One of the newest members of UUFS, Scott Bednar, died on Thursday. His obituary was in the paper this morning. Scott’s friend, Tracey, notified us yesterday of his death. Tracey wrote of her visit with Scott some time ago  “…Scott felt so at home there (he was blessed to grow up in the Unitarian Fellowship).  He had been lonely and I know he found peace and comfort with all of you.”
Scott’s passing reminds us that each person who comes to us is precious, and we should seize every opportunity to open our hearts to them.  We may not get another chance.
We are diminished by Scott’s absence, and our community will surely grieve his loss.

Soup Kitchen will be Saturday, September 4^th at Grace United Methodist Church.

We will need volunteers to help set up, make deserts (brownies, cupcakes, cookies)

And cleanup. There will be a signup sheet in the Social Room.  Please see Pat Hollinger

For further information.

Dear Ones-.
I’ve come across a wonderful little book entitled Designing Contemporary Congregations by Laurene Beth Bowers.  Bowers is pastor of the First Congregational Church in Randolph Massachusetts and a graduate of Andover Newton School of Theology (I mention these two items to let you know that she is a “close theological relative”).  I’ve not finished the book.  In fact I’ve only gotten to the first chapter, but already I’m hooked.  In her introduction she says this about “worship”:  “Contemporary worship is a transition between celebrating what the congregation has accomplished through its missionary and social justice activities, and praising God for using congregants as the instruments of those activities, and re-energizing those same congregants to go back into the world to engage in ministry again.  Without the opportunity to celebrate the ways that God has worked through the servants, to affirm their gifts and talents and to witness to the presence and power of divine intervention, then we are only do-gooders and do not need organized religion.  Gathering for worship frames the experience of coming into the church and going out with its cyclical movement that has no beginning and no end.”

While we may take exception to some of her language on theological grounds (we‘re UU‘s- you get to choose which language and on what theological grounds), I believe her basic message is absolutely wonderful.

Wishing you peace and blessings,
John

You can reach John at minister@uufs.net

As many of you know, the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations has just wrapped up their General Assembly in Minneapolis, MN. Traditionally, the final event is a worship service on Sunday morning, often with the UUA president delivering the sermon. While I don’t normally watch long videos on my computer (it‘s approximately 1 hour), I’ve just finished watching this magnificent service. If you can devote even ten or twenty minutes, I URGE you to watch any or all of it (my recommendation would be at least the chalice lighting and the sermon by UUA President Peter Morales). It really was that good!

General Assembly Worship Service Video

Kit Wright and Joy Troyer market their creations at the Art with Soul booth

Never know who you might meet at GA

Buddhist Community

Kai and Jai Birch are moving this weekend and really need some help! Can you pitch in and give these folks a hand? Let’s show them what it means to be a family that not only cares, but is willing to “walk the walk”. The moving party starts at 8:00 on Saturday, June 27. If you can help, please call Kai (see the midweek announcements for her phone number), or email webmaster@uufs.net .

Addendum by Ed Steffes:

The first part is done, loading the furniture into the cube. Now we need to unload the cube at the new address on Saturday, July 3. If you can help, please call Kai (see last week’s midweek announcements for her phone number), or email webmaster@uufs.net .

The previous Board proposed the idea of informal performance reviews of our paid staff (John, Lara, Trish, Micaela and Ella). This Board will follow through with the reviews this summer. We want to provide you with an opportunity to participate. This is your chance to recognize our employees’ strengths and to suggest areas for growth.

Please be specific in your remarks and send your comments to me by June 26th. I’ll forward them to the appropriate review team. Your comments will be considered, along with other information, in developing the employee’s performance report.

We also welcome letters or e-mails of commendation which you would like shared with the employee and placed in his/her personnel file.

We hope that you will participate.

Thank you very much,
Naomi

Please reply to president@uufs.net

UUFS is in the process of changing over to a new accounting system called PowerChurch. (Yes, that may be a strange name for a UU fellowship to use. We’re not particularly into power, and some of us don’t even feel comfortable being called a church!)

PowerChurch will give our financial operation stricter accounting, better organization, and easier reporting. It will also require us to observe a few new rules. Every contribution we receive will need to be identified with the name of a contribution fund. Three of our funds are donor restricted, meaning that we can only spend the money for the specific purpose for which it was donated. These funds are:

Ministry Fund, to help pay the minister’s compensation (plate collection once a month)

Into the Future Fund, the capital campaign to pay off our building mortgage (thus freeing up additional money for ministry)

Social Action Fund, supporting humanitarian causes selected by the Social Action Committee (plate collection most Sundays)

All contributions that are not restricted to one of these three purposes will go into our unrestricted fund, which we are calling the Stewardship Fund.

We are asking all donors to identify the fund to which you are contributing in the memo field of your check (or on the envelope if you are giving us cash in an envelope). 

If you are making a payment on your annual pledge, please indicate “Stewardship Pledge.”

If you are making a general contribution without having made a pledge, just indicate “Stewardship.”

If you are making a payment on your three-year Into the Future pledge, please indicate “ITF Pledge.”

If you are contributing to the Ministry Fund, please indicate “Ministry.”

If you are contributing to one of the announced charities, please indicate “Social Action.”

Note that Ministry and Social Action contributions are not considered pledge payments.

Purchases of coffee, chocolate, books, or craft items are not donations and do not need a fund designation.  Just indicate on your check what you are buying.  For craft purchases, we need the name of the seller so we can share the proceeds.  Please do not mix purchases and donations on the same check, as we need to process them in entirely different modules of the PowerChurch software.

The processing of weekly income has become much more complicated in the past several years, and we appreciate the cooperation of all our members and friends to make the accounting process go as smoothly as possible. Thank you!

Please direct any questions to finance@uufs.net.