Manatee UU Fellowship NEWS

ANNOUNCEMENTS

AND REPORTS FOR OCTOBER 2021

FOOD! FELLOWSHIP! FUN!

On Tuesday, Oct. 12, at 4:30 p.m., Manatee UU Fellowship is resuming its monthly social hour at Caddy’s Bradenton, an open-air restaurant on the Manatee River in downtown Bradenton!

The resumption comes from the Leadership Development Committee and the Membership Team thinking of ways where members, friends and interested visitors can meet together, outdoors, safely. If we are vaccinated and exercise some caution, we should be OK.

In pre-Covid days, we would gather at a couple of tables for an hour or so to eat, drink (or not) and socialize. Join us as we do it again!

Caddy’s Bradenton is located at 801 Riverside Drive East, just east of Manatee Memorial Hospital. There’s plenty of parking, and you can find more information and directions here: caddys.com/caddys-bradenton.

KNIT’N CHAT IS BACK ON DECK – LITERALLY

The Knit ’n Chat group returns to meeting on the back deck of our fellowship building at 10 a.m. on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of each month beginning Oct. 5. We encourage all attending to be vaccinated. It will be exciting to share our hand-crafted projects in person and to bring our 6-inch squares for our communal project.

AJ Wolff will join us as we do a cross country phone call or FaceTime with her. She has been continuing to send her dolls to “Women 4 Peace”.

For more information contact Carol Alt through this website.

— AJ Wolff & Carol Alt 

OCTOBER SPECIAL COLLECTION TO BENEFIT MANATEE LITERACY COUNCIL

The Manatee Literacy Council is a volunteer-based nonprofit community organization dedicated to increasing the level of the functional literacy of adults in Manatee County through teaching the skills of reading, writing, understanding, and speaking English. Manatee Literacy Council has served the community since 1978. Go online to manatee-literacy.org for more information.

The collection officially kicks off at our Oct. 10 Sunday service and runs through Oct. 24. Make checks payable to “Manatee Literacy Council” and mail to Manatee UU Fellowship, 322 15th Street West, Bradenton, FL 34205.

MANATEE JUSTICE MINISTRY: “BECOMING PROPHETIC PEOPLE” 

Our worship theme for the month of October continues to focus on our second source: Words and Deeds of prophetic people, which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion and the transforming power of love.

Dovetailing with this worship theme is Manatee Justice Ministry’s next phase of development where member congregations would host house meetings for members to share the stories of injustice happening in Manatee County. The goal of these meetings for MJM is to consolidate this information to present at MJM’s inaugural rally in November. Based on what rises to the top as priority, MJM members at this rally will choose what our first justice issue we will seek redress in Manatee County.

In support of this goal and in conjunction with our worship theme, we will be hosting, on Zoom, our own version of these meetings titled, “Becoming Prophetic People.” Carol Bartz, Barbara Ehren and John Isham have agreed to join me in facilitating four meetings in October. They have been trained by MJM to lead these discussions. There will be meetings Saturday, Oct. 9, at 10:30 a.m. and Wednesday, Oct. 13 at 10:30 a.m.

We want as many people as possible in our congregation to participate in these discussions. Jean-Luc Adrien, our coordinator from MJM, will have trained our facilitators in conducting these meetings. Expect in the coming weeks to receive an invite to attend one of these meetings on Zoom.

These conversations will be rich and informative as many of us have seen firsthand the pain that perhaps we or our neighbors have experienced. When we contact you about joining this meeting, say yes to being a prophetic person willing to challenge the powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion and the transforming power of love.

— Rev. Fred L Hammond

FINE PRINT FROM THE BOOK CLUB

This month’s meeting of the Book Club is Oct. 4 at 2:00 p.m. The selection for this meeting is “In Time’s Shadow: Stories of Impermanence,’ a book of short stories by Marilyn Sewell, minister emerita of the First UU Church of Portland, Ore.

I think Sewell’s own words best describe the book: “ My subject matter is the everyday, the places we live and work, the thoughts we all have, but hardly ever share, though these musings may carry the most profound of our human concerns.”

For November, we will be reading “Ask Again, Yes,” by Mary Beth Keane. This work of fiction tells the story of two neighboring families in suburban New York City. Both are about the same age, and have children and fathers/husbands who work for the NYPD. Yet they develop into two very different families. Wonder why? You’ll have to read the book.

Come join us. All are very welcome.

— Bill Hayes

RACIAL CONCERNS DISCUSSION GROUP NEWS

For our September meeting, we watched and discussed a one-hour segment of “The Black Church,” written and narrated by Dr. Henry Louis Gates. The episode focused on the Great Migration beginning in the early 20th century and the internal and external conflicts as people brought their churches with them to cities in the North and West Coast. In addition to our viewing, we discussed further projects as a group. Films and books were discussed, as well as the ACLU series on racial policing policies.

In October, we will finish the PBS-sponsored series, with an episode focusing on present-day uprisings and goals of the Black church.

All are invited to attend our next Zoom meeting Oct. 11 at 2 p.m.

— Bill Hayes & Cindy Evans

UPDATES FROM OUR SOCIAL JUSTICE COMMITTEE

Due to the current events, especially in Texas, Mississippi and Florida, where women’s right to choose had been severely assaulted, the SJC unanimously decided to concentrate on women’s constitutional rights at our September meeting. The goal is advocacy, education, calls to action, and the search for allies during this struggle.

Some changes were made on the Social Justice page of the Manatee UU Fellowship website. A “Social Justice Virtual Table” was created, and the goal is to make it as interactive as possible. At some point, the Virtual Table will have its own link within the Social Justice menu.

The committee approved a motion to invite the following organizations to participate in our monthly Special Collection:

RENEWING OUR LEGACY CIRCLE

Contribute to the Future of Manatee Unitarian Universalist Fellowship — to a place in Bradenton where Unitarian Universalists can gather and share their individual meaningful searches; to a place where social justice can be practiced and brought to the needs of the surrounding community.

We are renewing our Legacy Circle. Members who join intend to provide a donation to MUUF in their estates. It is commonly called legacy giving. Such a group was formed about 15 years ago at the fellowship and the generosity of our members has added much to our longevity and financial health.

Contribution amounts are private and reflect the wishes of the member. We will soon have a Zoom gathering with an expert who will describe some of the innumerable ways to set up legacy giving in your estate.

We have adapted a member interest form from one used by UU Long Beach and will be sending it out soon and ask that you give it your attention and return it to us.

— John Isham