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Stories & Tea Party Event with Drag Queen Anita Bobbypin!
Sunday, November 24, 1:00 - 3:00 pm
Cost: $10 per person or $25 max per family
Join us for an afternoon of stories, learning, connection, and fun with a tea party! We will welcome Fox Valley’s favorite drag queen, Anita Bobbypin, to share stories with us. Then, for an hour, kids are welcome to join Anita and some Fellowship adults to prepare for a tea party celebration. They’ll get to know Anita, ask her questions, and interact as they make crowns and tiaras, enjoy face paint, and decorate cookies. Meanwhile, the adults will join Rev. Christina and Fellowship member Amanda Kramp (who is a local award-winning burlesque performer, who goes by the stage name Daisy Chains) to discuss how to talk to others in our lives, kids and adults, about gender and sexuality diversity. Afterward, we will all join together for a celebratory tea party with tea and cookies.
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Fellowship called Rev. Hannah to serve as a settled co-minister
On Sunday, November 17, the members of the Fellowship overwhelmingly voted "yes" to call the Rev. Hannah Roberts Villnave as Co-Minister alongside the Rev. Christina Leone-Tracy. The shift to co-ministry will occur over the next several weeks and will be official as of January 1, 2025.
We are so excited for this next chapter of our collective life together at the Fellowship and want to say a special thank-you to the Call Discernment Team for shepherding through a successful call process: Sam Zinth, Dave Gerlach, Tim Watson, Marti Wheeler, and Brian Murton. We appreciate you!
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Sunday, November 24
9:00 am Central Time in-person
informal coffeehouse-style service with conversation
11:00 am Central Time in-person & livestream
traditional service with sermon
When You Know Better, Do Better - A Tools for Being Human Service by Rev. Christina Leone-Tracy
Click HERE for Worship Service Zoom Information & the Order of Service
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10:10 AM Middle Hour
Middle Hour offering this Sunday:
• Newcomer Fireside Chat with the Generosity and Engagement Team
Click HERE for future Middle Hour offerings.
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| | Adult Connection & Learning Opportunities
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Hungry for community? Sign up to attend a Circle Dinner!
These have been a longtime tradition at the Fellowship as a way to get to know new people in a relaxed, fun environment. On the evening of Sunday, December 8, between 5:00-8:00 PM, nine dinners will be hosted simultaneously at the homes of Fellowship members and friends throughout our community. Sign up for a spot at the table, and you’ll be treated to an evening of delicious food, good conversation, and Fellowship fun.
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Unpacking Religious Baggage – Interest Session & Dinner
Wednesday, December 4, 6:00-7:30 PM. RSVP to christina@fvuuf.org for dinner planning.
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 Rev. Christina and others who feel similarly to you, for an interest session to start an Unpacking Religious Baggage group. We’ll share dinner and discuss what a group might look like. Please RSVP to christina@fvuuf.org (indicating how many people are coming and any dietary restrictions) so we can plan accordingly for dinner.
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| | Religious Exploration - Children & Youth
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Co-Ministry Kid’s Vote Results
Last Sunday our 4K-5th grade students were dizzy with excitement about getting to weigh in on the Co-Ministry vote alongside our adult Fellowship members! After a short lesson about democracy, the kids lined up in the hallway outside of the Dávid room, and once inside cast their ballot using either a green card (for yes) or a red card (for no). The voting results… drum roll please… they overwhelmingly chose to have Revs. Christina and Hannah serve our Fellowship as Co-Ministers!
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Thanksgiving Pie Fundraiser Thank You!
During this season of gratitude, our BATs youth want to express their thanks to everyone who helped fund their Spring UU Heritage Trip to Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN by buying their homemade pies! Your incredible support allowed us to fill all our spots quickly, so we even had to close our order form three days early!
Making pies together is a wonderful bonding experience for our youth, and it helps strengthen their connections for the rest of this year's BATs program and in years to come.
Thank you very much for supporting our young people as they explore who they are and what it means to be part of the UU community. We hope your pies bring you joy and remind you of the caring community we share here.
Orders will be made FRESH and ready for pick up at the Fellowship on…
· Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024 (8:30am to 12:30pm)
· Monday, Nov. 25 (10:00am-6:00pm)
· Tuesday, Nov. 26 (8:30am-4:30pm)
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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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| | Connect & Commit Spotlight
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Round Two: Vote For Our January Share-the-Plate Recipient
Last month we asked you to nominate organizations as recipients and we received NINE worthy nominees for our Fellowship’s support. We have received your votes and have narrowed down those candidates to THREE. Check out details of the nominees HERE, and then vote for your choice USING THIS LINK before December 4. We will share the winner on December 5.
Each Sunday, our Fellowship shares our “plate” (financial offering collected during services and online) with outside organizations. We typically split the offering between the Fellowship’s mission and a worthy organization in the wider community. Our justice teams, board, and XTeam typically select our recipients. But this time it’s Fellowship Choice! Please vote!
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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 live-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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Bring back your E2F pans this Sunday!
If you were so kind as to take an empty pan two Sundays ago please bring it back filled and FROZEN this Sunday, November 24. Essentials JAM will be collecting the full pans before both services. If you are not able to return the pan on Sunday please make arrangements to deliver it to the fellowship or Deb Muench before Sunday. Your help in feeding the hungry in our community is greatly appreciated. Questions? Call, text, or email Deb Muench at 920-422-1852 or debmuench@icloud.com.
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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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Winter Fellowship Art Display
The theme for our next art show will be “A CELEBRATION OF COLOR.” If you have colorful art, either original or just something you love, please consider sharing it with the Fellowship for a few months. We would love to brighten up the Fellowship Hall walls during the long winter months. We will be hanging the show on Sunday, December 8 after the 11:00 service. Unfortunately, we cannot take submissions after the show is hung on December 8, but we encourage you to hang onto your pieces for future Fellowship art shows. Any pieces you share should have your name and the title of the work on the back. Also, if you currently have art on display, please remove it by 1:00 that day. And if you’d like to get involved in the work of the art committee, please let me know. Thanks! Mary Gerlach (gerlachmz@gmail.com)
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Care and Support
To submit a Joy or Concern, fill out the form on our website or contact Rev. Hannah Roberts Villnave, Assistant Minister, at hannah@fvuuf.org or 920-731-0849. For pastoral emergencies call 920-383-1565.
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