Weekly Communicator September 21, 2023

Weekly Communicator

September 21, 2023

Sunday Service

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

https://zoom.us/j/5264858673

Minister's Musings

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Today I come to you by Zoom as we anticipate National Coming Out Day. Our service focuses on many aspects of what it means to "Come Out" from past and present. Please join us in person or by Zoom.

revsue@uucfm.org

WhatsApp call or message: +506 8891 2847

US phone number: 603-395-7559

Facebook Messenger: Sue Gabrielson

Skype: suegabes

Mark your Calendars: October 21, 2023

Masquerade at the MACC

For reservations, donations, and details please visit:

https://gulfcoastsymphony.org/concert/masquerade-macc/

5:30pm Cocktail Hour (Cash Bar)

6:00pm Dinner & Auctions & Raffles

7:30pm Concert

The Gulf Coast Symphony and UUCFM combine forces for an evening of fun, food, and music!

Auction Items and a Raffle will be a part of the evening. Come fully decked out in a costume or wear a mask for a fun evening.

Single Tickets are $50 per person or $75 for two.

Become a Table Sponsor for $500

(Include 8 seats and $100 tax-deductible donation).

Table Sponsors may donate their unused seats to Rev. Sue for Congregation members who could use some financial assistance to buy tickets.

Event Sponsorships are available for a $1000 tax-deductible donation.

All monies raised will be used to fund physical improvements on the UUCFM campus and benefit the Gulf Coast Symphony’s youth education programs at the MACC.

Melyssa Caballero will head-up the UUCFM efforts. We’re looking for a couple more UUCFM volunteers to help with preparations. To help, call Sarah, our new Office Administrator, at 239-561-2700 or let Rev. Sue know at RevSue@UUCFM.org

See you there!

Bill Petrarca

UU and You

October 8 & 15

After Sunday services - Room 2

All seekers are welcome!

Newcomers, recent visitors are cordially invited to an informative discussion group, meeting for an hour following Sunday services for two consecutive Sundays. Please plan to attend both dates if possible.

After the service, if you’d like to stop by Hobart Hall and grab a beverage and/or nibbles, bring it with you. Then make your way to Classroom 2, it’s directly across from the Sanctuary.

We look forward to becoming better acquainted!

October 8: discussion will be focused on YOU—What you might be looking for in this Community of faith, where you’re coming from?

October 15: will focus on our beliefs and values—

The Seven Principles of Unitarian Universalism & Sources

How to take our values out into the world!

Guided discussion with Marge Gonzalez, V.P. Membership

~ judyburget@gmail.com

Social Justice Committee Meeting

We are meeting on the 4th Sunday of the month, which means our next meeting is coming up at 2-3:30 PM this Sunday,

Sept. 24.

Zoom link: 826 8291 5633

Contact Mary Studer for the passcode and/or to join the Committee

Being Mortal

You Can’t Take It with You

During October, there will be a series of programs before worship services acknowledging the elephant in the room, our own mortality.

Join the first meeting Sunday, Oct. 1 at 9:15 am in Hobart Hall to learn more about estate planning and/or review your own. We’ll also address how to prepare for the time when aging in place is no longer an option and how it affects you financially. Mary Studer has more information.

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**

Volunteer of the Month

This month we have three members of a family as our Volunteers of the Month. Joyce Jaecques is a faithful and friendly presence at our Welcome Table in the narthex, helping to create a sense of belonging for both newcomers and and long-time members. Her two sons, Isaac and John Jaecques, are invaluable members for our tech team.

Community Sharing for September

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

Board of Trustees Meeting

The Board of Trustees meet on the 2nd Tuesday of every month at 5pm.

Join Zoom Meeting:

https://zoom.us/j/91338742461

No password required.

There will be time for questions and concerns at the beginning of the meeting.

Bill Brewer Family Gardens

Gardening Season Starts on October 1st!

The BB Family Gardens and the Holton Eco Preserve are now being cared for on a daily to weekly basis. This means the grass and the thick weeds will be maintained regularly.

Aesthetically, the gardens and preserve will look more inviting.

The goal is to have every bed rented with happy gardeners enjoying the beautiful land on the campus.

There are new fees that vary upon circumstance.

UUCFM members will receive a discount.

Everyone is welcome and no one will be turned away.

Perhaps gardening isn't your thing.

You can still get involved by donating or sponsoring a bed.

There are several ways to arrange this.

For instance, you can sponsor a bed and request that a variety of flowers are grown.

These flowers can be donated to a person(s) in a local Assisted Living Facility, simply to make someone smile.

You can donate a bed to someone in need.

Maybe a couple of friends or a group would like to share a bed.

That's just a few of ideas of the many options.

More information in the upcoming weeks.

If you are interested in renting a bed or have questions about donating or sponsoring, Contact Brooke at familygardens@uucfm.org

News from SWFL RESET Center:

This event is part of our UUSC/UUJF Good Neighbor Grant. We will be offering the 4 part online series called Being a Good Neighbor to UUs across the state on Monday nights in March.

Meanwhile, join us for this important conversation on Tuesday evening, October 3rd.

A panel discussion with FL Indigenous tribal members and activists. Join Seminole artist, videographer, and environmental activist Samuel Tommie, plus Robert Rosa, chairman of the Florida Indigenous Alliance (FIA) and member of the central Florida division of the American Indian Movement (AIM), and William Osceola, Secretary of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians, and other Florida Tribal members and allies. Let’s talk about how to be in right relationship and community.

FREE tickets on Eventbrite: http://bit.ly/3OSCYtn

Bisexuality Awareness Week

and

International Bisexuality Visibility Day

"In order to feel safe I need to feel known....Is visibility safety? Complex questions. Uncomfortable, uneasy answers, stirring up old hurts, old angers, old fears....Why is the possibility of ‘passing’ so insistently viewed as a great privilege..., and not understood as a terrible degradation and denial?” – Evelyn Torton Beck, Nice Jewish Girls

Have a Happy Bisexuality Visibility Day! And an informative Bisexuality Awareness Week, (September 16-23), too. This Saturday, September 23, is International Bisexuality Visibility Day. People all over the world will celebrate and will present workshops and webinars.

This day is a necessary affirmation of those whose identities were denied for generations, and whose existence continued to be denied for decades even after Gay and Lesbian people were widely acknowledged. Their identity continued to be unacknowledged even by Gay and Lesbian people, in spite of the Kinsey report, into the 1980's and beyond. Although we know now that sexual orientation is a continuum rather than a set of polar opposites, misunderstandings of bisexuality are still very common.

To learn more about the experience and emotions of people who identify as bisexual, you might consider reading work by Oscar Wilde, by Susan Sontag, or, especially by Lani Ka'ahumanu. Or watch films, comedy, or music videos, maybe with/by Janelle Monae or Alan Cummings.

For more information about bisexuality, or about the Welcoming/Equal Rights Committee, contact Cat Pivetti (equalrightscommittee@uucfm.org).

Write a Letter to the Editor!

Letter-Writing Workshop

Saturday evening, September 23, at 6:30 pm, Allie Carville and Cat Pivetti plan to facilitate a workshop on Zoom. We will talk about which newspapers to choose, how to choose your topic, and

how to write an effective, publishable letter. Then we will write some!

There are so many intense Issues before us now. A letter to your far-right Congressman or or State Senator may or may not be read. Sometime the best way to encourage change is to write a letter to an out-of-state periodical. We will talk about this, too.

Contact Cat Pivetti (equalrightscommittee@uucfm.org) to register for the workshop, as well as for more information. Thank you for joining in the Work!

Take a look! It's in a book!

It's a Reading Rainbow!

And: the books are in our DEI Library!

How wonderful to spend time with books! Come visit the books in our UUCFM DEI Library, OPEN NOW, after services. Check them out!

Do you want to know about Indigenous people ahead of Indigenous People's Day? We have books written by Indigenous people, by Queer people, by people who simultaneously and wonderfully have both these identities. Check them out!

We have poetry, history, essays, novels, theory. We have books for children, for teens, and for adults. Check them out!

Would you like to be a Librarian? Here's your chance! Would you like to sit by a Library display in Hobart Hall after the service? (It's fun.) Here's your chance! Check it out! Contact Cat Pivetti (equalrightscommittee@uucfm.org) to find out how, or to join our Library team.

Janice Gould

Craig Santos Perez

Layli Longsoilder

Indigenous Peoples Day

and Indigenous Poets

The Poetry Group expects to meet on Saturday, September 30, on Zoom at 6:30 pm. As Indigenous Peoples Day approaches, we will read poetry by Indigenous poets who wrote about the impact of colonization on the inhabitants of the Americas, Polynesia, and Micronesia. Their poetry is powerful, often angry, sometimes drenched in grief. Their poetry, from over a century ago through very recent times, tells stories and evokes emotion that prose cannot always convey.

Please join us in our exploration of this work, which is increasingly relevant as both immigrant and native Indigenous people struggle to survive in the United States and its possessions, and as we try to support Indigenous neighbors' efforts to protect the world we all inhabit.

Contact Cat Pivetti (equalrightscommittee@uucfm.org) for information, this week's poetry, and Zoom link.