Weekly Communicator

Weekly Communicator

May 25, 2023

Sunday Service

Join us this Sunday at 10:30am in the Sanctuary or via Zoom

We hope you will join us this Sunday as we explore the relationship between courage, creativity and community. On this Memorial Day weekend we also look forward to honoring those who have had the courage to make sacrifices in many ways so we are free to live our best free, creative lives. Mary Cline Golbitz and Gary Robbins will lead the Service along with our wonderful music and tech teams. We hope to see you there.

Minister's Musings

"Where flowers bloom so does hope.” – Lady Bird Johnson

We welcome Mary Cline Golbitz to our pulpit this weekend. In June our theme changes to "delight" and we will begin on the 4th by celebrating the 100th anniversary of Norbert Capek's Flower Communion. If you will be in person, please plan on bringing a flower, plant or seed packet to share. If you will be on Zoom, please send a photo and we will make a slide presentation of your flower photos. Please email them to me before Wednesday, May 31st. See you all soon.

revsue@uucfm.org

WhatsApp call or message: +506 8891 2847

Facebook Messenger: Sue Gabrielson

Skype: suegabes

Please send all newsletter articles by

12pm Wednesday for publication in Thursday's newsletter.

Send articles to newsletter@uucfm.org

**Please do not send requests to the office manager email**

Denise out of office

Denise will be out of the office from May 19-27th. If you need to reach her, please send an email. She will get back to you as soon as she can. Please do not leave a voicemail, unless it can wait until she gets back.

Community Sharing for May

Our Community Sharing partner this month is Alliance for Fair Food. The Alliance for Fair Food (AFF) is the vibrant, diverse ally network of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), the internationally-acclaimed farmworker organization transforming human rights in the U.S. agricultural industry. The principal focus of the Alliance for Fair Food is the Campaign for Fair Food, a farmworker-led, community-powered movement that successfully holds major food retailers accountable to the highest human rights standards in their produce supply chains.

www.allianceforfairfood.org

If you cannot attend in person, you can still donate by mailing a check to the office with "community sharing" in the subject line, or by using the "donate" button on the website and marking it "community sharing".

CUUPS Meeting

Well a HUGE HELLO and Blessings to all of you! Our May monthly meeting is right around the corner but will be a little bit different, so we will jump right in with the date and agenda below.

May 27, 2023

10am - Land work and hanging out

12pm - Break for lunch (bring your own)

1pm - Actual meeting.

While this month's meeting will hold some agenda topics, our MAIN item is to teach each other and learn from each other about altars. We will create a summer altar together and talk about them in general - remember, no right or wrong in this one. We will share our own thoughts and invite you to do the same. If you wish, bring some personal items to decorate and create the altar just for the day.

Excited to see you there!

Sincerely,

CUUPS of Fort Myers

News from the SWFL RESET Center

Are you ready to step into Regenerative Leadership?

It has been an honor and privilege to serve on the SWFL RESET Center Board of Trustees as Executive Secretary. In the last 4 years, we have come a long way and put RESET on the map. Now it is time for me to step down and we are looking for a new Board Secretary. If you are interested please contact me, by email. Check out our website. We have a great Board with some dynamic new members, so I hope the right person reads this and contacts us.

Many thanks to all,

Holley Rauen

Photo by Lisette Morales-McCabe

UUCFM is entering the process of renewing our status as a Welcoming Congregation

We look forward to observing the five practices to renew.

These practices include incorporating Welcoming Worship Services into our ordinary calendar of worship every year. Click on the link to find the other practices we look forward to.

The rainbow lanyards of our nametags remind us of our original commitment to being a Welcoming Congregation, learning and growing through diversity

Click here to learn more

LIFE for Justice: Justice for LIFE

Lee Interfaith for Empowerment, our interfaith organization of

Lee County, begins its work with House Meetings. Members of

our congregation along with those of our partner congregations

get together in the homes of Team Leaders for a pot luck and

discussion. We ask the question, “What situation in Lee County

bothers you so much that you lose sleep over it?”

Consider being a Team Leader

Through these discussions, which we hold in the fall, we begin

a process that leads to our cause for the year. This year we will

collaborate with the Quakers on House Meetings. If you are

interested in becoming a Team Leader, please contact Marge

Gonzalez.

In August, Paul Leingang, our new LIFE organizer, will train

Team Leaders by coaching them about strategies to engage

network members to be more active in LIFE. If warranted,

training for snowbirds who are Team Leads will be conducted in

October.

Neighbors Network of Lee County

Supporting Adults who want to Age at Home/in Community. We are committed to the goal that aging actively and successfully (i.e., independently) shouldn’t be exclusively for the wealthy.

Neighbors Network is a new nonprofit with a mission to partner with adults who want to age at home with support from and inclusion with our neighborhood network, nationally associated with the Village-to-Village movement.

Our first neighborhood (or village) is planned for the Six-Mile Cypress Expressway corridor. This initial neighborhood will be the model we plan to replicate throughout all of Lee County.

Please learn more at our website.

Interested? Contact Barbara Shearer. Once we know who would like to meet for an hour of coffee and conversation, we will set a date.

Unitarian Universalist Mental Health Network

Online Worship Service

May 28, 2023

4pm PDT, 5pm MDT, 6pm CDT, 7pm EDT

Zoom link

HELD – Showing Up for Each Other’s Mental Health

In this first worship service produced by the UU Mental Health Network Speaker’s Bureau, the Rev. Barbara F. Meyers will talk about her book HELD which tells a lot of stories from her ministry focused on mental health issues - both how-to stories and how-not-to stories and gives guidance for congregants in the pews who want to help make a difference. It has a built-in study guide. We hope that the book will be used by many congregations and help to make the denomination a friendlier place to people with mental health problems and their families.

For more information click here.

Name the Center

Visuality, Inc. and Pride SWFL are in the process of opening Lee County's first LGBTQ+ community center in downtown Fort Myers next month. Use the QR code above to submit a name for the center.