eNews For Thursday, January 4

*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|*

View this email in your browser eNews for Thursday, January 4 Worship Matters We will gather online via Zoom and in person this Sunday, January 7, to worship together with Rev. Drew Frantz, who will present "Holding You in Love." The Zoom call starts at 10:00am for social time, and the service starts at 10:30am.   "As part of our weekly Sunday worship service, we invite people to share their joys and sorrows aloud if they wish–and the congregation responds with the words, “holding you in love.” Let’s amplify this sentiment and see where else it applies: holding ourselves in love means self-care and growing into our best selves; holding one another in love is the cornerstone of any family or any other group, and is a practice that supercedes judgment; holding the world in love allows us to act where we can and to accept what is beyond our control." Zoom Invitation for Sunday Service: Join Zoom Meeting Meeting ID: 402489218 One tap mobile +16468769923,,402489218# Phone - audio only +1 646 876 9923 Youth Religious Education - January 7 Join Youth RE for a New Year activity and lighting of the chalice. We will also draft a new covenant with the children. Upcoming Services January 7 - Holding You in Love January 14 - Martin Luther King January 21 - Covenant January 28 - Liberating Love If you happen to miss being in worship, please check out our website sermon archive for sermon video and/or text. Minister’s Column Each month in the congregation’s calendar we are called to reflect on a different theme, and January’s theme is Liberating Love. I will be exploring this theme in Sunday worship services; we are holding a Saturday retreat to rewrite our covenant as a congregation (which must be grounded in love); we are celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King (whose message and technique were rooted in love). Read the column 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 - 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 - First Friday Potluck - First Fridays at 6:30pm - This Friday! - 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 Coordinating Team - Sunday, January 7 at 12:30pm Building Team - Monday, January 8 at 6:00pm Adult RE Team - Monday, January 8 at 7:00pm Social Justice Team - Monday, January 8 at 7:00pm Worship Team - Tuesday, January 9 at 7:00pm If you are interested in helping any of these teams or committees, please fill out the Volunteer Opportunity Form if you haven’t already. Soul Matters Small Group  Discussion: "Mystery" - Tonight! 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. Click here for Discussion Questions. First Friday Potluck – January 5 This Friday! Please join us in the UUFCM Fellowship Hall at 6:30pm (doors open at 6:15) for food, conversation, and games! Coffee, hot tea, and water will be provided. If you are able, please bring a dish to pass. Martin Luther King Jr. Peace March and Multi-Age Activity - January 15 The annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Peace March will be held on Monday, January 15, and it will be great for us to have a large number of UUs marching behind our UUFCM banner!  The march starts at 3:00pm at the Bovee UC Rotunda and ends up at the downtown center.  We will meet in front of the art gallery next to the UC at 2:50pm to line up behind our banner.   In addition, the Youth RE Team is inviting the children and everyone else to a multigenerational gathering at the Fellowship Hall after the march for hot chocolate, snacks and a “How Would You Change the World?" craft activity. If you're unable to attend the march, feel free to join us for the craft activity and snacks at 4:15pm. Please let any member of the Youth RE Team know if you are attending – Norma Bailey, Carla Jensen, Jennifer Davis and Monica Jean. UUFCM Retreat - January 20 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. Save the Date: Community Justice Party - February 17 You are all invited to our fourth bi-annual Community Justice Party on Saturday, February 17, 700-9:00 pm.  There will be a program in the sanctuary of music, skits, poetry, and a “Guess the Activist” contest highlighting several social justice issues, and then we will meet in the Fellowship Hall for light refreshments and a rousing cake walk! If you have a song or reading or anything else that you would like to contribute to the program, contact any member of the Social Justice Coordinating Team – Norma Bailey, Joyce Henricks, Kelly Lawson, Gisela Moffit, or Katie Zapoluch. This was a highlight event in 2019, so be sure to have it on your calendar! UUFCM Bylaw Change Proposals  Any individual Member who wishes to propose changes to the bylaws may submit written suggestions to the board president for consideration at the annual meeting. You can find our current bylaws on our website. Please email proposals to Cynthia Damer at [email protected] by January 10.  If the Board accepts this language as appropriate for consideration for inclusion in the bylaws, then it goes on the ballot at the annual meeting. If not, then the Board will notify the proposing member by the last day of February. In that case, the new language can appear on the ballot only by petition of five members submitted to the Board by March 31. Setting Intentions - January/February 2024 This year, your Social Justice Coordinating Team (SJCT) is asking each of us individually to set an intention – and follow through! – to involve ourselves more and/or to learn more about our neighbors and issues. This Sunday we are kicking off our second “season” for January and February, commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. Day & Black History Month. As a team, we’ve researched books, children’s books, movies, organizations, podcasts, etc., about Black/African Americans so that you would have a variety of intentions to choose from – read a book, watch a movie, peruse a website, for example. View our pages of ideas here, and we’ll have hard copies available on Sunday.   We encourage each of you to make an intention and then, preferably, make it public by writing it on our Intention Poster in the Fellowship Hall. Throughout this “season,” we will hopefully be able to share what each of us is accomplishing to meet our intention!  Please join in our efforts! Directory Update Every February we publish a hard copy of ourFellowship Directory, and we need your help to make sure that the information is accurate. Please go online and see if your information in the directory is current. If you forgot the password or never had it, contact Gisela Moffit as the directory is password-protected. Did you move, did you have another child, did you change your phone, email or text number?  We need to know by January 21. Name Tags and Birthdays As you know, we have started to add pronouns to our name tags if people request them. You can also add them to the Fellowship Directory. Please let David Allan know your preferred pronouns. If we don't have your birthday (just month and day, not year,), let David know as well so that we can include you in the monthly celebration at the First Friday potlucks. Youth Religious Education Recap -  December 31 Habari Gani! What's the word? Our UU children learned about the beautiful celebration of Kwanzaa. Kwanzaa was first established 57 years ago. Kikombe Cha Umoja, the Kwanzaa Unity Cup, was our big topic in the classroom. Each child created and blessed their sacred unity cups. Each cup was filled with Kuumba (creativity) as everyone put forth their best talents and artwork and Ujima (working together and sharing responsibility). Today was the 6th day of Kwanzaa. We had six of our candles burning brightly. The children learned the about the candle colors and what they represent: red represents the struggle of our African American community black represents African Americans and their ancestors green represents spirit of hope for the future Let's continue to hope, build, and create for our children in 2024. • • • Community News • • • The Power of Your Vote Webinar Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and two election clerks are presenting a free webinar titled “The Power of Your Vote” on Thursday, January 11, at 7:00 pm via Zoom. Click here to register. 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. 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.