Are you enjoying the new landscaping around the Gateways Center?  It looks great now but summer heat will take its toll and help is needed with watering and weeding.  The Memorial Garden and most of the major plantings – the new trees – are now supported by sprinkler systems on automatic timers.  However, the small shrubs, grasses and plants that have been planted around the new addition, the new parking lot and in front of the courtyard will all need some TLC. Volunteers are needed to see that these young plantings get water and a little weeding for the first summer until they are established.  Several volunteers have already ‘adopted’ specific landscape areas, such as the beds at the entrance to the circular drive and the sidewalk from the main parking lot to the main entrance. This is an opportunity to pick a manageable sized area and make it one of  your summer projects.  It’s also a great way to give back to the Fellowship by keeping the grounds beautiful for us all.  This work is not physically demanding and, again, you can pick an area that matches your time availability and energy levels. If interested, please contact Steve Parker or Katy Julich . Please say “yes”.  Summer is upon us and record breaking heat is forecasted for next week. Thank you!

RAMP has an  urgent need  to add to its roster of drivers this summer. We need additional drivers to assist one of our family members in getting to her job. We are looking for adults, age 21 and older, with a good driving record to pitch in to drive either from: Pick up in Dover drive to Morris Plains Weekdays (typically): 8:30 AM Weekends (typically): 5:30 AM Pick up in Morris Plains drive to Dover Weekdays (typically):  2:15 PM Weekends (typically):  4:45 PM If you are interested in helping out with one or more trips, please contact Mary Bradford on   marybradford@rampnj.org . Thank you so much for considering this service opportunity!

There’s still time to register for the Mindfulness Meditation Retreat led by the Rev. Allen Wells on Saturday, June 28 from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM here at MUUF in the Chu Family Hall.  This year’s retreat “On Meditative Movement” is an opportunity for beginners to learn about meditation in a supportive setting and for experienced meditators to deepen their practice. We will explore five forms of meditation: concentration (shamatha), spacious awareness (vipassana), open awareness (shikantaa), and loving-kindness (metta), with a special focus upon Meditative Movement. There will be a dharma talk on “Change” and an opportunity for Q and A. The entire retreat will be held in Noble Silence, including lunch. Kindly leave your cell phone at the door. Please bring your own lunch. Tea will be provided. Please also bring a sturdy cushion if you would like to sit on a zafu (we have some extras). Sitting in a chair is also just fine. Allen teaches at MUUF’s Buddhist Meditation Group and at the Buddhist Sangha of The Unitarian Society of East Brunswick. Allen has been practicing insight meditation for 35 years. He is a graduate of the Integrated Study/Practice Program of the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies and a UU minister. He has also followed in pilgrimage the footsteps of The Buddha throughout northern India. There is no fee for this retreat but there will be an opportunity for dana (generous offering) at the closing. If you wish to only a half day, you are very welcome to do so for the morning. Pre-registration is requested by June 22. For more information and to register, please contact Lisa Hatala: meditation@muu.org. June 28 Saturday All Day Mindfulness Meditation Retreat EVENT DETAIL

Rev. Sasha will be away from Monday, June 16 through Saturday, July 19 for Ministry Days, General Assembly, Study Leave, and finally Vacation. For urgent matters while she is away, please reach out to our Congregational Administrator, Katy Julich, who will direct you to the appropriate individual or team for assistance. For all other matters, Rev. Sasha looks forward to connecting with you after her return on July 20.

Table of Hope , committed to improving the quality of life of Morris County families, constructing pathways to economic stability, educational excellence, and holistic well-being.

You may have noticed our website has been undergoing gradual improvements over the past year. These updates aim to better serve our community , including program leaders and our target audiences. We’ve focused on creating a more dynamic site, both in content and functionality. Regularly updated content improves SEO and keeps visitors engaged with relevant information and personal stories. Enhanced functionality streamlines website management, ensuring event date changes reflect across all pages and enabling the efficient creation of our weekly newsletter. We appreciate everyone who has contributed articles or planned events, and utilizing the new forms greatly assists staff while empowering volunteers to share their experiences. However, our current site has reached its limits , prompting the development of a new one. Our AV Director, Alex West, will dedicate the summer to building this from the ground up. The new site will integrate existing technologies, including on-site signage and virtual platforms like REALM and Google Workspace (Drive). Leveraging Project Jumpstart designs and modern styles, the website will embody our congregation’s vibrant spirit. We are excited to have Alex, who intimately understands our needs and identity, lead this project in-house . Our goal is to launch the new site by mid-August , coinciding with the start of our program year. Until then, we have streamlined our current site, focusing on essential information. Nick will continue managing the current website and newsletter until the new site’s launch, at which point Alex will assume responsibility. We will also gather input from various Fellowship groups regarding their specific needs in the near future. Your feedback is crucial during this transition. To organize and ensure we receive all input (avoiding lost emails), we’ve created a form with four questions.  What features or pages do you personally most frequently use on our website, and what features or information do you need but cannot find?  What challenges have you encountered during this past year with using the website or finding information on it?  What ideas do you have for the website that you would like us to consider?  Are you interested in helping manage the website, and if so, what kinds of assistance would you be willing to volunteer? While individual responses may not be possible, all submissions will be read and considered. Please click the button below to share your thoughts. Website Input Form

As we sangha leaders plan what is becoming our annual Summer All Day Insight Meditation Retreat on Saturday, June 28 in Chu Hall at MUUF, we remember with deep gratitude the contribution of Bob Calafiore who passed from this plane on May 24. Bob was a high aspiration to the founding of our MUUF Buddhist Sangha. He contributed energy and enthusiasm to make the dharma available to everyone so that all of us might live with less stress and more love. He was particularly zestful in propagating the value of insight meditation to those who were unfamiliar with its benefits, and he testified persuasively and mightily to the ways in which it had personally transformed his own life. As he reported at the last gathering of our sangha, in a very special dream, he had discovered that “at the bottom of it all, it’s about love.” Wherever exactly your spirit is sailing, Bob, we send you good wind borne from our appreciation, and gratitude for the good karma you have bestowed upon us all. We dedicate our practice at this year’s retreat to you in our gratitude. Signed: Allen, Lisa, Amy and all of us who have learned from Bob a better way of living in this world If you would like to register for the Saturday, June 28 Insight Meditation Retreat, or would like more information, please contact meditation@muuf.org by June 22, 2025.  June 28 Saturday All Day Mindfulness Meditation Retreat EVENT DETAIL

Please join us in warmly welcoming our 11 newest members: Patty Perconti  is a resident of Whippany NJ where she lives with her kind husband and two sons who keep her on her toes. She enjoys traveling, dinner with family and friends and trying to find laughter in each day. Anthony Perconti  is a lifelong resident of the Garden State. He is married to a wonderful (and patient) woman and is the proud father of two young men. Carol Schaeffler Ginny Nielson  has been a resident of Morristownship for 40 plus years.  She has one married son and three grandchildren who live close by and who she loves spending time with.   She also enjoys gardening, singing, reading, and spending time with friends.  Gideon Romann Lauren Coyle returns to MUUF after several years. She and her husband, John cherish time with their sons, daughter,  and grandchildren and travels between Pompton Plains and Summerville, SC. She enjoys gardening, making sewing projects for donations and reading mysteries. John Coyle Rachel Barry  had a Star Wars/Back to the Future wedding and loves reading, writing, drawing, LEGOing, and crafting. She’s worked bookish jobs for 25 years, and presently works for a children’s publisher. She lives in Madison with her husband, Matt, and their three cats. Matt Barry  is a portrait and fine art photographer who spent much of his career in marketing research. Originally from Queens and shaped by his Jewish heritage, he’s passionate about art, creativity, and exploring life’s deeper questions. He finds inspiration in the ideas of Alan Watts and Joseph Campbell, is a lifelong Sherlock Holmes fan, and enjoys the wit of P.G. Wodehouse. He and his wife Rachel are grateful to have found such a thoughtful, welcoming community at UU and look forward to being part of it. Arlise Leiby is a resident of Denville, NJ where she lives with her husband (John Yeung) and 4 year old daughter (Affinity/Fin). She is an Occupational therapist specializing in cognitive health. When she isn’t managing the house, Fin’s activities or her OT practice… Arlise loves to spend time family & friends, photograph, take nature walks, swim and watch sci/fi shows. John Yeung

Have you ever watched your fellow Morristown UU members up there in the pulpit and found yourself thinking, “I’d love to lead a service one day”? If so, we have an exciting opportunity for you. This summer, our July 20th worship service is OPEN to members of the Fellowship who are interested in leading a service. Would you like to preach a sermon? Create a ritual? Lead a pulpit drama? Do an all-dance service? Recruit some of your fellow MUUF members to offer reflections on a topic of your choice? These are all creative options for a summer service that YOU can plan and lead! If you are interested in offering your service on July 20th, please send your proposed service idea to Rev. Sasha.

Here at Morristown UU, it is important to us to have a regular lay presence in our worship services. Members of our Worship Arts Team assist Rev. Sasha with minister-led Sunday services, take turns planning and leading lay-led services, and support periodic guests in the pulpit. We also have a Junior Worship Helpers Team that assists with Sunday worship in a variety of ways. Our Junior Worship Helpers can sign up to light the Chalice, lead us in our Affirmation, help lead hymns, assist with rituals and other activities in the service, and even help tell stories during the Time for All Ages. They also assist with worship as ushers and greeters. If you are 15 years or older and would like to join the Worship Arts Team, or if your child under the age of 15 would like to join the Junior Worship Helpers Team, please reach out to Rev. Sasha to express your interest! New Junior Worship Helpers can begin assisting in services immediately, and new members of the Worship Arts Team will join us in supporting Sunday worship beginning in the fall. A regular meeting time for our Worship Arts Team will be determined in the fall with the input of all of our team members to find as mutually-convenient a time as possible for us to connect and collaborate on worship. If you love Sunday worship, please consider this exciting opportunity!

The Morristown UU Fellowship is jointly sponsoring with UU FaithAction NJ an online Biochemistry Literacy program for UU-associated children and their friends around NJ as a supplemental RE program. The course is slated to run in the 2025 church year on the schedule listed below. All classes meet online from 6:00 to 7:30 pm Eastern time via Zoom. Recommended ages for the course material are ages 11 through 17. You can review the course material at:  https://biochemistryliteracyforkids.com/ Sept 21 Nov 16 Jan 25 Sept 28 Nov 23 Feb 1 Oct 5 Dec 7 Feb 8 Oct 12 Dec 14 Feb 15 Oct 19 Dec 21 Feb 22 Oct 26 Jan 4 Mar 1 Nov 2 Jan 11 Mar 8 Nov 9 Jan 18 Mar 15 Dr. Daniel Fried, author of the Biochemistry Literacy for Kids course, will provide an introductory lesson. Tom Moran, along with at least one adult mentor, will lead the class and review lessons with the students online every week for the duration of the course. There are 24 chapters, so there will be 24 sessions. Students are be required to make a reasonable commitment to the class.  Student families will be expected to pay the fee for enrollment. This is $140 for the 24 lessons and a molecular modeling kit. There are funds available for a limited number of scholarships. Scholarship cases will be taken up and scholarship funds sought through various means for students for which the fee is an obstacle. Dr.  Daniel Fried is a Binghamton University B.S., Yale University, M.S./Ph.D., and Post Doc Weizmann Institute of Science trained biochemist. Dr. Fried has been a Professor at Saint Peter’s University in Jersey City, NJ. Dr. Daniel Fried is breaking ground in introducing advanced concepts in biochemistry to young people through focused online learning. No matter what science our kids are interested in, these lessons are eye-opening in their depth and breadth, and can only make any area of science study richer. The course fee is $140 for Lessons 1-24, one organic molecule modeling kit is included in that $140 fee. By design, the course will move through 24 lessons in 24 weeks, with a 1.5-hour online lesson each week. There will be homework, and each week the students will go through a lesson with one or more mentors to guide the study. Homework will take an additional two hours per week. A program like this could open up a new area of scientific interest for UU young people. This program has the potential to enhance and make real the UU RE mission of upholding the scientific method. Perhaps most importantly it will raise the level of knowledge among UU young people of one of the most scientifically and philosophically important areas of contemporary science. Register your Child

Below is the Fellowship’s Income Statement as of May 31, 2025 along with the major fund balances. The monthly income statements and balance sheets are available in REALM. If you need directions to access these, reach out to Katy at admin@muuf.org. As of 5/31/2025 YTD Actual YTD Budget Full Year Budget Operating Budget Income Statement Total Donation Income 452,930.82 438,262.00 478,104.00 Total Fundraiser Income 39,025.13 29,333.33 32,000.00 Total Rental Income 69,555.78 57,915.01 63,180.00 Total Other Income 12,465.50 17,255.33 18,824.00 Total Revenues 573,977.23 542,765.67 592,108.00 Total Payroll and Benefits 333,523.62 358,779.72 391,396.00 Total Building Expenses 100,251.95 95,424.97 104,100.00 Total Other Expense 99,032.50 95,400.28 104,073.00 Total Expenses 532,808.07 549,604.97 599,569.00 Net Total 41,169.16 -6,839.30 -7,461.00 Balances Ops Budget Available Balance 99,245.95 Ops Budget Pledges Receivable 27,387.43 Endowment 579,592.46 as of 3/31 DRWW Pledges Receivable 910,444.00 Construction Loan Balance 1,194,000.00 Capital Campaign will continue to pay the monthly interest on the construction loan