all church festival fun

Thanks to everyone who came out for our 7th?? Annual All Church Festival! Mindy and Alex Whisenhunt coordinated kids activities and we had new faces as well as old attend!











Was it oobleck or flubber?

Waters House Painting

Thanks to all of you who have been stewards of our building!

Marie Hatton painted this beautiful mural in the Waters House foyer! Last Saturday Kim Schnell, Scott Horgen, Roz Dahl and Pete Gernert-Dott spent the afternoon painting a second floor classroom that currently serves as our seventh grade O.W.L. room.

Kim will be there again this Sunday working on a second coat in the classroom. Your help would be much appreciated!

Religious Education for Adults

There's still room to join the class Articulating Your UU Faith: Sundays March 1, 8, 15, and 22 from 6:30 - 8:30pm in the Fireplace room.

Many of us share the struggle to describe Unitarian Universalism adequately and find it difficult to answer explicit questions about UU history. This course will provide you the opportunity to think and discuss ways to express our faith to the rest of the world. It will also give you an opportunity for meaningful connection with fellow UU's.

The class will be led by Rev Priscilla Richter and Melissa MacKinnon, Director of Religious Education. Childcare will be available during the class. Please call or e-mail Melissa at dre@fussonline.org to register.

ALL CHURCH FESTIVAL TOMORROW

Friday night, February 27, is our all church festival! Come at 6 pm for a potluck, stay for games and activities, and PERHAPS spend the night. Saturday morning we'll have a pancake breakfast at 8 am. Come for part or all, but come enjoy this multigenerational annual event.

Sixth grade Questers

Our sixth grade is participating in a curriculum that is new to us. It is called, The Questing Year. It is being led by Betsy Bitner, Gary Feinland, Michele Hackett, and Mark Vermilyea. The curriculum is designed to lead participants on four interconnected quests that will help them develop their own answers to some of life’s biggest questions. The four quests are:

Action Quest: This central quest invites the youth to live their principles and realize their faith through individual action and a class social action project of their own choice and design.

The class has decided to work on a social action project to support Homeword Bound. They are making signs and will have a table set out in the Great Hall during the month of March with more information.

Inner Quest: Participants explore their own natures and their relationships to others, with request reference to spiritual, denominational and social action questions and issues.

UU Quest: By considering local and denominational principles and programs and through studying the lives of outstanding UU's, participants consider what Unitarian Universalism can and might mean to their own lives and actions

Mystery Quest: This spiritual component helps group members come to individual understandings of the first causes and controlling forces that help shape them, their universe, their lives and their actions.

Living as a refugee: a perspective for youth

This Sunday, February 15, older children and youth are invited to a special program at Waters House

FUSS RE teacher and Social Action Council member Bob Alft will be joined by Taif Jany and together they will lead a discussion on life as a refugee.

Two years ago Taif, his brother and mother escaped from Iraq to Syria after his father was kidnapped and presumed killed. Thanks in part to generous donations from FUSS, Union College and the Iraqi Student Project, Taif is attending Union College for the next four years. Taif will talk about his life in Iraq, his experiences in Syria living as a refugee, and the importance of seeking peace in world torn apart by violence and war.

Begins after "the child in us" portion of the service.

Eat dessert first: SUNDAE SUNDAY

This Sunday, February 8, we celebrate Sundae Sunday, a 30 + year multigenerational celebration at FUSS and opportunity to eat dessert first.

Elementary- aged children in grades preK - 5 will have an opportunity during class time Sunday to make a valentine. Just after the service Kris Gernert Dott and I will distribute the valentines to adults in the congregation.

The children will look for their valentine and, we hope, make a new friend at FUSS. Everyone is invited to the dining room for make your own sundaes and we encourage children and their families to sit with their valentines.

Our senior youth will set up, scoop ice cream and clean up. There will be vegan ice cream available for anyone desiring it or requiring a gluten-free alternative.

There is NO CHARGE for the ice cream. Senior youth will gladly accept donations for their work. Any money they receive will be split between the Iraqi refugees our congregation is supporting and their planned social action trip to New Orleans.