Announcements

All Ages Worship (19 January 2025)

Please join us this Sunday (19 January 2025) at 11:00 AM for “What Still Rings True” by Rev. Barbara Jarrell.  The All Souls Choir will also sing at this worship service.

We will be meeting in the sanctuary for this worship service.  Please join us in person at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, 9449 Ellerbe Road, Shreveport LA  71106 if you are able to do so.

Our service will also be livestreamed on Facebook Live here if you cannot attend in person.

State-level COVID data can be found on the Louisiana Department of Health’s respiratory virus dashboard web page.  The most sensitive metric to follow for current COVID trends is the “Laboratory Surveillance Data” link.  The link is currently showing all three respiratory viruses starting to decrease on 11 January 2025.

The CDC does not recommend mandatory masking for all indoor events in “low” risk areas.

Starting on 13 November 2022, masks will be optional indoors at All Souls.

Anyone who prefers to keep wearing a mask is welcome to do so and attending worship through livestream video is also an option.

We will still have KN95 masks available in the foyer for anyone who needs one.

We continue to recommend that you stay home if you have any symptoms, and that you keep up with all available vaccinations and boosters.

We no longer require proof of vaccination against COVID for all attendees ages 11 and up for indoor events.

However, we do strongly encourage that anyone attending our worship services or other indoor events at All Souls be vaccinated against COVID.

If you are recovering from COVID and have no symptoms, you should mask in public until you have tested negative twice in a 48 hour period.

We also ask that you go by the previous CDC guidelines of waiting at least 5 days past the onset of symptoms rather than the current 24 hour recommendation.

And of course — if you have symptoms (COVID or other respiratory illness) — please stay home and take care of yourself.

Our January 2025 give-away-the-plate recipient is the New Orleans New Year’s Day Tragedy Fund sponsored by the Greater New Orleans Foundation.

And you can contribute to All Souls using this online resource.

World Religion Day (26 January 2025)

Join us on Sunday (26 January 2025) from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM for the 24th annual celebration of the religious diversity in Northwest Louisiana.

This community event is being held at the Highland Center (520 Olive Street, Shreveport LA  71104).

More details available on the Shreveport – Bossier World Religion Day website.

Religious Education for Children and Youth (19 January 2025)

This Sunday’s religious education activity for children and youth during the 11:00 AM worship service will be exploring the inspirations of our faith which include many of the stories, teachings, and practices of various religions of the world.

In the coming weeks, the classes for children and youth will center around some of these stories — always reinforcing our shared Unitarian Universalist values.

Online and In-Person Adult Religious Education (19 January 2025)

Please join us on Sunday (19 January 2025) for our adult religious education class at 9:00 AM.

Our adult religious education class is now a dual-platform class — meeting in person in the church social hall and also on Zoom.

Our dual-platform adult religious education class will begin reading and discussing Love at the Center.

This is an anthology of Unitarian Universalist theological writings by various leaders of our movement seeking to answer the question posed by Rev. Dr. Sofia Betancourt in the book’s introduction:

“We may agree that love is central, but what does that mean to us and what does it require of us?”

This book is currently available only in ebook format pending final edits of the approved revisions to Article II of the UUA Bylaws at the 2024 General Assembly (Kindle, Nook, and Kobo).

For this Sunday, we will continue our reading and discussion with Chapter 18 (“From Longing to Fully LIving” by Rev. Mykal Slack) and Chapter 19 (“Love and Power at the Center” by Rev. Mary Katherine Morn).

If you don’t have this book, you can read the chapters online here.

The New UU Class Resumes This Sunday (19 January 2025)

The New UU class will resume on 19 January 2025 and will be facilitated by Bennett Upton.

We will meet Sundays after the worship service at 12:30 PM.

This 6 session course is for all new members, people interested in becoming members, and not-so-new members who might need a refresher and reminder of what we’re doing here.

The 6 sessions cover the history of Unitarian Univesralism and this congregation also exploring our practices and shared principles and values.

Email Bennett  if you are interested in joining this class.

Zoom (and In-Person) Lunch This Wednesday (22 January 2025)

Please join us next Wednesday (22 January 2025) at 12 noon for our weekly Zoom lunch.

Our weekly Zoom lunch is returning to dual-platform access — join us from home using Zoom or in person in the social hall.

Bring your lunch and meet up with your All Souls friends, have lunch, and just catch up.

Meditation with Larry Androes (18 January 2025)

Please join us on Saturday (18 January 2025) at 10:30 AM for our weekly meditation group with Larry Androes.

This group will be meeting via Zoom and not in person.

This is a sitting Buddhist meditation including a brief introduction to mindfulness meditation, 20 minutes of sitting, and followed by a weekly teaching.

All Ages Worship (12 January 2025)

Please join us this Sunday (12 January 2025) at 11:00 AM for “Aafia Siddiqui:  Unveiling a Story of Oppression” featuring guest speaker Maria Kari (defense attorney for Aafia Siddiqui).

We welcome via Zoom attorney Maria Kari who represents Dr. Aafia Siddiqui (a Pakistani neuroscientist currently 16 years into an 86 year sentence on charges of attempting to kill American military personnel in Afghanistan).

Her family and supporters maintain that the charges are false and that Dr. Siddiqui has been abused by prison staff at Federal Medical Center Carswell in Ft. Worth where she is currently held.

We will be meeting in the sanctuary for this worship service.  Please join us in person at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, 9449 Ellerbe Road, Shreveport LA  71106 if you are able to do so.

Our service will also be livestreamed on Facebook Live here if you cannot attend in person.

State-level COVID data can be found on the Louisiana Department of Health’s respiratory virus dashboard web page.  The most sensitive metric to follow for current COVID trends is the “Laboratory Surveillance Data” link.  The link is currently showing all three respiratory viruses increasing on 4 January 2025.

The CDC does not recommend mandatory masking for all indoor events in “low” risk areas.

Starting on 13 November 2022, masks will be optional indoors at All Souls.

Anyone who prefers to keep wearing a mask is welcome to do so and attending worship through livestream video is also an option.

We will still have KN95 masks available in the foyer for anyone who needs one.

We continue to recommend that you stay home if you have any symptoms, and that you keep up with all available vaccinations and boosters.

We no longer require proof of vaccination against COVID for all attendees ages 11 and up for indoor events.

However, we do strongly encourage that anyone attending our worship services or other indoor events at All Souls be vaccinated against COVID.

If you are recovering from COVID and have no symptoms, you should mask in public until you have tested negative twice in a 48 hour period.

We also ask that you go by the previous CDC guidelines of waiting at least 5 days past the onset of symptoms rather than the current 24 hour recommendation.

And of course — if you have symptoms (COVID or other respiratory illness) — please stay home and take care of yourself.

Our January 2025 give-away-the-plate recipient is the New Orleans New Year’s Day Tragedy Fund sponsored by the Greater New Orleans Foundation.

And you can contribute to All Souls using this online resource.

Religious Education for Children and Youth (12 January 2025)

This Sunday’s religious education activity for children and youth during the 11:00 AM worship service will be exploring the inspirations of our faith which include many of the stories, teachings, and practices of various religions of the world.

In the coming weeks, the classes for children and youth will center around some of these stories — always reinforcing our shared Unitarian Universalist values.

Online and In-Person Adult Religious Education (12 January 2025)

Please join us on Sunday (12 January 2025) for our adult religious education class at 9:00 AM.

Our adult religious education class is now a dual-platform class — meeting in person in the church social hall and also on Zoom.

Our dual-platform adult religious education class will begin reading and discussing Love at the Center.

This is an anthology of Unitarian Universalist theological writings by various leaders of our movement seeking to answer the question posed by Rev. Dr. Sofia Betancourt in the book’s introduction:

“We may agree that love is central, but what does that mean to us and what does it require of us?”

This book is currently available only in ebook format pending final edits of the approved revisions to Article II of the UUA Bylaws at the 2024 General Assembly (Kindle, Nook, and Kobo).

For this Sunday, we will continue our reading and discussion with Chapter 16 (“Love and Risk” by Dr. Robert Spirko) and Chapter 17 (“When Love is Criminalized,” by Rev. Elizabeth Nguyen).

If you don’t have this book, you can read the chapters online here.