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FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH
WEEKLY CONNECTIONS NEWSLETTER
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"A River Runs Through Us"
Rev. Joel Miller, Preaching
Saturday, May 13, 2017
4:30pm Music by Orange Sky
Sunday, May 14, 2017
9:30am Music by Zachary Zwahlen
11:15am
Music by Zachary Zwahlen and
the First Unitarian Choir
This week, our Plate collection will help support
Next Weekend
:
"A Body at Rest..."
Rev. Tina Simson, Preaching
Rev. Joel Miller, Co-Leading
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Special Announcement
There will be
NO SATURDAY SERVICE on May 20. Sunday services on May 21 are scheduled for the usual time, 9:30am and 11:15am.
Sunday, May 28 will begin our summer schedule with one service at 10:00am.
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Let Us Keep You In Our Thoughts and Prayers
Please hold
Rich and Gail Wilder in your hearts and prayers; Lilibeth Gucker, their loving daughter-in-law, passed away Saturday, April 29. A memorial service will be held at our church on
Saturday, May 20 at 10:00am.
We also hold John Rasor and his family in our hearts; his dear wife Esel died on Thursday, April 27 after a long illness. A memorial is planned for Friday, June 2 at 2:00pm at our church.
Our hearts are with long time member
Richard Anderson
for the loss of his wife, Maria Anderson, in December. Rev. Joel will officiate a brief service and internment of ashes of Maria on
Saturday, June 10 at 1:00pm
in the Memorial Gardens of our church.
"To live in hearts that love is not to die."
If you have a joy or concern to share, please contact Rev. Tina Simson at 585-271-9070 x104 or
tsimson@rochesterunitarian.org
for inclusion in our newsletter.
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Our new Events Calendar is now live!
Click here to view it.
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Together We Thrive!
Exciting news! Great progress is being made in our Annual Budget Drive. With $538,160 pledged, plus the match of $69,015 for pledge increases, we are over halfway toward our goal of $834,000. All are to be congratulated. However, our efforts must continue for the remaining two weeks of the drive. There are still over 300 congregants who have not pledged. We need your pledges by Sunday, May 21 so that the 2017-2018 budget can be developed. There are three ways to pledge: complete the pledge card you may have received from a steward; pledge online at www.rochesterunitarian.org/giving; or stop by a pledging table after any church service through Sunday, May 21. All of us are in this together, to make our church the spiritual home that we need and aspire it to be. Questions? Your Thrive Team of Paul Suwijn, John Solberg, Sue Ames, Cynthia Looney, Louise Paulsen and John Farrell are happy to have a conversation.
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Minister's Column by Rev. Joel Miller
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I'm grateful for the many pledges coming in with increases in the Annual Budget Drive. Our church has such powerful ministries in social justice, in worship and music, in religious education for children, youth, and adults, in the arts, and in creating connections in the larger world that surrounds us. I am very encouraged by your support and how it empowers these ministries.
I've been drafting budgets for our church's next fiscal year that begins this July 1 as I prepare to submit a budget to the congregation for its approval at the Annual Meeting of the Congregation on June 4 (after the Music Sunday service). Anne Perry, our church's Treasurer, and I are hosting two Budget Roundtables, the first on Thursday, May 18, at 7:00pm and the second on Friday, May 19, at 10:00am. Please RSVP for the Friday Budget Roundtable (breakfast will be available) by emailing us at laurie@rochesterunitarian.org. We're offering an opportunity for members to make more in-depth inquiries into the congregation's operations and resources.
I'm looking forward to this upcoming second year of interim ministry with you.
Rev. Joel
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Happening in the Week Ahead
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Literature And Visual Arts (LAVA) Book Group
All are welcome to a discussion of
Dead Wake
by Erik Larson this
Friday, May 12 at 7:00pm. The Lusitania, an ocean liner sailing from New York to Britain during World War I, was sunk by a German submarine with a loss of nearly 1200 lives. This suspenseful, non-fiction story asks why the British Admiralty did not take obvious steps to protect her. For more information, click here.
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Plant Sale this Mother's Day Weekend
Last call for those extra plants from your garden, and a chance to buy something new for Mother's Day, Saturday, May 13, 4:00-6:00pm, and Sunday, May 14, 9:30am-1:00pm. Please label your plants if you know what they are. For plant pickup information, contact Nancy Koch at nkoch@rochester.rr.com or 585-662-5537,
or Alison Wilder at 585-342-2459 or awilder@frontiernet.net
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Bookstore Open This Sunday and Next
Our Bookstore will be open this
Sunday, May 14 and the following
Sunday, May 21.
These are the last two days the bookstore will be open this church year, so stock up on some really good books for your summer reading. You will find titles in a variety of genres, even children's books.
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Honduras Task Force
Barbara Gawinski, Chairperson of the Honduras Task Force, will be traveling to Honduras with the Eric Carle teach-the-teacher curriculum created by the Honduras Task Force members. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers May 12-25 as she travels to Honduras, which holds one of the highest homicide rates in the world. When she returns, Barbara will present a summary of this work to the congregation at a potluck supper on Wednesday, May 31 at 6:00pm. Please come and learn.
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Roof Communication Team Report
Since the Roof Communication Team's last report, a number of major milestones have been achieved. To read more, click here. |
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Important News from the Nominating Committee
Candidate photos and Expression of Interest forms are now posted in the Lobby to fill the openings of Board of Trustees President and Clerk, two openings on the Nominating Committee, and four openings on our Board of Trustees. Please take the time to review the candidates, and don't hesitate to seek them out to talk with them. To read more,
click here.
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Waking Up White
Our Black Lives Matter/Youth Lives Matter Task Force will hold a second Waking Up White workshop, based on the book
Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race by Debby Irving. The workshop will be held on
Tuesday, May 16 at 7:00pm in Gilbert Hall. The discussion questions and material covered will be different from the first workshop. The focus will be on sharing your experiences of whiteness, your awareness of implicit bias and systemic racism, as well as possible future involvement in working towards a more beloved and equitable American community. This book is available in the bookstore and on Amazon, but all are welcome whether you've had a chance to read it or not. For more information, contact Len Stein at
drlstein@rochester.rr.com.
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FirstLight Players Upcoming Auditions
Open auditions for
An Equal Right to Act: Remembering the Rochester Woman's Rights Convention of 1848 by Ira Srole. Auditions will be held
Wednesday, May 24 and Thursday, May 25, 7:00-9:00pm. The play is a dramatization of the historic convention in Rochester, thought to be the first in history to have a woman as presiding officer. The leading personages include Frederick Douglass, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and Amy Post, with smaller roles for lesser-known participants, both female and male, plus a male and a female narrator. The age range is from young adult to middle age, although others may be able to participate in a non-speaking capacity. The performance will be at our church
Sunday, July 23, during the 10:00am service and is part of Rochester's celebration of the centennial of women's suffrage in New York State.
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Thank You for These and Other Donations!
A special thank you to our congregants for remembering the students at both Schools #22 and #15 with thoughtful donations in the Workroom. Recently, our treasures included Girl Scout cookies, books, and clothing, both new and gently used. We are extremely grateful for this support of our UU/Schools Partnership.
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Food Donations Requested
Food donations to the Brighton Food Cupboard have been quite minimal lately compared to the size of our congregation. Folks are still hungry, so please bring something from your cupboard to theirs. Our contact person is Alison Wilder, awilder@frontiernet.net, 585-342-2459.
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Environmental Climate Task Force Green Tip of the Week
Look at all the new leaves on the trees, beautiful flowers blooming everywhere, and grass growing tall. Lush and wonderful vegetation for us to enjoy, but also for ticks to hide in. There have been reports that this may well be a very tick-filled year, and with Lyme disease and other viruses carried by ticks, we all need to be careful and vigilant. Ticks can be quite small, so look carefully when checking for them. There are many theories on how to remove them, but an important thing to remember is that a tick carrying a virus will transmit a virus when it regurgitates (yeah, pretty gross) or releases saliva. The best method is simply to pull the tick out with tweezers as close to the skin as possible, without twisting, then disinfect the area. Avoid crushing the body of the tick or removing the head. Many older methods of removal didn't consider the concept of transmitting a virus. Infection is unlikely if removed within 24 hours. Recycle, Reuse, Repurpose, keep hiking and gardening, and stay tick smart!
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Church Office:
585-271-9070 (Monday-Friday, 10:00am-2:00pm)
Next deadline is Tuesday, May 16 at 10:00am.
For Emergency Pastoral Care:
585-330-9177
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Copyright © 2017. All Rights Reserved.
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