Weekly E-News
April 23, 2020
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Inspired by love, we transform ourselves and serve others.
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This Sunday, April 26th
Our Sunday Service will be streamed via our website,
uucfm.org at 10:30 AM
and also available on video by
Zoom
gathering. There will be no physical service in our Sanctuary.
This worship service is made possible by:
Rev. Margaret L. Beard
,
Minister
Jenn Blosser,
Director of Religious Education
Suellen Kipp,
Director of Music
Albie Johnson,
Worship Associate
Peter Golbitz,
Musician
Lesley Peterson,
Musician &
Tech Team Member
Mark Brandon,
Tech Team Member
Allie Carville,
Tech Team Member
Walter Peterson,
Tech Team Member
And YOU!
This is the Zoom meeting link for Sunday's Service:
If you join before 10:30 a.m., you will be placed in an online "Waiting Room," and will manually be added when the worship team is ready to begin the service.
We Need Virtual Worship Ushers!
If you are familiar with Zoom, you're invited to serve as an usher for our virtual worship services. You will be provided with all the policy and training you need! Please reach out to
zoom@uucfm.org
to get involved. Thank you!
If you would like to make a pledge or donation to UUCFM at any time,
you may mail a check to UUCFM, 13411 Shire Lane, Fort Myers, FL 33912 or visit our PayPal at
Type in your donation and in the notes section, please add the word
pledge
or
donation
. If you would like your donation to go to
community sharing
, please note that. Thanks!
Our Community Sharing
partner this month is
The Early Learning Coalition of Southwest Florida.
The Early Learning Coalition serves the families of Collier, Glades Hendry, and Lee Counties. It is our goal to make certain that children ages birth to five and beyond, have access to high-quality early education experiences to cultivate their natural enthusiasm for
learning.
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Upcoming Events
School of Wizardry!
Enrollment for the 2020 term of the School of Wizardry is open. The term begins on Monday, June 29th, and ends Friday July 3rd. Due to the current uncertainty brought on by the Corona-virus pandemic, we are opening a light registration at this time. Space is limited to 44 participants for the term. We are monitoring the health situation closely and will not host programming at UUCFM if the CDC advises.
If we can't physically gather for camp, our team of dedicated volunteers are working to bring the School of Wizardry to their campers digitally! This virtual version of camp, scheduled for the same week, will be offered for a suggested donation of $50 per participant.
Should you have any questions or concerns, please contact:
Krista Hopper, Camp Director
Phone - (239) 464-1333
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Classes & Groups
The Book Club
April 29:
Ch. 3 & 4
May 6:
Ch. 5
May 13:
Ch. 6
May 20:
Ch. 7 and choosing our next book.
Those of us who have been meeting virtually have found Zoom to be useful, so we'll continue to use it. Please contact the book club for the Zoom code.
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UUCFM News
Online Photo Directory
During social distancing, it’s a great time for new members to get their photos into the UUCFM Online Photo Directory. That’s also true for other members whose photos aren’t yet in the Photo Directory. To make this happen, please email a head and shoulders digital photo of either single or couple members along with your full name(s) to Denis Jensen at
If you have never accessed the UUCFM Photo Directory, the directions for UUCFM Members are as follows:
- Go to the UUCFM website
- You can log in to the website by clicking on the light green login or register at upper right. If you’ve never logged in before, you need to email Lesley Peterson at president@uucfm.org so she can allow you access. You will use your email as your user name and you must choose a password. Once your access is granted, you can log in.
- Once you’re logged in, click on Photo Directory from the Member Services block at left and you are in. You can also do a Membership Search or perform other activities once you have access.
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Transition Team
The Transition Team is still together and meeting on Zoom during these difficult times. We hope you stay safe and well and shelter in place as best you can. Please email or call us if you have any questions or just want to chat about our future. Keeping the faith in these difficult times,
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From Our Caring Network
If you or another member of the Congregation needs some extra attention during this time, your Pastoral Care Committee is here to help as much as we can.
Our Committee members include Mary Faegre, Harvey Heckes, Joan Hickok, Marge Kolde, Mary Tracy-Sigman, Patricia Vivier-Naidl, Holley Rauen and Suzanne Ziemer. Leslie Gatto has also offered her help at this time. If any members of the Congregation are available to help during this crisis with picking up and delivering items, please contact Mary Golbitz.
As a way to keep our Community together we are offering Community Conference calls Wednesdays at 4:00 PM. These will be informal calls to check in, share and be able to offer support to one another. We may change to a Zoom format so we can see one another if all are comfortable with this.
Please call to informally connect with other members of the Congregation. The dial in number is
712-770-4898. Access Code is 634697#.
We can connect with you individually by phone if you are feeling isolated and offer other assistance such as getting groceries or other essentials for those who are unable to leave their homes while keeping us all safe and protected. Please contact Mary Golbitz for information or assistance:
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Passing of Steve Jorgensen
Member Steve Jorgensen passed away peacefully Friday, April 3rd after a decade-long decline due to Alzheimer’s. He was 80 years old. He will be greatly missed. Please email
uuchurch@uucfm.org
for his partner, Dan LaLiberte's address.
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Member to Member
From Frances Pake:
I am inviting folks to join a limited number of people for a group sharing life stories. I have a few I am writing for my memorial service, whenever that might be. In the meantime I would like to get to know people while we are social distancing so we will know a few folks better when we meet next face to face. Stories will be shared with no more than 8 church members. If interested let me know and I will pass along the email addresses of those who wish to share.
fpake@juno.com
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Social Justice
South Fort Myers Food Pantry
Yesterday I received an update from the pantry expressing the frustration they feel as they are challenged to obtain enough food for their clients. First they had to make massive adjustments to keep clients and volunteers safe. They never shut down and have been operating for the last five weeks as a drive through pantry, passing out bags of prepackaged food reminiscent of the early days before the pantry became a walk through “choice pantry”. They have worked out all the problems that this system presented and this week they will begin to register new clients. The volunteers there have been working very hard to make this happen.
You can probably imagine what has happened to their food source. They are still getting food from Harry Chapin Food Bank but of course every food pantry and mobile pantry that they send out are swamped with more and more clients every week. The churches are closed so they are not getting weekly food from the coalition churches. The markets and retail stores that were always a backup when the supply was getting low are now having problems keeping their own shelves stocked and are limiting regular shoppers to certain amounts per family. So what’s the solution?
Many of us may be feeling frustrated during Shelter in Place, wishing there were something we could do. It would be wonderful if you could fill a bag with food and bring it to the Food Pantry behind the Cypress Lake Presbyterian Church at 8260 Cypress Lake Drive in Fort Myers on any Monday between 9 & 10 AM or 3 to 3:30 PM. Remember your mask! Better still you could call friends or neighbors, tell them you are making a run to the South Fort Myers Food Pantry because they will be serving a big influx of people in the next few weeks, and would they like to donate some non perishable items? It sounds as though they could use almost anything but the items they mentioned were rice, cereal, pasta & pasta sauce, peanut butter, soup, canned vegetables and fruit.
If you do decide to do this, please, say that you are from UUCFM or just the Unitarian, Universalist Church. I think they’ll know which one. If physically you cannot do this maybe you have a friend that would be willing. Just a thought. There’s such a big need.
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Our Greater Community
Please submit articles regarding programs from our facility users, community sharing partners, and greater UU news only. Thank you!
Your Gifts Needed for
UUA COVID-19 Pandemic Response
Your financial gifts to the COVID-19 Response fund of the Unitarian Universalist Assn. (UUA) will be used to provide financial assistance to Unitarian Universalist (UU) congregations and related UU entities, as well as UU religious professionals and administrative staff impacted by this crisis. Please donate at this online site:
https://giving.uua.org/covid-19
In this time of national crisis, the UUA is working alongside our congregations, and supporting our UU religious professionals and administrative staff, who are tirelessly leading our communities through the COVID-19 pandemic. The impact is widespread, but some will be hit harder than others.
Grants will be awarded via the Disaster Relief Fund to congregations and UU entities partnering with local organizations to provide assistance in their community to people who are at significant risk to health and livelihood because of COVID-19. Grants to meet the extraordinary financial needs of ministers, religious professionals, and congregational staff impacted by COVID-19 will be disbursed through the Living Tradition Fund.
The Disaster Relief Fund assists UU congregations and their communities in recovering from crises ranging from natural disasters like wildfires and hurricanes, to human-caused disasters like the collapsing infrastructure resulting in unsafe drinking water seen in Flint, MI. Our congregations, our people, and our communities will all bear the impact of this latest disaster, the COVID-19 heath emergency
.
The Living Tradition Fund helps our professionals who have devoted themselves to helping others. The fund helps meet the extraordinary financial needs experienced by ministers (active and retired), other religious professionals, and congregational staff. These professionals may request relief with large outstanding medical bills, or assistance when facing a housing crisis. The Fund also supports surviving spouses and partners of deceased ministers faced with the dual challenges of loneliness and reduced income.
Joy F. Sokeitous
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Happy Birthday!
April 27 Jeff Letts
April 27 Nancy Letts
April 28 Mickey Kellam
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Please send all newsletter articles by
Wednesday at noon
for publication in Thursday's newsletter. Send articles to
newsletter@uucfm.org
.
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