April 2021 Communicator

Unitarian Universalist Congregation

of Fort Myers

The Communicator

April 2021 Volume 38 Issue 4

Join us this Sunday!

Please join us on Zoom this Sunday, April 4th at 10:30 AM for our Easter Sunday service titled To Rest, To Rise: Easter Lessons and Pandemic Life. We welcome guest minister, the Reverend Erin Walter; Lay Minister, Albie Johnson; Worship Associate, Allie Carville; and Musicians, Suellen Kipp and Angela Massey.

Join Zoom Meeting Sunday at 10:30am

https://zoom.us/j/98733916229

No password needed

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

Thank You to Sunday's Participants:

The Reverend Erin Walter, Guest Minister

Albie Johnson, Lay Minister

Suellen Kipp, Director of Music

Angela Massey, Flute

Allie Carville, Worship Associate

Walter Peterson, Tech Lead

Lesley Peterson, Tech Team

Mark Brandon, Tech Team

Peter Golbitz, Tech Team

Jill Carville, Tech Coordinator

Helen Dixon, Dialogues Host

Mary Studer, Dialogues Host

Community Sharing in April: Planned Parenthood

The mission of Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida is to provide affordable access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care and accurate health information through patient care, education and advocacy. Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida, an affiliate of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. began operations in 1966. Many of our members and friends have advocated for our local Planned Parenthood facilities throughout the years.

Vespers Service

Join Albie and Mary via Zoom bi-weekly Thursdays from 6:30PM-7:00PM. The next Vespers Service will be April 8th.

Join Zoom Meeting

https://zoom.us/j/91800250314?pwd=MmRRenNOUjNUdjcvU1Y3VTIxNFBTQT09

Meeting ID: 918 0025 0314

Passcode: 743236

Connection Circles

Would you like to be more connected to others in UUCFM? This is your chance to get to know others and yourself better by joining a Connection Circle. The Circles are a ways of exploring spiritual topics in a deep way with others.

New circles are forming soon on Mondays and Thursdays at 1:30 pm. Please contact Leslie Gatto at [email protected] or Mary Cline Golbitz at mary@uucfm.org if you are interested. Let us know of your interest even if those times don't work for you. We are looking forward to connecting with you.

Charitable Contributions

If you would like a receipt for donations made to UUCFM in calendar year 2020, please email your name(s) to: [email protected]

The UUCFM Book Group

The UUCFM Book Club will meet March 22. We’ll be discussing Ch. 4 & 5 from The WEIRDest People in the World, by Joseph Henrich via Zoom. If you’re joining for the first time, please email Mary Studer. She will send you the link. [email protected]

UUCFM/Caloosahatchee Mindfulness

The Caloosahatchee Mindfulness and UUCFM Meditation Book Group is reading The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness by Rhonda V. Magee.

The author "reveals that the work of racial justice begins with ourselves. The practice of embodied mindfulness--paying attention through our thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations in an open, nonjudgmental way--increases our emotional resilience, helps us to recognize our unconscious bias, and give us the space to become less reactive and to choose how we respond to injustice."

The group meets from 10 to 11:30 a.m. on Wednesdays. Contact Helen Leddy at [email protected] or Mary Robinson at [email protected] for more information.

Social Issues Book Group Resumes

Starting Wednesday, April 21 from 1:00-2:30 PM and continuing weekly

Book: My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem.

My Grandmother's Hands is a call to action for Americans to recognize that racism is not only about the head, but also about the body. The author introduces the reader to an alternative view of what we can do to grow beyond our entrenched racialized divide. He takes the reader through a step-by-step healing process based on the latest neuroscience and somatic healing methods.

Coming to the Table (CTTT)

We are Inviting interested members to join together in the formation of a Coming to the Table chapter in Southwest Florida. CTTT provides leadership, resources, and a supportive environment for all who wish to acknowledge and heal wounds from racism. For further information about CTTT, following this link: https://comingtothetable.org/.

Contact Helen Leddy for details on the book group or CTTT: [email protected]

60th Anniversary Pave the Way Fundraiser

We are celebrating our 60th year here by offering commemorative, personalized bricks to line the walkways leading into the sanctuary.

GOAL: 100 bricks @ $100 each to raise $10,000 for the General Budget to take the place of not having a Service Auction this year which raised that amount or more.

Order your personalized 4" x 8" brick of up to 3 lines, up to 13 characters/spaces per line.

Idea examples: IN MEMORY OF... REMEMBERING... YOUR NAME(S) DATES...A

SAYING...GRANDCHILDREN...

Examples of Bricks already ordered:

GRACE PROJECT, MAYA, COSMOVISION,

RESET, ESTABLISHED, JUNE 2020,

ALBIE & MARY, LAY MINISTERS, UUCFM 2021

LOVE ENTER EVERY, MIND & SOUL

TERI & MEL COOPER, PEACE & LOVE

JILL & ALISON CARVILLE, LOVE UUCFM

As of April 1st, we have over 20 personalized, commemorative bricks donated toward our goal of 100 bricks @ $100 each. They will be in place at the walkways to the sanctuary by the end of the month. Seeing these bricks will make us proud of our past, present and future.

To get a brick order form, Contact Project Manager, Ways & Means, Suzanne

Ziemer at [email protected] or 239-463-9020.

Needed: Brick Layers

We will be laying the 2011 50th Anniversary commemorative bricks at the walkway to the sanctuary at 10 am, Thursday, April 15th. We have the materials and know-how. Contact Brick Project Manager Suzanne Ziemer, 239-463-9020, [email protected] to help.

A View from the Pew: Donald M. Ehat, Ed.D.

This past week, this congregation lost a generational thought leader – Don Ehat. Don came to this congregation with decades of equity as an educator, clergyman, entrepreneur, and executive coach. He brought to us an immense focus on the common good.

I remember the Sunday morning, at a Humanist Forum, when he approached me, a new member, and with his disarming smile and soothing, melodious nature, invited me to help him lead the Humanist Forum. For me, that was my baptism into UUCFM. So, I have since seen Don as my UU godfather.

I could go on and on about the positive impact Don had on so many both within and outside this congregation; however, I think nothing can better express the nobility of his character than to read his own words about UUCFM.

The Space

UUCFM is a place with space for you. The space is an opportunity for you to become more of what you want to be. Here you will be surrounded by people like you who find life a challenge but also like you don't always know how to take advantage of the opportunities in that challenge.

This is a spiritual place. Not necessarily because it is designated a religious place, No, it is a spiritual place because you bring your spirit here to share with us and enrich our spirits. This place is a space for spiritual communication. This spiritual communication looks like hearing from each other in worship. It looks like weeding and mowing together. It looks like not talking so shyer persons have more opportunity to be heard, and listen to their own thinking. It looks like rummage sale participation where people get rid of the familiar so they have room for the new. It is interesting to note that the rummage sales are an apt metaphor for our mission. We are trying to help each other let go of the old so we have room for the new.

This is the place to take those fearful steps into the possible. This is the place to discover for yourselves what other people once expected you to be. In this space we are working on ourselves, but part of that commitment is to be available to you and to listen for those intimate wonderings about the possible you.

The space in this place is yours.

Don M. Ehat, October 2013

Rest in peace, my dear friend.

Bill Petrarca

LIFE Update

Our Annual General meeting was full of renewal and hope for our future as a Congregation. As part of the service, we were reminded of our commitment to the social justice work of Lee Interfaith for Empowerment.

In case you have not written in the date for the Nehemiah Action, it is Monday evening at 7 pm on April 26th. It will be a Zoom meeting and so you need to register your attendance with me at [email protected]

The current work of LIFE is trying to bring affordable housing to many Fort Myers families and to address a few criminal justice issues like civil citations instead of arrest for youthful first time offenders, and providing police training as how to respond to a mental health crisis.

Your checks need to be written out to LIFE and mailed to:

LIFE

PO Box 62692

Fort Myers, FL 33906