Weekly Communicator

Weekly Communicator

August 3, 2023

Sunday Service

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

This Sunday we will explore the complex issue of immigration and the spiritual principles of Unitarian Universalism that ask us to open our hearts to all with compassion. We hope you will join us as Mary Cline Golbitz and Lesley Peterson lead our Service. All are welcome.

Minister's Musings

“Once I thought to write a history of the immigrants in America. Then I discovered that the immigrants were American history.”

Oscar Handlin

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

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

Community Sharing for August

ACT offers a 24-hour helpline, 3 safe shelters, children's program, counseling (both individual and group), an economic empowerment program which includes financial and health literacy, Injunction for Protection legal service, life skills education, job skills evaluation and training along with GED assistance and ESOL. In the non-residential outreach program, they provide long-term counseling, therapy and support, economic empowerment services, a rape crisis center where they do the forensic examinations, advocacy department that provides advocacy through the judicial system, and a legal program for Injunctions for Protection. They also provide community education, professional trainings, and prevention education. All services provided to victims of domestic violence and their children, and survivors of sexual assault, dating violence, stalking and human trafficking are available free of charge.

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".

Deborah Miranda

Poetry Feeds the Spirit!

Join us this Tuesday afternoon as we read and talk about work by Indigenous, Black, and Queer poets. Angry, sad, outraged, hopeful, and beautiful words can sustain us through troubled times.

We meet from 1:00-3:00 PM this Tuesday afternoon, August 8, via Zoom. We'd love to see you there! For links and poems, contact Cat Pivetti.

RESET Conversation - Create a Personal Climate Action Plan

The UN Environmental Programme found that two-thirds of greenhouse gas emissions are a result of household-level decisions. The choices we make on a daily basis matter! But how do we know which ones to make? And how do we stay accountable to our sustainability goals? If you’ve been wondering how you can make the biggest impact on improving our climate circumstances, this Zoom is for you. Join us for our August RESET Conversation via Zoom, as co-founder of the Carbon CREW Project, Josephine DeVincenzi, Ed.D., shares a behind the scenes look at how her organization’s initiatives are equipping every day earth citizens like us with realistic, applicable ways we can help our planet. The Carbon CREW Project works to reduce household emissions by empowering groups (or CREWs) of people to design and implement their own Personal Climate Action Plan (PCAP). Their mission is to reverse global warming from the bottom up by using a visionary, inspiring blueprint intended to shift behaviors. Collaboration with others increases accountability and ensures success in reducing carbon footprints, creating a cleaner, greener, regenerative future. As an attendees of this RESET Conversation, you’ll gain a better understanding of your individual climate impact (carbon footprint) – and the steps you can take to reduce it. As Jo puts it, “Climate change is here, but so are you.”

About the Speaker: Josephine DeVincenzi, Ed.D. is a retired educator with thirty-eight years of experience in teaching, coaching and administration. She served fourteen years as high school principal and ten years as assistant superintendent of schools. These professional duties required significant responsibility for planning, organizing, collaborating, and supervising people and ideas as well as overseeing safety and health concerns. In retirement, she has returned to her life-long commitment to environmental issues.

Aug 8, 2023 at 6:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Board of Trustees Meeting

The Board of Trustees meet on the 2nd Tuesday of every month at 5pm. For August only, the meeting with be the 3rd Tuesday of the month.

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.

UUCFM's LIBRARY:

DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION

As new rules are passed every day, about what children should be allowed to read or learn, and about what professors should be permitted to teach, our DEI Library is fighting back. Would you like to preview books to help your child or grandchild grow up with a realistic perspective on people who are different from them? Would you like them to see Transgender children or Japanese children as children rather than as enemies? Would you like to learn more yourself about real Black or Latinx or Indigenous history?

Look in our Library! We have books for adults, youth, and children that will teach reality, and we have stories to enhance empathy. Check it out!

For more information, or if you'd like book recommendations, contact Cat Pivetti.

Building Our Beloved Community:

A Welcoming Congregation

This has a been brutal week for the LGBTQIA+ community. We have seen each other murdered for who we are and a UU church in Texas firebombed after being viciously "pranked" by alt-right video propagandists. Families are making plans to give up their homes and jobs in Florida to protect their Transgender children from horrific bullying coupled with lack of access to appropriate therapy and medical care.

Welcoming congregations do not close our eyes to this knowledge, nor do we refrain from speaking out against it. Instead, we open our arms and our hearts in support of the Beloved Community, which welcomes those who are oppressed. We Side with Love. We demonstrate this responsibility in actions as well as in words, and rather than rejecting people whom we may not yet understand, we commit to educating ourselves to understand and to become the allies that Transgender and Queer people need us, now more than ever, to be.

An easy way to learn more about how to be true ally is to begin by reading Trans Allyship Workbook by Davy Shlasko. For other ideas, contact Cat Pivetti.

Banned Book Project

Congregants who Read and Contributed to the Project of reading the 30 books on the SW Florida list were asked why they thought the book was banned. Here are their answers:

Number of readers/books

Reason for banning book

anti-trans or homophobia

don’t know (guesses follow)

racism

drug addiction subject matter

bad role models

pro-male supremacy

anti-immigrant

Among the guesses were the following:

‘heavy petting’
Primates with human features
One character wears a headscarf
Teenage drinking
In one case the reader googled the question of why the book was banned and found that there is an image with one man touching another man’s shoulder

The most prevalent reason was “anti-trans or homophobia.”

So it turns out that this project ties in with our other project this year - Welcoming Congregation renewal. This is a dangerous time for trans people particularly. This article in The Guardian reports how many candidates are scapegoating trans people as a safe way to get cheers and garner support.

At GA, every year an outstanding essay is chosen ever since the first spoken by the Rev. William Ellery Channing in 1820 – with the exception of one year during World War II. This year’s essay, by the Reverend Cecilia Kingman, concerns fascism, and it is sure to both scare you and energize you. We hope you will participate in our Welcoming Congregation renewal process by reading it.

We are looking forward to a vibrant, much used library.

Why buy if you can borrow?

Attack on Community UU Church in Plano, TX

Early on the morning of Sunday, July 23, 2023 Community Unitarian Universalist Church in Plano, Texas was the target of a firebomb attack. Luckily, no one was injured and damage to the building was contained to the front entrance area. We offer our praise to the local first responders, including police and fire personnel, for their work and to the CUUC staff and leadership for their quick response. A worship service was able to be held in the building on Sunday morning.

The incident has been difficult for the congregation and staff as it is being investigated as a potential hate crime. Being a liberal congregation in an atmosphere of mistrust and hate is difficult during these times. Things are also complicated since the congregation is in the midst of a ministerial transition and their new minister does not officially start until August 1. The North Texas Unitarian Universalist Congregations, the local cluster, is working with CUUC and has encouraged them to contact UU Trauma Ministries for additional support.

Let’s fill their walls with loving cards and other messages to show them they are not in this alone. The congregation will also be collecting donations to help offset the cost of repairs. The mailing address for the congregation is:

Community Unitarian Universalist Church

2875 East Parker Road

Plano, TX 75074