UUFSMA: “Words for Life”

UU Service

“Words for Life”

Judith Jenya and Helen Rivas-Rose

Sunday, December 29, 10:30 a.m.

Hotel La Aldea

by Jon Sievert

At this week’s Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Service, Judith Jenya and Helen Rivas-Rose explore the power of words and how they influence and change our lives and souls.

International speaker and author Yahuda Berg says, “Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity. We can choose to use this force constructively with words of encouragement, or destructively using words of despair. Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate, and to humble.”

Through personal experiences and readings, Judith and Helen will share their ideas on words that are essential to a good life, including those that keep us healthy, sane, and strong. They’ll discuss words that describe ideas and values we cherish and want to live by and words of love, comfort, inspiration, and those that others will understand us by.

Judith Jenya is a painter, photographer, poet essayist, storyteller, and motivational speaker who has lived in San Miguel since 2006 with her husband Mark Johaningsmeir and various pets. She has lived and worked in California, Hawaii, Bosnia, Croatia, Jordan, Japan, England, and Northern Ireland. Her life work has been as an attorney, psychotherapist, peace activist, artist, and humanitarian. In 2002 she was honored as the International Humanist of the Year and nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work with children in war. She is the co-author of Aroma of Two/de Dos Pueblos, a vibrant celebration of San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato.

Helen Rivas-Rose has lived in San Miguel off and on for nearly three decades and was one of the earliest members of the UUFSMA. During her working life she taught English, Spanish, bridge, prepared income tax returns, directed an alternative artists space, and owned and ran a medicinal herb shop. Starting in 2000, she spent ten years writing her memoir, Brave: A Painfully Shy Life, which received five-star reviews and several awards. Helen also recently founded the Center for Social Isolation Remedies, an organization to connect with socially isolated and lonely people and help bring them into community.

For more information about the UUFSMA, including our Sunday morning Children’s Religious Education program, Social Action outreach, weekly discussion groups, social activities, and Care Team, join us any Sunday at 10:30 a.m. at the Hotel La Aldea or check out our website at uufsma.org.

Our fellowship was born in 1987 when a small group of expatriate religious liberals came together to meet as Unitarian Universalists in San Miguel de Allende. The fellowship has been active and thriving ever since. Every UU church has it’s own flavor, and we are no exception. We are a combination of expats and visitors, each actively engaged and contributing to this wonderful Mexican community we love. Because there is a coming, going, and returning aspect, our spiritual community is extremely fluid.  There is a magic in San Miguel which draws us in and binds us together—both as members of the church and of the larger community. Our programming is led by visiting ministers, community leaders, and church members, so the variety is lively. We have opportunities to meet as UU’s each week at discussion groups, breakfasts, luncheons, and in various other ways. Depending on the season, attendance fluctuates between 40 and 140. Our primary focus is on funding social action within the surrounding community. We love good music, good discussion, good food, and having visitors. We invite you to join us any Sunday morning.

Members regularly post updates and information on this site. We also post meeting minutes and announcements there.

To join our Yahoo group site click on this link:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/UUFSMA/info

Click on “membership”and follow the directions.

Posting a notice on the Yahoo site is easy. Just go to your regular mail browser, type in the address line: uufsma@yahoogroups.com , type your message and hit send!

We encourage you to use this site to communicate with other local UUs.