News at Manatee Unitarian
That’s right, we have a brand-new Instagram account
that we are filling up fast with photos from our latest activities. If you have an Instagram account of your own for sharing pictures with your friends and family, you can now follow us at manateeuuf and check out our latest doings — and ‘like’ and comment on our photos. And tell your friends and family, too!
No Instagram account? No problem.
You can see our latest photos right here on our website. Click HERE or go to ‘News’ and scroll down to ‘Live Instagram Feed.’
Who knows? You may see yourself there already!
ANNOUNCEMENTS
AND REPORTS FOR DECEMBER 2024/JANUARY 2025
SAVE THE DATES:
SPECIAL HOLIDAY GATHERINGS
JOIN US FOR FOOD, CELEBRATION AND MORE ON CHRISTMAS MORNING AND NEW YEAR’S DAY
On Wednesday, Dec. 25 at 10:30 a.m., we will host an ‘All Your Favorites’ holiday brunch. Please bring your favorite holiday breakfast/brunch dish to share. Possibilities include: waffles, French toast, lox & bagels, coffee cake, quiche, frittata, pastries, juice.
Bring your dish ready to eat! And, you might want to bring your recipe to share with others.
Then, on Wednesday, Jan. 1, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., say farewell to 2024 and welcome the New Year with your fellowship friends. Those who participated last year might remember we placed our wishes for 2024 in a box to be opened next New Year’s. We’ll open that box, find our wish, and replace it with a wish for 2025. Then, we’ll have a burning bowl ceremony on the deck, where we’ll write down on a small piece of paper a painful memory or burden from 2024 and burn it to ashes as we say the words, “Let it go, let it go,” sending it out
into the universe. Done with intention, this little ceremony can be powerful and healing. Please bring finger food to share.
[NOTE: Don’t forget our special annual Christmas Eve service on Tuesday, Dec. 24, at 6 p.m., in person and on Zoom.]
READ ABOUT OUR NEWEST GROUPS
Caregiver Peer Support Group
“Being a caregiver requires infinite patience, physical and emotional strength, health care navigation skills, and a sense of humor — which can be hard to come by after sleepless nights and demanding days.” — Rosalynn Carter
The Caregiver Support Group is for members of the Fellowship who are currently caregivers at any stage of the journey and who, in a safe nonjudgmental space, benefit from each other’s acceptance and recognition for their common concerns and are grateful for the wisdom, insight and humor of their fellow caregivers.
The gatherings take place at our building on the third Saturday of every month from 10:30 a.m. until noon. The size of the group is limited to 10.
If you are interested in joining, please contact Katherine Knowles.
Connections
Connections is a chance for Fellowship members and friends to share with and support each other in a safe and welcoming environment. The group meets at the fellowship every Tuesday from 11 a.m. to noon. Contact facilitator Alia Starkweather for more information.
Right Relations
Tom Ehren introduced Right Relations to the congregation as he led our service on June 30, a first step to forming a Right Relations team. Di Morgan read “The Story of Milo and Cracker,” Doris Sutliff lit the chalice, and the Joyful Jammers sang “Try a Little Kindness.”
The UUA says that Right Relations Teams are lay leaders entrusted to help the congregation practice faithful communication and creative conflict based on values of mutuality and consent. Beginning in August the committee will reach out to members interested in learning more and participating in training.
CHAIR YOGA UPDATE
[PLEASE NOTE: Chair Yoga will resume on Thursday, Jan. 2, at 6 p.m. We look forward to seeing you then!]
Chair Yoga is now meeting each week at our building on its new day and time: Thursdays from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Emphasis will continue to be placed on asana (exercise), pranayama (breath), and mindfulness to strengthen balance, flexibility and body. Member Patricia Hurd leads the class. She has been teaching yoga for 9 years and is a certified instructor through Yoga Alliance. There is no charge to participate.
SOCIAL EVENTS FIRST WEDNESDAY, THIRD FRIDAY OF EACH MONTH
Please join us for our next restaurant ‘happy hour’ Wednesday, Dec. 4, at 4:30 p.m., when we will meet at Pier 22, located on the Manatee River at 1200 1st Ave W, Bradenton. Plan to join us for a drink, an appetizer or an early dinner on the first Wednesday of each month. You can check out the venue online at pier22.com. Everyone is welcome; it’s a great, casual way to get to know us.
Our next Share a Dish potluck is Friday, Dec. 20, at 6 p.m. at our building. Bring a dish to share — like the name says! — and join us for food, fellowship and fun. Share a Dish is held on the third Friday of each month. Some months a special speaker or program is presented.
Please check back here each month for the latest details and updates. And please join us for these monthly social events — and more!
SPECIAL COLLECTION FOR NOVEMBER:
SUNCOAST WATERKEEPER
Our Special Collection for November will benefit Suncoast Waterkeeper.
Suncoast Waterkeeper’s mission is to protect and restore Florida Suncoast waters for the benefit of all through advocacy, water quality monitoring, community engagement and litigation.
This Special Collection begins Sunday, Dec. 8, and runs through Sunday, Dec. 22. Please make checks payable to “Suncoast Waterkeeper” and bring to a service or mail to: Manatee UU Fellowship, 322 15th St. West, Bradenton, FL 34205.
Thank you for your help in supporting the work of this important organization. For more information on its work, go online to https://www.suncoastwaterkeeper.org/ .
THIS IS THE WAY WE KNIT ‘N CHAT
Knit ‘n Chat continues to meet at 10 a.m. the first and third Tuesdays of each month. A small group of knitters and crocheters are working on a project to offer for the annual fellowship Auction. It will be wonderful — so keep your eyes open for what is coming! Our two shipments of 27 colorful scarves were sent to Women Knitting for Peace — these go with volunteer dentists around the world to distribute in clinics, encouraging people to come for dental services.
We enjoy spending our 2nd hour with the Connections gro which meets at 11 a.m. — as part of our mission to ‘knit’/connect with needs of our Fellowship and community. We are looking forward to cooler temperatures and meeting once again on our back deck with the sheltering umbrellas. All are welcome and encouraged to join us … no craft skills needed. There is always time and pleasure in our Chatting.
— Carol Alt
HELP OUR BOOK CLUB DECIDE
WHAT TO READ
The Book Club last met on Aug. 5, the we discussed Oath and Honor by Liz Cheney and West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge.
We haven’t decided on any future books, but here are a few we might consider: Before Nightfall by Silvia Vecchini is a short novel about two sibling teenagers, one of whom is hard of hearing and is facing blindness. It is part prose, part poetry and part American Sign Language. I think the book will make us all aware of disabilities we all may face someday.
Another is Apprentice in Wonderland by Ramin Setoodeh. It is the story of Donald Trump’s tumultuous time as head of the TV show “The Apprentice.” This should be a fun read.
A third suggestion is The Coast Road by Alan Murrin. The story takes place in Ireland in 1994 prior to the legalization of divorce in that country. Murrin tell how women’s freedom is stifled by religion, custom and gossip. The story relates to our own country as we are faced with freedoms being taken away.
Do a little research and see if any of these books appeal to you. Everyone is welcome at the Book Club. Why not join us?
The Book Club meets the first Monday of each month at 2:00 p.m. on Zoom. Contact Bill Hayes for more information and to get the Zoom link.
Happy reading!
— Bill Hayes
ABOUT THE PROGRESS PRIDE FLAG
The original pride flag was created in the 1970s by gay activist Gilbert Baker, friend of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California. Baker used eight colors and corresponding meanings: hot pink for sexuality, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for the sun, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony, and violet for spirit.
The new Progress Pride Flag includes new colors and a new design that are meant to represent people of color, as well as people who are transgender, intersex, or nonbinary.
The colors black and brown were added to the Progress Pride Flag to represent unrepresented black and brown people.
With the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, culture at large began to shift in a much-needed way towards acknowledging the vital roles that people of color have had in our society. The pride movement background is one of many areas where people of color did not receive the recognition they deserved historically. Adding colors to represent them on the flag is one way to change that.
The word “progress” in the new flag isn’t only about adding the new colors to it. It’s also because of the shape, which differs from the original design of horizontal stripes only. The Progress Pride Flag shows the white, pink, baby blue, black, and brown stripes in a triangle shape, with the old six-color rainbow stacked next to them.
The color placement and new shape was done intentionally to convey the separation in meaning and shift focus to how important the issues represented on the left are.
The placement of the new colors in an arrow shape is meant to convey the progress still needed.
— Mariano Vera
[As a Welcoming Congregation accredited by the Unitarian Universalist Association, Manatee UU Fellowship flies the Progress Pride Flag in front of our building each Sunday morning. It also appears on our permanent building sign.]
WARMINGTON FREEDOM TINY LIBRARY IS NOW OFFICIAL!
On Sunday, Nov. 19, members and friends of Manatee Unitarian Universalist Fellowship gathered in the front of our building to dedicate our Warmington Freedom Tiny Library as an act of resistance to the book bannings that are taking place nationally and in the state of Florida.
As Florida leads the nation in banned books, more than 1,400 so far, this is one way to provide encouragement for those who are being targeted. Rev. Fred L Hammond shared the legacy of earlier members Ruth and Carl Warmington, who in leaving an endowment for expansion of our fellowship’s library, made this possible. Our tiny library gives us an opportunity to expand into our community and let others know that justice, equity, and inclusion are values we hold in our hearts.
As we listened to the voices and percussion of the Joyful Jammers, we felt a sense of oneness and pride in the books we are providing to whomever is interested. Each book has a bookmarker and sticker beginning with “Enjoy this book …”
Thank you to Bernie Salzinger who skillfully refurbished a cabinet to serve as our tiny library and to Chris MacCormack who painted the illustrations on the sides. The books that have been selected by Rev. Fred, Becky Smith, Barb Ehren and Carol Bartz include banned books as well as books that embrace social justice themes or align with our UU Principles. More than 50 books have already been shared through the tiny library during the past month and we will continue to add more books to those two shelves.
We encourage each of you to order one book from the list being offered by Boston-based philanthropists found at BannedBooksUSA.org. This allows Florida residents to order banned and restricted books for just the price of shipping: $3.99. Please have it delivered to your home address and then give the book to Becky, Barb, Rev. Fred or Carol so that we can catalog it first.
May all be valued for who they are and may all accept differences and unique abilities of others.
— Carol Bartz
RENEWING OUR LEGACY CIRCLE
Anyone can join our Legacy Circle and make meaningful gifts to Manatee Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in their will. Regardless of the amount, your bequest is a statement of faith that our UU movement and our voices for compassionate justice, democracy, and religious freedom are heard long after we are gone. When you demonstrate that you care enough about this fellowship to support its future, others will follow your generous example.
No matter what your age, you can designate Manatee UU Fellowship as the beneficiary of all or a percentage of your IRA and it will pass to us tax-free after your lifetime. It’s simple, just requiring that you contact your IRA administrator for a change-of-beneficiary form or download a form from your provider’s website.
Join the Legacy Circle at our fellowship by stating your gift plan on your personal intentions form available in our office. Your name(s) will be placed on the Legacy Circle plaque in the sanctuary. Because most popular retirement plan administrators assume no obligation to notify charities of their client’s designations, the intentions form is an important document to us and will be held in a confidential file.
SOMETHING FOR OUR SANCTUARY
This beautiful banner, made by fellowship member Klara Weis, was carried by her during the banner parade at the UU General Assembly in Pittsburgh, Pa., in June 2023. It currently hangs in front of the media booth in our sanctuary.
Thank you, Klara!
A GIFT FOR US ALL
For our 2021 auction, Peg Green offered to create a flaming chalice fabric wall hanging “to hang in your home or give as a gift.” The winner would get to choose the flaming chalice design and color scheme. and then Peg would create the piece.
During the live auction held in February 2021, Bill Hayes kept raising his bid and finally outbid everyone. Over that summer he generously gifted the lovely quilt to our fellowship. It is bold and beautiful, and can be seen in our Sanctuary on Zoom as well as in-person during our Sunday services.
Peg’s artwork can be viewed on her website www.peacepeg.com and one of her works is on the cover of the UUA Pocket Guide for new members.
Thank you, Peg and Bill, for being so generous!
Reverend Fred L Hammond
FRED’S FLAVORINGS
Let It Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Way up North!
As a kid, I was always mesmerized by snow falling. The world became silent like in a soundproof room. When my parents drove at night in a snowstorm, the car lights whizzing through the snow always allowed me to pretend I was on the Enterprise whizzing by stars. Then there were the Christmas tree lights and the crackling fireplace reflecting on the ice-covered windows on those frozen nights at my grandparents’ house. The season was magical.
Those seemed to be simpler times, but the reality is my parents kept the worries of the world outside of family life. What can we do to recapture some of this magic and simpler times here at Manatee UU Fellowship?
On December 20, at our Share-A-Dish potluck, Joyful Jammers will usher the season in with some caroling. Get your wassail ready. Then we will celebrate the Winter Solstice on Sunday, December 22, at 10:30 a.m.
The Christmas Eve Service is on the 24th at 6 p.m. We will close the service with our annual candlelight service. Christmas this year also includes the first night of Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa begins on the 26th. We will explore the coinciding values these three celebrations highlight.
Christmas morning we will have the third annual Christmas Day brunch at 10:30 a.m. This year’s theme is: What is your Christmas/Holiday morning comfort food? Is it waffles? Is it bagels and lox? Is it breakfast quiche or a frittata? Is it homemade coffee cake? Italian pastry? Bring your favorite holiday breakfast dish to share.
January 1 is the Burning Bowl ceremony at 1 p.m. on our deck. We gather to let go of 2024 and to express our hopes for the new year. Please bring finger foods to share.
May our December be filled with joyous times with family and loved ones.
Blessings!
I am approaching the holidays with complicated emotions. It will be my first major holiday without my mother. The family will have a celebration of life gathering that week that I will be facilitating. I am sad that my mother’s generation is now passing away — only three of my grandparents’ six children remain. And there is much that I am grateful for — I will be grateful for family gathering at Thanksgiving — a tradition my mother’s family has maintained annually since my grandmother became the matriarch some 75 years ago. I am grateful for this fellowship and the generous response of its members towards others who have lost their housing during Helene and Milton. I am grateful that our 100-year-old building has escaped the fierceness that Helene and Milton offered and survived with relatively minor bruises. I am grateful to have been able to meet two of my sister’s grandchildren for the first time. The joy of seeing their smiling faces and hearing their laughter is priceless.
These emotions, grief and gratitude, joy and sadness, can both be held at the same time. It seems contradictory — how can I feel grief and gratitude, joy and sadness at the same time. And yet, if we are able to be mindful to the present moment, the now, we can indeed hold both. I believe it is healthy to acknowledge both ying and yang of the emotions we feel and not emphasize one over the other. Together they are the whole of what we are feeling.
No one likes to experience the raw emotions of grief and loss. This is true. The urge to push it down and away and only focus on the positive may be preferred but the relief this gives may only be temporary when the reality of the circumstances surface. We may experience friends who do not want to be in the presence of this level of grief and loss as it may raise emotions of their own vulnerability. And yet, friends who are willing to risk the feelings of their own vulnerability and thereby feel empathy and be a present witness to the pain experienced are the ones who might offer the most profound healing. We who strive to live in covenant with one another are called to be present with one another; to listen, to embrace, and perhaps, even sit in silence with our beloveds in community when tragedies happen.
As much as we would like to fix things for those we love, it is not always possible. But to be present, to hold one another in their grief and loss may be enough during these times. There is a sense of gratitude for being held even as we grieve.
Blessed Be,
Fred
Perhaps you noticed it, too? I pulled into the parking lot at the fellowship and heard this crisp crushing sound beneath my tires. It was the sound I’ve heard many times in my life. All these images flashed through my mind. The long driveway leading to the wooded cabins on my grandparent’s property. The parking lot at the Unitarian Universalist Mountain Retreat in North Carolina. Driving on the gravel roads along the Cahaba River in Alabama. These were places where I felt loved and nurtured.
Funny how certain sounds and visuals can resurrect memories of days long gone. I was watching a TV show and there was a scene of an adult son dancing with his mother. I was in that instant transported to a time when I danced with my mother at my cousin’s wedding. It was a joyful occasion. And the joy of that moment washed over me as the dancers swept fluidly across the floor. It was again a moment of love.
Our parking lot needed some attention. The old shells had disintegrated and settled into the soil causing catchment places for rain puddles. Some puddles were ankle deep. It was becoming a safety concern. Our parking lot needed some love and nurturing, too. An inanimate parcel of land might not be considered needing love and nurturing. Yet, it does.
The board at its last meeting voted to spend $2,000 that was not in our budget to give our parking lot some love and nurturing. It was an important act of love. It was also an act of eco-justice by adding permeable shell gravel that will allow water to seep into the soil and not run off into the streets causing flooding.
It says something about who we are as a community of faith. It says something about how we live out our values. And if we show this much love and nurturing for a parking lot, the very first impression any visitor will have when they arrive here, might it also say something on how we love and nurture one another?
Perhaps, for our visitors, it will resurrect memories of being loved and nurtured, suggesting that this is their home, too.
Blessings,
Fred
Email Fred:
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
I like to share my Hoosierisms, phrases I grew up with in Indiana. This month’s is, “It’s an ill wind that doesn’t blow someone some good.” Well, we’ve certainly experienced an ill wind or two or three lately. Where is the good?
I bet you immediately thought of a surprise phone call from someone who was concerned and wanted to know if you were OK and how they could help. Or you saw neighbors helping each other. Shelter was offered, food, water, and supplies were available. Today on the way to work on Longboat Key I didn’t see any Longboat Key Police. I saw Key Biscayne Police, North Miami Police, and Miami Dade Sherriffs. They are directing traffic for clean-up.
We saw linemen from Indiana and New Jersey in our neighborhood. They really had to travel some distance to lend a hand. I was very touched by the kindness of these workers who used their skills to help alleviate our suffering. It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the destruction but it’s not hard to see the good if we look around. Take a moment to see the people who care about you, the ones who made the phone call, crossed the state or the country to help us, know that our recovery is important to them, and we are not alone.
Some days are like that, they just keep on knocking the wind out of you! Last Tuesday night at the board meeting it was all business as usual, planning events and programs then Wednesday one, two, three all off track.
The first was a concert and social justice effort to bring the duo Deeper Than The Skin to perform a concert and Sunday service at Manatee UU Fellowship in March 2025. I signed the contract and sent it, then got the reply that one of the members has a serious medical condition and will not be able to travel at that time. We are sending healing thoughts and best wishes his way. The enthusiasm and effort the team had making this happen suddenly was cast in a dark cloud and much concern.
Literally a few minutes later I wrote an email to the leadership team regarding the upcoming “Star Trek” leadership workshop and got a return email saying it would have to be put on hold. They are considering other possibilities and this will happen, but at the time of this writing I don’t know when it will be back on track. This will be for everyone, leaders, potential leaders, reluctant leaders, people who don’t know they are leaders, all of us. I’m looking forward to it and I hope everyone else is also.
Then Bill Hayes sent me an email saying he won’t be leading Great Decisions. That is a program of the Foreign Policy Association that is a worldwide study group that has been meeting at the fellowship for decades! We need to keep this going and need someone to step in and spearhead this. Speak with Bill Hayes for details and look for his article in this Update.
So, one, two, three, in the same evening gone, postponed, in jeopardy. Even that cannot discourage me. This time of year, our winter residents are returning and with more people the atmosphere gets recharged. We have the holidays to celebrate together and with the election coming up we have plenty to do; education on the amendments on the ballot, voter registration, postcard campaigns, and choosing our candidates. All of the usual activities still happening, plus Beloved Circles beginning again. It would be great if we could find two more facilitators and begin with four again this year.
I know other events will be developed and these will either come back or regenerate. It’s not like any of us have to look for things to do, they always seem to find us. I’m always glad when I participate at the fellowship. I get so much more than I give when I do.
Email Becky:
Please select a valid formBecky-Smith