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Rising Together 2025: Saturday, January 25th at 9 AM!
As we look ahead to 2025, many of us are feeling anxiety, dread, or at least trepidation about the political moment we are heading towards. But we also know that, in community, we can find a different path forward filled with possibilities, support, and hope! If you're looking for spiritual sustenance, community connections, and opportunities to deepen your skills for making change, please plan to join us here at the Fellowship for Rising Together: Lessons on Healing from the Front Lines of Activism on Saturday, January 25th from 9 am - 1 pm. Hosted in partnership with the Green Bay Area UU Fellowship, ESTHER Fox Valley, and Congregational United Church of Christ Neenah/Menasha, the third annual Rising Together will include spiritual centering time, a lively panel, topical breakout sessions, and lunch. The event (including lunch and childcare) is free of charge and all are welcome! You can learn more and register at fvuuf.org/rising, and email hannah@fvuuf.org with questions.
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Sunday, December 22
10:00 am Central Time in-person & livestream
Blue Holiday by Rev. Hannah Roberts Villnave
A contemplative service to grieve, connect, and reflect during the busy holiday season
4:00 pm Central Time in-person & livestream
Winter Solstice–Human Comforts: A Celebration of Cold, Darkness, & Hygge
by Rev. Christina Leone-Tracy
Gather with us as we revel in the coziness of winter and celebrate the return of the light with story, song, and fire!
As we celebrate the cozy season, 4:00 pm service attendees are invited to wear their coziest pajamas, robes, and/or slippers to the service or bring a blanket for snuggling. There will also be a “hot chocolate bar” before service.
Click HERE for Worship Service Zoom Information & the Order of Service
• Visit fvuuf.org/middlehour/ to learn more about middle hour.
• Watch past sermons on our YouTube channel.
• Upcoming Services HERE
• See our website HERE for information about our Sunday religious exploration classes for children and youth.
• Share the Plate: In December we share the plate between the Fellowship and Habitat for Humanity.
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Pop-Up Choir This Sunday!
This Sunday, December 22, all are invited to be a part of our POP-UP CHOIR at the 4:00 PM Solstice Service. Please meet in the Sanctuary (up by the piano) at 3:30 PM. We'll be singing "Hearth and Fire", by Gordon Bok.
Please come as you are - you don't need to prepare anything! Music will be provided. Questions? Need more information? Please email John - john@fvuuf.org.
Thanks! Hope to see you Sunday!
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The Turning of the Year service is coming up on January 5th! If you have had a birth or wedding/commitment ceremony in your family from 2024 that you would like acknowledged, or if there is a death in the Fellowship's circle of care from 2024 that you'd like acknowledged, please email it (with Turning of the Year in the subject line) to hannah@fvuuf.org by Friday, January 3rd. We look forward to marking the many transitions from the past year at 10:00 AM on Sunday, January 5th!
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10:10 AM Middle Hour
Middle Hour offerings resume on Sunday, January 12.
Click HERE for future Middle Hour offerings.
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As the Calendar Year-End Approaches… Check your List!
A Note from our Director of Finance and Operations
As we near the end of the calendar year, there are so many responsibilities and so many things to do! When you are making your list and checking things off, I want to remind you of the importance of end-of-year giving.
Giving to the Fellowship is your ultimate gift in an uncertain world, providing personal growth, responsibility, and generosity! Your gift supports the ministry and mission of the Fellowship, and it allows us to continue to serve and reach out to our community in meaningful ways and create an environment of compassion, equity, and progress, but above all, love.
As our ministers recently reminded us your gifts empower us to:
• Show up in the public square for our neighbors who are most at risk, including trans people and immigrants.
• Celebrate the diversity of human experience, including offering comprehensive sexuality education that affirms our commitments to bodily autonomy as sacred.
• Create worship services, classes, and small groups that encourage spiritual seeking, build community, and nourish spirits of all ages.
• Support our partner organizations in addressing housing inequities, environmental justice, and other urgent social issues.
• Offer affirming rites of passage and spaces of belonging for those seeking connection and hope without dogma or shame.
We are grateful for the generous support from all who have contributed to the Fellowship thus far in 2024 with time, talent, and financial resources. Thank you for all you do and all you give.
Your financial gifts not only help the Fellowship but also offer the opportunity to take advantage of smart tax-saving strategies. Maybe you have been notified by your retirement plan or IRA that you must take a Required Minimum Distribution in 2024 or sat down with your financial advisor and found you need an additional tax deduction. If you would still like to make your tax-deductible* end-of-year gift, there is still time to do so.
How can you give? You can contribute online, at the Fellowship on a Sunday, through the Fellowship office during the week, or by mail, and more. For details about these options, giving timelines and other ways to give see the complete list here. We invite you to choose the method of giving that is the best fit for your financial situation.
Wishing you all the best this holiday season…Thank you for your generous support! - Phyllis Schmitt
* Tax laws are complex and specific to each individual donor’s situation. Please consult your tax advisor as to the deductibility of these payments. Only intangible religious benefits were provided as defined by the IRS.
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| | Adult Connection & Learning Opportunities
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Soup-er Saturday - January 4
First Saturday of each month, 5:00-6:00 pm CT (October – May)
Join us at the Fellowship for an evening of potluck food, soup, friends, and conversation. We will need people to bring food (including vegetarian and vegan options), bread, maybe dessert… and to come hungry.
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Unpacking Religious Baggage Group 2nd Sunday of each month, 12:30-1:30 pm
Are you carrying around religious baggage from your upbringing? Do you want to have less negative reactions when other people mention religion or God? Do you want to heal from religious wounds, and move forward with a healthier, more inclusive, and loving sense of your spirituality, whatever that might mean for you now? We’re with you! Join us for our monthly conversations to connect with people who have similar experiences and support each other in developing our spiritual identities. Our ministers and lay leaders will help us develop some self-work and topic exploration to do in between our meetings.
Contact Rev. Christina if you have questions or want to hear more about what the group is doing: christina@fvuuf.org.
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Christian Spirituality Group
4th Sunday of each month, 12:30-1:30 pm
If you identify as a UU Christian or simply want to spend some time exploring UU spirituality around ideas of God, Jesus, or the Bible, join us for a UU Christian Spirituality Group, which is new and still developing how we want to use our time together. We hope to see you at our next meeting.
Contact Kathy Rose if you have questions or want to hear more about what the group is doing: 2kathrynrose@gmail.com.
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| | Religious Exploration - Children & Youth
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December Services Religious Exploration & Childcare Click the button for details.
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Introducing our new Neurodiversity Support Intern!
Rev. Christina and Ms. Kim Hartman have been working to create a relationship with Lawrence University to offer a professional development opportunity for students to help support neurodiversity in our Religious Exploration program by providing support for students, volunteer leaders, and staff on Sunday mornings, making recommendations for curriculum or classroom management adaptations, and more. This unpaid position will support our programs as well as provide a wonderful for-credit academic experience for local university students.
Starting in January, through the end of May, we welcome our new Neurodiversity Support Intern, SOPHIA SCHULTZ! We’re so excited to have Sophia on our team. Here, she can introduce herself:
"Hi, I'm Sophia! I am a senior at Lawrence University, majoring in Psychology and minoring in Neuroscience. I am deeply committed to research and psychological practice that supports the mental health and well-being of neurodiverse youth across diverse settings. Through my applied work experiences in educational settings and personal experiences, I have developed immense empathy for those who experience frequent social, emotional, and sensory overwhelm. I am so excited to have the opportunity to support neurodiverse youth in a non-school community setting!"
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Religious Exploration Program Year
We warmly invite all young curious minds to join us in fun and friendship in our Religious Exploration classes on Sundays during the 11:00 service. Kids in grades 4K-8 will discover our values through enriching lessons and activities that help them grow spiritually, ethically, and intellectually.
Every month, our students in grades 4K- 5 will explore a variety of major world religions and learn more about our new Unitarian Universalist values: Justice, Equity, Transformation, Pluralism, Interdependence, and Generosity (JETPIG). Finally, they will continue their journey of understanding and practicing their own UU faith.
Click HERE for information about each of our programs including nursery, children’s Sunday Religious Exploration, and HERE for our teen programs; Crossing Paths, Being a Teen, and Our Whole Lives.
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 | Click the image to view the Justice Hub
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Justice Hub
Check out the Justice Hub, featuring an easy-to-use calendar! Each event on the calendar includes time, location, and program details to help you learn more about how to get engaged with our wider community.
When you click on an event, at the bottom of the description you can click “Copy to my calendar” to add the event to your calendar and never miss a chance to act courageously for justice in our world.
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| | Connect & Commit Spotlight
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Start thinking now to help make our spring auctions a success!
Our Fellowship online auction will take place March 2-9, followed by a special Platinum Glitz and Glamour Gala and in-person auction event on March 29, 2025. More information about both events will be coming in the new year, but please mark your calendars and start thinking now about what YOU can offer to the auctions:
• Do you cook, bake, or have a skill you can share (handyman, woodworking, cleaning, painting?)
• Do you create crafts, jewelry, or other items to sell?
• Do you have a property, a boat, camper, vacation home, or something else you can rent out?
• Would you be willing to offer a house concert or dinner event?
• Do you have connections at local venues, restaurants, or other places that you could ask to donate something?
• Do you have tickets for the PAC, Fox Valley Symphony Orchestra, Packers, Brewers, or something else you could offer?
• The opportunities are endless!
The online auction will be for smaller items and the gala in-person auction will be for our bigger-ticket items. Questions? Contact Angie Miller, chair of our fundraising committee, at starlight54302@yahoo.com.
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Connect and Commit: Engage, Serve, Give
Communication is vital to the life of The Fellowship. This year, our Generosity & Engagement Ministries (GEM) is focusing on the ways we Connect and Commit: Engage, Serve, Give.
Our goal is that each person will consider their connection and commitment to the Fellowship – How do you want to engage, serve, and give this year?
We need each of you to complete the Connect and Commit form, to let us know your hopes, goals, and intentions for the year. Our goal is to help each person find their place at the Fellowship so that we are all connected in meaningful ways. The information from the form will help us support your purposeful commitment to the Fellowship.
Please click HERE for details and to fill out the form. Paper forms are available in the Fellowship lobby.
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We Gather With Love: A Holiday Message From Unitarian Universalist Association President Sofía Betancourt
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Ride to Sunday Service
A person with a disability living in De Pere would be grateful for a ride on Sunday morning so she can attend the 11:00 am service. Please contact Rev. Christina at christina@fvuuf.org if you can help.
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UU Women's Connection
Winter 2025 Retreat
Join us January 31-February 2, 2025
This will be our first Winter retreat! With a focus on our mind, body, and spirit, we'll make a spa weekend for ourselves. So bring your favorite robe and slippers and prepare to relax, pamper, and renew yourself. Following the new tradition of our Summer retreat, we'll prepare meals for each other in the Lodge kitchen. And rather than structured workshops, we'll include activities like these:
- Imbolc ritual
- Adult Coloring
- Jigsaw puzzles
- Drumming
- We'll also have a massage therapist vendor attending!
Kathy Miller is our Lead for this event, Nyx Firebourn is Registrar, and Diana DeWeese is creating the rituals.
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Care and Support
To submit a Joy or Concern, fill out the form on our website or contact Rev. Christina Leone-Tracy, Co-Minister, at christina@fvuuf.org or 920-731-0849. For pastoral emergencies call 920-383-1565.
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Office Closed
The Fellowship office will be closed from Wednesday, December 25 through Wednesday, January 1.
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