Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles and the water is clear?
~ Lao Tzu
Summer RE News Our RE youth have picked their eighth produce from the raised gardens – a cucumber, a large batch of green beans, many more of our cherry tomatoes, and many green peppers – which have been delivered to the Soup Kitchen. The children have weeded and watered each week to keep the gardens in good shape. Good job, RE youth! |
“Return to the River” this Sunday, September 18 for our annual multigenerational Water Service/Fall Ingathering celebration! We invite you to bring a small container of water collected from a special place you may have visited during summer travels or perhaps from closer to home. Pouring it into a common vessel, we symbolically share our inner and outer journeys. Our message for the morning will center on the accessibility to clean, safe water as a human right. We hope you will attend this very special service. And don’t worry if you can’t or forget to bring your own bit of water to share – we will have a communal pitcher you can pour from – all can take part. Please join us!
Upcoming Services:
September 25: “To Be Truly Inclusive”
– to be followed by our “Black Lives Matter” Banner Dedication which will take place outdoors in front of the church. Please invite your neighbors and friends for this special event.
And if you missed service this past week, our minister managed (for the first time successfully!) to make a recording of the sermon message. Please check our sermon archive page for both the text and audio versions.
Upcoming Congregational Vote
Norma Bailey has come forward and decided to run for the open President Elect position on the UUFCM Board of Trustees. We will hold that vote during announcements this Sunday, September 18th at the beginning of service. We chose to wait until more membership is attending regularly and could participate in this election. Thank you to Norma for her willingness to participate in the governance of our fellowship!
RE Registration
Registration for children and youth participating in our Religious Education program will take place after our morning worship this Sunday, September 18. It’s a very easy process – and there is great programming planned for this year! Please contact our RE Director Anna VanArsdaleHoot for more information.
Missing Cap!
Did anyone find a golf cap (The Nightmare West Branch) in the back row of the church last Sunday? If so, its owner Scott Moore will be returning this Sunday. Thanks!
Welcome to UU Class
This class is geared to newcomers, visitors, and those seeking to learn more about Unitarian Universalism and this UU fellowship. Welcome to UU classes will be offered every month on the fourth Sunday at 1:00 p.m. Sessions will run approximately ninety minutes. Our next Welcome to UU class is scheduled for Sunday, September 25 at 1:00 p.m.
CUUPs Celebrates Mabon Ritual
All faiths and ages are welcome! Come join Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans to celebrate the Fall Equinox, sometimes known as Mabon! Join us at 7 p.m. on Sunday September 25th in the UUFCM Sanctuary. A potluck meal will follow the ritual. Please bring a dish to pass.
A Little Help Please!
We need baby holders for this upcoming year! If you would like to help out, please let Anna VanArsdaleHoot know what Sunday of the month you are available for holding any babies that come to church. You can contact her at [email protected].
Photos Needed!
We are in need of a consistent flow of new photos of fellowship activities and events that we can use on our website and in our eNews publication. Most people find us by way of our website and no matter how bright and shiny our words are, pictures often depict more about who we are as a community. So bring your camera along or pull out that oh so smart phone from your pocket and document for us some of the life being lived in this community – thank you!
Social Justice Coordinating Team
Members of the Social Justice Coordinating Team (SJC) are frequently asked, “What does SJC do?”
As the UUFCM Social Justice Coordinating Team, we are committed to alerting congregational members and friends to events/needs, etc., in our local, regional, state, national and global world, so that individually and/or collectively we can, inspired by love, work to transform ourselves and our world.
While we will regularly announce events and needs through the e-News, the bulletin board in the fellowship hall, the order of service and on our closed Facebook page, we also directly alert members and friends who might have an interest in a specific issue. To this end, we ask that you fill out the attached survey and submit a hard copy to any of the members of the committee or e-mail your completed survey to Norma Bailey at [email protected].
Upcoming events:
MUUSJN, along with Inclusive Justice, the National LGBTQ Task Force, Equality Michigan and several other organizations, is hosting a conference and training to build a statewide faith network dedicated to justice and the full inclusion of LGBTQ people in our congregations and society-at-large. It will be held in Brighton, Michigan on Saturday, September 17, form 9:00 am - 4:00 pm. We are hoping that a good number of us from UUFCM will attend as we are focusing on gaining a better understanding of transgender issues as a continuation of our Welcoming Congregation efforts this year. Contact Norma Bailey at 989-560-3952 or at [email protected] to arrange carpooling. Download the Save the Date flyer. | The Community Action Dialogues for Black Lives Matter will have its first meeting this year on Tuesday, September 27, at 7:00 pm in the Bovee UC Terrace Rooms. We encourage you to attend the meeting and join one of the action teams working in our Mt. Pleasant Community. Download the Flyer. |
Hispanic Heritage Month at CMU
Wednesday, September 14 through Thursday, October 13
Download the flyer for complete information.
Influence of Money on Politics
Tuesday, Sept. 20, at 7 pm at Immanuel Lutheran Church Fellowship Hall, 320 S. Bradley, Mt. Pleasant
The Director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, Craig Mauger, will be speaking about the influence of money in politics at the September public meeting of the League of Women Voters of Mt. Pleasant. Everyone is welcome.
The Michigan Campaign Finance Network is a nonpartisan, nonprofit coalition of organizations and individuals concerned about the influence of money in politics and the need for campaign finance reform in Michigan. MCFN conducts research on campaign contributions and their relationship to election outcomes and issues of public policy, supports access to campaign finance information and develops educational initiatives for the public on the subject of campaign finance reform.)
You cannot have peace without human rights, democracy, gender equality, and clean water.
Look to the root causes of war and you will find, in their reverse, the root foundations of peace.
~ Cora Weiss
The deadline for submissions to the Order of Service Insert and the UUFCM weekly e-News is
Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. Please send all submissions to [email protected].
UUFCM Board of Trustees for 2016-2017
President: Laura McBride (989.772.5512; [email protected])
Past-President: Annette Pratt (989.400.0173; [email protected])
Treasurer: Chris Bailey (989.775.8257; [email protected])
Co-Treasurer: Ricky Courlander (989.772.4457; [email protected])
Secretary: Vicki Chessin (989.463.3076; [email protected])
Trustee: Scott Daigle (989.506.5750; [email protected])
Trustee: Janis Shinn (989.400.3724; [email protected])
Trustee: Brigitte Bechtold (989.954.1123; [email protected])