If you are trying to transform a brutalized society into one where
people can live in dignity and hope, you begin with the empowering
of the most powerless. You build from the ground up.
~ Adrienne Rich
Spring Clean-up Time Is Here!
This Saturday, May 9th from 10-4 p.m. brings another opportunity to join with others in helping to beautify our building. We are in need of folks to wash windows, clean gutters, paint, clean and move a few items to the basement, and whatever else catches the eye. If you have an extra paint brush, roller handle, pan, buckets, rags, window cleaner, and extension ladder, please bring them along. Cold water, soda, and lunch will be provided. Come for an hour or more, if you can. *Last Saturday much energy (and fun!) was brought to the tasks of
sprucing up our flower beds, bushes, and trees. Lunch was shared and the day's work was completed by 2 p.m.
If anyone has access to a power washer, we would like to clean the siding on several areas of the building. If you don't have time to help chip in with the clean-up effort, but want to be a part of it, please consider buying a flat of flowers to be planted by the door or sign. If you wonder about flower, color choices, or want to make a cash donation, please contact Tom Moffit at 772.1602.
*Much gratitude and many pats on the back go out to our May 2 “spruce-up crew”: Mary Alsager, Sandy Wickstrom, Carol Rard, Gisela and Tom Moffit, Alicia Genia, Capalene Howse and son Kai, Kris Los, Jen Prout, and Laura McBride.
And a HUGE thank-you to Kris Los and son Zackary who cleaned, waxed and polished the floors of our social hall and bathrooms after a splendid season of very good use. The floors look great, and we very much appreciate their efforts!
In Worship
For the month of May, we are journeying with the worship theme of “Hope”. We continue this Sunday, May 10, with “When Hope Takes Work.” No honest exploration of hope is complete without wrestling with the absence of hope – those times when despair grips tight and comfort, reassurance seems out of reach. Where is hope found then?
Worship Theme Resources for May
~ Karen Hering
Movie Night
Movie Night is every second Saturday at 7 p.m. at the UU Center. The movie for May 9 is The Lunchbox, an Indian film, 2013. A young housewife and a lonely widower begin an unlikely correspondence when Mumbai's famously reliable lunchbox delivery service makes a mistake. An engaging examination of "love"between two people who remain strangers. A 96% Rotten Tomatoes rating, as well as a peoples choice film festival award. Contact Jim Dealing with any questions - deali1jr@cmich.edu or (989) 772-0269.
UUFCM Garage Sale - Help Needed!
The UUFCM garage sale will be held on Thursday, Friday and (half day) Saturday, May 21-23. If you have items to contribute, please contact Norma Bailey (989-560-3952 or baile1nj@cmich.edu) to find out how and where to drop them off. We will need tables, saw horses and wide flat boards, and hangers for the sale too. Please contact Norma letting her know which of these items you have as well as when you will be able to help either setting up the garage sale (sorting and pricing) and/or selling on the days of the sale. Norma will have sign-up sheets for various shifts available the next several Sundays at church, so bring your calendars to church! This is a major enterprise for our Fellowship, so all hands are needed to help!
From Mari Potter:
Hello, I need your help! I have been offered the opportunity to go to Nepal through Utopia Volunteers to help support victims of the earthquake at The Butterfly House Project and Early Childhood Development Center located in Kathmandu, Nepal. I plan to be in Nepal for the month of July. The focus of my trip is simple: I will be working with Pushpa Basnet, CNN Hero of 2012, with 48 children she supports and the ECDC/Butterfly House. Children in Nepal go to prison with their mother's if there are no other guardians. Pushpa gets the children out of prison and raises them until their mother is released. Pushpa and her children are currently sleeping under an abandoned greenhouse and are still extremely exposed to the elements.
One way to help is to assist me in raising the funds to make this trip to Nepal in July. The Utopia Foundation will be funding part of my trip. I am working to come up with travel expenses. To donate toward my travel expenses:
• Go to http://utopiavolunteers.org/giving/support-the-general-fund/
• Choose the amount you will donate
• The next page is the Checkout Form. On the RIGHT side of the Checkout Form you will see
Additional Information. In the Notes box, please type: For Mari Potter Nepal Travel and relief fund.
Going through this site and specifying that your donation is intended for Mari Potter Travel and Relief, is tax deductible and all of the donation will go toward my travel expenses. Any additional funds will go directly to Pushpa and her work. Your contribution will allow me (and you) the privilege to help in Kathmandu Nepal. I can also take cash or checks to help pay for my other expenses.
Thank you in advance for your support with this cause.
Mari Potter
A Successful Town Hall Meeting on April 23
Our UUFCM-sponsored Town Hall Meeting about LGBT Rights on Thursday, April 23, was very successful with 45 people from the community in attendance. Jay Kaplan, the LGBT Project Attorney for ACLU Michigan, did a great job presenting information about marriage equality, amending the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, all actions current in our state legislature’s docket. He is also going to send information regarding what each of us can do to influence our legislators regarding these issues.
Reproductive Justice Postcards for Paid Sick Leave
MUUSJN and its Interfaith Reproductive Justice Coalition are members of a coalition that is working to bring an important resource to Michigan families – paid sick leave. More than half of working mothers (54%) do not have paid sick days they need to care for themselves and their loved ones.
How you can make a difference: Collect signed postcards that will be sent to Michigan legislators. The goal is to collect 5,000 post cards by June 2nd. Norma Bailey and Joyce Henricks have the postcards for you to sign and also share with your neighbors and friends to get more signatures. If you were not in church on Sunday, May 2, contact Norma (989-560-3952 or baile1nj@cmich.edu) or Joyce (989-773-4709 or henri1je@cmich.edu) to get postcards. Once collected, they will deliver them to MUUSJN who will then forward them to our legislators.
Marching in Alma Highland Festival Parade
Last year a number of us marched with our UUFCM banner in the Alma Highland Festival Parade supporting LGBT rights. If you would like to participate with us this year on Saturday, May 23, at 10:30 am, please contact Vicki Chessin (989-463-3076 or vechessin@aol.com) or Norma Bailey (989-560-3952 or baile1nj@cmich.edu) to sign up!
Piano for Sale
The lovely piano that sits in our social hall is for sale. It was donated to the church by Margaret Nash several years ago. Since we do not use it, we hope someone will! We are making it available to church members and friends first. We are asking $200 or best offer. Feel free to contact Laura McBride with questions or if you wish to look it over or play it.
Just a Reminder
The refreshment schedule is being suspended May-August. Beverages will be available regularly. If you choose to bring a refreshment, please bring enough for 60 and prepare it for the tables and children in RE. Treats may pop up from time to time, but there will probably be Sundays with no tasty morsels, too.
To All Members of the UUFCM:
Per our bylaws, you have officially been notified of the annual meeting of the UUFCM on Sunday, May 17, at 11:45 a.m. or immediately after the worship service. Please review the agenda for the meeting, which includes the election of the new trustees for the Board, and the proposed budget and proposed by-law changes. There will be a vote on accepting the mission statement (following a collection of input at a focus meeting and review of it by the Transition Task Force). The mission statement will be distributed for review following the board meeting on May 10, 2015.
Looking forward to seeing you all there!
Your UUFCM Board of Trustees
This Saturday, May 9th from 10-4 p.m. brings another opportunity to join with others in helping to beautify our building. We are in need of folks to wash windows, clean gutters, paint, clean and move a few items to the basement, and whatever else catches the eye. If you have an extra paint brush, roller handle, pan, buckets, rags, window cleaner, and extension ladder, please bring them along. Cold water, soda, and lunch will be provided. Come for an hour or more, if you can. *Last Saturday much energy (and fun!) was brought to the tasks of
sprucing up our flower beds, bushes, and trees. Lunch was shared and the day's work was completed by 2 p.m.
If anyone has access to a power washer, we would like to clean the siding on several areas of the building. If you don't have time to help chip in with the clean-up effort, but want to be a part of it, please consider buying a flat of flowers to be planted by the door or sign. If you wonder about flower, color choices, or want to make a cash donation, please contact Tom Moffit at 772.1602.
*Much gratitude and many pats on the back go out to our May 2 “spruce-up crew”: Mary Alsager, Sandy Wickstrom, Carol Rard, Gisela and Tom Moffit, Alicia Genia, Capalene Howse and son Kai, Kris Los, Jen Prout, and Laura McBride.
And a HUGE thank-you to Kris Los and son Zackary who cleaned, waxed and polished the floors of our social hall and bathrooms after a splendid season of very good use. The floors look great, and we very much appreciate their efforts!
In Worship
For the month of May, we are journeying with the worship theme of “Hope”. We continue this Sunday, May 10, with “When Hope Takes Work.” No honest exploration of hope is complete without wrestling with the absence of hope – those times when despair grips tight and comfort, reassurance seems out of reach. Where is hope found then?
Worship Theme Resources for May
- Apprenticed to Hope: A Sourcebook for Difficult Times - by Julie E. Neraas
- The Impossible Will Take a Little While - a citizen's guide to hope in a time of fear, a timely and honest anthology of hope, edited by Paul Rogat Loeb.
- An Interrupted Life and Letters from Westerbork - by Etty Hillesum. The diary and letters of a vibrant, articulate and artistic young woman writing in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam.
~ Karen Hering
Movie Night
Movie Night is every second Saturday at 7 p.m. at the UU Center. The movie for May 9 is The Lunchbox, an Indian film, 2013. A young housewife and a lonely widower begin an unlikely correspondence when Mumbai's famously reliable lunchbox delivery service makes a mistake. An engaging examination of "love"between two people who remain strangers. A 96% Rotten Tomatoes rating, as well as a peoples choice film festival award. Contact Jim Dealing with any questions - deali1jr@cmich.edu or (989) 772-0269.
UUFCM Garage Sale - Help Needed!
The UUFCM garage sale will be held on Thursday, Friday and (half day) Saturday, May 21-23. If you have items to contribute, please contact Norma Bailey (989-560-3952 or baile1nj@cmich.edu) to find out how and where to drop them off. We will need tables, saw horses and wide flat boards, and hangers for the sale too. Please contact Norma letting her know which of these items you have as well as when you will be able to help either setting up the garage sale (sorting and pricing) and/or selling on the days of the sale. Norma will have sign-up sheets for various shifts available the next several Sundays at church, so bring your calendars to church! This is a major enterprise for our Fellowship, so all hands are needed to help!
From Mari Potter:
Hello, I need your help! I have been offered the opportunity to go to Nepal through Utopia Volunteers to help support victims of the earthquake at The Butterfly House Project and Early Childhood Development Center located in Kathmandu, Nepal. I plan to be in Nepal for the month of July. The focus of my trip is simple: I will be working with Pushpa Basnet, CNN Hero of 2012, with 48 children she supports and the ECDC/Butterfly House. Children in Nepal go to prison with their mother's if there are no other guardians. Pushpa gets the children out of prison and raises them until their mother is released. Pushpa and her children are currently sleeping under an abandoned greenhouse and are still extremely exposed to the elements.
One way to help is to assist me in raising the funds to make this trip to Nepal in July. The Utopia Foundation will be funding part of my trip. I am working to come up with travel expenses. To donate toward my travel expenses:
• Go to http://utopiavolunteers.org/giving/support-the-general-fund/
• Choose the amount you will donate
• The next page is the Checkout Form. On the RIGHT side of the Checkout Form you will see
Additional Information. In the Notes box, please type: For Mari Potter Nepal Travel and relief fund.
Going through this site and specifying that your donation is intended for Mari Potter Travel and Relief, is tax deductible and all of the donation will go toward my travel expenses. Any additional funds will go directly to Pushpa and her work. Your contribution will allow me (and you) the privilege to help in Kathmandu Nepal. I can also take cash or checks to help pay for my other expenses.
Thank you in advance for your support with this cause.
Mari Potter
A Successful Town Hall Meeting on April 23
Our UUFCM-sponsored Town Hall Meeting about LGBT Rights on Thursday, April 23, was very successful with 45 people from the community in attendance. Jay Kaplan, the LGBT Project Attorney for ACLU Michigan, did a great job presenting information about marriage equality, amending the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, all actions current in our state legislature’s docket. He is also going to send information regarding what each of us can do to influence our legislators regarding these issues.
Reproductive Justice Postcards for Paid Sick Leave
MUUSJN and its Interfaith Reproductive Justice Coalition are members of a coalition that is working to bring an important resource to Michigan families – paid sick leave. More than half of working mothers (54%) do not have paid sick days they need to care for themselves and their loved ones.
How you can make a difference: Collect signed postcards that will be sent to Michigan legislators. The goal is to collect 5,000 post cards by June 2nd. Norma Bailey and Joyce Henricks have the postcards for you to sign and also share with your neighbors and friends to get more signatures. If you were not in church on Sunday, May 2, contact Norma (989-560-3952 or baile1nj@cmich.edu) or Joyce (989-773-4709 or henri1je@cmich.edu) to get postcards. Once collected, they will deliver them to MUUSJN who will then forward them to our legislators.
Marching in Alma Highland Festival Parade
Last year a number of us marched with our UUFCM banner in the Alma Highland Festival Parade supporting LGBT rights. If you would like to participate with us this year on Saturday, May 23, at 10:30 am, please contact Vicki Chessin (989-463-3076 or vechessin@aol.com) or Norma Bailey (989-560-3952 or baile1nj@cmich.edu) to sign up!
Piano for Sale
The lovely piano that sits in our social hall is for sale. It was donated to the church by Margaret Nash several years ago. Since we do not use it, we hope someone will! We are making it available to church members and friends first. We are asking $200 or best offer. Feel free to contact Laura McBride with questions or if you wish to look it over or play it.
Just a Reminder
The refreshment schedule is being suspended May-August. Beverages will be available regularly. If you choose to bring a refreshment, please bring enough for 60 and prepare it for the tables and children in RE. Treats may pop up from time to time, but there will probably be Sundays with no tasty morsels, too.
To All Members of the UUFCM:
Per our bylaws, you have officially been notified of the annual meeting of the UUFCM on Sunday, May 17, at 11:45 a.m. or immediately after the worship service. Please review the agenda for the meeting, which includes the election of the new trustees for the Board, and the proposed budget and proposed by-law changes. There will be a vote on accepting the mission statement (following a collection of input at a focus meeting and review of it by the Transition Task Force). The mission statement will be distributed for review following the board meeting on May 10, 2015.
Looking forward to seeing you all there!
Your UUFCM Board of Trustees
Hope is…an orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is
immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons.
~ Václav Havel
Got News?
The deadline for submissions to the Order of Service Insert and the UUFCM weekly e-News is
Sunday at 10:00 p.m. Please send all submissions to admin@uufcm.org
UUFCM Board of Trustees for 2014-2015
President: Laura McBride (989.772.5512; lmcbride010@gmail.com)
President Elect: Annette Pratt (989.400.0173; ampratt@cybersingerscafe.com)
Past-President: Gisela Moffit (989.772.1602; gbmoffit@gmail.com)
Treasurer: David Macleod (989.772.0595; macle1d@cmich.edu)
Secretary: Vicki Chessin (989.463.3076; vechessin@aol.com)
Trustee: Scott Daigle (989.506.5750; sndaigle@gmail.com)
Trustee: Capalene Howse (989.488.8714; capalene.howse@gmail.com)
Trustee: Jennifer Prout (989.400.3130; poutyprouty66@yahoo.com)
The deadline for submissions to the Order of Service Insert and the UUFCM weekly e-News is
Sunday at 10:00 p.m. Please send all submissions to admin@uufcm.org
UUFCM Board of Trustees for 2014-2015
President: Laura McBride (989.772.5512; lmcbride010@gmail.com)
President Elect: Annette Pratt (989.400.0173; ampratt@cybersingerscafe.com)
Past-President: Gisela Moffit (989.772.1602; gbmoffit@gmail.com)
Treasurer: David Macleod (989.772.0595; macle1d@cmich.edu)
Secretary: Vicki Chessin (989.463.3076; vechessin@aol.com)
Trustee: Scott Daigle (989.506.5750; sndaigle@gmail.com)
Trustee: Capalene Howse (989.488.8714; capalene.howse@gmail.com)
Trustee: Jennifer Prout (989.400.3130; poutyprouty66@yahoo.com)
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