Newsletter

Email from First Unitarian Church of Toledo

UU-FYI – OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

FOR SUNDAY, June 15, 2025

9:45 AM -SPIRITUAL FORUM

Please join us for Spiritual Forum on June 15, when we will Ask the Minister! Do you have theological concerns? Questions or ideas about church matters? How current events relate to our religion? This is your chance to discuss what’s on your mind with our own Rev. Tim. Hope to see you there!

11:00 AM – SERVICE

UU minister, Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray, arrested during a protest for immigrant rights. (Phoenix, AZ on July 29, 2010).

Civil Disobedience as Spiritual Action

David Strickler

Commissioned Lay Minister

I will reflect on my experiences during the recent protest rallies and explain why those secular actions were also spiritual. I will then give examples of Unitarian-Universalist and Christian clergy who have challenged oppressive laws and government policies by engaging in civil disobedience. Finally, I will highlight some of the “good trouble-makers” in our congregation.

CLICK TO WATCH ON OUR CHANNEL:

KIDS’ ACTIVITY On Sunday, we will make our own fidgets! We have fidgets available for all, but the kids know which ones work best for them. Why shouldn’t they have their own custom-made fiddlies? Hope to see lots of friends with active hands!

THIS WEEK’S CALENDAR

Thursday, June 12 – A Celebration of Life for Betsy Ford*

11:00 AM – 12:00 PM Open House; 12:00 PM Service

Saturday, June 14, 11:00 AM – Social Action Saturday*

Sunday, June 15:

· 9:30 AM – Choir Practice

· 9:45 AM – Spiritual Forum

· 11:00 AM – Service In Person + on the YouTube Channel

· 12:00 PM – Coffee & Conversation in Fellowship Hall

· Men’s Group @ 5:30 PM

Tuesday, June 17, 11:00AM – Sunday Service Committee – ZOOM*

Tuesday, June 17, 6:00 PM – LFH Annual Fundraiser*

Tuesday, June 17, 6:30 PM – Meditation group via ZOOM*

Tuesday, June 17, 5:000 PM – Woody Trainman Lecture*

Wednesday, June 18-22 – UUA General Assembly in Baltimore, MD

UPCOMING EVENTS (see articles below for more info)

Saturday, June 21, 1:00 PM – Walking Group at Wildwood MetroPark*

Tuesday, June 24, 7:00 PM – Board of Trustees Meeting

Wednesday, June 25 10:30 AM – Blanket-Making group meets*

Thursday, June 26, 6:00 PM – Community Dining at Rose Thai*

Saturday, June 28, 8:30 AM-2:00 PM – Interfaith Blood Drive*

Saturday, June 28, 11:00 AM – Social Action Saturday*

*see groups and monthly meeting document for more details

LEADERSHIP AND STEWARDSHIP

UKULELES COME TO CHURCH!

Want to have some fun with music at church? Come to Spiritual Forum this summer!

After Cindy Gilmore returned from the Hawaii trip that she and Sue Childers took with Judy Trautman, Cindy started ukulele lessons at a local music school. Her report inspired Rev. Tim to bring some uke into our UU church. A ukulele orchestra might not be as grand as a handbell choir, but a group of strummers can have joy, and there’s plenty of room for those of us who aren’t musically proficient. The goal is to have fun, perhaps with a bit of silliness mixed in.

Rev. Tim consulted with our music director, Jeffrey Maxie; our director of lifelong learning who schedules the Spiritual Forums, Gini Gottman; and our commissioned lay minister who also plays some stringed instruments, David Strickler. We chose to schedule six Sundays through the summer to learn some of the basics—a few chords which will lead to one or two songs that we can play at Ingathering on September 7. (You don’t have to be present at all lessons to perform at Ingathering).

If you’d like to take part, please bring your own uke. They’re relatively inexpensive—or, if you’re really inspired, instead of a $30 model you can get one costing thousands of dollars—and you might be able to check out a ukulele from the Way Library in Perrysburg. We’ll have one or two ukes on hand at First Unitarian for those who don’t bring them, and if there’s a shortage, we’ll pass the instruments around, but we’d like you to have your own uke so you can practice between lessons.

David will be our teacher for most of the sessions, but Rev. Tim will help us rehearse chords and strum rhythms on one Sunday when David is away. And, yes, David and Rev. Tim are also beginner-level with the instrument.

The dates for Spiritual Forum ukulele lessons: June 8 and 22; July 13; August 3, 24, and 31; all leading up to playing a song in the Ingathering Sunday service on September 7.

Please come for a different kind of summer school!

CARING AND SHARING

A celebration of the life of Betsy Ford will be held on Thursday, June 12 at First Unitarian Church of Toledo. Open house 11:00 AM -12:00 PM; service 12:00 PM. Betsy died on May 24, 2025 at the age of 101. A talented watercolor artist, she was also a mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. She was very active in volunteer work and was at one time president of the board of trustees of this church. She left us with many lessons, some of which are: “To feel good about yourself, do something for someone else, smile and laugh as often as you can, and a glass of red wine, I also recommend for a long life.”

“UUs care! Please continue to communicate your concerns or celebrations with any member of the Caring Circle: Carla Logan-Mercer, Karen Christie, Phil Zepp, Suzanne Hoffman, Joanne Hartough, Becky Hrabovsky, Karen Porter, Terry Acocks, Kathy Crowther, Marsha Gamble, Susan Smith and Rev. Tim Barger.

Please contact Joanne Hartough with any concerns or joys that you wish to share in this FYI column.

INVITATIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES

SECOND AND FOURTH SATURDAYS OF EACH MONTH

NEXT MEETING: Sat June 14

11:00 AM – 1:00 PM

We’ll meet in the Alcott Room

Donations needed: travel size toiletries, soap, deodorant, hand sanitizer, wipes, razors, shaving lotion, bandaids, first aid items, menstrual supplies, sunscreen, socks . . .anything you might want to make sure you had if you were about to be away from home. Keep in mind that items must fit into a gallon-size bag for distribution.

Word has been that people are extremely grateful to have access to these daily necessities that we might take for granted. Please put any donations in the yellow collection box.

FREE SPEECH!

Do you have any message you want to send to the current national administration or our local elected officials about their use or abuse of power? About the direction we perceive that our nation is headed? On how what we see aligns with our personal principles and those of the Unitarian Universalism?

Essential to our rights and responsibilities in the United States is the right to free speech and to assemble, nonviolently, to inform the administration of our opinions.

There are plenty of opportunities this weekend in case you want to marry your message with those of others. A search on the internet of “50501” will lead you to a grass-roots organization that offers a directory of the protest events currently planned in northwest Ohio.

Make a sign, stand up, speak out, push back!

The Woody Trautman Lecture this year will co-sponsor “Ask Us About the U.S. Immigration System”, a panel discussion Tuesday, June 17, 5:00 – 6:30 PM at the Main Library Downtown in Room 1 on the first floor. We wanted Immigration as our topic this year and chose to collaborate with this well-planned event by Toledo Public Library and Welcome TLC.

https://facebook.com/events/s/ask-us-about-the-us-immigratio/714349234468116/

Free registration at Library event page:

Ask Us About the U.S. Immigration System – Toledo Library

Leading Families Home 2025 Summer in Paris annual fundraiser will be held on June 17th,

6-9 PM, at the Inverness Club, 4601 Dorr Street, Toledo. Cost is $135.00 per person. This includes cocktail hour with appetizers, 3 course dinner, a silent auction, a live auction, speakers and a presentation. To register, go to lfhtoledo.org or call 419-244-2175. You may also contribute monetary donations, items for auction, or purchase sponsorships from $500.00 and up. We would love to have a whole First Unitarian table and we are already halfway there! We hope to see you there to benefit this worthy cause! Questions? Contact Sue Childers.

First Unitarian Walking Group

The First Unitarian Walking Group has another event planned for this month. On Saturday, June 21 at 1:00 PM walk at Wildwood MetroPark. Meet outside the entrance to the Window on Wildlife. All members and friends of First Unitarian are welcome to participate.

Calling all volunteers!

The First UU Blanket Making Group is looking for more volunteers to join our team making blankets for Leading Families Home. We meet the 4th Wednesday of every month at 10:30 AM (our next meeting will be Wednesday June 25). No skills are required—it is so easy! We all go out to lunch afterwards, too! If you are interested or need more information, contact Mary Souther.

ENJOY A TASTE OF THAILAND WITH COMMUNITY DINING

Community dining will return to its normal monthly slot when it meets on the fourth Thursday, June 26, 2025, at 6:00 PM at Rose Thai.

The restaurant is located at 5333 Monroe St., Toledo, Ohio, in the corner of the shopping center that also hosts the Bier Stube (do not go to the Bier Stube by mistake).

Click here for more information and a copy of the menu. Since Rose Thai can only accommodate twenty of us, please RSVP or talk to Julie at church. Please join us for delightful conversation and Thai food!

Preliminary activities for UUA General Assembly 2025 are already underway online. This annual gathering of our congregational delegates votes on various items of business at the national denominational level. Interested in what will be discussed? Visit https://discuss.uua.org/ to see the various items being considered, including Actions of Immediate Witness on various topics such as LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, democracy, and more. Anyone can view the discussion, although comments are limited to delegates. This year First UU Toledo has three delegates: Susan Spiegel, Gini Gottman, and Sandra Kosek-Sills.

OUR FYI NEWSLETTER

This church newsletter, the FYI, could not happen without the input and effort of many people. For several years now, Joanne Hartough, Tina Baker and Susan Spiegal have divided up the roles to get each issue out. Now we welcome Marna Slawson to the team, who jumped into the rotation last month. Marna has past experience with the Constant Contact software, and so she was able to step in and assemble the last four issues, while Tina was traveling or just “taking a break”. Thank you Marna, it was well appreciated! We plan to pass the baton back and forth over the coming months.

Each week you can read the FYI in your own email box, or from a link that is posted on the FB Group page. Office Manager Jesse also posts the FYI onto the church website and uses the articles to build the events page on the website. And Walter’s crew need the information on upcoming events and notices to build the Sunday screen slides displayed each week.

With so many people needing to keep on the same page, it is important that we continue to use the WuFoo software to submit the articles so the teams can log in and see what is needed for their communications. The link to the WuFoo form is always at the bottom of each FYI issue, highlighted in yellow. You are free to bookmark and keep that link handy on your own computer or phone browser, or come back to the last FYI issue and find it again.

Here it is: WuFoo Article link.

We rely on our contributors to get us the information before the Wednesday noon deadline, and are grateful that people give us the news and notices already written up with the dates and author’s email addresses. Thank you and keep up the good work.

In the upcoming summer months, we will be sorting through our mailing list to find those who haven’t been opening their personal subscription emails, and asking them to verify if they still want to remain on the mailing list. Hopefully we will also get any address changes made as they come in. Look for another article about these “housekeeping issues” soon.

Let me know if you are having problems receiving your FYI.

Thanks! Tina Baker, FYI committee chair

The 36th Annual Interfaith Blood Drive, also sponsored by the MultiFaith Council of NW Ohio, is Saturday, June 28, 2025, from 8:30 AM to 2:00 PM at Grace Lutheran Church, Brenner Hall. Click here to schedule your appointment with the Red Cross by phone or online, code: Interfaith.

With the closing of the SAME Cafe, the Lowrider Cafe across the street from the library has indicated their willingness to increase the frequency of their free meal Wednesdays.

Lowrider Cafe is a Mexican restaurant in Downtown Toledo built on values of love, respect, & family. They offer free meals to the needy once a month on Wednesdays. Patrons can buy a $7 token to be used towards the future meal of a Toledoan in need. They have also been distributing care packages provided and assembled by First UU members during Social Action Saturdays. Jacob, owner of the restaurant, would like to increase the amount of free meals by selling more tokens. Please stop by Lowrider for a meal, or call them at 419-690-4220 for more information.

Weekly and Monthly Meetings

and Activities

Click THIS DOCUMENT for a fuller, printable description of the 2025 activities, location, meeting dates and contact person for each group:

Every Tuesday ….Sunday Service Committtee ZOOM call at 11:00 AM

Every Tuesday….Meditation @ 6:30 PM

Weekly AA meetings – see document link for times

1^st Friday……….Book Club @ 2:00 PM

1^st Saturday…….Knit Wits @ 11:30 AM

2nd Saturday……Social Action Saturday @ 11AM-1PM

2^ndSunday……..Meditation @ 5:30 PM until December

3^rd Saturday…….Film Club @ 1:00 PM Not meeting in the Summer

3rd Saturday ……Walking Group @ 1:00 PM

3^rd Sunday………Men’s Group @ 5:30 PM

3^rd Monday……..Together Women Rise @ 6:00 PM

4^th Tuesday …….LGBTQ Online Support Group @ 8:00 PM

4th Tuesday……..Board of Trustees @ 7:00 PM

4th Wednesday …Blanket Making @ 10:30 AM

4th Saturday……Social Action Saturday @ 11AM-1PM

4^thSunday………Meditation @ 5:30 PM

4th (or last) Sunday…. Potluck after Service

Is your meeting not listed? Submit your meeting details at

https://uutoledo.wufoo.com/forms/first-unitarian-communications-request-form

GREEN SANCTUARY

wkyc.com

WILDFIRE SMOKE: NOT JUST A NUISANCE

In what is becoming a new normal, much of the US is being blanketed with smoke from Canadian wildfires. As I write (on June 5), there are 210 active fires, with nearly seven million acres burned in 1,762 fires since the first of the year. And it’s only June.

Wildfire smoke sends tiny particulates, known as PM 2.5, over great distances. These particulates are not just wood smoke, which is bad enough for lungs, but the remnants of anything else in the fire’s path—burned building materials, chemicals in the plastics from burned cars, and industrial toxins. The small size allows these particles to penetrate deeply into the lungs, causing not only asthma and COPD but sometimes heart disease and lung cancer. Recent studies indicate a link between long-term PM 2.5 exposure and dementia. Longer wildfire seasons put more people at risk, with health agencies around the world issuing air quality alerts during fire season. Right now (9:00 PM on June 5), downtown Toledo’s Air Quality Index is in the “Unhealthy” range, meaning that no one should be outdoors if they can avoid it.

There is no question that wildfires have occurred throughout time and that humans are too often careless with flame. However, there is also no question that today’s massive fires are aggravated by climate change. The temperature increase of the last few decades has resulted in more lightning strikes, a common cause of fire. These higher temperatures also cause more rapid evaporation of water, drying out the soil and pulling water from plant tissues. Dry plant matter burns quickly, allowing fires to spread rapidly. And of course, all that burning plant matter releases massive quantities of greenhouse gases, contributing to the climate change that makes such fires more likely, and compromised air quality a growing problem.

Climate change endangers human health. For now, we can only try to protect ourselves from the smoke, but we can work to reduce the danger for our grandchildren’s grandchildren.

NOTES AND NEWS

Announcement: New Staff Member

Please join the board in welcoming our new bookkeeper, Lou Ann Flick. Our previous bookkeeper Amalya Hartley is unable to continue to work for us because of family concerns. Her last day was May 31st and she was able to spend time orienting Lou Ann. Lou Ann started last week and for now will be in the office on Wednesday from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM. LuAnn has a degree in accounting and just semi-retired from a 45 year career as an accountant for a local accounting firm. You may recognize her as the choir member who occasionally plays the beautiful flute solos during Sunday service. Welcome Lou Ann!

MMIW AWARENESS

UPDATE #2

Murdered, Missing Indigenous Women (MMIW) is a movement in both the United States and Canada seeking to draw attention to the plight of women (and girls) often forgotten and ignored by the media, in indigenous (American Indian, Native American, First Nations) communities.

Phil Park-Thomas, writing for the Social Justice Committee, introduced this topic in last week’s FYI, and furthers the topic in today’s installment.

Both articles are attached. One more installment is coming.

First Article from last week

Second Article, new this week

2025 SCHEDULE

FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH OF TOLEDO BOARD OF TRUSTEES

The Board meets monthly on 4th Tuesdays at 7:00 PM

Board meetings are open to all Members of the Church.

Members who are not board members may speak at the board meetings, but may not make motions or vote at board meetings. Members intending to speak at a board meeting shall notify the board president prior to the meeting.

Board meetings are generally held each month with the Bylaws requiring a minimum of meetings six times per year. The board may meet in executive session only to discuss personnel matters, to receive legal advice, or to discuss matters requiring confidentiality. Board Minutes once board approved are available to the Members upon written request.

2025 schedule: Jun 24, Jul 22, Aug 26, Sep 23

OFFICE HOURS:

Office hours are normally Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 10:30-2:30 PM. Otherwise, please reach us by phone or email, which will be frequently checked. Thank you.

Phone: 419-381-6999

Office email: office.manager@uutoledo.org,