Hello UUFCM, my name is Jakobe Neal, and I am the incoming Director of Religious Education at this fellowship. My pronouns are he/him/his, and I identify as African-American. I am from Eastpointe, Michigan, in the metro Detroit area. Near my home town, I graduated from Fraser High School in 2020. In high school, I performed and took on leadership in Color Guard and was involved in the Future Teacher Program as a teacher’s assistant and student teacher. Currently, I attend Central Michigan University, studying Secondary Education in History, Social Studies, and Political Science, with a Minor in American Sign Language. I am incredibly humbled and excited to serve as Director of Religious Education for the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Central Michigan. If you need to contact me, I am best reached at 586.438.4008 or RE@uufcm.org.

Last Sunday, it was announced that we have found our new Director of Religious Education (DRE)! Jakobe Neal is an Education major at Central Michigan University, and we are thrilled that such a fantastic candidate applied for the position. On January 3 and January 10, Jakobe will be joining us in our RE lessons to meet the children and participate in the lesson. His official start date as the DRE is on January 11, and Kendra Peffers’ official end date is on January 10 (although you will continue to see her at Sunday services and in the occasional Kids Coffee Hour as we work to make the transition to our new DRE as smooth as possible).

Despite being physically distanced from one another, our RE community came together, and this past weekend we collected our final puzzle pieces to create this beautiful display, which will be hung in the upstairs RE room at the fellowship. Puzzle pieces were decorated by children ranging from 1 year old to 15 years old. Thank you to everyone who contributed to our puzzle!