Rev. Keith Kron, Guest Minister, with Rev. Patricia Hart
“The Future of Religion & Unitarian Universalism: Dinosaurs, Pit Bulls, & Other Classmates”
Religion, including Unitarian Universalism, is at a moment in time. Can it survive? And what must it do in order to survive? What must we do? We’ll explore our place in today’s world, and why it’s metaphorical meteorites and not a comet that could wipe us out.
Please join us – either in person in the Sanctuary, or online. Find the livestream link on the Livestreamed Sunday Worship page or on our YouTube channel. While inside the Meeting House, masks are strongly encouraged.
After the service, all are welcome to Coffee Hour in the downstairs Community Room!
From the Ministerial Search Team
Peggy Owen Sands
Come join other First UUs for another fun community-building opportunity!
Rev. Keith Kron, from the Unitarian Universalist Association, will lead the Beyond Categorical Thinking workshop this Saturday, December 3 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. The workshop will support our congregation to consider notions we have, both conscious and unconscious, around identities our potential minister may hold. The workshop focuses on issues of gender, race, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity, ethnicity, mental health, class, age, size, etc.
This workshop will help us to be open-minded as we meet and select a new minister, and, since we have adopted the 8th Principle, will also help us to think about radical welcoming here at FUUSB.
Children younger than 12 are invited to attend a Pancake Pajama Party with Erika Reif at the same time the Beyond Categorical Thinking workshop is happening.
Thank you from the Ministerial Search Team!
Pancake Pajama Party - Last Chance to RSVP!
Erika Reif, Director of Lifespan Faith Development
Saturday, December 3
from 9 a.m.-12 p.m.
While adults are engaged in the Beyond Categorical Thinking workshop or decorating wreaths for the annual sale, children are invited to have some festive fun! We'll watch holiday specials, eat pancakes, and do some seasonal crafting, all while wearing our coziest jammies! Very few children are signed up; please let us know by Friday at 3 p.m. if you're planning to come so that we have the appropriate supplies on hand! RSVP to [email protected].
2022 FUUSB Fundraiser
Holiday Wreath & Card Sale!
HOLIDAY WREATHS
Support the FUUSB and order a beautiful, custom-decorated, premium-quality wreath or swag for your home or for a gift. Wreaths are handmade in the Northeast Kingdom and measure about 24” across. Swags are handmade, decorated with natural materials and a bow and are about 24” long.
Wreath pick-up is Sunday, December 4 in the Community Room, 11:15 a.m.-1 p.m. There will also be wreaths available for purchase on Sunday.
Memorial Greens & Wreaths
Remember a loved one this year with a memorial wreath or greens which will decorate our Meeting House exterior and Sanctuary during December. Sign up online through the FUUSB Fundraiser link: gofundraise.link/FUUSBHolidaySale2022
ORDER HOLIDAY CARDS NOW, while they last!
Price reduced from last year!
Select the designs you like best and order just one or many.
Our unique holiday cards are designed by members of our congregation. This year's cards are left over from last year and are being sold for $1.25 each! Select your favorite design(s) and get as many as you would like! Cards will be available on Sunday, December 4 in the Community Room, 11:15 a.m.-1 p.m. or the Sunday after you order them.
Christina Fulton, Director of Operations & Finance
This is the time of year when many of you are considering your charitable contributions for the year. While many of you give regularly to FUUSB by fulfilling your annual pledge, there are also other ways to share your treasure through the Society.
Socially Responsible Santa - Gifts to this fund are distributed by amazing UU elves to members of our larger community in the form of cash gifts. This allows people the dignity of purchasing their own gifts for their families.
Discretionary Fund - Gifts to this fund help members of our congregation and greater Burlington community throughout the year with things such as utility bills, uncovered medical expenses, and other unexpected financial emergencies.
Share the Plate - Each month our Share the Plate collections are split between FUUSB and a local non-profit. In December our collections are going to our Socially Responsible Santa program.
Gift to FUUSB - One-time gifts can be made to FUUSB to help us fulfill our mission.
Angel Fund - We often have members who are unable to meet their pledge due to unforeseen circumstances. Since the pandemic, this is happening even more often. The Angel Fund helps to replace that lost pledge income.
Gifts can be made by sending a check to the Meeting House with the fund you'd like to give to written in the memo line, donation of stock (please let Christina know if you've donated stock to FUUSB), or a charitable distribution from your retirement account (please contact your tax advisor for more information about this option). You may also make a contribution to FUUSB by clicking on this link: Donate Now!
If you have any questions, please contact Christina Fulton at [email protected]. Thank you!
Ice Lanterns for the Solstice Light Festival
Margo Whitcomb, Faith Development Assistant
It’s that time again when we invite everyone to create an ice lantern or other luminaria (or two or three) to be part of the Solstice Light Festival on the evening of Wednesday, December 21 (5:30-7:30).
We supply large cans for ice lanterns to pick up just inside the Meeting House beginning this weekend, at Sunday services, and throughout the week. Instructions for lantern creation and drop-off Here
From the Immigration Justice Team:
Write for Rights
Carolyn Smiles
On Saturday, December 3, the Champlain Valley Amnesty International USA local group will hold its Write for Rights 2022 event at the Brownell Library (6 Lincoln St. Essex Junction) between 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
If folks can’t get to the library, then they can write letters from home by going to this AIUSA link to Write for Rights.
Write for Rights is AI’s largest annual human rights campaign. Please come anytime between 10 a.m.-2 p.m. and write a letter or letters to free any of the 10 human rights defenders around the world who have been imprisoned just for peacefully protesting. Our letters do make a difference.
Fiber Arts Group
Linda Graves
Whether you love embroidery, crocheting, knitting, needlepoint, needle felting - whatever! - please plan to attend our Zoom Fiber Arts meeting on Tuesday, December 6, from 7 - 8 p.m. Come one, come all to an easy night of conversation and project sharing. Zoom meeting link: http://bit.ly/3qKUgLa Meeting ID: 813 5671 4635, Passcode: 112630
Second Sunday Circles
Sharing Circles Coordinating Team
Grab your coffee and meet at 11:15 a.m. to discuss the Sermon, Readings, and Benediction as a small group. Gail Beck will facilitate. Looking forward to seeing you! The next monthly meeting, on December 11, will be in the Barnum Room, on the lower level, or join us by Zoom at this link: bit.ly/3Db6Hb9 (meeting ID: 875 4572 7264, passcode: 849701)
The Rebirth of the Sun - Players Needed
Sunday, December 18 at 10 a.m.
Rev. David Ruffin, Director of Youth & Creative Arts Ministries
Our annual multigenerational Solstice Service is returning in person (and live streamed), and we need you! Kids, teens, adults, families, anyone who loves to play …in a play. Our Solstice Play, to be precise! Roles of all sizes available. We’ll rehearse the morning of and then lead the celebration of the dark and the sun's return at 10 a.m. Email David Ruffin now!
Christmas Breakfast for COTS
Lisa Lax
This Christmas morning, FUUSB will deliver breakfast and warm clothing items to folks at the COTS Day Station in Burlington. To support this effort, we need volunteers to donate breakfast foods and warm clothing items.
This project differs from the weekly Sunday breakfast on the Meeting House grounds, which has a separate sign-up page. Donated breakfast foods and warm clothing items are also needed to support the weekly Sunday breakfast on Christmas morning. We are counting on the generosity for which our Society is known, to support both projects.
Why do we need two separate projects? The answer is simple: We received a request from COTS for this. Their clients appreciated the special Christmas breakfast that we delivered during the height of the pandemic in 2020. Also, the folks at COTS are not necessarily the same people who stop by for breakfast each Sunday.
Please consider helping with this special event! Some food items can be brought to the Meeting House on Christmas Eve. Foods requiring refrigeration can be delivered to the Meeting House on Christmas morning by 8:30 a.m. Warm clothing items (that are new) can be left at the Meeting House in the alcove whenever we are open. Volunteers will deliver the items to COTS at 9 a.m.
The online sign-up page for the COTS Christmas Breakfast is at signup.com/go/oBNVSDk
Interested in Widening the Circle?
A Study Group
Jana Porter, Radical Welcoming Team
We’re excited to let you know that the first study group of Widening the Circle of Concern, the 2020 report of the UUA’s Commission on Institutional Change, is forming now and will begin meeting in January. The report we’ll be considering resulted from a deep inquiry into structural and systemic racism and white privilege as they affect the culture of Unitarian Universalism. It includes specific recommendations for change. It’s a stepping-off point for analyzing, understanding, and remediating institutional racism and white privilege in our own UU society. For more information on the report, visit uua.org/uuagovernance/committees/cic/widening
This first study group, which will include 8-10 people, will meet twice monthly for an hour and a half, for a total of 11 sessions, and it will include 4 members of the Radical Welcoming Team, which is launching the effort. If you’re interested, please contact one of those members: Jana Porter, Sarah Russell, Monica Sargent, or Susan Warner-Mills.
If you’re unable to participate this time, or if the group fills, please be assured this is just the first group. There will be others forming to accommodate all those who are interested.
Good News from the Immigration Justice Team
Pastor Steven Tendo, an asylum-seeker from Uganda, was granted a one-year “stay of removal/deportation.” This occurred as a result of many people’s advocacy on his behalf. Thank you to all of the FUUSB members who supported this work though letter writing and signing petitions. He now has one year to continue efforts to find a way to remain in our community.
Richard Smiles
Elmwood Ave. Pod Collection - Thank You!
Christina Fulton, Director of Operations & Finance
A huge THANK YOU to everyone who brought in items for the Elmwood Avenue Pods! In just two weeks our congregation collected 20 full sets of towels, 11 extra sets of hand towels and washcloths, 13 sets of sheets, 11 blankets, and 8 pillows! This is just amazing! The folks from Champlain Housing Trust just picked up the items and were so grateful! They are working so hard to get the pods up and running. They've hit several hiccups along the way, but they are determined. They still need additional items for the pods; if you would like to donate items you can contact Taylor Thibault at [email protected].
For the latest news from the New England Region UUA, check out the December newsletter at this link.
Upcoming Worship Services
Sunday, Dec. 11 at 10 am
In-Person & Livestreamed Worship Service
Rev. Patricia Hart with Geoff Duke
Tuesday, Dec. 13, 5:30 pm
Service of Loss & Remembrance
Rev. Patricia Hart with Melinda Lee
Sunday, Dec. 18 at 10 am
Multigenerational Solstice Service
"The Rebirth of the Sun"
Rev. David Ruffin with Mary Beth McNulty & Friends