Weekly E-News October 15, 2020

Weekly E-News

October 15, 2020

This Week's Service

Sunday, October 18th, 10:30 AM

Discovering America Again!

With Special Guest, the Reverend Dr. Clyde Grubbs

Join Zoom Meeting Sunday at 10:30am

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89150482747

Meeting ID: 891 5048 2747

Password: chalice

Or, follow the link on our webpage for audio only: uucfm.org

Thank You to Sunday's Participants:

The Reverend Dr. Clyde Grubbs, Guest Minister

Suellen Kipp, Director of Music

Jennifer Grant, Worship Associate

Lesley Peterson, Musician

Peter Golbitz, Musician

Walter Peterson, Tech Lead

Lesley Peterson, Tech Team Member

Mark Brandon, Tech Team Member

Jill Carville, Tech Team Coordinator

UU Dialogues this Sunday

To participate in UU Dialogues, just stay in the main zoom meeting after the service ends and do not accept the breakout room invitation that pops up.

We will show a video for newcomers, obtain contact information from guests and visitors, have a general Q&A session with guest speakers and musicians from the service, and most importantly, participate in intentional dialogue. All are welcome to attend this session.

If you'd like to join a breakout room for casual conversation, please accept the pop up invitation after the service. Thank you!

October Community Sharing- Visuality, Inc.

The mission of Visuality is to enhance and sustain the health and well-being of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer plus communities and our allies by providing activities, programs, educational events, and services that create community, empower community members, provide essential resources, advocate for civil and human rights; and embrace, promote and support out cultural diversity. We strive to end violence, harassment, and discrimination based on real or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or sexual expression.

Welcome New Members!

We are so pleased that you've decided to join us here at UUCFM. If you haven't had your New Member Ceremony and would like to, the next ceremony is Sunday, November 15th via Zoom at the 10:30 am service. Don't forget to invite your relatives and friends to join in the celebration. Please contact Carole [email protected].

Zoom Tips

Hi Zoomers! If you like to move around a lot during the Zoom service, please consider turning off your video. This allows you to stay in the service and your live video will switch to a black screen with your name or profile picture, if you've chosen one. The movement of people getting up and down can distract other participants. You can turn your video off temporarily or for the whole service. Please consider this if you are eating on camera or changing clothes. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation!

Coming Up! October 25th Sunday Service

Reverend Amy Beltaine provides a UU ministry of spiritual mentoring through individual and group appointments, Sunday services, rites, and rituals. Helping friends and family of the oppressed to break open instead of being broken by the pain in the world. You crave a world of love and justice: Revive your spiritual verve! When (spouse) Hawthorne and Amy are not pulling their little home behind them they are at home in Portugal or in Portland, Oregon. A graduate of Meadville Lombard School for the Ministry, Amy is on the coordinating committee of the UU Spiritual Directors’ Network. Amy is an accredited Spiritual Director and supervisor, nearly life-long earth-honoring Process Pan-en-theist, and faculty member at Cherry Hill Seminary. Amy aspires to become a Love-Ninja. Connect with Amy at http://amybeltaine.info.

Reverend Amy is offering a “spiritual type assessment”. Go to her website at http://amybeltaine.info to take the quiz and to explore your spiritual direction

Sermon: Nothing Better to Do than Listen

Listening with attention and intention can be the best thing you'll ever do for others and yourself. Listening as a spiritual practice brings you closer to the sacred within and around you. In times of joy, but most importantly in times of trouble, companioning one another is life-giving. We need one another as we travel through the valley of the shadow, or grapple with change. When you listen you may hear other’s deepest and most important stories into voice, and you may connect your self, and your community, to your own hearts’ song.

UUCFM Members and Friends

We want YOU to submit your thoughts, memories, and words of wisdom from your time in the military serving your country. Or, you might speak about one of your favorite veterans in your family. You can shoot the video from your phone and submit to the church office at [email protected]. If you need help with tech, call the office at 561-2700. The fabulous UUCFM Tech Team will be creating a tribute to our veterans for a November service.

Please submit your Veteran Videos from now up and until October 15th. Please title your email video submission "Veteran Video" to help us keep track of all submissions.

Thank you for your help!

Suellen Kipp

Director of Music

Honoring Our Beloved Ancestors

At the November 1st Sunday service we will be honoring our loved ones who passed away and our beloved ancestors. If you would like photos of your loved ones in a slideshow on that date please email the photos to Lesley Petersen at [email protected] as soon as possible.

If you prefer not to email the image we will be asking you to bring photos with you to the Zoom Service that day. Thank you so much!

November 1st Sunday Service: The Virus and the Veil: Samhain in a Time of Plague

In many Pagan and Neopagan traditions, Samhain--coinciding with the celebration of Halloween and All Souls--marks the end of the old year and the start of the new, and offers opportunity for us to honor those who have passed this year as well as our ancestors both of blood and spirit. Lore tells us that the veil separating the world of the living from the Otherworld is thin at this time of year; and in a year when over 200,000 lives have been lost to a preventable contagion, we must be more mindful than ever of our relationships and responsibilities both to those who have passed as well as to those who continue to live. Join us for an invitation into reflection and remembrance, and let this time of profound loss influence our purpose.

Message from the Board of Trustees

The Board of Trustees would like to share this quarterly report on our current financial status. The “Actual” column shows revenue and expenses from April 1 through October 10, which is just over 50% of our fiscal year; the “Budget” column is the budget for the whole fiscal year adopted by our congregation at our May annual meeting; and the “% of Budget” column compares the other two columns. As you can see, our operating budget is about $117,000 overspent. However, the Reserves Transfers and Endowment Grant and Loan, plus the Paycheck Protection Program grant we received, will offset more than $106,000 of that deficit. The Board of Trustees is confident that, with your continued support and generosity, UUCFM will be able to complete the fiscal year within the parameters of the adopted budget.

Also, the Finance Committee is beginning to plan the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. As required by our by-laws, we invite you to propose items to be included in next year’s budget by December 31. Please send any questions or comments to Pati Maier, Treasurer, at [email protected].

CUUPs Samhain Circle

Merry meet and a blessed New Year to you and your kin! This year we have lived through the greatest crises of our generation. The state of our politics, environment and our very health has changed radically and in ways we could have never expected. It has caused us to question not only what we have witnessed, but who we are and what we stand for. This Samhain we call to the wisdom of those who have gone before to guide us forward and lead us to a higher vibration as we navigate these times of great challenge. Join us, (via zoom), the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans in Fort Myers on Nov. 1st, 2020 at 6PM as we honor the legacy of our beloved dead and seek their wisdom to move through the year ahead. Blessed Be.

Please find the zoom link below:

Topic: CUUPS - Samhain Circle

Time: Nov 1, 2020 06:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89178047479

Meeting ID: 891 7804 7479

Caste Book Study

Our group is now studying Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent by Isabel Wilkerson, the author of The Warmth of Other Suns.

"Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings."

We are now meeting on Wednesday from 1-2:30 p.m. on Zoom. For more information and to join, contact Helen Leddy at [email protected].

The UUCFM Book Group

The Wednesday Book Group will be finishing its discussion of Marjory Stoneham Douglas’ The Everglades: River of Grass and selecting our next book. We meet on Zoom Wednesdays at 1:00 PM. If you’re joining for the first time, please email Mary Studer at [email protected] and she will send you the link to Zoom.

Attention Gmail Users

This is a long newsletter- please make sure you click on "message clipped, click here for entire message" at the end of your email as shown below. Thanks!

South Fort Myers Food Pantry

The board and volunteers at the Food Pantry say thank you for the food that you have dropped off during these very difficult months.

The best times to drop off food are 9 AM or 4 PM on Monday at the pantry itself, located at 8260 Cypress Lake Drive, Fort Myers in the back of the Cypress Lake Presbyterian Church. Any size donation will be accepted. Most needed foods are peanut butter & jelly, cereal, breakfast bars, canned fruits and vegetables, pasta and tomato sauce, protein-rich soups and beans. Please, no glass containers.

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 while keeping us all safe and protected. Our Committee members include Mary Faegre, Joan Hickok, Mary Tracy-Sigman, Patricia Vivier-Naidl, Holley Rauen and Suzanne Ziemer.

If any members of the Congregation are available to help during this crisis, please contact Mary Golbitz.

We can connect with you individually by phone if you are feeling isolated and offer other assistance. Please contact Mary Golbitz for information or assistance at [email protected] 207 479-4082 (phone or text) or Holley Rauen at [email protected] or

239-464-6556.

Paula Copestick

There will be a small gathering in the UUCFM Memorial Garden with the family of Paula Copestick to honor Paula and scatter her ashes on Friday, October 23rd at 11:00am. Because of COVID-19 we will make this a short Ceremony led by Holley Rauen and Paula's sister, Rhea. If you feel called to be there (masks and social distancing observed) please RSVP by email to Holley to be on the guest list.

Also, if some of you would like to send cards, memories or photos, please contact Holley at [email protected]. We want to honor Paula, and also keep all of us safe, so we will not be gathering inside anywhere on the UUCFM Campus at this time.