Weekly Communicator

Weekly Communicator

July 13, 2023

Sunday Service

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

Join Music Director, Jon Dalton, Worship Associates Lesley Peterson and Leslie Gatto, and the UUCFM Choir for this special Sunday Service: The Music of Our Lives. We will sing and reflect on some of the music that represents our UU values.

Minister's Musings

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony." —Mahatma Gandhi

Happy July to everyone. I will be on vacation this month (and working hard to plan for next year). You can expect I will not be at regular meetings or corresponding on a regular basis, but please do not hesitate to reach out to me if there is something that you feel cannot wait. I am looking forward to serving you for another year and will see you in Fort Myers on August 13th. Have a great month.

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**

Community Sharing for July

The Southwest Florida Gay & Lesbian Chorus was formed in 1993, at the initiative of Doug Gathers and a small group of founders, despite the problems that would undeniably come with his "coming out" publicly. Since their founding in 1993, they have been a LGBTQ-friendly and all-inclusive 5013c non-profit organization. This group participates in local, regional, and national performances.

Their mission is to provide educational, cultural, and social enrichment for our audience and ourselves through excellence in the choral arts.

The group's name was changed in 2019 from Southwest Florida Gay & Lesbian Chorus to Southwest Florida Voices, to be more inclusive to the LGBTQ-Community and Allies.

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".

Tarot Class

I am very excited to share that we will have our first Tarot Course hosted by yours truly, Brian! I am requesting $20 or a donation of your capability, no one turned down.

Saturday, July 15th from 10am-12pm

We will talk about tarot history, forming questions, symbols and systems, and have some fun. Please feel free to bring your favorite deck if you have one, if not I will have a few that you can use during the course.

Hope to see you there!

BRIAN

Sincerely,

CUUPS of Fort Myers

All proceeds go to UUCFM and CUUPS

LIFE for Justice: Justice for LIFE

Dear Friends,

LIFE has been working closely with city officials for several years

and many hours to hammer out an ordinance that would

provide badly needed affordable housing in Lee County. We

now learn that this ordinance is not being implemented.

I am sending along a message I got from Rusty May of LIFE. We

need your help next Monday the 17th. We need to hold our

officials to their agreements with us. It would be very helpful if you would let me know if you are coming and also if you are

willing to speak up with a script that will be provided.

Marge Gonzalez

Text me at 239 878 7844

We need your immediate help to turn out your justice ministry members at the Ft. Myers City Council meeting on July 17th at 4:30 pm. We are deeply concerned that little is being done to implement the ordinance that the City Council adopted. When a member of our task force requested an official copy of the final ordinance it still was in the "mark up" stage that was presented for adoption by the City Council.

We plan to have LIFE members speak at the public comment section of the July 17th City Council Meeting. We will have scripts ready for people to use.

There is always light, if only we are brave enough to see it. If only we're brave enough to be it. Amanda Gorman

Save the Date: Bridges Dialogue Zoom Meeting

We are thrilled and honored to announce our next Bridges Dialogue Zoom Meeting on TUESDAY, JULY 18 @ 7:00 pm will feature keynote speaker Jonathan Webber, the Florida Policy Director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, one of the most important anti-hate organizations in the country.

Mr. Webber’s Keynote talk will be Racism & Antisemitism in Florida, and What We Can Do About It. Following his talk, he will be available for a moderated Q&A discussion.

Please see the flyer above for all details.

Update about Changes to UUA principles from the UUA General Assembly

This was compiled by Rev. Sue's colleague, Rev. Tiffany Anderson Sapp

A large number of amendments to the Article 2 Revisions proposals were proposed and voted on during Thursday and Friday’s General Sessions. Several of them passed which made small but meaningful changes to the wording in the proposal. On Saturday the General Assembly voted to give preliminary approval to the Proposed Article 2 Revisions. Of the 2,109 delegates online and in-person who voted on this matter, 1,816 (86.3%) voted to approve, and 289 (13.7%) voted against the revisions.

The Banned Book Project

More Comments by Donor-Congregants

100% of the readers of the books on our list said that these books should not be banned.

Here is how the reader of Dope Sick puts it. "I do not feel that there is merit in banning this book, as I have always felt that hiding painful realities of life never makes them go away and only causes them to seep into our life and shock us. Hiding drug use, hopelessness, homelessness and mental illness doesn’t make them disappear – it only makes them less understood and therefore less resolvable."

Thirteen Reasons Why "The book is important as it deals with the results of bullying. Kids are dying because of mean teens. I love that there are discussion questions at the back of the book."

Worm loves Worm "It’s cute. I’m not crazy about worms, but these worms are very sweet as are the other critters who want to participate in the marriage ceremony."

And Tango Makes Three "Cute story with a good message"

This book would also make a great For All Ages choice as it is a true story of two male penguins in Central Park Zoo who end up raising an abandoned baby penguin.

Dope Sick "This book could serve as a stepping stone to discussions in schools, within youth groups and of course families regarding the paths that young people can choose to take, despite their ongoing surroundings. The entire book centers on the choices one makes at each step and then discusses the results of each step – a great way to dissect a young person’s life to see where/when missteps were taken."

Here is the winner of the library-sponsored drawing during last Sunday’s Coffee Hour, with the important message, Read Banned Books.

Our Welcoming Congregation

UUCFM is committed to renewing our status as a Welcoming Congregation. As a Welcoming Congregation, we pay attention to the concerns of Queer, Transgender, Gender Non-Conforming, and Intersex people. This week is International Non-Binary Awareness Week. There are many non-binary and non-conforming gender identities and many intersex conditions. For more information or for links to glossaries of terms and/or to information about the experience of Intersex people,

contact Cat Pivetti.

One of the actions of Welcoming Congregations is speaking out against oppressive speech and legislation targeting LGBTQIA+ people. This is challenging now because there is so much to speak out against. Many Queer/Trans/GNC (Q/T) people are reeling from the intensity of the words and laws aimed against them, so it can also be difficult to know what to say to Q/T people that is comforting without minimizing their experience. If you would like links to information about laws and rule changes, or if you or your family are part of the Q/T community and you would like to talk, again, contact Cat.

UUCFM Library:

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion!

This week is International Non-Binary Awareness Week, and July 14 is International Non-Binary People’s Day. Non-Binary gender and Non-Conforming gender identities are not rare. Unfortunately, understanding of Transgender persons and of others with Non-Conforming or Expansive Gender identities is

very rare indeed.

Fortunately, we can help. We have books! We have books about Transgender people, about people with Expansive Gender, about how much Drag performance can matter, and about how cis and straight people can be better allies. We have books for children and adults. We have books of essays, reference books, novels, and poetry, and we have more books every week.

July 12 was also International Malala Day, a day identified by the UN to honor Malala, who, after being shot twice in the head by the Taliban for attending school when she was 15, campaigned for the rights of girls and women to attend school. We have a book about her, too.

For information about the Library or how you can work with the Library team, please contact Cat Pivetti.

Volunteer of the Month

This month’s volunteer of the month is Pat Linhoff. Pat has put enormous energy and creativity into improving our library. Every Sunday, you see her promoting the circulation of books, many on themes of social justice, during coffee hour. I am sure we all look forward to her idea of having a drawing for a book-related prize during coffee hour. Her work and reliability are accompanied by lovely and exceptional grace.