Announcements

In-Person and Online All-Ages Worship (7 November 2021)

Please join us on Sunday (7 November 2021) at 11:00 AM for “What Does it Mean to Be Together?” by Rev. Barbara Jarrell.

Our service will be livestreamed on Facebook Live here.

And . . .  we will be also meeting in the sanctuary for the first time since March 2020.

We have some special rules to keep all of us safe as we resume in-person worship services:

  • Masks required for all attendees ages 4 and up (those younger than age 4 are encouraged to mask)
  • All adults and youth ages 12 and up are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID and must bring proof of vaccination.

You can find out more about these restrictions here — we recommend that you read everything carefully before attending worship in person.

Watch for our weekly email announcements for info on the next in-person worship service and other opportunities to gather in smaller groups in person.  You can sign up for these announcements using this link.

Our November 2021 give-away-the-plate recipient is the Northwest Louisiana Food Bank.

There will be an outdoor coffee hour after the worship service but there will be no Zoom coffee hour on Sunday, 7 November 2021.

While we are remaining physically distant, we want to know how you are doing, what you need, and what you are interested in.  You can let us know using these online surveys.

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

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Online Adult Religious Education — 7 November 2021

Please join us on Sunday (7 November 2021) at 9:00 AM for our adult religious education class via Zoom.

We are discussing episodes of the podcast Learning How to See with Rev. Brian McLaren, Father Richard Rohr, and Rev. Jacqui Lewis.

They are discussing the 13 kinds of bias that Rev. Barbara mentioned recently in a sermon.

The group felt that this series would keep us in the realm of our anti-racism work while also being topically relevant to our pillar on Jewish and Christian heritage as these three Christian leaders discuss our tendency toward these biases from a faith-based perspective.

Although we may play short excerpts during class, we are encouraging people to listen on their own between sessions.

This week — Season 1, Episode 2 — “Seeing as a Social Act”

You can find all episodes of the podcast here.

If you have a smart speaker or other smart device from Google or Amazon, you can ask it to “play the podcast Learning How to See, Season 1, Episode 2.”

Be sure to use those specific words — if you just say the name of the podcast, you might get the latest episode from Season 2.

If you are using an Apple device with Siri, you can ask Siri to “search for podcast Learning How to See” to find this episode and all other episodes released so far in Learning How to See.

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Children and Youth Religious Education Updates

Families — we hear you and realize how done you are with Zoom.

First, thanks to everyone who made last weekend’s Trunk or Treat celebration such a fun time for our children and everyone else.

We will continue to watch the local COVID numbers.  We feel encouraged by the cooling weather and the possibility of comfortable outdoor activities.

We are not resuming regular classes for children and youth at this time because our classrooms are too small to be safe for unvaccinated children, and because we want some time to be together and nurture each other before we start recruiting people to do stuff.

We will have “busy bags” for kids sitting in the pews with their parents and our services will be welcoming to all ages.

We have already heard from one of you who wants to get back to teaching and we are so grateful for your interest in this.

If others of you are out there, email Susan Caldwell.

If the virus continues on the downward trajectory, we will probably schedule a teacher training in December 2021 and plan to start back with classes in January 2022.

Thanks to all for your patience and flexibility.

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Food Bank of Northwest Louisiana — November 2021 Give-Away-The-Plate Recipient

During the pandemic, we have chosen the Northwest Louisiana Food Bank as our give-away-the-plate recipient a couple of times already.

With unemployment and other COVID-related relief benefits running out and the holidays fast approaching, we don’t want to see anyone go hungry in our area.

And the Northwest Louisiana Food Bank supplies our two other favorite sources of food for hungry people — the Noel UMC Food Pantry and the Highland Blessing Dinner.

Two ways to donate:

Online — Go to our donation site using this link.  If you are paying your pledge, select “2021 Pledges” and enter that amount for your pledge contribution.  Then select “Collection Plate” to give the amount you would like to give to the Northwest Louisiana Food Bank.  All online collection plate contributions for the month of November 2021 will go to Northwest Louisiana Food Bank.

Offline — Please send your give away the plate contribution checks to All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, 9449 Ellerbe Road, Shreveport LA  71106.  Please put “Northwest Louisiana Food Bank” on the memo line of the check if  you want to have 100% of this check go to the Northwest Louisiana Food Bank.  If you want less than 100% of the check to go to the Northwest Louisiana Food Bank, please put the amount you want going to the Northwest Louisiana Food Bank on the memo line.

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First Sunday Food Pantry Day (7 November 2021)

Melissa Lewis will be at the church parking lot this Sunday afternoon (7 November 2021) from 2:00 to 4:00 PM to collect food and other items for the Noel United Methodist Church Food Pantry.

Items requested this month are peanut butter, cranberry sauce, and canned sweet potatoes.

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Meditation with Larry Androes (6 November 2021)

Please join us on Saturday (6 November 2021) at 10:30 AM for our weekly meditation group with Larry Androes.

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

The group is free and open to all.

For more information, contact Larry via email or phone using (318) 272-0014.

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Worship in Person Resumes This Sunday (7 November 2021)

This Sunday (7 November 2021) at 11:00 AM, All Souls will have our first in-person worship in the sanctuary since  March 2020.

We are asking for your cooperation.

Masks are required of all attendees (age 4 and up) when we are indoors.  Children younger than age 4 are encouraged to wear masks if they are able.

We will have masks on hand if you don’t have one.

Masks are also required when outdoors when in close proximity to people who are not in your family or “bubble.”

Social distancing will be observed to the maximum extent possible.

All adults and youth who are eligible to be vaccinated are required to be fully vaccinated to attend worship in person at this time.  If you have a documented medical condition that prevents being vaccinated, you can attend without vaccination.

In order to be fully vaccinated, one must be at least two weeks past their final COVID vaccine shot (final shot is second Pfizer / Moderna  shot or first Johnson & Johnson shot).

Please bring proof of vaccination — CDC vaccination card, a photo of your CDC vaccination card, or your LA Wallet app on your smartphone showing your vaccinated status.  You only have to show this to us once.

At first, we will not have religious education classes or nursery care for children and youth.  Our classrooms and nursery facilities are too small to be safe and our younger children are still unvaccinated.  We need time to be together before we recruit and train teachers.

However, we will have “busy bag” activities for children sitting in the pews with their families.  We hope to resume religious education classes in January 2022.

If you are not comfortable attending in person, we will still be offering a streaming video worship service through Facebook Live.

Please bear with us as we once again climb the learning curve for yet another new way of doing church.

Continue to watch our website and social media spaces for updates as we discover what we’ve forgotten and what we have learned with yet another way to do church.

Feel free to ask questions as we move forward with in-person worship.  Susan Caldwell (Director of Lifespan Religious Education) will answer your questions or forward them to the church leaders who have the answers.

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Online All-Ages Worship (31 October 2021)

Please join us on Sunday (31 October 2021) at 11:00 AM for “The Dead and Dying, The Live and Living” by Susan Caldwell (All Souls Director of Lifespan Religious Education).

Our service will be livestreamed on Facebook Live here.

Watch for our weekly email announcements for info on the next in-person worship service and other opportunities to gather in smaller groups in person.  You can sign up for these announcements using this link.

Our October 2021 give-away-the-plate recipient is Together Louisiana.

We will have a virtual coffee hour after the service on Zoom.

While we are remaining physically distant, we want to know how you are doing, what you need, and what you are interested in.  You can let us know using these online surveys.

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

Share/Bookmark