Weekly E-News, September 17, 2020

Above: Our beautiful campus being kept up by Walt & Simone Ittenbach

This Week's Service

Sunday, September 20, 10:30 AM

Balance

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

This service brought to you by:

Suellen Kipp, Director of Music

Albie Johnson, Worship Associate

Mary Cline Golbitz, Worship Associate

Carole Latino, Chalice Lighter

Genelle Grant, Sign Language

Lesley Peterson, Musician

Womyn Singing in Sacred Circle with Shelley Graff & Beverly Little Thunder, Musicians & Singers

Ruth King Fotovat, Singer

Toni Latino, Singer

Tech Team:

Walter Peterson, Lead Tech

Lesley Peterson, Tech Team Member

Mark Brandon, Tech Team Member

Jill Carville, Tech Team Coordinator

UU Dialogues Starting 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 are adding a new option for all of you who are new to UUCFM or Unitarian Universalism in general. 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, obtain contact information from guests and visitors, have a general Q&A session, and most importantly, participate in intentional dialogue. All are welcome to attend this session.

September Community Sharing

LIFE (Lee Interfaith for Empowerment) is a group of Lee County, Florida congregations coming together based upon our shared value of justice. Their welcoming statement reads in part, "We celebrate today and every day our differences- we speak, pray, and think differently and we welcome each other’s authentic expressions of faith. We do this because we know that bringing diverse congregations together allows us to collectively and more effectively address the issues that face our community. LIFE for justice, justice for life." Current issues include establishing an Affordable Housing Trust Fund to create $3 million of revenue to use each year for housing for those making less than 60% of Area Median Income; addressing the over 200 babies on a waitlist for childcare vouchers; and following up after our state bill was passed requiring law enforcement to document why certain children are arrested, rather than issued a civil citation. LIFE is funded by member congregations and by individual members who make this work possible.

Board Thank Yous

Volunteer of the Month: Lesley Peterson has completed the enormous task of reorganizing and updating the UUCFM website. Now it can be translated into any language and is adaptable for people of different abilities. It is amazing and beautiful! Thank you so much Lesley for doing this in addition to the mountain of work you have as UUCFM President.

Huge virtual hugs and loud applause go to our trusty Worship Associates. With the leadership of Leslie Gatto and Jennifer Grant, this amazing group of volunteers is key to the success of our lay-led congregation. They meet often and are carrying the responsibility of planning and leading over 40 Sunday Zoom Services, a formidable undertaking.

To all of you we owe deep gratitude: Leslie Gatto, Jennifer Grant, Theresa Bahre, Alison Carville, Mary Cline Golbitz, Alberita Johnson, Helen Leddy, Jeff Letts, Holley Rauen, and Gary Robbins.

Without a minister, you are working together to help guide and inspire the congregation through the current challenges. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Appreciation goes to Alberita Johnson for spending countless hours talking with Religious Education families and advocates, and for organizing groups to welcome visitors and potential members through the newly developed Chat Groups on Zoom after the Sunday Services.

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

Enhancing Our Website

My name is Lesley Peterson. Not only am I currently serving as the President of the Board of Trustees, I’m also the website developer who created our church’s website, uucfm.org. As our congregation has experienced so many changes over the last few months, it was time to do a number of updates to our website. These updates included providing more information about our virtual services, our online groups and activities, and our lay led services and leadership. But I also want to make you aware of some exciting enhancements to the website!

First, we now have an easy to use toolbar that allows individuals with vision impairments to be able to read the website more easily. Options include making fonts larger or smaller, line spacing farther or closer, even a font designed to make reading easier for those with dyslexia. There is also an option for text-to-speech, so that the words on the website page can be read to you! These changes are fully WCAG (Website Content Accessibility Guidelines) compliant. These enhancements are intended to make our website an easy and friendly resource for our visually impaired members and website visitors.

The other change is a selection tool that allows you to pick which language in which you’d like to read the website. There is a large list of languages available with accurate translations. And, in combination with the text-to-speech feature mentioned above, you can now have the web pages read to you in any of the wide selection of available languages. UUCFM’s website is now officially multi-lingual! This is just another way for us to offer inclusivity to our visitors.

To watch a video showing how to use these new features, please visit:

http://uucfm.org/images/videos/Website_Upgrades_Visual_Multilingual.mp4

UUCFM Online Classes & Groups

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. 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]

Caloosahatchee Mindfulness

The book group is reading White Fragility: Why It's So Hard For White People to Talk About Racism.

“A valuable guide . . . While especially helpful for those new to the critical analysis of whiteness, this work also offers a useful refresher to anyone committed to the ongoing process of self-assessment and anti-oppression work.”

—Library Journal

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 Club

The UUCFM Book Club will not meet next week. Our next meeting will be Wednesday, September 23rd when we begin discussing Marjorie Stoneham Douglas's classic, The Everglades: River of Grass. 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.

New Group

What do you want to be, have, or do, this lifetime, in 3 years, 3 months?

Join a group of up to 8 people to support and encourage one another in realizing your dreams. Set up goal of 3 years, 3 months, and step to take in 3 weeks.

Goals:

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Realistic

Time based

Based on the book called Teamworks by Barbara Sher available online for about $5. Email Frances Pake for more information: [email protected]

We could meet online for now, or locally at a park or outdoor facility.

Social Justice

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.

New Member Spotlight- Bill & Peg Felix!

Bill and I met in junior high school in Germantown, Philadelphia. We went together through college, and married in 1958. Bill had a Navy scholarship, but chose the Marine Corps, and we spent 3 years in Virginia and North Carolina at Camp Lejeune, after which he worked for IBM for a lot of years, until retirement. Peg did social work initially, then worked in a career in Occupational Therapy, working in a psychiatric hospital. We spent a great 5 years in Vienna, Austria, (Bill on an IBM assignment), and by then, with our three children, 4, 5 and 7, we did a lot of traveling and camping. Back in this country in 1973, we lived in Summit, NJ, until retiring to Long Beach Island on the coast of NJ.

Three interesting experiences we had were in 1997-1999 through IESC (International Executive Service Corps), a group that places retirees in underdeveloped countries that need help in certain business areas. We started in China, then later Armenia and Macedonia; all were fascinating experiences.

From LBI, after 25 years, we moved inland and south, to Little Egg Harbor, NJ. We discovered Fort Myers by coming for years to a time share on Sanibel.

We've been long term Unitarians, starting in Philadelphia in 1964, then Summit, NJ, and then to the Jersey shore. Now we are full time in Fort Myers and look forward to continuing our relationship with the UU church.