Click here to donate your awesome item! 

ALL RIGHTY! We're on the homestretch to enter your fabulous offerings onto our Auction site for everyone to peruse and plan!
This event needs 50-60 more creations, hosted gatherings, lessons, and opportunities for fun and frolic so we can reach our stated goal of $15,000!!

And we need YOU to fill out a donation sheet, or enter yourself on the TogetherAuction FunRaiser site, by April 27th in order to facilitate printing an auction catalog. YIKES!

PLEASE support this unique opportunity to invest in the work of community building, and the ongoing health of your spiritual home.

Childcare will be available. Please contact
childcare@uusociety.org to reserve space

 

Sharing Your Technological Gifts

Are you a member who would love to share your gifts with the Society? Do you want to help but know that Committee work is not for you? Are your gifts in the area of technology? If you answered yes to any of these questions . . .but especially the last one, then you're the person I've been looking for!

We are looking for a few volunteers who would be willing to assist with microphones and projection during Sunday services. Right now Woody covers almost every Sunday, which is just too much to ask of any volunteer. We could use about 4 people who would learn the routine and would be willing to volunteer one Sunday morning a month. As they say, many hands make light work!

I am also looking for someone who would be willing to volunteer on Sunday, June 25th from 9:15 - 11:45 a.m. As you may know, our own Rev. Mara has been invited to preach the sermon for the Sunday Worship Service at GA. This is a huge honor and we have nearly 30 people from our congregation attending GA to cheer her on. But what we'd love to do is to project the live stream of the worship in the Sanctuary that morning so everyone here could also cheer her on. If you're familiar with how to make this happen and are willing to take it on, we need you!

If you are interested in finding out more, contact Christina at xina@uusociety.org.

 

The Bonilla family is still in need of meal assistance.  There are many open days in April and May and your generosity is greatly appreciated.  

https://www.mealtrain.com/trains/wo7e9q

 

Hope Works, (formerly Women's Rape Crisis Center)  an organization serving Chittenden County since 1973, whose mission is to end sexual violence through healing, outreach, prevention and empowerment, will be installing two displays on our lawns this week to spotlight Sexual Violence Awareness Month. The first exhibit, to be installed on April 22nd on our front lawn or fence, will consist of many small red flags, each representing a victim of sexual violence. On Tuesday, April 25th, volunteers will be hanging a one day "Clothesline Project" consisting of T-Shirts made by survivors and friends of those affected by sexual violence. This one day exhibit will also be installed on our front lawn. If your time allows, please do stop by on Tuesday afternoon to view what promises to be a emotionally powerful and meaningful exhibit. The FUUSB is pleased to host these displays, as it furthers our resolve to build ongoing and meaningful relationship within our wonderful community.

 

Bill McKibben was our guest at April 9th's service. Watch his sermon  "From the Whirlwind, How Big Should Humans Be" here!

You can also listen to his sermon on our Soundcloud page here.

Since retiring from full time ministry, our Minister Emeritus Gary Kowalski has been working as a volunteer firefighter in his new home of Santa Fe, New Mexico.  He has written a small book about his experiences as a first responder, "Old Men and Fire: Parables From A Volunteer Firehouse". He calls it "a collection of life lessons learned from the end of a high pressure nozzle."  Why do some people risk their lives for others?  How can the biggest disasters make for the best stories?  Neither aging nor firefighting, you will learn, are for sissies.  The book is available in both Kindle and paperback from Amazon and all proceeds will benefit Hondo Volunteer Fire & Rescue.  Good luck to Gary in his new vocation and stay safe on the fire ground!

 

Join us on Wednesday, April 26th, for our weekly Love and Justice vigil from 5:15pm to 5:45pm in front of the FUUSB. This week's theme will be immigrant justice and welcoming refugees. We have time for a reading, singing,and standing in silent vigil.

 

Migrant Justice is sponsoring a rally for better treatment of immigrants.

 

Did you know that our congregation has a rich tradition in Buddhism? Did you know that the Unitarian Universalist Buddhist Fellowship (UUBF) ( uubf.org/wp) has an active group that meets here every week?

If you are interested in Buddhist Meditation Practice of any tradition, please come to a formative meeting of a UU Buddhist Group. We are looking to expand and strengthen our UU Buddhist Sangha to include all traditions.

We'll meet at 10:15 on Sunday April 30th, in the Reeb room. If you have questions, call Dick Swanson at 355-5508, or Tom Hyde at 999-2329.

 

Join us after the service in the community room for these must-see, social-justice oriented films, a simple vegan lunch, and conversation! Free, bring the whole family (see age guidelines and check Commonsense media), invite friends!

Sunday, May 21 @ 12:30: "Where to Invade Next"  To discover what we can learn from other countries, Michael Moore playfully "invades" them to see what they have to offer re: prison reform, school lunch, work policies, gender discrimination, and more. Hilarious and moving, the BBC called it a "guerilla act of humanity." (Age 15 and up, younger for politically aware teens)

Sunday, June 11 @ 11:30: "What The Health" is a surprising, and at times hilarious, investigative documentary that will be an eye-opener for everyone concerned about our nation's health and how big business influences it. (All ages.)

Contact Suzie McCoy ( suziemccoy1@gmail.com) or Valerie Wood-Lewis ( Valerie@burlingtontelecom.net) for more info!

 

Ohavi Zedek is sponsoring an Interfaith Seder to celebrate freedom and deliverance from oppression (in honor of Jewish Passover) 

 

$5 donation at the door.

 

The FUUSB book group will be discussing Mary Coin at our next meeting on May 9th from 12:00-1:30 in the SBA room. In the novel, bestselling author Marisa Silver takes Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother photograph as inspiration for a story of two women-one famous and one forgotten-and their remarkable chance encounter. All are welcome to join us for discussion of the book.

 

Stemming from an important conversation about institutional racism in our UU faith and larger world, following recent concern around our Association's hiring practices, the Black Lives of UU (BLUU) organizing collective has issued a call for congregations to to participate in an upcoming teach-in on racism and white supremacy in the next few weeks. As some of you know, the BLUU includes many UU religious professionals and lay people of color. In keeping with our own mission of spiritual growth and acting for justice, and building on our ongoing racial justice ministry, we at FUUSB are joining this call, for which over 300 other UU congregations have already signed up.

Rev. Mara, Andre, Martha, and leaders from our Racial Justice Task Force are working to plan our Society's participation in that teach-in on Sunday, April 30, which will include both our Sunday service and an after-worship event. Rev. Mara was already scheduled to be out of that pulpit that Sunday in order to attend the People's Climate March in Washington, DC., but will be helping to plan the service and contributing to its content.

We recognize that people of color in our community may have particular needs in processing these recent events, as well as for the upcoming teach-in. We welcome people of color in our Society to share your ideas about how our community can best support you as we collectively work to address this critical issue. You can share your ideas directly with Andre ( andre@uusociety.org) or Zoe, co-chair of our Racial Justice Task Force, ( zoe@hartwood4.net) or meet with us on Sunday 4/23 after the 11:00 service. (Exact time and room will be posted and announced that morning.) We also welcome any questions or wonderings about the ongoing happenings in our larger UU world and our upcoming teach-in! Please be in touch with Zoe, Andre, or Rev. Mara to discuss or find out more.