June 2018 Volume 35 Issue 6
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Worship in June: Community
Service at 10:30 am Sundays in Miller Sanctuary
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Community Sharing in June: SalusCare
SalusCare, Inc. is a Fort Myers, Florida based not-for-profit mental health and substance abuse service provider incorporated in 2013 after the merger of Lee Mental Health Center and Southwest Florida Addiction Services (SWFAS). SalusCare, Inc. is the largest comprehensive provider in Southwest Florida for individuals with mental health and/or substance use issues. For more information about their services, visit
www.saluscareflorida.org
.
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Humanist Forum
The Humanist Forum meets every Sunday at 9:15 am in Hobart Hall. All are welcome to attend.
This Sunday the Humanist Forum will feature a video taped discussion between two of the brightest minds around, Yuval Harari and Dan Ariely, talking about the future from the perspective of the present.
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Coffee Hour
Sunday's Coffee Hour happens after church every week and is provided by volunteers from the Women's Circle on the first Sunday, CUUPS on the second Sunday, Humanist Forum on the third Sunday, Men's Group on the fourth Sunday and if there is a fifth Sunday, it is All Church. Any donations of food, snacks or cash are welcome.
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BURN Youth Group
We meet on Sundays at Noon, usually in Room 4! All youth ages 14-18 are welcome! Our youth would like to thank everyone who purchased a ticket for the car wash fundraiser they had for the past few weeks! They would love to offer this to the congregation as an annual fundraiser for BURN!
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Alas! The moment has finally arrived! Finally, now that I'm back from maternity leave, it's time to start pulpit swaps once again! Pulpit swapping is a time-honored tradition that enlivens our relationships with sibling Unitarian Universalist congregations. And what an auspicious beginning, to swap pulpits with our sister congregation at All Faiths Unitarian Congregation. This Sunday, we welcome to the UUCFM Pulpit the Reverend CJ McGregor, and the All Faiths Congregation will host me. Rev. CJ describes himself as "a theist with strong humanist leanings. That is, he feels held by something greater and believes we can save ourselves if we are committed to love and justice. He holds the freedom of belief dear and teaches that we all have a place at the table and encourages Unitarian Universalists to incarnate the talk by welcoming everyone regardless of beliefs."
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Additionally, we have a special musical guest, Mr. Reggie Harris. A songwriter of great depth and passion, Reggie Harris "writes from a personal sense of mission that merges a world wise point of view with a singularly hopeful stance that life, though often challenging, is filled with possibility and hope. His songs reveal thoughts about life and love and some of the deep aspects of the human experience and cover topics from his own personal journey to world issues and history."
Enjoy the gift of this Sunday, and may you live lovingly in the coming week.
Rev. Allison Farnum
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Music Notes
It is good to be back with the UUCFM congregation working with the Music Team and playing for Sunday services! We will be off for the first two weeks of June and will pick back up with Wednesday and Sunday rehearsals starting on Sunday, June 17th. Feel free to join us if you have a love of music and service!
The UUCFM Choir
rehearses most Wednesday nights from 6:45-8:15 pm, and on Sunday mornings from 9-10 am in the sanctuary. It's free and there are no auditions. Come join us in singing!
The UUCFM Band
rehearses most Wednesday nights from 6:00-6:45 pm, and on Sunday mornings from 9-10 am in the Sanctuary. If you would like to play your instrument during a Sunday service, please email me to coordinate the details. Come join us in making music together!
Suellen Kipp, Acting Director of Music
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Soul Collage
Registration is now open for two all-ages family-oriented MeCards4Kids
TM
sessions in June!
MeCards4Kids was developed out of SoulCollage®, a collage and journaling process for adults, adapted for the interests and needs of children and their families. During this workshop you and your family will be invited to collage cards that represent your inner lives and creative potential. Through the process of making MeCards, the children visualize, name and work with their feelings and with different aspects of themselves. The workshop will end with the young people creating their own poem describing their card, through a simple fill in the blanks template. Adults will also be given hand-outs that can help them develop their own SoulCollage® practice at home.
MATERIAL DONATIONS NEEDED!
If you have any magazines, pictures, or books which you would be willing to donate for use in the SoulCollage (TM) sessions, please drop them off in the designated box in Hobart Hall (you can't miss it - it's furry!)
Thank you!
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Book Group
A new round of book study begins meeting Wednesdays from 1:00 to 2:30 pm weekly.
This time, we read the newly-released nonfiction work by the late, great Zora Neale Hurston,
Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo."
It is based on her interviews in 1931 with Cudjo Lewis, the last living survivor of the Middle Passage.
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Mindfulness Meditation
Join us on Monday evenings to explore the very simple and satisfying practices of mindfulness and meditation. You don’t need experience with meditation, nor do you have to be a Buddhist. Do please bring an intention to quiet the mind and the body in a supportive group of UU members and friends with a similar intention - people who want to carry mindfulness into their daily lives.
We meet Mondays from 6:30-8:00p in the Sanctuary. If you have any questions, please contact Gary Robbins at
[email protected]
.
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Optimal Living Group
The Optimal Living Group is open to all and does not require attending every session. We meet in the Sanctuary on the first and third Wednesdays of each month from 4:00-5:30 pm. We discuss how to live optimally, including practical ways to cope with life's challenges and issues. Helping others and developing maturity in ourselves is part of our quest. We explore many paths and techniques for enriching our lives and making a difference for others. For more information, fill out a blue card found in the pews or email Neil Yesu:
[email protected]
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UUCFM Gaming Group
The UUCFM Gaming Group is the club for you. We do our best to meet in Room 7 on Sundays after church from 1:00-4:00 pm. Those of us with children can't always make it so please check the Facebook group page (
UUCFM Gaming Group
) to see if games are scheduled.
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Rissho Kosei-kai Buddhist Group
The Rissho Kosei-kai Buddhist group meets Sundays at 1:45p in Room 1. All are welcome to join us.
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Community Wednesday
Community Wednesday Activities for June:
4:00-5:30
Optimal Living Group (1st & 3rd Wed)
6:00-6:45
Band Rehearsal in Sanctuary (off 1st two weeks in June)
6:45-8:00
Choir Rehearsal in Sanctuary (off 1st two weeks in June)
Community Dinners are on hiatus until September. Enjoy your summer! Rehearsals and Events will continue through summer.
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The Social Justice & Outreach Ministry is being formed and will need your support. Our first meeting will be Sunday, June 3!
Our regular meetings will be on the 1st Sunday of each month 12:15 to 1:45 p.m.
Join us on June 3 if you are called to be a part of Outreach and Social Justice.
This ministry is responsible for all the ways that UUCFM reaches out into the world and includes:
Community Partners
Lee Interfaith For Empowerment (LIFE) Groups & Nehemiah Action
GRACE Project
Quality Life Center Christmas Gift Offering
Pachamama Alliance of Southwest Florida
South Fort Myers Food Pantry
Martin Luther King Jr. March Organizing
Welcoming Congregation
SWFL Pride Organizing
UUA Collaboration
Connections with local churches and justice groups
Staff Advisor: Rev. Allison Farnum
Board Liaison: Cathy Snow, VP Programming
Leaders at present are Holley Rauen and Gary Robbins. Holley and Cathy will facilitate this upcoming meeting. The Family Ministry meets the same day. Please direct any questions to Cathy Snow. The meeting will be in Classroom Room 1.
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Pachamama Alliance of Southwest Florida
The Pachamama Alliance of Southwest Florida continues to work to nurture a community of conscious pro-activists and Game Changers working for a socially just, environmentally sustainable and spiritually fulfilling world. Our Diving into Drawdown Series was very successful and participants have committed to one of the 100 Drawdown Solutions to global warming we have explored, and are collaborating with individuals and organizations in SWFL that are working on Solutions in SWFL. We will continue to meet on the first Thursday of each month in Hobart Hall to keep the momentum going. We will be offering two Awakening the Dreamer Symposiums in the fall. One at Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Greater Naples and at Florida Gulf Coast University in October.
Our next
Game Changer Gathering is Thursday June 7th at 6:30pm.
Holley Rauen will be discussing the
Qualities of an Enlightened Game Changer
, will give a
report back from the Save Our Water Summit
the News Press sponsored in May. She will also give a reflection of her recent travels in the Netherlands and Germany.
We are also delighted to host
John Cassani, Director of Calusa Waterkeeper on Thursday, July 5th.
Please mark your calendars now. This will be a great discussion about how we can help keep our waterways and drinking water protected.
Many thanks and appreciation,
Holley Rauen
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South Fort Myers Food Pantry
The response for food donations has been consistently good over the last year. The need is still there and UUCFM has been a strong supporter of the pantry. I have not been able to post the pantry newsletter but there is one at the Social Justice table listing the number of people fed by the pantry for the last year. Easter is early this year which means many people will be heading north earlier too. Consequently, many people will lose seasonal jobs and the need for food donations and volunteers will be just as great as it is now. Keep that in mind. Remember to bring at least one can each week and consider volunteering during the summer months.
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Our UU Story
Unitarian Universalist Origins vs. Nicene Creed
During the first three centuries of the Christian church, believers could choose from a variety of tenets about Jesus. Among these was a belief that Jesus was an entity sent by God on a divine mission. Thus the word “Unitarian” developed, meaning the oneness of God. Another religious choice in the first three centuries of the Common Era (CE) was universal salvation. This was the belief that no person would be condemned by God to eternal damnation in a fiery pit.
Christianity lost its element of choice in 325 CE when the Nicene Creed established the Trinity as dogma. For centuries thereafter, people who professed Unitarian or Universalist beliefs were persecuted.
This was true until the 16th century when the Protestant Reformation took hold in the remote mountains of Transylvania in eastern Europe. Here the first edict of religious toleration in history was declared in 1568 during the reign of the first and only Unitarian king, John Sigismund. Sigismund’s court preacher, Frances David, had successively converted from Catholicism to Lutheranism to Calvinism and finally to Unitarianism because he could find no biblical basis for the doctrine of the Trinity. Arguing that people should be allowed to choose among these faiths, he said, “We need not think alike to love alike.”
In 16th-century Transylvania, Unitarian congregations were established for the first time in history. These churches continue to preach the Unitarian message in present-day Romania. Like their heretic forebears from ancient times. these liberals could not see how the deification of a human being or the simple recitation of creeds could help them to live better lives. They said that we must follow Jesus, not worship him.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, Unitarianism appeared briefly in scattered locations. A Unitarian community in Rakow, Poland, flourished for a time, and a book called On the Errors of the Trinity by a Spaniard, Michael Servetus, was circulated throughout Europe. But persecution frequently followed these believers. The Polish Unitarians were completely suppressed, and Michael Servetus was burned at the stake.
Even where the harassment was not so extreme, people still opposed the idea of choice in matters of religious faith. In 1791, scientist and Unitarian minister Joseph Priestley had his laboratory burned and was hounded out of England. He fled to America where he established American Unitarian churches in the Philadelphia area.
by Mark W. Harris
Edited by Joy F. Sokeitous
About My UU Story:
Each month, the Membership Committee would like to publish your UU story- either converted or born UUs. How did you become a UU, or how did our religion affect your life? Alternatively, do you have a one paragraph remembrance of your first reaction to being in a UU church and/or learning about the religion? To share your story, please contact Joy Sokeitous at
[email protected] .
Joy will help you edit and will provide questions to help you develop your story.
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Unitarian Universalist Church of Fort Myers.
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Do you have something to offer, trade, or sell? Are you looking for something? Free ad space here for personal items only. Will run ad for 4 weeks. Email
[email protected]
Ted Brown
has recently published a novel,
The Beauty of their Dreams
. It’s an historical tale, set in the first half of the 20th century. In 1916 newlyweds Ken and Louise Adams arrive in Illinois from New England, to settle in the nation’s agricultural heartland just as one of the most convulsive periods in the nation’s history gets underway....Available on Amazon and other online booksellers, print or e-book.
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If you are a UUCFM Community Sharing Partner, a regular Facility User, or have UU related news to share, you are welcome to submit announcements for publication in our Greater Community section of the newsletter. Please send announcements in by Wednesday for publication in the Thursday E-news.
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Note:
The following camp is for Home School Rocks, a renter of UUCFM. This camp is not run by or sponsored by UUCFM.
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SWFL Gay & Lesbian Chorus
In honor of your continued support we, the SWFL Gay and Lesbian Chorus, are offering a discounted rate of only $10.00 to join us at our 25th Anniversary celebration at the Edison Restaurant below on Sunday June 10th at 2:00 pm for a trip down memory lane and a light lunch and full concert. Please see Albie or Carole this Sunday the 20th for your tickets. Hope to see you all there.
Carole Latino, VP
Alberita (Albie) Johnson
Southwest Florida Gay and Lesbian Chorus, Inc.
SWFGLC Board of Directors, President
PO Box 62331, Fort Myers, FL 33906-2331
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From the Scouts
Hello my name is Zakarie Wisniewski and I am with Boy Scout Troop 3300. I have started fundraising for my Eagle Scout project to replace the seating in the amphitheater near the lake with composite board making them stronger and longer lasting. I plan to fundraise about $2,000 and want to meet this goal by the end of June. If you wish to donate please visit the table outside the sanctuary or contact me at
[email protected]
. Thank you for your help and consideration.
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From the Mountain
Greetings!
We are excited to annouce a special promotion for MountainCamp Adventure Programs! We are offering Explorers (Middle School) & Outdoor Skills and Adventure (High School) at 30% off the registration fee to attend, now $910 for 2 weeks of adventure. Your registered camper will also recieve the 10% multiple program discount.
Explorers July 8-21st
- Our Explorer campers get a unique camp experience in the outdoors. Campers are based in one of two adirondacks located at the base of the Mountain. During the first week at camp, they learn techniques and skills to be used in back country camping. These skills range from fire building to orienteering to cooking on a camp stove. The Explorers also go on practice hikes, rock climb on Monkey Face and build their team skills on our challenge courses. The second week of the Explorers program is spent camping in the back country. During this time, campers are engaged in fun workshops (have you ever tie dyed a shirt in the woods?), an over night hike to an amazing view on Rabun Bald, and then rafting down the thrilling Nantahala River.
Outdoor Skills and Adventure June 24- July 7
- Our OS&A campers get a unique camp experience in the outdoors. Campers are based in one of two adirondacks located at the base of the Mountain. During the first week at camp, they learn techniques and skills to be used in backpacking. These skills range from fire building to orienteering to much more. They also go on practice hikes, rock climb on Monkey Face and build their team skills on our challenge course. The second week of the program is hiking the famous Bartram trail south for 35 miles where they will finish their adventure rafting down the wild and scenic Chattooga. This is a great experience for new or seasoned backpackers.
Register between now and June 10th to receive this special price and an experience of a life time for your child!
[email protected]
Best,
MountainCamp Staff
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June 3 Hugh Cochran
June 7 Steve Jorgensen
June 8 Joe Sexton
June 11 John Fischer
June 11 John Worster
June 12 Linda Jensen
June 16 Rose Klein
June 16 Betty Tobin
June 17 Phyllis Brewer
June 19 Suzanne Ziemer
June 21 Chet Beemer
June 23 Karen Brown
June 23 Roman Carr is 4!
June 24 Helen Krieger
June 25 Rosalie Kuehn
June 28 Charlotte Crossen is 4!
June 28 Kim Kain
June 28 Chris Rosa
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Newsletter Editor: Jill Carville
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Board of Trustees
President
President Elect
Secretary
Treasurer
VP Finance
VP Programming
VP Ministerial Services
VP Operations
Member at Large
Staff
Minister
Acting Director of Music
Director of RE
Office Manager
Building Supervisor
Nursery Supervisor
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