However you connect to the theology of Easter (or don’t), there’s something in the Easter story for everyone. Death and life; winter and spring; betrayal and hope; confusion and faith. All of it especially fitting this year. Come join in our Easter celebration -- wherever you’re coming from, whatever you’re bringing with you.
Plan to stay for Coffee Hour, for an announcement about this year’s Stewardship Campaign!
Christina Fulton, Director of Operations & Finance
This year we promised to make our Stewardship Campaign easy and quick. We asked that you click on this link to complete your pledge. We asked that if you were able, to increase your pledge by 3%. And the response has been wonderful! We have had 127 members complete a pledge, with a net increase of over $8,000.
We promised that our Stewardship Campaign would end on Sunday, April 4 and we plan to keep that promise. Our goal was to increase our overall pledge income total by 3%, and right now we are $28,435 away from meeting that goal. April 4th is still a few days away, so you still have time complete a pledge by clicking here!
Here is a wonderful testimonial from Board Member, Rodney Lowe. Rodney shares with us why it is important to him to give of both his time and his treasure.
Game Night - 2 Ways (First One TONIGHT!)
Erika Reif, Director of Lifespan Faith Development
Are you looking for an opportunity for fellowship and fun within our FUUSB community? Well, so are we! We have two Game Nights scheduled on Zoom this month, one a little different from the other, but both really fun! These events are geared towards adults, youth, and families with older kids.
Thursday, April 1, 7:30-8:30 p.m.: Come be an April Fool with host and FUUSB Youth Group member, Memphis Everest. We will play games on the Jackbox Games platform. He’s got the games, but to play them you need to bring a phone (separate from the screen you’re Zooming in on), one for each player or work as a team, and we’ll help you figure it out from there. Don’t worry, it’s pretty simple!
There are several games he might introduce, but they tend to be fast-paced, silly, verbal games, like Balderdash or the part of “Says You” where they make up definitions to words and everyone tries to guess which is true.
Thursday, April 15, 7:30-8:30 p.m.: This time our host will be Memphis’s dad, and FUUSB treasurer, Kameron McConnell, leading us in a more game-show style of fun. These games will be somewhat tailored to our FUUSB audience, with UU History Jeopardy, a Where’s Bernie photo challenge (think Where’s Waldo but with Bernie and his mittens) and more! These games will not require an additional device, just sign into Zoom and we’ll do the rest. Come as a family and play as a team, or come as an individual on your own screen.
All Children Invited This Sunday - Rain, Snow or Shine!
Margo Whitcomb, Faith Development Assistant
Join us for our annual Memorial Garden Easter Egg hunt, adapted for safety this year. We provide the eggs,contents (non-food items) and do the hiding! Drop in anytime between 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. on Sunday, April 4th. We will allow two families at a time into the garden. (If your family needs or would prefer to be alone in the garden, just let Erika on Margo know upon arrival.) Please wear masks and practice safe distancing while on the grounds. Each child will collect a set number of eggs during their visit and we’ll have it stocked enough for everyone! See you there.
All Ages, All Month Long Virtual UU Egg Hunt!
Margo Whitcomb, Faith Development Assistant
FUUSB participates this year with numerous other UU congregations across the globe in a month-long Virtual Easter Egg Hunt. The event goes live this Saturday, April 3rd, the day before Easter - and remains active throughout the month. You can spend April exploring the UU net! (Did you know a UU actually invented the World Wide Web?)
Our monthly Zoom meeting is Tuesday, April 6 from 7 - 8 p.m. We are a friendly, social group who have a wide range of skills. We meet on Zoom for purely social reasons to chat, get to know each other, and share patterns and ideas. There is always time for show and tell of our most recent projects! We hope you can join us at bit.ly/3qKUgLa. Contact Linda Graves, graveslmj@gmail.com with questions.
Spring Vespers ~ “Unfurling with Spring”
As I write, it’s a chilly, snowy, rainy day. But it’s a chilly, snowy, rainy, Spring day! Spring in Vermont is a dance of opening and bracing, hope and heartache, release and tenderness. Some of us are ready to believe from the first thaw (!) and others unfurl their shoots more judiciously, remembering April blizzards. This spring we do this dance with “vaccination season,” too. How do we unfurl with the possibility of all that we hope for, while also staying safe? How do we begin to allow in (and out) the good we’ve longed for, while tending all the complexities of our experiences and of re-emerging into a “new normal?” Well… we do it together, for one. And, as ever, we take it one step at a time.
We invite you to take a “first step” together, with us, in our first service of the Spring Vespers Series, this Wednesday, April 7 at 6 p.m. Vespers services are an opportunity to take a mid-week pause, connect with self, and others, and share what inspires us on our journeys. We share music and meditative silence, poetry and presence, gratitudes and griefs, breath and blessings. Though we can't yet meet in person, we can still be together, sharing these gifts of renewal. Come as you are. All are welcome. Join us on Zoom at zoom.us/j/91243888402.
Rev. David Ruffin and the Vespers Team
PS - As we move into our Spring Vespers Series, we would love to hear from you what poems, stories, music, art, etc. is alive in your hearts and minds this season. You can ALWAYS share a potential contribution to Vespers with Rev. David Ruffin, whether or not you'd like to share it yourself (though that is very welcome). Please help co-create this beautiful garden for our spirits this Spring!
Hold the Date! Second Saturday Campfire & Open Mic
Todd Schlossberg
Next Saturday, April 10 at 7 p.m.
Somehow, dear ones, we’ve made it to Spring!
Let us gather, tell stories, read poems, and sing
And though social distance, we must yet abide
‘Round our fire, you can still warm your virtual hide
On Sunday, April 11 at 2 p.m., the board of trustees and the Finance Team will host an information sharing session on the driving factors that informed many of the decisions about how we fund our priorities as a congregation and community of faith. We’ve heard from many people about how we prioritize the various components of our mission. This is our opportunity to offer a glimpse at how all that information gathering is shaping the direction of the FUUSB.
We will not be discussing the budget in a line item fashion. In fact, that budget is not yet complete to that level of detail. That conversation will happen later in the spring at our usual “Meet the Budget” session. Rather, this is an opportunity to see the assumptions and goals that guide the budget development. Have questions about how we choose to direct our energy and finances? Have ideas about how we should shape our budget priorities to meet our mission? Come Zoom with us and share your ideas.
We expect the discussion to last about an hour, but we will stay in the Zoom session as long as people have more to share.
Two Minutes with Your Treasurer
Welcome to a new feature we call Two Minutes with Your Treasurer. To help keep you up to date on how the Society is doing financially, Kameron will periodically send you a little video message. We hope you find this helpful and appreciate your feedback. Thank you for watching!
The Finance Team
From the Climate Justice Team's Action Group
Putting Our UU Values into Action:
We've enjoyed having so many of you join us for our fall and winter workshops and tips for Simple Ways to Live Simply for Climate Change: clean cleaning products, electric car demo, plant based cooking classes, weatherization, heat pumps and more.
We'd love to have others join our group. Do you have some ideas? Want to make a difference with us? We are a very nimble and low commitment group! Contact: Suziemccoy1@gmail.com
We're currently putting together our Spring/Summer offerings, so stay tuned. A few Spring cooking classes, reducing your plastic use, composting 101, and some repeats of our most popular and well-attended workshops. We'll be on Zoom until we can be outside, which we hope will be soooooon!
Valerie, Suzie, Suzy & Linda
Immigration Justice Team Action
Kim Watkin
The Immigration Justice Team is working with Migrant Justice and their Milk with Dignity Campaign. Milk with Dignity is "a movement of farmworkers and their allies calling on dairy companies to ensure respect for human rights in their supply chains by joining the worker-driven Milk with Dignity Campaign." Here is more information about the Milk with Dignity Campaign: migrantjustice.net/Hannaford-action-toolkit
This specific action is focused on using social media to persuade Hannaford Supermarkets to join the Milk with Dignity Campaign.
Check the Hannaford Facebook page (@Hannaford) and open up the comment section in a recent post to write in your own comment about Milk with Dignity.
You can write messages like:
Hannaford: Respond to Farmworkers, Join #MilkWithDignity!
Hannaford: It’s time to join #MilkWithDignity!
Hannaford: No more charity, we want #MilkWithDignity!
You’ll see comments with photos from farmworkers calling for Milk with Dignity and beautiful messages of solidarity from supporters urging Hannaford to join the program.
Save the Date! Climate Justice Team Event: Solar Panels
Solar panels capture the power of the sun to power your home. How do they do it? How do they work? Are all Solar Panels the same? and how much do they cost? How can I afford to get them? Please come to a one-hour Zoom session on Wednesday, April 21 at 7 p.m. to learn more about Solar Panels from Chip Patullo, Certified Energy Manager.
For audio only call: (929) 205-6099 (meeting ID: 955 1166 4696, passcode: 922001).
Upcoming Services
Sunday, April 11, 10 a.m.
Rev. Patricia Hart with Woody Fulton
"Beyond These Walls"
Much has changed in this past year: assumptions about what’s “normal;” people’s ways of interacting; measures of success; expectations about… well, almost everything! Including how religious communities show up in the world. For more than 200 years, this Society has been synonymous with its Meeting House. What will it be like to re-imagine this congregation both inside and “beyond” its walls?