The Unitarian Universalist Church of Manchester welcomes you to join our next Sunday service! May 17th we will have our regular 10 AM service followed by our hour of community and coffee in our basement hall. Following Fellowship Hour, we will meet upstairs in the Sanctuary for our Annual Meeting! Every member of the church is eligible to vote, so please join us if you are able! The Annual Report will be emailed out in the next few days, and we encourage folks to bring digital versions to the meeting. We will print 20 copies for those who need them, but we are hoping to save on paper where we are able. If you have any questions about the Annual Meeting, please reach out to our office administrator at admin@uumanchester.org.
Announcements
Worship & Music Committee: Call for Speakers for May 24 Service
The theme for our May 24 service will be “From Curiosity to Flourishing: Finding Your Place.” How has joining UU Manchester and connecting with the UU faith helped you flourish in new and perhaps unexpected ways, either within the church itself, or in your personal or community life? If you would like to offer a 4-5 minute reflection on this topic, please email angelaaudet@gmail.com. (Note this is Memorial Day Weekend.)
Show Your UU Colors
UU Manchester T-Shirts will be on sale during coffee hour at a discounted price. Adult T-Shirts: $15, Youth T-Shirts: $10. These are UU Manchester original designs and have not been available for several years. Proudly wear your UU Manchester T-shirt all summer long! Cash or check preferred.
Hospitality Update
If you are unable to keep your hospitality commitment, please let Barbara Dagenais or Marge Goudreault know as soon as possible. If it is a last minute situation, such as Saturday evening or Sunday morning, please call Barbara at 603-494-1289 so an alternate can be found. Without notice, a very big job is left for one person.
Current Year Pledge Payments and Contributions of Record
As we approach the end of the current fiscal year, the finance committee would like to encourage you to fulfill your FY 25-26 pledge by the end of the fiscal year, June 30th. Due to much greater than anticipated building repairs, oil and electricity use for heating, and snow removal costs, we are headed for a deficit for the current year. To minimize the deficit, we ask everyone to pay their pledge in full and by June 30th if possible. If you won’t be able to fulfill your pledge, please let our collector, Chris Monroe, know by emailing her at collector@uumanchester.org.
Also, we want to remind you about the eligibility requirements for voting at the annual meeting on Sunday, May 17th.
Voting eligibility for church meetings per our bylaws:
1) You must be a signed member of UU Manchester at least 30 days prior to the meeting. However, the BOD voted on 4/21 to grant an exception to new members who signed the membership book on 4/26, allowing them to vote at our annual meeting on 5/17.
2) You must have made a contribution of record to the church in the current fiscal year. Unidentified plate donations do not count, as the collector has no way to know who made them. You can put cash plate donations in an envelope with your name on it, and it will be credited to you. All pledge payments are a contribution of record. If for some reason, you cannot satisfy this requirement by 4/17/26 (for this fiscal year July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026), you would need to get a waiver from the minister or the president of the board in order to qualify to vote. Note that pledge payments made before the start of the fiscal year do count, as they are credited in the current fiscal year.
With much gratitude, The Finance Committee
Volunteer Needed: Flower Coordinator
We would like to revive the tradition of congregants bringing in flowers to beautify the Sanctuary for Sunday Service! This requires a coordinator who can create a schedule and invite volunteers to sign up for bringing in flowers (and they can take them home after! Bonus!) Sunday flowers can be dedicated to loved ones, honor birthdays, celebrate a special day, etc., and the dedication can be shared as part of Joys and Concerns for the day. If you would like to take on this important volunteer role, please reach out to Angela at angelaaudet@gmail.com
Pride Volunteers Needed!
Pride Festival is coming up and UUCM needs volunteers! The Parade/Festival is June 27 from 11am to 5pm. We will need people to march in the parade, help with festival table setup and tear down, and manning the table in two hour increments. Further information will be provided as information is provided by Manchester True Collaborative.
If you are not able to participate in this year’s UU Manchester Pride 26, but wish to offer support to our effort, the Board has approved our reaching out to our members for support. We will have an Amazon Wishlist of things we would appreciate to have to make this year’s Pride event a success!
Disability Pride Tabling Opportunity!
On July 26th, there will be a Disability Pride Event in Dover, NH. Details are still being worked out by the head organizer, but this week they reached out to our Administrator to see if we would like to host a table for the event! If anyone is interested in running a UU Manchester table in Dover, please email Tess Bloodrune at admin@uumanchester.org. If you are willing to give rides to the Disability Pride event after Sunday services, please also contact Tess to arrange car pooling opportunities.
Communications Team Volunteers Needed
Our office admin has been busy drafting a communications policy and doing prep work for a small team to be able to take over managing social media. We are looking for a volunteer to handle coordination between media platforms, someone who is willing to work on the weekly newsletter, and someone who is comfortable with various social media platforms to make regular posts to our pages. If you would like to volunteer with our Communications Team, please email or talk to Tess!
Topics: Worship