January Services | Minister’s Message | Tedford Shelter Opening | Lifelong Spiritual Formation | Music Director | Board of Trustees | Growth Task Force | Tech Steering Group | COMMUNITY HAPPENINGS: | Newcomers Chat | Side Door Coffeehouse | Concerts for a Cause | MLK Breakfast | Partner Fair | WORKING FOR JUSTICE: | Take Action Tea | Charities with Soul | Wabanaki Awareness | Immigrant Justice | Brunswick Teen Center | ART GALLERY | Parish Messenger Deadline
January Services:
Sunday, January 4th – Practicing Resistance
Led by Rev. Dr. Kharma Amos; Music by Will Bristol and Robin Jellis
What better way to start a new calendar year than to celebrate Practicing Resistance, our Soul Matters theme for January. This week, we’ll begin broadly. What is resistance? What does it mean to practice it? How might we engage with the spiritual practice of resistance to that which destroys or limits life, or fascism, or injustice, etc.?
Sunday, January 11th – Sometimes It’s Personal: Practicing Resistance in Relationships
Led by Rev. Erika Hewitt, Music by Will Bristol and the UUCB Pop-Up Choir
Resistance doesn’t always need to be public—in fact, it can be more important, and carry more impact, when we risk practicing resistance in our interpersonal relationships. Today we’ll explore the relational calculus of discerning when and how to disrupt the homeostasis of relationship in the service of interrupting harm or hate.
Rev. Erika Hewitt (she/her) serves as the Minister of Worship Arts for our Unitarian Universalist Association – including leading the creation of our newest UU hymnal, Sing Out Love. She’s grateful to return to our pulpit (and to be planning a Sing Out Love hymn sing here with Will and others for the late winter)!
Sunday, January 18th – The Power of Non-Violent Resistance
Led by Rev. Dr. Kharma Amos; Music by Will Bristol and the UUCB Choir
As we honor the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr this weekend, we’ll focus on the specific type of resistance to oppression that he taught and lived in his life— Non-violent resistance. How might these lessons from history inspire our actions today?
Sunday, January 25th – Resistance and/or Acceptance?
Led by Rev. Dr. Kharma Amos; Music by Will Bristol
In this service, we’ll explore the complex relationship between resistance and acceptance, as well as how we might discern when each is appropriate. Sometimes, things happen that we need to resist – for the sake of our values and dignity; sometimes, acceptance of reality can represent freedom. Can we use wisdom to tell the difference?
Minister’s Message
Practicing Resistance
Confession: I just experienced some resistance as I sat down to write this article about practicing resistance. Why? I just typed “2026” for the first time, and while I’m ready for many aspects of 2025 to be over, it also feels too soon. In this moment, my resistance is not going to make the new year come any more slowly, so it must give way to acceptance. (We’ll talk later this month about how difficult it can be sometimes to know when a situation calls for resistance or acceptance, or some combination thereof. But I’m getting ahead of myself.) Resistance is a very popular word, concept, and practice these days in the US and around the world. Why? adrienne maree brown keenly observes: when those with power are doing inhumane, or anti-planet things, our choice to be disruptive, to be impolite, is one of the ways we wage small resistance that can become mass resistance and large scale cultural and political transformation.
This is exactly the kind of resistance we’ve been seeing emerge in the US as millions of people have protested, and engaged in thousands of other actions intended to resist fascism (and all of the other -isms that undergird it). Another form that resistance can take in our communities is our steadfast commitment to center love and live out of our values, even when those values are being challenged from multiple angles.
Resistance is one of the ways we avoid giving into despair, and resistance is so much easier to sustain in community. So, I hope you’ll join us this month – from home if joining online is easier, at the Evening Star Cinema or the Highlands theater, or in our physical home at 1 Middle Street in Brunswick.
Blessings,
Kharma
Tedford Tidings of Comfort and Joy!
Dear Ones,
In a time when many are restricting their news intake for fear of more bad news, I want to fill your inbox with good news and some tidings of comfort and joy! I hope this lifts your spirits and reminds you of the potential we have to make a positive difference together.
Today, I had the privilege of going on a tour of the new Tedford Shelter along with Rev. Carolyn Eklund (Tedford Board President), Rev. Sylvia Stocker (UUCB Minister Emerita), and Steve Wellcome (Sylvia’s husband). We were there to see the new facility (amazing!), and especially the family shelter room that is named in honor of Sylvia, based on your ~ $15,000 donation from our UUCB congregation. Thank you so much for your generosity that made this possible!!
What a joy it was to experience this new shelter that will provide stability and comfort for those in need of it, while they work towards longer term housing! It is a community effort, and will remain a community effort to sustain and support.
Now, I want to share with you some photos so you can get a sense of the place, and its hopeful potential.
Pictures include the Tedford Shelter entrance, an inside welcome sign, sample shots of the family shelter room (getting ready for new occupants), Sylvia discovering to her delight that there was Owl art in the kids room named for her (i.e. an owl is her creature, she says), view out the window from the Sylvia Stocker room to the playground, and various pictures of Sylvia and Steve with me and Rev. Eklund.
I’m so proud of Rev. Sylvia’s legacy, and of all of you for making this happen.
Thank you, Sylvia! Thank you, UUCB! Thank you, Tedford!
Blessings,
Kharma
Lifelong Spiritual Formation
Adult Faith Formation
UUCB Coffee & Conversation
Unitarian Universalists recently replaced the Seven Principles and Six Sources with shared values that guide how we live and move through the world. At the center is Love, surrounded by six values: equity, interdependence, justice, generosity, pluralism, and transformation. But what does it actually mean to live these values? Over the coming months, our Lifelong Spiritual Formation Director, Toben Cooney-Callnan and I will be holding gatherings after some Sunday services for Coffee and Conversations to explore these questions together. We’ll start with love itself and then move through each value in turn. These aren’t lectures or lessons. They’re conversations where we can think loud together about what these values mean in our own lives and in the world right now.
First Session: Centering In Love
January 11th at 11:15 am
Merrymeeting Bay Room
What is love? Is it a feeling we have for the people closest to us? Is it something bigger that shapes how we move through the world? In this first conversation, we’ll explore what it means to put love at the center. We’ll talk about how we each define love and whether loving someone is the same as leading with love. We’ll also wrestle with harder questions like how we approach people who are causing harm. Bring your questions, your doubts, and your own understanding of what love means to you. We’ll provide the coffee.
– Jeremy Litchfield
Chalice Circles Winter Session – Register Soon!
Chalice Circles are small groups that meet six times per session, offering a space to make connections, learn, and grow through open-hearted listening and honest personal reflection.
Registration opens December 8th for the Winter Session (December 28-March 14). Contact Toben at
to sign up or for more information.
Music Director
Dear folx of UUCB,
It has felt to me that the year of 2025 has swiftly flown by, especially during these last few months. I am now excitedly looking forward to a whole new year of musical experiences at UUCB!
Pop-Up Choir
Thank you to all who have so far participated in the Pop-Up Choir at UUCB since September, 2025. I will be continuing to feature this as an option and opportunity for folx to engage in once a month at UUCB. Please let me know if you would like to be added to my mailing list for this group–you will get notified of these dates and music we will be singing ahead of time!–by emailing me at .
Intergen Orchestra
Thank you to all who participated in the intergenerational orchestra this year. We had an impressive total of forty-two participants of all ages. Because of such an enthusiastic turnout, I would like to involve more of you instrumentalists on a regular basis in worship services, both as individuals and in small group formation (string groups, wind groups, brass groups, guitarists and other “band” instruments…). Please feel free to reach out to me if you would be especially interested in this at
Sing Out Love is live!
As a congregation, we now have access to the new virtual hymnal publication from the UUA Sing Out Love for all of 2026. If you would like access to it yourself please submit your email address via this form or email me at . If you are in the UUCB choir or UUCB Pop-Up Choir, I will already be giving you access to this via your email address, as we will be using this the most. To learn more about Sing Out Love check out this article in UU World and my article from November 2025’s parish messenger here.
Rev. Erika Hewitt from the UUA task force which assembled this hymnal will be leading our service on Sunday, January 11th here at UUCB. Since she has direct connections with most of the folx who wrote many of these new songs in Sing Out Love, Rev. Hewitt will be introducing us to a few of these during this service! Also, stay tuned for a hymn sing event of many more of these new songs which will likely be coming to UUCB in the very near future this year.
Happy 2026 everyone! May your year be full of love and joy.
Will Bristol, Music Director
he/him/his
Board of Trustees
Here we are heading into the holiday season. How did that happen? Well one thing for sure is the Holiday Fair happened and was once again a real success. Thanks to Cuffy Chase, Joanne Allen and the whole team for bringing in $15,000 for the operation of our church. What a herculean effort and a stupendous outcome!
At our Special Meeting on December 14th we approved the expenditure of up to $42,000 to maximize our solar capacity. This expansion will allow us to generate, via solar power, all of the electricity we currently use yearly. Curt Neufeld (our board chair) had a follow up conversation with the vendor and found that our payoff period should be about twelve years. This is better than the eighteen mentioned at the meeting as that payoff period did not take into account the $11,000 credit we will receive. The board has also heard some feedback on how we communicated with the church regarding this special meeting, and we are doing our best to improve our methods. We take this very seriously as we want to make sure our ongoing conversation with the church about our abundance of members is as clear and helpful as possible.
I will admit that the Eveningstar Cinema in Brunswick is someplace that sits in that pre-pandemic category in my head. I am doing my best to overcome this bias, and plan to visit there for a church service in January. I look forward to seeing what some of our church members have already experienced, and helping to alleviate some of the demand for seats at church. I can’t even begin to articulate why the idea of watching Kharma, Toben, Will, the choir, and the worship associates do their magic, while eating popcorn, is so appealing, but it is!
On a personal note. Yes, some of you did spot the elusive Bonny (our 18 month old 9.5lb Havanese) after church on the 14th. She is a princess, and like all princesses has a large personal space and an intense need to control that space. She is slowly coming to realize that not all people are so worrisome, and we have hope that she will make further progress in that direction. Thank you to all who have met her, and allowed her her space.
Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!
Keary Lay on behalf of the Board of Trustees
The Growth Task Force
The Great Eveningstar Cinema Experiment needs 50 of you every week!
With 3 weeks under our belt at the cinema so far, 18, 7, and then 11 people attended. In general, attendees enjoyed the experience more than they anticipated and said they might come again. Meanwhile, attendance at the Highlands has been about 5 each week. However, at the Church, attendance is still averaging about 220.
To ease crowding in the sanctuary and to make space for newcomers, we need at least 50 attendees at the Eveningstar Cinema each week. What this means is that we need about 25% of the people attending at the church to choose the Eveningstar Cinema. Another way to think about it is that we need everyone to attend the Eveningstar Cinema at least once a month.
Earlier this year, we sent you all a survey about our growth and received over 150 responses. It was clear from that survey that the majority preferred that we offer remote streaming sites over having two services. You also told us that a site close to the church—like the Eveningstar Cinema—would be preferable.
Now here’s our sales pitch.
We understand that December is a crazy month and that it takes time to get something like this rolling. We’ve asked the board of trustees for a budget to carry this trial through February. Here’s where we need your help. We need the numbers of attendees to start to climb toward our 50-person goal, and while you might like those 50 to be people other than you, the reality is that we need YOU.
And there are perks to attending church at the Eveningstar Cinema! Parking is ample and close. The seats are comfortable and have cup holders. The sound and video quality is much better than the overflow space at church. And It’s less crowded, so it’s easier to chat with your friends before and after the service. Plus, there is popcorn and coffee available.
Please give the Eveningstar Cinema a try in January and February.
Your Growth Task Force,
David Kew, Bill Bristol, Louise Gephart, and Michael Michaud
Tech Steering Group
Holiday Fair 2025
Together, we created a very festive and successful Holiday Fair!
Thank you to all of our volunteers.
Thank you makers of crafts, donors and displayers of jewelry, sellers, bakers, and soup makers.
Thank you to the greeters, elves, traffic directors, and the finance team.
Thank you to our youth and children who helped paint the signs.
Thank you wreath and greens makers.
Thank you advertising/publicity team.
Thank you musicians.
Thank you to those who set up and those who cleaned up.
Thank you shoppers.
Thank you vendors.
Thank you to the table and activity leaders who made the fair flow smoothly on the day.
We know that this was a lot of work. We hit our goals of building community, both within the church and with the larger community. We raised money for the church and had some fun.
Enjoy these pictures!
Joanne and Cuffy, Holiday Fair Chairs
Jewelry Room Thank you!
Dear UUCB friends,
The Jewelry Room was incredibly successful at the 2025 Holiday Fair thanks to your generous donations and the long work of the Jewelry Team. Thank you all! The Jewelry Team is taking a few months off until next summer when again we’ll begin to sort jewelry in order to be ready for Holiday Fair 2026. However, throughout the year we will continue to welcome donations of costume jewelry, so we have a “stash” to work on this summer.
Would you like to join the Jewelry Team? We generally work a focused two+ hours on 2 Monday afternoons monthly from August to November. We sort, check for maker’s marks, clean, polish, card, research, and price. Lots of steps for each piece that’s turned in! And amid all that, we have a good time. If you’d like to be part of this process, please let me know.
Community Happenings
Visitors and Newcomers Chat
Visitors and Newcomers to UUCB are invited to stay after the service on the first Sunday of each month for an informal gathering in the May Sarton Room. Bring your coffee and meet with representatives of the Membership Committee. Perhaps you have questions about UUCB and all of the ways that you can be involved, or perhaps you would like to learn about Unitarian Universalism. All are welcome.
Side Door Coffeehouse
Kat Logan
January 9, 2026 @ 7:30 pm
The Side Door Coffeehouse is a venue for local musicians and others (professional and amateur) to share their talents, and for residents and visitors of the Midcoast community to enjoy great entertainment and conversation in a relaxed setting. A fundraiser for the church, the “Side Door” is organized by UUCB’s Music Director, Will Bristol, with a group of volunteers to help make the evening run smoothly. The Side Door Coffeehouse operates on the second Friday of every month except August. Admission is $12 for adults and free for children 17 and under.
Follow the Side Door Coffeehouse on instagram and Facebook to help spread the word.
The Friday, January 9th installment will feature:
Open Mic signup at 6:45 pm
Open Mic at 7:00
Kat Logan at 8:30-9:30 pm.
Kat Logan is a singer songwriter with influences from folk, americana, Celtic, blues and jazz accompaniment. Kat has been playing for a few years and has played with many different groups such as Driftwood and Meteora. But now, she is working as a solo musician, and plays on piano and guitar, accompanying her own tunes and favorites.
Concerts for a Cause
The mission of Concerts for a Cause is to hold a series of concerts to raise money for the church and local charities while sharing a variety of quality music with the Brunswick area community. This season’s charities will be Oasis Free Clinics and Immigration Legal Advocacy Project.
Pejepscot Station
January 17, 2026 @ 7:30 pm
The UUCB Concerts for a Cause series presents local favorite bluegrass band, Pejepscot Station, on Saturday, January 17th at UUCB to raise money for Oasis Free Clinics and the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project.
Based in the village of Pejepscot (in Topsham, ME), Pejepscot Station has performed throughout southern Maine since forming in 2011. Their repertoire is a mix of traditional and contemporary bluegrass, Americana, and some “bluegrassified” folk and country songs. Wide vocal harmonies and an informal and relaxed stage presence make for an enjoyable and fun show appropriate for all.
The idea of a band started in 1972 when Ren and “Satch”, then in high school, began noodling around with the banjo and guitar. Over the years, three other talented musicians joined the group.
Ren Bernier (UUCB’s own!) – Ren plays banjo which is featured prominently in most tunes, and he contributes harmony as well lead vocals. Ren is a self-taught, long-time banjo picker with his own style
Steven “Satch” Hatch provides Pejepscot Station with solid guitar work on every song. Satch will also join in with vocals from time to time if you ask nicely. A seasoned guitar player, he is invaluable to the group.
Jim McLaughlin joined the group in college, and plays mandolin, guitar, fiddle and harmonica. He sings lead and harmony, A natural musician and multi-instrumentalist. Jim is front and center in most of the repertoire.
Cherie Howard joined the band in 2013 and plays bass and sings lead and harmony. Clearly the happiest person on earth, she brings her joy to the stage while keeping the rest of the band in time with a steady bass line. Cherie’s natural musical ability and love of song shines through in her performances.
In 2019, Russ Donahue joined and added depth to the band with his crisp mandolin and guitar work, and his harmony and lead vocals.
Audiences feel right at home and always enjoy the great music and silly banter. The fun the band has is contagious. Pejepscot Station gets your toes tapping, gets you laughing, and plants a song or two in your head for the trip home.
Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door, and $10 for students/children. Available at the church office (729-8515), Gulf of Maine Books, or online at https://ticketstripe.bluegrass.
Listen to Pejepscot Station
Concert Highlights
Home to Maine
Save the Date
Jud Caswell and Lisa Redfern
February 7 @ 7:30 pm
UUCB’s much loved Jud Caswell and his friend Lisa Redfern, both award-winning singer-songwriters and favorites of the local folk scene, will share the stage for our February concert.
Jud is a master multi-instrumentalist, playing guitar, banjo, cittern, whistles and Irish drums. He plays acoustic music as well as some traditional folk and Irish music. With an angelic voice and guitar, Lisa has 12 solo recordings to her credit. She plays her own original music, folk songs, jazz standards, hymns, and lullabies.
Working for Justice
Take Action Tea
TAKE ACTION TEA PILOT PROGRAM – A SUCCESS
Fifteen people gathered on December 12 to write postcards to Governor Janet Mills urging her to let LD1971 become law without her signature. This law defines and limits the cooperation of local and state law enforcement with ICE. We wrote 27 postcards and several people, myself included, sent her email messages on this topic. We were gratified to hear on Monday, December 15 that Governor Mills had decided to let LD1971 become law! While we may feel that our individual voices do not make much noise, when we come together in community, we can be successful! Thanks to all who participated in this action! Stay tuned for more community actions in 2026 hosted by Working for Justice and MUUSAN!
NEW IN 2026 FOR JUSTICE SEEKING UUCBERS—TAKE-ACTION TEA!
Join members of our WFJSG for a time to gather, raise awareness of state and local justice issues, and take timely actions together. Starting Thursday, January 15th we will meet twice a month from 2:00 to 4:00 in the May Sarton Room to enjoy tea and home baked cookies while discussing issues of concern and taking action together. These actions could include postcard and letter writing, phone banking, how to write a Letter to the Editor, or planning and/or attending a protest. All materials will be provided. Hope to see you there!
Betsy Williams, Faith Barnes and Jill Scherer
January’s Charity with Soul:
Maine Family Planning
Wabanaki Awareness
Check out the WFJ Wabanaki Awareness Group’s bulletin board in the vestibule! We hope the information there will help deepen our understanding of our shared colonial history and its impact on all of us as we continue to live in community with our Wabanaki neighbors.
Each month a new question will be posted, and the answer to the question can be found in the displayed poster from the Pejepscot Portage Mapping Project.
To find out the answer, click here.
Immigrant Justice
Mid Coast New Mainers Group (MCMG)
ICE Verifier Training
If you are interested in this training please reach out to Janet Ostrov at or at 518-265-5643. Janet is hoping to schedule the training in January followed by a deescalation training two weeks later. If you have already responded to an earlier email you do not need to respond again.
Drivers Needed
If you are able to assist a new Mainer getting to English class or medical appointments, please let me know. This can be once a week or several times a week. I would like to put together small teams to drive each new Mainer so that we can get to know each other better, build trust, and a communication network. Thank you for your consideration!
If you are interested in taking actions beyond the Brunswick community, please contact the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP) here or Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition (MIRC) here.
Brunswick Area Teen Center
Contact: Joanne Allen, , Cuffy Chase,
November Highlights at the Center
The month seemed to pass quickly at the Center! Our calendar was packed with activities for the teens, such as pickle day and homemade Oreo day. Despite the busy schedule, a significant portion of our time was devoted to preparations for this year’s Friendsgiving celebration
We were pleased to see a second tradition take root. Last year, we had all the kids contribute to a thankfulness board before their meal. Although it initially slipped my mind this year, our teen council took the initiative and requested we continue the tradition.
December Activities
This month is shaping up to be even busier. We have three full weeks with the teens before they leave for their winter break on December 19th, returning on January 5th. During the break, the Teen Center remains available for visits, though we expect many will be occupied with their holiday celebrations and may not return until the Monday school resumes.
To keep everyone engaged, we’ve planned a wide variety of holiday activities. After practicing gingerbread-making skills during our Christmas in July event, we are aiming for an impressive gingerbread village this year. The kids are excited about building houses, and we’re encouraging them to prepare for designing an entire city. Unlike last year’s quickly assembled and eagerly eaten neighborhoods, this year we’ll hold a village design competition before construction begins. There will be plenty of free-build opportunities, but we’ll establish some zoning guidelines first to organize the building process.
In addition to gingerbread houses, we’re bringing back several favorite events: classic gazpacho day, cookie decorating, fritter day, ugly sweater day, trick shot day, movie nights, craft club, cotton candy day, eggnog day, chess club, and possibly a surprise pfeffernüsse day. We’ll close out the month with our annual holiday party, for which an impromptu planning committee is already deciding on activities and food. As always, we’ll distribute gift bags, aiming to hand out 100 this year.
Taylor and the Teens
January Art Show: Tom Brudzinski
LobstArt Studios is where I create and sell art (fine art & poster forms) that helps tell a story. I am very interested in lobsters and much of my work is dedicated to helping tell THEIR stories. I have been drawing as long as I can remember. I have been documenting this work in sketchbooks which now fill the shelves on a large wall of the studio. I have been coming to Maine for over 40 years and my wife and I moved here permanently in early 2006. I have always enjoyed lobster as a food. I started to develop a real interest in the “bugs” as they are known. Along the way, I began drawing them and that developed into this enterprise.
I was trained as an architect. My professional career covers 45+ years of unique professional experiences in a wide variety of aspects of the built and graphic environment. Twenty-six of those years were spent with The Rouse Company, arguably the best U.S. real estate developer, whose projects included the creation and implementation of America’s premier “new town,” Columbia, MD and “retail marketplaces” like Faneuil Hall Marketplace, and Harborplace.
Art by Tom Brudzinski
Deadline for February Parish Messenger
Please send your content to: on or before Sat, January 17. Thanks!