We had no requests of the Board this month, EXCEPT for input and backing. As you remember, we decided not to ask for regular monthly Share The Plate (STP) donations, except for one in September (& maybe October) to fulfill our annual member commitment to New York UU Justice (NYUUJ) network.
We became aware of requests for assistance from two UU congregations that have been recent targets of vandalism and arson:
– the First Parish UU Church in Kingston had (in the early morning hours of July 4, 2024) windows and shutters broken in their historic meetinghouse, fire extinguisher foam sprayed everywhere and their Pride and Black Lives Matter flags (which hung in the front of the building) set ablaze thus damaging their sanctuary; and,
– the UU Church of Lawton, OK (which has been repeatedly vandalized since 2019) had graffiti, once again, scrawled on their building, but this time, the violence escalated to their community pantry being set on fire.
These small congregations reached out to Faithify.org, the Unitarian Universalist Crowdfunding site. Even before their fundraising deadlines of August 8th and August 1st respectively, they both met and exceeded their respective goals of $ 30,000 and $ 5,000. In lieu of a STP collection, we will have cards available at upcoming events and services. There is still time to contribute online to the church in Kingston, MA. Should you wish to mail a donation to the church in Lawton, OK, I’m sure it would be appreciated. They are now in the midst of transitioning to a new location.
As a small congregation, like the two mentioned above, we are working to revise our approach from merely giving charity, to giving support through investing our time and by connecting on a deeper level by creating more meaningful relationships with our North Fork community. Working around the schedule of our moving from Holy Trinity in Greenport to our new home “on the bend,” we have some projects planned for the upcoming months.
In coordination with Southold Town Emergency Services and Holy Trinity, we will be holding a 2- hour Emergency Preparedness workshop and Q&A session which will be open to the public and will focus primarily on staying safe in a variety of potentially life-threatening natural disasters and designated shelters. BTW – All Southold Shelters are pet-friendly. Once we move into our new building, we will be working with Southold Town and local law enforcement to provide our congregation with information and tools needed to be a post-disaster distribution center. We will also be looking into having an assessment and training for the congregation on how to deal with a person exhibiting disturbing behavior or an active shooter.
We will be working with organizations and stake holders (some of which are currently off for summer vacation) to get and place a memorial to the 300+ enslaved people who lived on the North Fork.
Your two congregational General Assembly (GA) Delegates and the Alternate Delegate are active members of SAC who participated in pre-assembly training and the 2024 UUA General Assembly (Thursday, June 20th through Sunday, June 23rd). We presented a preliminary report to the congregation at Sunday service on June 30th, which focused on “Love at the Center” and included a brief report on voting results with special attention paid to the proposed Article II changes to the UUA Bylaws, which are the foundation of our faith.
Due to the historic nature of the changed UUA Bylaws, SAC & the 8th Principle Task Force will be doing additional presentations at services and submitting reports to the Board and congregation through emails and Free Spirit articles, as the UUA rolls out further information
More info about all the above will be available at your next meeting of SAC / 8th Principle Task Force.
Date & time – 2nd Wednesday of the month. August 14, 2024, from 4:00-5:00pm
Place – attend either IN PERSON at Southold Free Library in the 2nd floor meeting room
OR via Zoom link. EVERYONE IS WELCOME!
These closing thoughts are from the Faithify site, in response to the two church attacks:
“I suppose this is part of the risk of being a denomination that Sides With Love and publicly displays support for people who are marginalized. These instances are tangible proof that enemies of justice use terrorist tactics thinking we will recoil in fear, but they are so very wrong. We will double our efforts. We will draw the circle ever wider. We may be afraid, but we use that energy to fuel our courage to create a more inclusive and caring world where all have what they need to live in peace.”
With love and solidarity,
Patte McManus (she, her, we)
(631)997-9405 [email protected]