True hospitality is a spiritual practice, a religious practice.
~ Peter Morales
Summer RE News Our RE youth have picked their seventh produce from the raised gardens – a cucumber, a squash, a big batch of green beans, many more of our cherry tomatoes, and several 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! |
We hope you will join us in worship this Sunday, September 11, for a service themed on the practice of “radical hospitality” in religious community. And our Joyful Noise Choir returns from their summer hiatus! Please plan to attend!
“William Ellery Channing, the 19th century Unitarian, said once (in a sermon about slavery), “I am a living member of the great family of all souls,” and sometimes I think the church has no greater purpose than to convince us all of that, and to proclaim it to anyone who needs to hear it, which is everyone… In this church we mean to be for each other (as wide as “each other” extends), the ears and eyes, the welcoming voice, the incarnate, embodied, real live embrace of the universe, or God. I’m not sure that God has any other way of showing up, except through us. That is universalism. That is radical hospitality and it extends to all of us and it extends to everyone. It is a theological idea, not unique to our tradition, by any means, but it is central here. Radical means, literally, not wild, not crazy, but to the very root. ~ Victoria Safford
Upcoming Services:
September 18: “Return to the River: The Annual Water Service”
+ Annual UUFCM Picnic & RE Registration (details TBA)
September 25: “To Be Truly Inclusive”
– to be followed by our “Black Lives Matter” Banner Dedication (details TBA)
Fourth Quarter Report Update
The Fourth Quarter financial report will be provided by Chris Bailey following service this Sunday,
September 11. Please stay for this update!
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!
Updating Our Directory
Many changes have occurred since February when we published hard copies of our Directory. People moved, got married, divorced, changed their phones, emails or postal addresses. We maintain a current online directory, but we also print an Addendum in September. Please help us by letting us know if anything has changed in your life. Check your entry here on our website and send your corrections to our administrative assistant no later than Sept. 12. If you do not know the password, contact our administrative assistant or Gisela Moffit (772-1602; [email protected]). Thank you in advance for your help to keep our contact information current and accurate.
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 on 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!
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. |
What we cannot afford is to allow despair and fear to interfere with our radical hospitality:
our willingness to reach out to one another and struggle together for a better world.
~ Gretchen Woods
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])