Fourth Universalist Society in the City of New York

Please help with this important part of our Sunday fellowship — no experience needed. Sign up on the sheet at the coffee window, or contact Spencer Salzberg at smsalzberg@hotmail.com to volunteer. Full instructions provided. Thank you.

We are looking to expand our musical offerings for worship at Fourth U. We invite all instrumentalists who may be interested in playing at Sunday services to please call our music director, Tom McGinnis, at 646.379.1893.

Interweave, Fourth U’s GLBT advocacy group, is working to assist the Trinity Place Shelter for homeless GLBT youth. Donations of toiletries (including complimentary soaps, etc., from hotels), new socks and underwear, movie/theater tickets, non-perishable food items would be welcomed.  Please note our donation bin at the back of the sanctuary.  There are also many wonderful opportunities to volunteer in different capacities including Wednesday night meal hosting.  For info contact: Claudia Lorie at Ishariel@aol.com or Rachel Silver at Mvstar16@aol.com.

The invitations to our 3rd Annual Auction Gala, scheduled for Saturday, November 22, were mailed this week. Look for yours in the mail, and RSVP to let us know that you’ll be coming. The more people who attend this event, the more money we will raise, and the more fun we’ll have. So if there’s someone whom you’d like to invite, please let us know the contact information so that we can send a paper invitation. You can submit the information to Liz Daleske at lizdaleske@gmail.com or stop by our auction table after services on Sunday. We will have notepaper available for personal messages to your friends and family. You can write them yourself on Sunday and submit them with your list of names, or include your notes when you email your list to Liz Daleske.   Thanks for helping us get a bigger crowd than ever.

This workshop, to be held in Westchester county, will help UU congregations dismantle racism by allowing participants to examine both personal and institutional racism, empowering them to develop a realistic plan that can move their congregations forward in working for racial justice.  Days/times: Friday, October 24 from 6:00-9:00 PM and Saturday, October 25 from 9:00 AM-5:00 PM.  Registration includes all food (heavy snacks Friday evening and breakfast and lunch on Saturday). It’s $30 for non-students over 18 and $10 for students and youth.

To register, please use the on-line registration form, available at https://www.formdesk.com/uuforms/jubilee. If you don’t have Internet access, please contact Rev. Michael Tino at 914.241.1360 to register. The UU Fellowship of Northern Westchester is at NY Rte. 172 between Bedford and Mt. Kisco, NY, about 35 miles north of New York City. It is accessible by car (1 mile off Interstate 684). More detailed directions are available at the congregation’s website, www.uufellowship.org  <http://www.uufellowship.org/> or call 914.241.1360 ext. 3.

The Fourth U leadership met on September 20 for a day-long retreat to chart the future of the Society. One thing we agreed upon was that we wanted a larger, more vibrant and more engaged community. Growing our membership is a task for all of us, not just the leadership. As Rosemary often says: on Sunday, everyone is a member of the Membership Committee.  How welcoming are we to visitors and newcomers? We think of Fourth U as a warm and friendly place, where anyone would feel comfortable. But are we really making enough of an effort to reach out to those who are seeking a spiritual and religious home?

A few years back, UUA president William Sinkford asked UUs to develop an “elevator speech,” a description of Unitarian Universalism which is short and concise enough to be given in the space of an elevator ride. It is easy to get tongue-tied when describing our faith, a faith which defies description because it is as diverse as we are. Nevertheless, we can all be better spokespeople for our faith and for Fourth U. We tend to spend coffee hour catching up with friends and conducting church business. Let us use coffee hour as the fellowship hour it was intended to be, and spend more time greeting and getting to know our visitors. Let them know about Unitarian Universalism and what a special place this is. Share with them your religious odyssey. Perhaps Fourth U will be a part of theirs as well.

Matt Gilbert