Saturday, June 1st, 2013 8-10 p.m. Learn to rumba, swing, cha-cha, line dance, waltz & more. Details to follow.

Date: May 19th, 2013, 10:00 am
Topic:  “Religious Exploration Youth Service / Bridging”
Speaker:
Service Leader: RE Youth
Second Hour: Porch Swing, Free Thought, Miracles, Buddhist Meditation, Informal Socializing

Saturday, May 11, 2013, 10-11:30 a.m., children ages 8-12 are invited to make a flower arrangement for mom at a workshop hosted by the UUFEC.  Cost is $12.  Scholarships are available.  Register at 678-2842 or marieharrison@valp.net.

Saturday, May 18th, 2013, 10 a.m., work on the playground will resume.  Carpentry and child-care workers needed.  Please come support this volunteer project!

If  you  know of a UUFEC member who is sick, hospitalized, or in need of other pastoral care, send an email to caring@uufec.com.  Your email message will go to the minister and those members who are in the Fellowship Caring Circle, a new networking tool that our webmaster, Chris Jordan, has created on our website, www.uufec.com.  (Read  more about UUFEC Cares by going to https://www.uufec.com/wordpress/uufec-cares/)  Those members in the Caring Circle will be able to network with the minister and each other to coordinate  caring efforts to those who need them and keep the congregation updated on how our members in need are doing.  Anyone who agrees to ask permission before sharing confidential information may be added to the Caring Circle by the Minister or by Shar Farley, membership chair.

Want to help feed the homeless? Our UUFEC dinner for the Opportunity Place homeless in FWB is Thursday, May 16th. Please volunteer to help us cook and deliver any part of our dinner by contacting Deborah Baker-Rian at 850-499-0198 or email at deborah.bakerrian@gmail.com. To feed the 30 residents there on our night each month, we need at least 4 large entrees (casseroles) and 2-3 large salads. Thanks in advance for your contribution to feeding the homeless of our community!

Thursday, May 2nd, 2013: Bring a dish to share with great friends.

Saturday, May 4th, 2013: Please reserve the first Saturday in May for your work contribution to UUFEC. The weather will be optimum. There will be mostly outside projects – please advise boyer@valp.net with your intentions or call 582-4417.

Want to help? This month our UUFEC dinner for the homeless of Opportunity Place in Fort Walton Beach is Thursday, April 18th, 2013. You can volunteer to help cook and deliver a meal to OP, or make a special monetary donation for any month(s) to provide the OP meal. To feed the 30 homeless residents there on our night, we need at least 4 large entrees (casseroles) and 2-3 large salads. Please sign the list at the rear of the sanctuary if you can cook or provide food for our dinner this month, or see or call Deborah Baker-Rian at (850) 499-0198 or email her at deborah.bakerrian@gmail.com. Thanks for contributing to feeding the homeless of our community.

JFK was inaugurated in January 1961 during a major snowstorm. School was closed; I watched it live!  And I remember hearing his famous words as he said them for the first time:  “Ask not what your country can do for you,” Kennedy said. “Ask what you can do for your country.”  I was only 16 years old but I knew those were words to live by.

Now I am a bit older but the idea of serving rather than being served has driven my spiritual development.  And now I say to myself and to you, ask not what the UUFEC can do for you; ask what you can do for our Fellowship.  And I am absolutely serious.

When we ask what we can do for our Fellowship or our country, for that matter, we begin to truly own it.  We take responsibility for supporting it, for growing it, for making it the place we want it to be.  It requires commitment, service, and the willingness to give our best to build our Beloved Community.  This is what Stewardship is.

Any one of us can say we can’t help, we don’t have the funds, we have other priorities. Any one of us can bow out of our responsibilities to growing this Beloved Community.  But we all need one another and when any one is missing, the loss is felt by all.

We, the Stewardship team, have set the goal this year of supporting a balanced budget with the pledges.  Our goal is modest.  Working to raise this is a labor of love, love for UUFEC and love for all of us.  We are the Fellowship.  You are the Fellowship.  Together we create a Beloved Community.  It cannot happen any other way.

Last year our pledges for FY 2012-13 fell short of the amount needed to balance the budget.  And as your treasurer and a member of the Board of Directors, I can tell you absolutely that there is no fat on our expense list.  And even so we had a significant shortfall and had to take money from our savings fund to make up the difference.  We need your help to make that change this year.

So now we ask that you please consider what UUFEC means to you and consider what UUFEC will be without your generous support.  Remember that when your support is absent, it is missed by the entire community.

If you are struggling to pledge (financially or emotionally), please speak with one of us. We are here to help and support as well as ask.  This, too, is Beloved Community.

Pledge Sunday was April 1st when many of you made your commitment and put it in the collection basket.   We will be calling on those members and friends that still need to pledge.   Better yet, just bring in this Sunday or email your pledge to me. You and I will be glade you did.  We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Blessings, Ed Farley, Treasurer  

treasurer@uufec.com