Gaia Community

Our sister congregations, All Souls UU Church and Shawnee Mission UU Church, will be holding a pageant at SMUUCh around the time of our regular service. The building will be very busy with preparations and we have chosen to take that Sunday off to reduce the chaos in the space. You are welcome to attend the pageant (a link to that will be added as soon as one is available) and please join us the next Sunday for a new year ritual in honor of Ianus!

When arriving for services at SMUUCh – pull around the parking lot to the “additional parking ahead” area and enter through the double doors up a ramp on that side of the building. We’ll do our best to monitor other entrances, but that entrance is the closest to the room where we hold services and the door that will be reliably open for you to come inside with us!

If you’ve looked at the September calendar, you might wonder where Games Night is. Here’s the answer! Gaians are welcome to join Shawnee Mission UU Church’s weekly Games Night on Wednesdays at 6 PM in Room 17.

The votes are in and the Morrigan is our new patron! We’re holding a class about her on July 23, and will welcome her at a ritual on August 13.

We’re taking a holiday on Sunday, July 2. If you want to get your UU on, both Shawnee Mission UU Church and All Souls UU Church will be holding services. We’ll see you on July 9, for our third and final Patron Selection Ritual!

For many years now, we’ve had a power as a patron for each year, running from August to July. In the beginning, we held it as a fundraiser for the community and a food-raiser for Harvesters Community Food Bank. A dollar equaled an item equaled 1 vote for that power. A few years ago, we decided to make it truly democratic and uncoupled the voting process from money.

So, now, we hold a forum in the spring to create a slate of nominees (this year, there are nine), and then have several Sundays (this year, there are three) where we present the powers in a series of mini-rituals. The team behind each power’s temple tells us about the power, what kinds of ways they could help our community, and what sorts of commitments they would expect us to have in return.

After the mini-rituals, we’ll have an election using the ranked choice voting system (https://fairvote.org/our-reforms/ranked-choice-voting/). The winner becomes our patron for the next year, inspiring and guiding us. We also honor the two runners-up in rituals.

This year’s nominees are Athena, Enki, Ganesha, Ianus, Lao Tze, the Morrigan, Nemetoma, Ninshubur, and a year reviewing previous patrons.

Until the calendar is up, please refer here for upcoming events. Sunday services are conducted in person at Ubuntu Village (4327 Troost Ave. KCMO) and on Zoom (see links below).

3/5: Ritual: Tool Cleansing (Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85282164942?pwd=TzQ2RjdDbjFKOHV1U2lnZ05LQmVZUT09) 3:30-6:00

3/6: Ritual Teams meeting (Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4449994327) at 7:00

3/12: Class & Forum: International Women’s Day (Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87059314996?pwd=Z1ByaTI1SllIcWNXMXlrRTRuS3djZz09) 3:30-6:00

3/17: Games Night (in person at Ubuntu Village or on Discord in the Gaia server) 7:00-10:00

3/18: Ritual for Business (Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84960938702?pwd=UnppdGlvaUFiYkZBYWRaSnNvYmxzUT09) 10:00-12:00

3/19: Ritual: Spring Equinox (Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86466712922?pwd=azFtemd4NlNrdUtKMXBrNjB3NkdaUT09) 3:30-6:00

3/26: Ritual: Membership Sunday (Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83488028658?pwd=R2EvTk80bEdpL1RrWXpmcFpJY2JOQT09) 3:30-6:00

As urban pagans, we are active participants in both the mundane and spiritual life of our communities. In this ritual, we will conjure a web of energy to bless and support our roads, power grids, water systems, and other infrastructure, as well as the human infrastructure (including teachers, librarians, firefighters, etc.) that keeps all the systems running.
If you are joining us online, you will want to have available some hand sanitizer or other means of hand washing, for purification. You can also access images to print in order to participate in the hands-on aspects of the ritual. Here is a link to access the images: https://docs.google.com/…/1Jo7I6vSqlO4TtOWonza…/edit…

Please join us in person at 4327 Troost, or online at: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81718815058?pwd=bnI0M29UaitFYmZxcjg2anJoNXhKUT09

This week, we’re tapping into the power of the skies to work some lunar magic. We’ll be designing, constructing, charging and destroying a mixed-media community sigil to further our intentions – if you’re joining us in person at 4327 Troost Ave., please feel free to bring materials that can be safely burned to add to the work. If you’re joining us online, you’ll have the opportunity to create your own version of our sigil – you’ll need something to write with and on, and/or any other art and craft materials you desire.

We have spent a year under the patronage of the Mighty Dead, and while our Dead will always be with us, the time has come to dissolve that formal relationship. Yet there are many, many members of that august body whose specific praises we have not yet sung. This will be an opportunity for anyone attending to help remedy that oversight by making offerings to any specific person having lived and passed over. We will follow a Druid-style format with a period of time with the Gates between the worlds opened, and there will be time to address praise offerings to any of the beings who might be contacted that way. An appropriate offering can be a performance, piece of art, or substance (food, drink, flowers, etc.) likely to please the person being honored. We specifically urge you to come prepared to invoke and make an offering to any of the “Prophetic people” whose words and deeds “challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love,” as mentioned in the UU Sources.
If you are joining from home, you will wish to have a chalice and means of lighting it, and you may also want to provide an offering bowl and substances that you can offer to any of the Powers. We also encourage you to have a beverage available to share in the return of blessings. If attending in person, we encourage you to bring a suitable vessel to receive a blessing liquid, as the time is not yet right for sharing from a communal vessel. (And if you prefer, feel free to bring your own beverage to be blessed)

This ritual will be held in person at 4327 Troost Ave, and online at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81636948830?pwd=wnPxtWJyjGCy65Y0GFsvuMPTIZ-32G.1 Our physical and virtual space will open at 3:30pm Central, and the ritual will begin around 4.