Weekly Communicator November 30, 2023

Weekly Communicator

November 30, 2023

Sunday Service

Join us this Sunday at 10:30am in the Sanctuary or via Zoom

We hope you can join us this Sunday as we delve into the mystery and wonder in our lives. Worship Associate Leslie Gatto and Lay Minister Mary Cline Golbitz will lead us. Looking forward to seeing you.

Upcoming Themes for Sunday Services:

December 3 - Mystery - Mary Cline Golbitz (zoom) - Leslie Gatto
December 10 - Faith is to be at home in the awesome spaces of uncertainty. Sue (zoom) - Leslie Gatto
December 17 - Solstice w/CUUPS. Sue (in-person) - Lesley Peterson/Melyssa Caballero

*Please note on December 24th there will be no morning Service. Service will be held on the 24th at 5:00 p.m.

To Reach Reverend Sue:

revsue@uucfm.org

WhatsApp call or message: +506 8891 2847

US phone number: 603-395-7559

Facebook Messenger: Sue Gabrielson

Skype: suegabes

An Invitation to Membership ~ December 17

Are you a familiar visitor, attending regularly?

Are you a UU from afar, now here seasonally or year-round?

Are you an irregular attendee and/or former Member?

Are you in fundamental agreement with the Eight Principles

of this Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fort Myers?

If your answer is “Yes” to any of these questions, then we cordially ask you to contact us* ASAP!

On December 17th an opportunity to join UUCFM is planned for those who are ready to sign the Membership Book during a brief ceremony at the end of the Sunday Service. Your inquiries are most cordially encouraged and appreciated.

For questions please contact Judy Burget or Rev. Sue Gabrielson, revsue@uucfm.org

judyburget@gmail.com

Office Manager - Vacation

Please note Sarah will be on vacation Friday, December 1st - Wednesday, December 6th.

Community Sharing for December

Quality Life Center's mission is to strengthen and instill pride in family and community through programs and services to cultivate self-discipline, self-development, build confidence and promote cultural awareness

GIFTS FOR THE QUALITY LIFE CENTER CHILDREN AND YOUTH

This year UUCFM continues our generous holiday gift giving to the kids attending the Quality Life Center. There are 112 children and youth we would like to treat. We have a short turn around time and hope to deliver the gifts by December 15.

Please bring an UNWRAPPED gift valued at $15-25 to UUCFM this Sunday or next Sunday, December 3 or December 10. Ideas: Books, puzzles, games, sporting equipment, dolls of color or whatever you want. No toy guns, please.

If you are unable to attend in person, you may use Amazon Smile and have the gift delivered directly to UUCFM.

Leslie Gatto will head this up with help from Lynn Lacy and Gary Robbins. Please contact me for the age(s) and gender(s) of the kid(s) to buy for. We want to be sure everyone has a gift.

Thanks for your generosity to these deserving kids!

News from the SWFL RESET Center

Our Dec 9th RESET Seed and Plant Fest

Online Auction just went live

-- and we wanted you to have the first opportunity to bid

Volunteers are still needed and deeply appreciated.

Attend the SWFL Seed and Plant Festival!

Check out our program, speakers and vendors here:

https://www.seedandplantfest.com/

Men’s Group

The Men’s Group will be meeting for monthly luncheons. We will be meeting on the third Thursday all season at 11:30. We are looking forward to seeing as many UU men as possible. No reservations needed; just show up for lunch and camaraderie with other UU men.

We will meet at the Cross Creek Golf Club clubhouse. You can order from the regular menu or the golfers’ menu and we will get separate checks.

From CUUPS Corner

Many blessings one and all, we are now in the month of December and with it important dates to mark on your calendar.

December 10th is our coffee time and also we are presenting again Soups and Sides. We are doing this quarterly and it will be themed for the seasons as we look at them. This one will be flavors of winter times. We are charging a $5.00 donation which we feel covers expenses, you can always donate more if you feel it worth so. This will be right after service, as you come into the hall. There will be coffee service as well.

December 16th is our annual meeting at 1:00 pm, then at 4:00pm we will have our Yule gathering. This is a time of community, storytelling, sharing a dish and lots of good cheer! We will bring in the light. All are welcome, please bring something to share, your instruments and a song. Casual dress but you can by all means garb out!

Please note CUUPS has a new email: CUUPSFORTMYERS@GMAIL.COM

For the CUPPS Newsletter, please click here, CUUPS newsletter,

If anyone would like to be on our email list please contact us.

May you all have beautiful times and Peace be in your heart!

CUUPS TEAM

On Fascism:

A White Rose, German Teenagers, Censorship,

And a New Proposed Law in Florida

What do theses things have in common, and what do they have to do with all of us? This puzzle has all the clues sneakily hidden before your eyes if you open this link

Don't worry if you can't see the connections. There are clever people working hard to keep you from noticing them. If you have already guessed, then you belong in our Zoom discussion group on Monday, December 11th, at 6:30 pm, on "Countering Fascism in Our Communities and Beyond." If you would like to find out what the connections are, you still belong in this group. If this is confusing, we want you to come.

For more information, contact Cat Pivetti (equalrightscommittee@UUCFM.org) or Marge Gonzalez.

And another hint: try googling the captions simultaneously.

Sophie Scholl

Communication -- Watch for it!

We are about to launch something new! The first week In January we plan to unveil a monthly Communicator, full of articles about what is going on for the whole month. We will still have a weekly, which will focus on announcements of events going on that week. If you would like to write an article about your committee or activity, please submit using the term Monthly. Joys and concerns are welcome as are announcement of events and meetings for the month of January. We will include a calendar for the month so let us know what is going on! Because of the holidays, we would appreciate submissions for the inaugural issue by December 15th.

Up until the end of December, please make submissions as usual. Beginning in January just submit the event, its time, its place and the email of the contact person along with one or two sentences. If you have longer comments or an article, submit it to the monthly!

Please send submissions to newsletter@uucfm.org

Amir Rabiyah

December 3: Persons With Disabilities Day,

December 10: Human Rights Day,

And Poetry!

It isn't unusual for poets to live with and write about difficulties. It's less common for them to write brilliantly and beautifully while inside intersectional oppressions that would cause many of us to give up. Some of these are poets that I knew, like my beloved teacher Josephine Miles (after whom the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles award is named) and the generous activist Janice Mirikitani who, with her husband Cecil Williams, made Glide Memorial a symbol of hope for San Franciscans. Others, like Amir Rabiyah, are of a younger generation and also impressive.

Come discuss their work and that of others, on Zoom with us this week. We expect to meet Tuesday (12/5) afternoon at 2 and either this Saturday evening (12/2) or the following Saturday (12/9). Contact Cat Pivetti for final dates and times and for poems and Zoom links.

Mirikitani & Ferlinghetti

Josephine

Freedom to Read Library

at UUCFM

Imagine a country without Freedom to Read... Unfortunately, it's easy to do this. Ray Bradbury's book Fahrenheit 451 was published in 1953, when the USSR was shutting down dissension and when McCarthyism was in full flower. However, book-burnings had swept through Nazi Germany 20 years before that. It's not just books that are being banned now, or being banned appallingly close to home. Now a new law is being proposed in our state that would censor speech, education, and truth in nonprofits that are not run by the state. To learn more please click here.

You can find these books in our library!

Check them out!

For more information or to join in this Noble Cause, contact Cat Pivetti (equalrightscommittee@uucfm.org), visit our Freedom to Read Library, or talk to us at our table in Hobart Hall after the service.

Please send all newsletter articles by

12pm Wednesday for publication in Thursday's newsletter.

Send articles to newsletter@uucfm.org

Newsletter articles should be limited to 250 words. Send artwork or photos in jpg format. If multiple posting dates are desired, please include that in your request.

**Please do not send requests to the office manager email**