to 30 adults may begin use of indoor Heritage Church spaces.
Groups are encouraged to take time to listen deeply to one another’s concerns and fears around masking and distancing, and to support and understand others’ decisions. Be respectful of one another’s choices and decisions concerning social distancing and mask wearing.
These small group meetings should:
At this time group singing is not allowed indoors, with the exception of Choir rehearsals, where each Choir member is required to use the special choral singing masks that they have been given.
Fans located in the church should be turned on to increase air flow and ventilation for all meetings, and approved HEPA air circulators as recommended by the Safety and Reopening Team should be operating in any meeting rooms. Plans are also in place to install ceiling fans in the Great Hall and Sanctuary in the near future.
This policy only applies to small group meetings of adults. There will be a separate policy for children and youth Lifespan Faith Development classes.
This and all policies regarding meetings in the church building following “reopening” will be periodically reviewed and potentially updated by the Board of Trustees.
Established by the Board of Trustees on 6/14/2021.
Vali Dugan
Heritage Church is pleased to welcome our next Church Administrator, Vali Dugan! Vali (pronounced like “Molly” but with a “V”) was hired after a two-month search process that included 30 applicants. Our Church Administrator Search Committee (Michael Wilhite, Donna Buckley, Bob Booth and Maureen Boylan) received 30 applications and narrowed the field to three finalists before unanimously recommending Vali to the Board of Trustees, which itself unanimously voted to hire her, beginning May 1.
Vali will work throughout the month of May alongside Denise Martinez, who is retiring on May 31 after 19 years as our Church Administrator. With a full month to overlap with and become oriented by Denise, Vali will be more than ready to take over the reins of the church office beginning in June.
Vali is from Albuquerque, New Mexico, but has lived in Deer Park with her partner, Chris, since 2014. She is the proud mother of three daughters, ranging in age from 17 to 25, and loves being a grandmother to her 22-month old grandson. While living in Albuquerque, Vali was a member of, and Religious Education Assistant at, First Unitarian Church, where she says she enjoyed the UU community, served on committees, and sang with the band for the contemporary worship service. Her professional background includes administration and office management. In her free time, Vali creates 3-D collage art, writes poetry, loves to travel, and practices yoga and Zumba.
2021.
Karen Hager
Thanks to our wonderful Interim RE Search Committee, Kay Inskeep, Melissa Dunlap, Chad Inman, Katie Kpaeyeh and myself, I would like to introduce you, or reintroduce you, to our Interim Religious Educator. We had some great applicants and are hopeful some will apply for the settled position when we get to that point. The committee did an amazing job and found a very qualified candidate that was recommended to and approved by the Board of Trustees. Karen Hager will be our Interim Religious Educator from January 1 through June 30, 2021. Karen got her start in religious education leadership right here at Heritage, where she, her husband Monte, and their son Ben were members from 2007 through 2009.
Karen and her family moved to Blacksburg, Virginia in the fall of 2009. Karen was quickly hired as the Director of Lifespan Faith Development at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Blacksburg, Virginia. She is a UUA Credentialed Religious Educator. Over her 10 years with UUC she has doubled the number of participants in the program through a combination of new curricula, family and multi-generational activities, and widespread support from her congregation. Karen has also written and published numerous religious education curricula for various preK-12 age groups which are used by hundreds of congregations across the country. Karen also trains other religious educators in the UUA Renaissance Module. Karen’s leadership has maintained children and youth participation levels at UUC through virtual religious education programing since March of this year.
In 2016 and 2017 Karen was a consultant, acting in an interim capacity, for the Unitarian Universalist Church of Roanoke, Virginia. In that capacity, Karen helped them through a transition and helped them grow their religious education program participation exponentially. Karen helped them, as she will here, to find a settled Director of Religious Education. Karen has continued to serve in a mentoring capacity to their settled Religious Educator and would be available for potential mentoring at HUUC if desired in the future. Karen looks forward to this opportunity to help HUUC, her old congregation, with our transition to a new Religious Educator.
Please join me in welcoming Karen back to Heritage!
Tamilyn Moore
Board President
As we continue to be mindful of the safety and security of our members and friends when they are in the Heritage building, we’ve discovered that information for many of our families is incomplete.
Security professionals have urged us to have emergency contact information for everyone who attends programming in our church, especially on Sunday mornings. In January and February, you may receive an information form via email. We urge you to fill it out as completely as possible and assure you that all information collected will remain safe and secure from hacking or other unauthorized access.
Paper forms will also be available at the Religious Exploration recruiting table on Sunday mornings.
Please help us ensure the safety of our Heritage children and youth!
January 2020.
