Dear Fellow Seekers,

UUFM is abuzz with energy that has been building all summer.  Some of the energy arises from actions of our members and friends who regularly attend local justice protests, some emerges from our local UUtheVote efforts – mentioned here in our Weekly Update and some emanates from the revival of our UUFM Book group.  Simultaneously, there is great energy surrounding UUFM’s Green Sanctuary planning group which has been meeting bi-monthly since this spring.  Building on UUFM’s impressive history of environmental stewardship, reflected in our UUA designation as a Green Sanctuary Congregation, our UUFM Green Team (a subset of our EDJ Team) has been hard at work assessing and reporting on the impacts of our prior efforts while also challenging one another to envision 5 new multi-year projects our congregation could collectively undertake that will reduce our congregation’s carbon footprint and advance causes of environmental preservation and climate justice.  Using the UUA provided framework, planners are actively brainstorming potential projects that would achieve Mitigation, Resiliency and Climate Justice.  Each project chosen must have measurable outcomes.  Most projects we adopt can be undertaken by the Fellowship alone or in collaboration with other groups.  We need your voice at the table too.  Please share your energy and ideas with this open planning group.  The time to act is NOW because many decisions will be made in the coming month that will shape the proposed projects to be included in the Draft Plan the planning team and EDJ will take to the Board and to the congregation for discussion, amendment and adoption.  This is the time to join our bi-monthly Zoom conversation to brainstorm project possibilities with us.  Cathi Fouchi is contributing her planning skills as our convener and Ted Downey sends out our agenda in advance.  Please e-mail Ted to let him know you’d like to receive the Green Team Agendas, the Zoom meeting links and a copy of our working planning documents.  He can be reached at:  ted2alt@aol.com.

In Hope, Penny