WUUC Welcoming Congregations Renewal

WUUC has successfully completed the UUA recertification process required to renew our status as a Welcoming Congregation. This is a public declaration of our ongoing commitment to LGBTQ+ welcome and inclusion in and beyond Woodinville.

Congratulations to our WUUC Welcoming Congregations team, Jean Fowler (fernhaven@comcast.net) and Jane Flood (matterofwills@gmail.com)! This took significant investment of thought and time over the past year to make it happen.

The Welcoming team:

·       Helps everyone feel like they belong

·       Extends a warm welcome to LGBTQ+ visitors

·       Models and promotes allyship

·       Bring’s LGBTQ+ people fully into our community

·       Dispels myths and stereotypes

·       Supports straight families of LGBTQ+ people

Learn more by joining the welcoming@wuuc.org email alias or contacting Jean or Jane.

Totes to Go April 2024

Totes to Go April 2024

Spring is here and we’re about ¾ of the way through the school year. Totes has been doing very well, filling our basic list and adding a few extras the school has requested. Serving 15 kids who are at risk of missing meals on weekends takes a large part of our community and we are grateful to everyone who has supported program. A couple of requests and a new way to support Totes: we need a new “sponsor” for the granola bars. We need some of the heavy-duty plastic grocery bags you may get when you forget to bring your re-usables. And if you hate shopping but would like to support Totes, you can now donate money – just mark your check to WUUC ‘Totes’ on the memo line or mark an envelope with cash.

Thanks so much for your support of Totes to Go. Questions and comments? Contact Grace Simons or John Hartman, co-coordinators.

Call for Delegates to Virtual GA 2024 – Thursday – Sunday, June 20-23

Call for Delegates to Virtual GA 2024 – Thursday – Sunday, June 20-23

The Board is looking for WUUC members interested in representing WUUC as a delegate at the Virtual 2024 UUA General Assembly (GA) to be held June 20-23rd, 2024

This year’s GA theme as excerpted from the UUA GA website:  “Love Unites, Stories Ignite” celebrates the profound impact of love as a binding force that transcends boundaries and fosters connections within our faith community and beyond.  Our faith has always been rooted in the power of storytelling, and this year we’ll explore how our stories can ignite change, inspire compassion, and help us build a more just and equitable world. Through storytelling, we share our experiences, our dreams, our struggles, and our triumphs. It is through these stories that we can find common ground, deepening our understanding of one another and the world around us.

WUUC is eligible to send three delegates.  If you are interested in serving as a delegate or have questions about being a delegate, please email the Board at board@wuuc.org.  Deadline for submitting your name for consideration as a delegate is March 15th.  Delegates will be elected at the Congregational Meeting on 4/21/24.

The responsibilities of a WUUC delegate to General Assembly include the following:

1)  Familiarizing yourself with the business items on the GA agenda and staying adequately informed to make a knowledgeable voting decision,

2)  Notifying the WUUC congregation of those items that require a delegate vote, 

3)  Attending GA business meetings and casting your delegate vote.

This year’s GA will be virtual only, held online.  Virtual attendees will enjoy robust programming and access to the Delegate Participation platform for participation in the business meetings and voting.  The final business agenda is expected to be available to congregations by May, 2024.  There will be many opportunities to inform yourself about the business items on the agenda prior to the start of GA.  This year, delegates will be voting on adoption of the proposed revisions (and 4 qualified amendments) to Article II of the UUA Bylaws.  The 2024 GA Schedule is available here: General Assembly Schedule | General Assembly | UUA.org.  

Registration options are available for virtual participation.  Full virtual registration includes access to the GA app, as well as workshops, lectures, worship and witness opportunities.  For voting delegates, there is also a business-only virtual option. Although a delegate can register for the business-only virtual option, we encourage assigned delegates to register for the full virtual experience. WUUC will reimburse the full $315 registration fee for virtual participation if requested.   Complete registration information is available at this link.  General Assembly Registration | General Assembly | UUA.org

Virtual participation requires high-speed internet access and a desktop/laptop computer. Smartphones and tablets can be used as supplemental screens for streaming video, voting, or chatting, but they do not accommodate a complete user experience. You will also need a webcam if you want to be seen during Zoom Sessions when speaking. Headphones are recommended.

Further information regarding being a delegate at the General Assembly can be found at Delegate Information for General Assembly | General Assembly | UUA.org.  WUUC Board member(s) will be available to help you in any capacity where you may need assistance.  Thank you for considering this important opportunity to serve our WUUC community.

Your WUUC Board of Trustees

WUUC Annual Pledge Drive

WUUC Annual Pledge Drive

Pssst!!   Hey!!   WUUC!!
C’mere.  I got something to tell ya. 

March is our annual fundraising pledge drive. That’s when members and friends pledge monthly donations to the Woodinville Unitarian Universalist Church. We rely on those donations to run WUUC.   
So periodically we have to ask for it. Money that is. We need money. 
March is Pledge Drive Month.  So we know what that means! Our goal this year is 330,000 so we gotta get crackin. More information and the pledge form can be found at wuuc/org/letschat.

I know, we don’t like asking for money either but we gotta keep the lights on and pay the piano player.

There’s a link below when you’re ready. 

And watch that telephone booth in the foyer, the faster that phone booth fills up with people, the sooner the campaign will end.   
(I heard a rumor you can pick your own person to stick on the booth after you pledge. I don’t know about that. Maybe someone on Sunday will know?).

By the end of this seemingly endless three weeks of campaigning, we will be remembering why we felt welcomed here. Why we keep coming back. Why we love the people and programs at WUUC.

And we’ll all up our pledges 10%

Get ready, because here we come! 

-The WUUC Stewardship Committee-

Justice and Service Monthly Collection, March 2024

Members of our LGBTQ+ community face increasing risk to their lives and safety across the country. The Advocates for Social Justice (ASJ) special collection for March will support Camp Ten Trees, the Pacific Northwest’s only residential summer camp programming for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ+) youth and their allies, and for children/youth of LGBTQ+ or non-traditional families.

The ASJ Committee thanks WUUC members and friends for their generous support of our monthly special collections, which take place during services on the third Sunday of every month (March 17th). Instructions for giving are posted during the service, and you can also donate anytime the following week at https://onrealm.org/wuuc/-/give/now, or by sending a check to WUUC at P.O. Box 111, Woodinville, WA 98072. Please make checks out to WUUC and write “ASJ Special Collection” in the notes.

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Nex Benedict, non-binary Oklahoma teen who died after beaten in the girls restroom at school.