Friday News – April 4, 2025

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I am so excited to announce that we have hired Robin Lawson as our new Congregational Life and Bookkeeping Assistant! Robin is a life-long Unitarian Universalist who has been incredibly active in our congregation and a vital part of so many areas of Congregational Life.

Robin is excited to serve the congregation in this new way and work collaboratively with church leadership to meet the needs of the congregation. I have had the wonderful opportunity to work with her this week and she brings an excitement and enthusiasm that is refreshing and I’m thrilled to see the ways that she will bring that excitement into the work.

Rev. Kelli McNeal

Congregational Life Minister

Upcoming Events

First Friday Spaghetti Dinner

Tonight at 6:30pm!

Join us at 6:30pm to enjoy dinner prepared by Joel Cosme from Community Grounds Coffee & Meeting House!  We’ll have salad, piñon, pasta, sun-dried tomato pesto, chicken nuggets, garlic bread and dessert. Vegan/gluten free/dairy free options available. Dinner is served at 6:30 and chatting/games/movies often go till 8:30-9. All ages are welcome!

Your first dinner is free! Subsequent $3 donations help fund the food. Spread the word, and come have a good time and some good eats with church friends!

After Dinner, you can participate in Origami for Green Thumbs, making Paper Pots and Packets! Dianne Kadonaga will teach us how to craft biodegradable plant pots from recycled newspaper, and to fold perfect little seed packets from scrap paper – origami style – without scissors, tape, staples, or glue to help prepare for April’s Share the Plate activities.

Save the Date for May 2: Open Mic Talent & Variety Show. Get ready to show off your skills, because First UU’s Got Talent! Tune up your Instruments, practice your juggling or musical acts, polish up your poetry – and get ready to have some fun! In the interest of time, participants will be asked to present one three-minute act.

This Sunday, April 6

9:15am:

Nouurish Service

Featuring:

Flap Your Hands

by Steve Asbell

Presented by members of the Alternative Worship Team with members of our First UU Community.

11am:

“Empathy in the

midst of…”

In a climate of either/or, us/them, right/wrong, how do we continue to center love?

Presented by Rev. Kelli McNeal,

Congregational Life Minister

Enjoy hot breakfast at 10am! Coffee, tea, & conversation following both services.

Annual Pledge Campaign

Please pick up your pledge packets after worship this Sunday! Sharing your planned contributions enables First UU’s Staff and Board to responsibly budget the missions of the congregation for the upcoming fiscal year. We appreciate all the ways you contribute to our congregation – Thank you!

2025 Community Passover Seder Potluck

April 11 at 6:30pm

Kehilat Sukkat Shalom, a small but mighty Columbus based Reconstructionist-Renewal Jewish community, gratefully meets at the UU church. We would love to invite UU members to join us for our annual, in-person Passover seder!

While Passover is traditionally celebrated in the home, this event provides an opportunity to come together as a community for the ritual feast. Our service and meal will highlight the intersections of old traditions and new interpretations, helping all who attend draw connections to stories of old and contemporary issues that plague us today. Passover is generally a celebration of liberation and freedom from political and religious oppression.
Now in this time, it is more important than ever to come together and remember that another way is possible!

 
RSVP on SignUp Genius

First UU Christian Fellowship

1st and 3rd Mondays, 6:30–8:00pm on Zoom
Join this Bible study and discussion group that meets twice a month on Zoom. Our current study is “Faith Working Thru Love: Discover Biblical Wisdom about a Christian Ethic of Work” from N.T. Wright. This is a free, online study. All are welcome!

April 7 – Romans 12

April 21 – 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13

May 5 – Wrap up study

2025 IACO Annual Main Event

Sunday, April 27 from 4:30–7:30 pm

Please RSVP by April 20

Please join IACO for our Annual Main Event at First UU Church. Jeanne Lewis, CEO of Faith in Public Life, will speak on Sacred Solidarity: The Role of Interfaith Leaders in Defending Democracy. There will be a vegetarian potluck to follow. The cost is free, but IACO would greatly appreciate a donation of $15 to underwrite the event costs.

Around The Corner

  • 4/9 Vespers at Westerwood
  • 4/12 Pathways to Membership (RSVP to Become a Member)
  • 4/13 History Workshop
  • 4/16 Finance Committee (RSVP)
  • 4/19 Religious Exploration Startup, 10am-4pm
  • 4/23 Board of Trustees (RSVP)
  • 4/26 All Soles Contra & Square Dance (more)
  • 4/27 Anti-Racist Allies Monthly Lunch Outing (Nile Vegan)
  • 4/27 Carpe Diem String Quartet Concert Series Event
  • 4/27 History Workshop
  • 4/27 IACO Interfaith Potluck Event: Sacred Solidarity: The Role of Interfaith Leaders in Defending Democracy (RSVP by April 20)

Weekly events:

  • Tai Chi for Balance (Tuesdays, 10am)
  • Sacred Song Circle (Wednesdays, 6pm)
  • Co-Working Space (Fridays, 9:30am)

From First UU Leadership

Flower Ceremony

April 13, 11am – Bring a Flower

Our yearly Flower Ceremony service is coming up in two weeks! This fun and beautiful spring ritual is one where everyone brings a flower to the service, we gather them together and bless them, and then our children give everyone a flower to take home.
If you are able, please bring a flower to the service on April 13. It could be a rose you grew yourself, a carnation you buy, or a dandelion you find. If you have empty yogurt containers, please bring them for our project with Connecting Community Corridors for Pollinators, People, and the Planet (CCC for PPP) after the service. If you can’t bring a flower or forget, no worries! Somehow there is always enough for everyone to participate.

If you attend virtually, or have some flowers you would like to share without picking, please submit a picture to be used for a service slide. Please submit these by Thursday, April 10. (We may not be able to include every picture submitted.)
Submit Flower Image

New! Poll of the Week
What makes you Smile?  (Respond with photo or words)
Introducing Friday’s News Poll of the Week! Each week we will have a different poll – please respond by 9am Wednesday. Answer this week’s question on our website to see the last week’s answers to “What are your Favorite Signs of Spring?”

Justice & Volunteering

Garden Workday: Volunteers needed

Saturday, April 26 9am-Noon

Come help tidy the gardens at First UU and then enjoy lunch afterwards. Volunteers needed even if just for an hour. Helpful to bring garden gloves and a few favorite tools. But all welcome. Questions? Ask Brian Hageman, Dave Richter, or Patricia Boughton

Rummage Volunteers Needed!

Sale Date June 6–7, 2025

It’s time to rummage! Our storage unit is full, the date is set, and now we need YOU to help get us rolling! We need volunteers now to organize and make First UU RUUmage sale great– from renting tables to mapping where things go to pricing and placing items in our sale.

Friday June 6th will be Double Dollar Day, and Saturday the 7th will be Ruumage Extravaganza!

Contact Myra Hartmann  to throw your name in the helper hat.

Justice Reminders

We don’t get to choose the times that we live through, but we do get to choose our response to those times. In last week’s Friday’s News, we invited you to Learn, Protest, and Boycott, and today I’d like to remind you to also Rest. You are important! Take the time to go smell the wildflowers at Overbrook Park, read a book, do your Lovingkindness meditation, take a nap, or whatever it is that you need to feel joy. This is a marathon, not a sprint, and we need you thriving and well beside us.
When you are ready to take up the work again, an excellent way way to stay connected is to join our signal group. If you would like a way to hear about protests, coordinate rides, signs, and connect with other First UUers who go, and support each other with information and encouragement, please consider joining.

Signal is a free app you can download for your phone, computer, or tablet with a lot of good security features, which is why many community organizers use it. (You will need to download the app before you can join the First UU Signal group.)

Classes & Groups

Learn more in our Engagement Catalog, and reach out to join!

Building Responsibility, Equality, and Dignity

(BREAD) Rally

Monday, April 7, 6:30 p.m.

Congregation Tifereth Israel

1354 E. Broad St.

Columbus, OH 43205
BREAD Network Members (or soon-to-be members!) Please attend this Rally to get prepared for BREAD’s Nehemiah Action on Tuesday, May 13, 6:40 p.m!. Learn what BREAD can do about Columbus’s woeful lack of trees, need for a rental registry, and how to deal with potential tension. Please email a list of all commitments for the Nehemiah that you have received to your team leader beforehand or bring a written list. Men must wear a head covering, so get out your BREAD hats, buy one there, or take a kippah at the door of the sanctuary. Wear your yellow Love t-shirts!

White Fragility Book Group

Tuesdays in May:

May 6, 20 & 27 from 7–8:30pm

Join us in discussing White Fragility: Why it’s so hard for white people to talk about racism by Robin Diangelo. Many copies are available through the Columbus Metropolitan Library. Read the book in April and join us to discuss it in May. We can talk about racism even if it is hard!

Facilitators are Linda Loesch and Rev. Kathleen Fowler. Register by emailing Linda Loesch, or by signing up at coffee hour. Please join us!

Family Activities

Sign Up to Participate in Child Dedication 4/13!

Families who would like their child/ren to be dedicated and recognized in the 11amFlower Ceremony / Earth Day service April 13th can sign up by completing this form (due 4/10). Your family will receive a certificate and flowers in person!

RSVP for the RE Start-Up 4/19!

Everyone is invited to join us from 10am-4pm, on Saturday, April 19th – to help reimagine multigenerational and family programming within our congregation! Whether you raised your kids at First UU or SYC decades ago, are a current participating family or teacher, are thinking of joining the RE Team, or are new and simply interested in learning more, this event is for you! Please RSVP for lunch and childcare! Featuring facilitator Cassandra Montenegro, a member of our regional UUA staff team.

This Sunday, April 6th!

*Children age 3-10 years participating in Spirit Play class need to remain with their parent/caregiver until after the story. Classroom drop off for Spirit Play begins after we finish the story and exit the service, so teachers can set up. Thank you!

9:15am-10am Nouurish Multigenerational Service (sanctuary)

10-10:30am Breakfast, and Coffee until 11am (A/B, Beach Hall)

Caregivers of Young Children eat together (Beach, near the piano)

10:30am-12:30pm Infant and Toddler Care (101)

10:30am-12:15pm 13-14yr OWL (302)

11am-12:15pm Coming of Age (401)

11am-12:15pm Building Your World MS/HS (301)

11am-12noon Worship Service incl. Time For All Ages (sanctuary)

11:15am-12:15pm (starts after story) 3-6yr Spirit Play (102)*

11:15am-12:15pm (starts after story) 7-10yr Spirit Play (201)*

12noon-1:00pm Snack and Coffee (Beach Hall, A/B)

12:30-1:00pm Peace Pals choir, 5-12yrs (sanctuary)

1:00-2:30pm Navigators Scouting meeting (201/playground)

Help Needed: seeking scout troop & Youth Group volunteers! Email Amber, or fill out this interest form! Families: please register here.

Register Now for Peace Camp in August!

We can’t wait to see you this summer! More info, and registration here!

  • Session A: for 6-8 years, Monday 7/28 – Friday 8/1, 9am-12noon
  • Session B: for 8-11 years, Monday 8/4 – Friday 8/8, 9am-12noon

Time for All Ages stories this week!

9:15am Nouurish:

Flap Your Hands:

A Celebration of Stimming

& 11am worship service:

I’m (Almost) Always Kind