Thank you to the 100+ congregants who have attended our Capital Campaign Focus Groups so far! We're grateful for your participation, your questions, and the hopes and dreams that you've shared for First Universalist and our future.

We're halfway through the Focus Group process, and encourage everyone we haven't heard from yet, to attend one of these 45 minute long Focus Groups. At one of these groups, you'll learn about the challenges and opportunities we face, and possible ways that we could move forward in response to these challenges.

If you haven't attended a Focus Group yet, please join us. It's been 15 years since our last Capital Campaign, and your voice, perspective, and questions are wanted and needed as we shape our shared future!

I'll see you in church,

Justin

	Let your voice be heard! The upcoming Focus Groups are your opportunity to help shape the future of First Universalist.

P.S. Here's the list of upcoming Capital Campaign Focus Groups:

Saturday, Oct. 22, 9:30 a.m. Cummins Room

Sunday, Oct. 23, 8:30 a.m. Cummins Room

Sunday, Oct. 23, 12:30 p.m. Sanctuary

Wednesday, Oct. 26, 6 p.m. Sanctuary

Saturday, Oct. 29, 11 a.m. Cummins Room

Sunday, Oct. 30, 10:45 a.m. Arches Room

Sunday, Oct. 30, 12:30 p.m. Sanctuary

First Universalist Church has a long relationship with MNIPL; in fact, we are a founding member. To learn more about this important history, read what MNIPL has to say about us on their website.

 

The Environmental Justice Team is happy to share this day for a rededication of our "Peace Pole" at 10:50 a.m. We believe that climate change and world peace are inextricably linked and that justice in all forms - racial, economic, environmental - will be threatened by the destabilizing forces of climate change. We understand, as Black Lives Matters states, "No Justice, No Peace." To attain a peaceful world we must become protectors of our earth while we challenge the systemic forces that benefit from war and injustice. Please join us for this important rededication in the memory of Lynn Elling.

 

The ceramics exhibit showcases the talents of artist Pratibha Gupta. She has been a potter and painter for more than 25 years, and her artful vessels exhibit this interdisciplinary work. A native of Mumbai, India, she migrated to the U.S. in 1984 and has been a resident of Minneapolis since then. Her experience as a painter and former sculptor influences the shape and design of her pots. She treats clay as an opportunity to have a visual adventure and is always coming up with new forms and combinations. She likes her work to be beautiful as well as useful. Pratibha Gupta writes: "The usefulness of the bowl lies in its being empty, only then it can be filled with anything. To me this is akin to spirituality. Only when we are empty of ego can grace fill us."

 

Stitch by Stitch is a series in which artist Barbara Harman expresses her long fascination with the beauty of the natural world, embellishing works on fabric with hand embroidery and beadwork. Throughout her art practice, now approaching 45 years, and through long forays into many media including printmaking, artist books and painting, she has been inspired by the beauty that is all around us. She builds images using stencils, hand-carved stamps, numerous textural elements, brushes, and rollers. Each piece in this exhibit began with a painting on fabric. Some also include archival inkjet prints from her photographs onto additional fabric, usually silk. Barbara writes: "More than 15 years ago, I mentored several textile artists. These experiences helped to empower me to bring what had previously been only utilitarian textile skills into an expression of my art. It has been an inspiring journey, one that allows for slow work that is meditative as well as expressive. The decisions are incremental, sometimes minute, at the same time they are momentous. Color; thread choices; stitch length, direction, and type; appliqué; and, how each, separately and together, speaks to the underlying painting."