October 2020 Communicator |
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This Week's Service
Sunday, October 4th, 10:30 AM
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What If....?
With Special Guest, the Reverend Stefanie Etzbach-Dale, Guest Minister
Join Zoom Meeting Sunday at 10:30am
Meeting ID: 891 5048 2747
Password: chalice
Or, follow the link on our webpage for audio only: uucfm.org
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Thank You to Sunday's Participants:
Reverend Stefanie Etzbach-Dale, Guest Minister
Suellen Kipp, Director of Music
Helen Leddy, Worship Associate
Karen Brown, Worship Associate
Lesley Peterson, Musician
Peter Golbitz, Musician
Walter Peterson, Tech Lead
Lesley Peterson, Tech Team Member
Mark Brandon, Tech Team Member
Allie Carville, Tech Team Member
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UU Dialogues Continue this Sunday!
After our virtual service each week we have been going to breakout rooms to chat. This is working very well, and we will continue with the breakout rooms. Now we have added a new option. We will have a space for UU Dialogues right after the service. To participate in UU Dialogues, just stay in the main zoom meeting 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, have guest speakers and musicians from the service, and most importantly, participate in intentional dialogue. All are welcome to attend this session.
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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.
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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].
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Zoom Tips
Please be sure to stay muted as an observer of our worship service. When you enter from the waiting room you are automatically muted. You don't need to touch your microphone icon at all. Your microphone icon should have a red line through it, as pictured above. If you unmute more than three times during the service, we will have to remove you from the service. The reason is that it disrupts the speaker and puts YOUR audio and video center stage. You may re-enter the meeting in the Waiting Room, and our virtual ushers will inform you on proper Zoom protocol, and how to stay muted for the duration of the service. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
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UUCFM Hosts Virtual House Meeting for LIFE
All congregation members are invited to join us as we share our stories and answer the following questions:
-When is the last time you felt righteous indignation? Who were you angry for and why?
-What systems are impacting your life or the life of family or friends? (Criminal justice? Healthcare? Education? Any?)
We are gearing up for our 10th year of justice work and need to hear from you! LIFE is growing with several new congregations, more issue work, and an upcoming new focus area. Make sure the voices of UUCFM are heard.
Virtual Zoom Meeting: Wednesday, October 14th at 7:00 PM.
Topic: UUCFM Justice Ministry LIFE Meeting
Time: Oct 14, 2020 at 7:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 372 942 4134
Passcode: Justice
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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
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UUCFM Online Classes & Groups |
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New Connection Circle
A Connection Circle is forming and you are invited to join! This Connection Circle will be co-facilitated by Mary Cline Golbitz and Leslie Gatto. This circle is open to all members, friends, and guests. No matter where you are, you are welcome to Zoom in. This is a covenanted group where confidentiality is protected.
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We will share in compassionate dialogue about the topic of the day in order to get to know each other on a deep and meaningful level and grow personally and spiritually.
We will meet from 1:00-2:30 on the following Mondays: October 5 & 19, November 2, 16 & 30 and December 14. Participants are asked to attend all sessions. For more information and to register, contact Leslie Gatto at 239-850-9664 or [email protected]
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Caloosahatchee Mindfulness
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].
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The UUCFM Book Group
The Wednesday Book Group will continue its consideration of Marjory Stoneham Douglas’ The Everglades: River of Grass with a discussion of Chapters 8 through 11. 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Goodbye to the Jensens
This month we say goodbye to Linda and Denis Jensen who are moving to California where their two children (and grandchildren) reside. Their departure is a loss for UUCFM as their participation over the years has considerably added to program and activity support.
Linda and Denis have attended services and programs at UUCFM since 2001; they became members in April, 2008. Over the years, despite being seasonal residents, they have actively participated in the life of the congregation. Linda has been an active member of the Membership Committee; most recently, she has served as the Acting Chair. She recruited ushers and greeters for several years, served as co-chair of the UUCFM Womens' group, and organized the FUUn BUUnch lunches and dinners. She and Denis kept the Dinner-Go-Round program alive.
Each year, upon their return, they organized the program, recruiting diners, and ensured that the program ran successfully. They also participated in last year’s annual pledge drive. Denis has been involved in marketing, publicity, and public relations on behalf of UUCFM. He, most recently, worked on a new photo directory. Denis also chaired the UUCFM Mens' group.
Our thanks are extended to Linda and Denis for their volunteer roles on behalf of UUCFM. Each of the roles that they played helped to make programs at UUCFM more vital and
interesting. We extend our good wishes to them as they embark on a new adventure. Their
commitment to us and to Unitarian Universalism will be remembered even when they are in a new location. Cheers, Linda and Denis!! Go well with our love!
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Our UU Story
Halloween Season and Honoring Beloved Dead
Halloween occurs on October 31st. The Day of the Dead spans two days. November 1st is the day when deceased children are honored-- Day of the Innocents. November 2nd is the celebration to honor deceased adults -- Day of the Dead. Since the late Middle Ages, the dead have been remembered in Christian countries in Europe and elsewhere around the globe in formal church services on All Souls’ Day.
Many Unitarian-Universalist churches honor the beloved dead during these holidays. During previous UUCFM Sunday services, people put photos and mementos of the deceased on the altar at the front of the church.
First Unitarian of Portland has an evening meeting to name those who have died and to mourn. Candles are lit and the Choir sings.
The Unitarian Universalist Congregation, Santa Rosa, has a service to honor ancestors and departed loved ones, and make friends with the reality of death.
We celebrate Halloween on October 31st because it evolved out of a Catholic holiday called All Hallows Eve. It was a night of feasting that occurred the day before All Saints Day.
Costumes are used to celebrate both Halloween and Day of the Dead. Halloween costumes can range from scary to fun. To dress for the Day of the Dead, children don masks to represent the deceased, in an honorable way, sometimes wearing the masks in a parade held in celebration of those who have passed on.
Both Halloween and the Day of the Dead use food as part of the celebration. Halloween involves trick-or-treating where children knock on doors to receive candy, sweets and treats. Although food also is used during Day of the Dead, the food is placed on altars at the grave sites of those being remembered during the holiday.
Even in countries with little to no Christian heritage, Halloween is steadily becoming more popular as part of North American pop culture.
Edited by Joy F. Sokeitous
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Meet Our New Membership Co-Coordinator, Carole Latino!
Why I am a UU
I was without a religion when I first came to UUCFM. I was looking for a safe place to worship, and I knew it wasn’t back to the Catholic Church. I was introduced to CUUPS earth-centered rituals which spoke to me. I soon started going to church regularly and I’ve been a member since February 2011. I became involved with Social Justice issues, marched with our church at every MLK day, volunteered at the food bank, and went to Guatemala with the GRACE Project. I am currently on the Membership Committee and singing with the Womyns' Sacred Circle. When life returns to normal I intend to sing with the choir again.
Autobiographical Sketch
I was born in Greenwich Village, NY and I’m not going to tell you what year! Unfortunately I was only there till kindergarten and then moved to rural NJ till I graduated High School. I’ve been in Fort Lauderdale since 1970. I started working at the Post Office in 1975 and stayed
there till I retired. I bounced around a bit, lived in Cocoa Beach a bit, spent many summers in North Carolina and winters in Davie with my mother till she passed in 2010. That’s when I moved here with my sister Toni and her husband Tony. My sister introduced me to the UU
Church and I’ve been here ever since. I have been involved with Social Justice issues, I’ve marched on MLK day, gone to LIFE events, volunteered at the food pantry, and have gone to Guatemala with the GRACE Project. I am now on the Membership Committee because I would like to help grow the congregation. We have a diverse religious community that is stimulating and challenging. Plus, our grounds are beautiful and meditative and should be enjoyed by many.
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Muchas Gracias from the GRACE Project
Muchísimas gracias to everyone who has donated to the GRACE Project for the shipment of large boxes to a women's shelter and four schools. The first picture shows the box for the women's shelter in San Lucas Tolimán. Patricia Linhoff donated a heavy-duty, new Singer sewing machine. Also in the box will go 500 Fertility Bracelets, 250 condoms and instructions, sewing supplies (thanks Dorothy!), and the reusable menstrual kits.
The situation for rural families in Guatemala is desperate: no tourism, no travel, food shortages, no work.
The second photo shows Lucy Garcia at the new OILE (Organización Internacional para Latinos en el Exterior) offices in North Fort Myers. The women (GRACE students for eight years so far) have sewn oveer 1000 masks to donate to families in their communities.
Thank you also to Ellen Erickson and the Inner Wheel women's group for continuing to provide the bracelets, kit supplies, and school supplies. Un millón de gracias to all of you who have contributed.
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Happy Birthday!
Oct 11 Jeff Hutchinson
Oct 12 Karen Feinen
Oct 13 Deep Ford
Oct 14 Vanda Barnes
Oct 15 Ted Brown
Oct 17 Holley Rauen
Oct 18 Doc Gatto
Oct 18 Jane Petrarca
Oct 23 Ruth Fotovat
Oct 27 Sima Robbins
Oct 30 Peter Golbitz
Oct 30 Sue Magee
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Office Manager Out October 6-9th
There will be no E-News sent out next week as the Office Manager will be on vacation. Please submit your articles the following week by Thursday at 9am, October 15th, for publication. The office will be closed as well.
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Board of Trustees & Staff |
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President Lesley Peterson
President Elect Lane Cook
Secretary Ruth King Fotovat
Treasurer Pati Maier
VP Ministerial Services Keith Hamlin
VP Operations Dorothy Van Howe
VP Programming Toni Latino
Member at Large Genelle Grant
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Please send all newsletter articles by Wednesday at noon for publication in Thursday's newsletter. Send articles to [email protected].
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