eNews for Thursday, December 21

*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|*

View this email in your browser eNews for Thursday, December 21 Christmas Caroling! UUFCM carolers visited two congregants’ homes to spread some holiday cheer. Worship Matters Sunday Service We will gather online via Zoom and in person this Sunday, December 24, to worship together with Rev. Drew Frantz, who will present "Yule: Celebrating Winter Solstice." The Zoom call starts at 10:00am for social time, and the service starts at 10:30am. "The Pagan holiday of Yule pre-dates the Christian holiday of Christmas, including traditions such as the burning of the Yule-Log.  As practiced by many modern-day Pagans, Yule is a celebration of the winter solstice (December 21, the shortest day of the year). This holiday offers a chance to reflect on the darkness and the gifts it offers, as well as the importance of welcoming in the light." Zoom Invitation for Sunday Service: Join Zoom Meeting Meeting ID: 402489218 One tap mobile +16468769923,,402489218# Phone - audio only +1 646 876 9923 Christmas Eve Service Sunday, December 24 at 7pm We will gather online via Zoom and in person this Sunday, December 24, at 7:00pm to worship together with Rev. Drew Frantz, who will present "Christmas Eve Stories and Carols."    All are welcome for this family-friendly service of traditional Christmas carols and readings. As Christian believers celebrate the birth of the Messiah, non-Christians may embrace baby Jesus as a symbol of hope and innocence. We conclude the ceremony with the candle-lit singing of Silent Night. Zoom Invitation for Christmas Eve Service: Join Zoom Meeting Meeting ID: 402489218 One tap mobile +16468769923,,402489218# Phone - audio only +1 646 876 9923 Upcoming Services December 24: Yule: Celebrating Winter Solstice December 24 at 7:00pm: Christmas Eve Stories and Carols December 31: The Burning Bowl If you happen to miss being in worship, please check out our website sermon archive for sermon video and/or text. Minister’s Column On Monday morning, out of nowhere, I got a shooting pain in my lower back. I tried to move through it and go out to do what I had planned for my day, but it got worse instead of better. By the afternoon I was afraid to stand up after sitting down, because as soon as I was upright the pain was staggering. A day later, thanks to rest and pain medicine, I was fine: most of the pain was gone and I was able to go for a walk and do all of my normal activities. Read more here. Upcoming Events Most meetings and events are hybrid (in-person/Zoom). Please contact the event or meeting leader if you are not sure. Event and meeting details and links can be found on the UUFCM Calendar. - Welcome to UU Orientation - Last Sundays at 12:30pm (resumes January 2024) - UUFCM Men’s Group - 1st Mondays at 7pm on Zoom - Game Night - 3rd Mondays at 7pm  - Central Michigan Sangha - Tuesdays at 6:45pm - UU Discussion Group - Wednesdays at 10am - Choir Rehearsal - Wednesdays at 7pm - Drawing Workshop - 2nd and 4th Tuesdays at 10am (resumes January 9) - First Friday Potluck - First Fridays at 6:30pm - Movie Night - 4th Saturdays at 7pm - Monthly Soul Matters Small Group Discussion - January 4 at 6:30pm All members and friends are welcome to attend our UUFCM Board meeting as well as the various team meetings that occur monthly. If you are interested in attending any specific team meeting, please contact the team leader for information. Team Meetings None scheduled! If you are interested in helping any of these teams or committees, please fill out the Volunteer Opportunity Form if you haven’t already. Rev. Drew on Vacation December 25 – January 1 Our minister Drew will be on vacation for the last week of December, returning on Tuesday January 2. During this time he will be off-duty from all regular Fellowship business, and can be reached by text / cell phone for any urgent business. Save the Date: January 20 UUFCM Retreat Saturday, January 20 8:00am - Breakfast 9:00am - 12:00pm Retreat Please plan to join us for our annual congregational retreat. This year the topic will be covenant. What are the sacred agreements that define how we treat each other in this UUFCM community? Join us to reflect, discuss, and draft our covenant. Soul Matters Small Group  Discussion: "Mystery" - January 4 Thursday, January 4, at 6:30 pm Our monthly small group continues with the December topic of Mystery. We will discuss questions like the ones below...these along with many more suggested spiritual practices related to Mystery are contained in the Soul Matters packet you can access here: Do you spend more time treating life like a problem to be solved, a game to be won, a struggle to be survived or a mystery to be lived? What’s one thing you could do this month to more deeply encounter mystery? If there was one mystery you could have answered/solved before you die, what would it be? As you’ve grown older, has life seemed to have more or less mystery in it? What was the first mystery to capture your imagination? How does that still shape you today? What has been your most successful means of encountering or staying open to mystery? Updated: Twelve Months to a More Climate Conscious YOU! Adult RE Initiative Climate Change is real and present and is affecting our Mother Earth - including insects, animals, trees, soil, weather, infrastructure, and human beings. It will cause major negative changes for our children and grandchildren and beyond (the 7th Generation). Climate change is currently impacting millions of people, especially those in the bottom 98% of income. Adult RE has designed a twelve-month challenge to us to change our daily practices that are counter-productive to Mother Earth and replace them with habits that are more conducive to the future.  Read more about the initiative here... Click here to download January's Tool Kit. Upcoming Book Discussion Group In our culture, we really do not like to think about end of life, however inevitable it is. But like so many other stages of life, understanding and preparation can make a real difference. In Being Mortal, Atul Gawunde offers us a series of examples of real peoples' experiences - a series of cautionary tales - that lay out the challenges and pitfalls, but also provides some profoundly helpful  suggestions. While we can't hope to "fix" old age, we can hope to manage it in order to maximize autonomy and meaningful satisfactions. This advice is obviously meaningful  to those of us in our later years, but is also potentially of great value to younger people who may be in a position of caring for aging parents. Nancy Roeder and Jim Dealing are proposing a four-session discussion during January and February (probably after Sunday services.) They need to know how much interest there is and how many books to order. Please contact either of them directly. Chalice Lighter Donation Call  The Wheelchair Accessibility Task Force is working on a project to make our sanctuary welcoming to persons in all types of wheelchairs. To help fund this project, we are planning to apply for a Chalice Lighter grant in February and we need your help. Chalice Lighter grants help congregations across the MidAmerica Region of the UUA with specific growth projects and are funded by small donations from individuals that are pooled together. To be eligible to apply for the grant, we need members of our congregation to become Chalice Lighters. To become a member, you have to commit to donating at least $20 three times a year ($60 for the year). You can donate online here: https://www.uua.org/midamerica/giving/chalice-lighters   Please make sure to write in the name of our fellowship in the online comment field.  You can also give a check or cash to Cynthia Damer and she will mail in the donations. Brochures about the Chalice Lighter Program are available in the hallway outside the sanctuary and online here: https://www.uua.org/files/2022-01/MidAmerica%20Region%20Chalice-Lighters-brochure-2022.pdf • • • Community News • • • Election/Poll Workers Needed Many communities throughout Michigan, including Mt. Pleasant and Union Township, still need more poll workers to help run the February 2024 election. Hiring and training of poll workers is happening now! Visit Michigan.gov/PollWorker to learn more and complete the Election Worker Interest Form. Free COVID Tests  Get free at-⁠home COVID-⁠19 tests this fall on COVIDTests.gov Every home in the U.S. is eligible to order an additional 4 free at-⁠home tests beginning November 20. If you did not order tests this fall, you may place two orders for a total of 8 tests. Your order of COVID tests is completely free – you won’t even pay for shipping. You can order your test kits HERE. UPLIFT Trans/Nonbinary Monthly Gathering Space Fourth Tuesdays, December through June Register here for the Zoom link. Join UPLIFT monthly gatherings for trans, nonbinary, and other not-entirely-or-at-all-cis UUs and friends of UUism. Join us to connect with other trans/nonbinary+ UUs and co-create support and community across our faith. All you need to bring is yourself (and other trans/nonbinary friends, if you’d like)! Non-UUs are welcome if they are OK with being in a UU-focused community that won't proselytize. If you are interested in this space, and you aren’t (entirely or at all) cisgender, it is a space for you. What do we do? Gatherings are a cozy community space where we connect with each other with games and breakout groups, share ideas and stories on all kinds of topics, listen to music and poetry (often by trans/nonbinary+ creators), and much more! This is a drop-in space, where folks can come and go as works best for them, and where people can join us at any time. You can be a regular or someone new, someone who's been curious for a while but hasn't yet checked us out, somebody who is rejoining after time away, and all other ways of relating to this space! You are welcome here, and you are loved.   All-Ages Community This space is multi-generational. It is open to and welcoming of trans/nonbinary elders as well as children, youth, and young adults. Standard UUA online safety measures apply to ensure all people under 18 are able to attend. We're glad to have you here!   Accessibility Information Closed captioning is available, and any common chat content will also be spoken aloud.  Please be mindful of both processing and communication access.  Speak one at a time. Meeting will not be recorded.  Participation, as well as what is shared, is confidential. There is no requirement to appear on video or to maintain “conventional” appearances.  Additional accessibility needs?  Please email [email protected] or [email protected]!  We will do our best to ensure you can fully access the space.   Donate Now! The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Central Michigan is funded solely by its members and friends. ​ For your convenience, you can make a donation electronically with the button below, or via the GivePlus Church App. Please consider the option of offsetting the cost to the Fellowship for providing the convenience of making an online donation. If you prefer not to donate electronically, you may also write a check payable to UUFCM and send it to: UUFCM, P.O. Box 41, Mt. Pleasant, MI 48804-0041 Got News? The deadline for submissions to the Order of Service Insert and the UUFCM weekly eNews is Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. Please send all submissions to [email protected]. Drew’s Contact Information Please contact Drew via email, phone, or text. [email protected]  Phone/text: 440-935-0129​ Office Hours (in person and/or Zoom):    Tuesdays 10am-noon   Wednesdays 1-3pm and 8-9pm Office Hours Zoom Link UUFCM Board of Trustees for 2023-2024 President: Cynthia Damer (989.506.5750; [email protected]) President Elect: Aaron Jones (989.501.0672; [email protected]) Treasurer: Terrie Robbie (989.400.2495; [email protected]) Secretary: Laurie Meadows (989.317.8299; [email protected]) Trustee: Victoria Sladek (989.506.7039; [email protected]) Trustee: Monica Jean (616.443.8782; [email protected]) Trustee: Kevin Daum (989.546.7701; [email protected]) Team and Committee Leaders Adult Religious Education Team - Jodi Fisher Building, Grounds & Safety Team - Norma Bailey Communications Coordinating Team Fellowship Life Coordinating Team - Gisela Moffit   Membership - Laura McBride   Arms Around - Laura McBride   Welcome & Hospitality - Gisela Moffit   Social Fun - Jen Prout Social Justice Coordinating Team - Norma Bailey Worship Team - Drew Frantz Youth Religious Education (RE) Team - Norma Bailey We are a religious community guided by love, transforming our lives and our world. Copyright © 2023 Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Central Michigan. All rights reserved. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.