Weekly Communicator

Weekly Communicator

June 1, 2023

Sunday Service

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

https://zoom.us/j/5264858673

Minister's Musings

"Happiness held is the seed; Happiness shared is the flower."–John Harrigan

This week join us for a special Flower Communion Service. Mary and I will be leading our worship. Please bring a flower, plant or packet of seeds to share. We will also have a potluck lunch following the service. Let's celebrate the beginning of summer together.

revsue@uucfm.org

WhatsApp call or message: +506 8891 2847

Facebook Messenger: Sue Gabrielson

Skype: suegabes

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**

Denise out of office

Denise will be out of the office June 2-5. She will not be checking emails or voicemails during this time. She will get back to you as soon as she can.

Community Sharing for June

The SWFL RESET Center was founded in 2020 by UUCFM members and committed community activists seeking to be a positive force for change in SWFL. The RESET office is located on the UUCFM Campus. RESET contributes to the Community Gardens and will continue to partner with other organizations seeking to teach and practice regenerative agriculture, permaculture, and community leadership.

SWFL RESET Center offers ongoing free programs and online RESET Conversations educating the public about real solutions for Clean Water, and Environmental Justice in our bioregion. Check out our positive daily messaging called Earth Moments and help us spread the word by sharing, reflecting, and commenting on social media. Stay tuned for our upcoming programming called Being a Good Relative, a UUSC, UUFJ, RESET partnership about working with our Indigenous neighbors in the Everglades on Climate Justice.

If you cannot attend in person, you can still donate by mailing a check to the office with "community sharing" in the subject line, or by using the "donate" button on the website and marking it "community sharing".

Potluck

There will be a potluck this Sunday after service. Please bring a dish to pass!

UUA Principles Discussion

The UUA is Considering changing the Principles (you may remember this topic from a recent service).

This Sunday at 2:00pm via Zoom, Rev. Sue will be facilitating a discussion about this topic (use the same link as for the Sunday service). In June, our delegates to the UUA General Assembly will be voting on whether to continue to explore this major change. We would like to hear your opinion. You can also join us on June 11th, in person following the service for the same discussion.

Monday Book Group

The Monday Book Club is reading How the Other Half Eats, by Priya Fielding-Singh. This Monday, June 5, we'll read chapters 17, 18, and 19. Contact Judi Dettorre for information.

Breughel "The Massacre of the Innocents"

Breughel "The Fall of Icarus"

Pride, Poetry, and Trivia!

Queer Poet Semi-Trivia Contest! Prize to be Awarded!

What does "The fall of Icarus" have to do with Queer and Trans poets and poetry? And how is Breughel's "The Massacre of the Innocents" involved with the experience of Queer and Trans people and poets 85 years ago and again today?
Which 19th century Queer American poet could have been a Universalist
What is the Grass? (It's not cannabis.)
Where are the Adagiosof Islands?
Which Queer poet of the early-to-mid 20th century lived a life bracketed between a rag-time idol and a celebration of jazz?

For clues and for other information about the Poetry Group, which meets from 1-3pm Tuesday, June 6, contact Cat Pivetti. We will be reading the work of several Mid 19th to Mid 20th Century Poets.

RESET Conversation: Cultivating Abundance

Learn how to help reduce hunger and solve the food insecurity crisis here in SWFL from this congregation! It is unacceptable that the average food insecurity rate (based on population percentage) for four southwest Florida counties was 12.3 percent! (This is higher than Florida's statewide rate of 10.6 percent!). Learn how in a special 1-hour Zoom at 6 PM on June 13, when experts Ellen and Dick Burnett of Cultivate Abundance join the RESET Conversations crew to discuss practical opportunities for small-scale food producers (e.g., home gardeners, church/nonprofit gardens {like our Family Gardens}, small farms) to engage in grassroots, mutual aid efforts to address food insecurity in our community! REGISTER to attend free.

All UUCFM members are encouraged to attend.

Connections! ~ UU and You*

Sundays, June 18 & 25 ~9:00-10:00 a.m. Room 2

June 18:

What do you want to retain from your past religious heritage?

What are you looking for from UUCFM and Unitarian Universalism in general?

June 25:

The Seven Principles of Unitarian Universalism & Sources

How to take our values out into the world!

Guided discussion with Marge Gonzalez, V.P. Membership.

Refreshments served ~ Sign up appreciated.

*All who are seeking community are welcome! Attendance at both sessions is optimal.

Celebrate Pride Month

With our Welcoming Congregation Renewal Committee

We are gay and straight together,

And we are singing, singing for our lives!

We are trans and cis together,

And we are singing, singing for our lives!

Holly Near, after the murder of Harvey Milk in San Francisco,

STLT #170, Modified by Dr. Qwo-Li Driskill for the International Transgender Day of Remembrance, 2022

"An understanding of the experience of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer persons is fully incorporated by a Welcoming Congregation throughout all programs, including religious education."--UUA commitments of welcoming congregations

Our Library Keeps Growing!

We have an increasing collection of books focusing on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

June is Pride Month, so this month, our Library display in Hobart Hall will feature books about Queer and Transgender experience and about ways in which cis, straight people can be effective allies.

This matters more this year than it ever has, because there has never before been a Pride Month like June of 2023 in Florida. We are not only seeing a wave of anti-Queer and anti-Transgender legislation, but also books dealing with Queer and Transgender lives are the most-banned books in Florida and in the nation.

But HOORAY! Books will still live here! Check them out!

And if you want to help or to donate books contact Cat Pivetti.

Volunteers of the Month

Roy and Nancy Green

The Volunteers of the Month are Roy and Nancy Green, for their warm, welcoming work as greeters and ushers as well as for their good natured flexibility, often standing in when they see the need. Thank you Roy and Nancy!

HEART-WARMING NEWS

From your Stewardship Team

The Board has recently been informed of a generous bequest from the trust established by John Pittman. We have missed John’s presence these recent months, and extend heartfelt sympathy to Margot White, his longtime partner. Much gratitude to John and to Margot and his family for caring about the future of UUCFM enough to invest in our future.

We are reminded by this gift of all the energy and care that John contributed to our congregation. For example some of us know that it was John who initiated the service auction years ago in order to raise money for the grand piano that we have today. As we reflect on John’s commitment, perhaps this is a good time for some of us to make a plan to support this beloved community in the future when we are no longer here. To those who already have planned giving that includes UUCFM in their wills or other documents, thank you so much. There is a brochure on planned giving available on request at the Welcome Table. A member of the Stewardship Committee would also be happy to help you if you would like. A gift can be designated for the Endowment Fund or undesignated, leaving it to the future to determine the best use.

Under our current policies and situation, John Pittman’s undesignated gift is divided as follows: Half to pay down a loan we have from the Endowment Fund and half to reserves. Reserves are primarily to fund important building repairs or upgrades, and as it happens, we have a roof repair coming up. It seems our former cherished departed members are looking out for us.

News from the SWFL RESET Center

Are you ready to step into Regenerative Leadership?

It has been an honor and privilege to serve on the SWFL RESET Center Board of Trustees as Executive Secretary. In the last 4 years, we have come a long way and put RESET on the map. Now it is time for me to step down and we are looking for a new Board Secretary. If you are interested please contact me, by email. Check out our website. We have a great Board with some dynamic new members, so I hope the right person reads this and contacts us.

Many thanks to all,

Holley Rauen

Photo by Lisette Morales-McCabe

Banned Book Project by the Numbers

30 - number of books on the Lee County List of banned books.

29 - number of books UUCFM members signed up to read.

1 - number of books left to read. Hurry and scoop it up.

10 - number of sheets turned in so far reporting on the book.

10 - number of sheets that say the book they read should NOT have been banned.

Our readers were asked why they thought the book they read was banned. The reasons our 10 readers so far identified were racism, homophobia, misogyny, anti-trans sentiment, and the misguided belief that hiding from difficult topics, like suicide and drug use, will make them go away.

Here are some of the benefits they found to reading these books:

They serve to stimulate discussion about the ramification of decisions.
They show isolated children and teens that they are not the only one.
They stimulate empathy.
They help kids deal with the challenges of bullying and the perils of peer pressure.

Come to our table in coffee hour and read the reviews in the Banned Book Binder.

Borrow these books and read them yourself! Knowledge is Power!

Neighbors Network of Lee County

Supporting Adults who want to Age at Home/in Community. We are committed to the goal that aging actively and successfully (i.e., independently) shouldn’t be exclusively for the wealthy.

Neighbors Network is a new nonprofit with a mission to partner with adults who want to age at home with support from and inclusion with our neighborhood network, nationally associated with the Village-to-Village movement.

Our first neighborhood (or village) is planned for the Six-Mile Cypress Expressway corridor. This initial neighborhood will be the model we plan to replicate throughout all of Lee County.

Please learn more at our website.

Interested? Contact Barbara Shearer. Once we know who would like to meet for an hour of coffee and conversation, we will set a date.

Name the Center

Visuality, Inc. and Pride SWFL are in the process of opening Lee County's first LGBTQ+ community center in downtown Fort Myers next month. Use the QR code above to submit a name for the center.

Area Events of Interest

Organizing Meeting for Lee County Leaders

Working Together for Reproductive Choice

June 6, 2023, 6-8pm

All Faiths Unitarian Congregation

2756 McGregor Blvd., Fort Myers, Florida 33901

CONTACT: LeeCountyNOW 239-565-7988

OR president 239-560-7654

Let’s work together to put personal health decisions back in the hands of Florida families and their doctors. Support the Floridians Protecting Freedom (FPF) citizen-led ballot initiative, the “Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion” to create a constitutional amendment that explicitly blocks the implementation of laws that prohibit, delay, or restrict abortion access. Learn more about this ballot initiative and the ways to support it.

What can you do:

Attend and invite other leaders to this June 6, 2023 organizing meeting.
Sign and gather petitions.
Volunteer with FPF Volunteer to help put abortion on the ballot.
Attend FPF petition training.
Add your Organization to the FPF Official Partners Campaign Partner Sign Up.
Share petition information with your networks.
Post to social media and write letters to the editor (organizational and personal).
Establish more Hubs (petition collection points) in Lee County and attend Hub trainings.
Attend May 28, 2023, 3pm. in-person petition gathering training. Contact NOW.

Convenors of this June 6, 2023 Organizing Meeting for Lee County Leaders include representatives of the All Faiths Unitarian Congregation, League of Women Voters, National Organization for Women, Planned Parenthood, Women's March Fort Myers. Other organizations are welcome to join us.