News

Happy Anniversary!

This year UU Animal Ministry is celebrating its 40th anniversary! Founded in 1986 in New York City by four friends who cared deeply about animals, chapters of UUAM have now spread in Fellowships all across the country. Let’s celebrate the animals in all areas of our life and the interconnectedness of all living beings!

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Volunteers Needed to Serve Dinner for Flourish on 4/27!

UUs Serve is still in need of a few volunteers to help serve on April 27. This will also be a wonderful opportunity to see the new space The Shalom Project has moved into and to continue our shared ministry of nourishment and welcome.

If you have the time and capacity, please sign up to serve the Flourish meals on 3/17 and 4/27. The guests at Flourish truly appreciate the meals we prepare and the care we bring.

Registration Now Open! 3/27 -3/28 Boundless Heart 2-Day Retreat

Foyer Seating Shifts Back to Fellowship Hall

If you’ve ever attended one of the Fellowship’s many food events, it’s likely you dined with friends in the Foyer.

This notice is to inform you that, in order to increase safety and provide maximum accessibility for everyone, All Fellowship dining events are moving out of the Foyer back to the Fellowship Hall.

What does this mean for you?

1. Most of our events are organized by members and friends which means we rely on those who attend to help with either setup, cleanup, or breakdown. Signing up in advance whenever possible and showing up prepared to pitch in if you’re willing and able makes these events more fun for everyone!

2. We ask that you remain aware of the potential need to exit the building quickly and safely. That means keeping all doorways clear and making sure there is an exit plan worked out in advance

Know that staff, leaders and teams are working on the safest ways to use our spaces. We are currently pulling together a group to develop some suggested seating plans.

If you’d like to participate in making plans to increase safety and maximize accessibility, please reach out to Skip at safecongregations@uufws.org and let him know you’d like to be a part of that team.

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Try Something New in the New Year

Thank you to the Sunday volunteers who joined one of the groups that makes our services run more smoothly!

It’s a new year, and we need a few more volunteers. With more people, no one has to serve too often, and it’s a wonderful way to make new connections. We’ll train you!

Check out the list below and contact our group leaders to try something new in the new year!

  • Greeters: Welcome members and visitors to the morning services as they enter the Fellowship. Email Susan at greeters@uufws.org.
  • Kitchen Crew: Make coffee and help with setup/cleanup during coffee hour. Email Pat at kitchencrew@uufws.org.
  • Nursery Assistants: Provide a safe, nurturing environment for infants and toddlers. Email pam@uufws.org.
  • Offering Counters: During 2nd service. CLICK HERE to learn more and sign up.
  • Service Slide Creators: Some experience with Google Slides, Power Point or Canva is required. Email Jack at slides@uufws.org.
  • Tech Team: Multiple roles for audio and video broadcast skills. Email Jack at techteam@uufws.org.
  • Ushers: Hand out bulletins, find seats, pass offering baskets, and more! Email Nancy and Candy at ushers@uufws.org.
  • Watchful Shepherds: Monitor building access and watch for anything that could disrupt services. Email Skip at watchfulshepherds@uufws.org.
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Can You Lend a Hand with the UUFWS Recycling Program?

For over three years, Mary Rouse and Bob Habermann have been monitoring the recycling at our facility for compliance with local requirements so that items can be recycled. (Most weeks there are items in the bins that are not recyclable locally or are food-contaminated!) They would love to train others so that the recycling can be placed outside more frequently. Training would take about 15 minutes. Please contact Mary for more information.

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Sunday Reflections

Over the last two months, we’ve been in the depths of some of the breadth of our theological diversity: Samhain, All Souls, Advent (coming soon, Hanukkah).

And we’ve had services of vastly different energy: we debuted our Fellowship Band with upbeat joy, and we had a spoken and sung prayer with contemplation.

More than one of you in the receiving line has said (on different Sundays) something like: “thank you for your message. The feel of the service was not for me, and I know it was for others here. Thank you for doing this.”

What a beautiful sentiment to receive. Sometimes in Unitarian Universalism we can become the muddled melding pot (where no one really shines, the least common denominator). At UUFWS, we’ve made the bold proclamation that we’d rather be a bright mosaic, where we all shine at different times, in different ways.

We believe we learn even from the experiences that aren’t “our thing”. And we wonder, perhaps, if we learn and grow most from these? We wonder, what might be there for us to learn in services that feel less in our own language (verbal, emotional or spiritual)?

And, we’re excited to explore this all together.

And – if you wanted to explore All Creation Waits, the advent calendar in a book we looked at this past Sunday, here are links for the children’s edition as well as the original edition and a gift edition.

What To Do about Rumored ICE Sightings

Let’s not create unfounded fear by spreading “rumors” about ICE sightings that may be unfounded! If you or someone you know thinks they see ICE, please have them call the Siembra ICE watch hotline at (336) 543-0353. They will then confirm, and if it’s a valid sighting send this information out through their networks.

From UUA: Heads of Major American Religious Traditions Issue Landmark Statement Supporting Trans, Intersex and Nonbinary People

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Kitchen Crew Running on Fumes – Let Us Know if You Can Help!

The kitchen crew is seriously understaffed. We need at least two people to make coffee on Sundays mornings and serve refreshments for our 10:00 am Coffee Hour. On the job training will be provided. If you can commit to an occasional Sunday and are willing to learn we’d love to have you on our team.

Please contact Patricia Bartholomew at kitchencrew@uufws.org or text her. Better yet, pop in the kitchen between 9:15-11:00 am, look around and ask lots of questions.

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Sunday Reflections: November

Reflections From 11/2/2025 ~ All Souls Sunday

This past Sunday, we honored all who died, with particular attention to those who died within the past year and had been a part of our Fellowship Community. We read their names, and sang songs of honoring our ancestors.

We also heard the story Popi’s All Souls Song*, the choir sing the gorgeous song In Remembrance by Eleanor Daley, and gleaned some wisdom from Robin Wall Kimerer’s essay Becoming Earth: Experimental Theology (it’s well worth the read!).

*a reminder that just like at a library, you can “check out” this and other stories we read together at the end of the RE hallway, across from the single stall bathroom!

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Sunday Reflections: October

Reflections From 10/12/2025 ~ Our Muddy, Middle World

Want to hear our story from this Sunday, The First Fire, a Cherokee creation story told by the storyteller herself? You’re in luck – here’s Gayle Ross at the Museum of Native American History in Bentonville, Arkansas.

This Week’s Wonderings:

  • Where’s the fun (for me; for us) in living in a muddy world? Where’s the struggle (for me; for us) in living in a muddy world?
  • What do I/we need to do to find more joy in the fun, and more ease in the struggle?

…and where does spiritual practice/ritual/routine fit into these answers for you? How might these help you meet the moments?

Reflections From 10/5/2025 ~ The Hardest Word

This past Sunday we began our month exploring to Stories of Messy Humans by looking at the wisdom from the Jewish High Holy Day of Yom Kippur. We heard a story of the Ziz through the children’s book The Hardest Word: A Yom Kippur Story. We then reflected on what we can learn from the Jewish atonement process of t’shuvah, which is often translated as repentance, and more literally means returning. We discussed the five stages of t’shuvah, from middle ages Jewish Rabbi, philosopher and Torah scholar Maimonides, as explored by Rabbi Danya Ruttenburg in her book On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World.

For a summary of these five stages of t’shuvah, you can read Rabbi Ruttenburg’s blog The Heroic Work of Repentance for the Union of Reform Judaism.

Wondering words for our week:

  • To whom do I need to say “I’m sorry”?
  • What relationships in my life need repair and reconciliation?

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Caring for Each Other

As humans, we each have a deep need for intimacy, friendship and community. As Unitarian Universalists, we fulfill these needs as we give and receive from one another. Contact care@uufws.org if you are in need of a kindness, or would like to be with another as they are facing their storm.