During this winter holiday, we will be collecting items for the Morris County Correctional Facility. This year we have been asked to provide men's white crew neck t-shirts and women's white underwear and bras. Items will be collected until 11:30 am on Sunday, December 7th. After this date we will no longer be accepting donations. We hope that you decide to donate to the Correctional Facility!

New Jersey’s Legislature is in lame-duck session until January. The next few weeks are an urgent opportunity for legislators to pass important bills for Governor Murphy to sign before his term ends. Otherwise, the bills will have to be reintroduced during the next 2-year legislative session and work their way through the entire legislative process again. Along with other faith and justice organizations in New Jersey, UU FaithAction NJ advocates for passage of the People’s Agenda during the lame-duck session. Bills that make up the People’s Agenda are the Immigrant Trust Act (S3672/A4987), John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of NJ (S2352/A904) and John R. Lewis Voter Empowerment Act of NJ (S3009/A4083), Climate Superfund Act (S3545/A4696), Gender Affirming Care Protections (S3491/A4656), Reproductive Healthcare Insurance Coverage (S3452/A4601), Rehabilitative Release/Second Look (S2338/A4463), and Use of Force Policy (S2348/A4175). UU FaithAction NJ encourages you to participate in its events during the lame-duck session. Make phone calls to NJ legislators during Action Hour on first and third Fridays (Nov 21, Dec 5 & 19) at 12 noon on Zoom . Sign up for Action Hour reminders . On Monday, December 1, along with other UU FaithAction volunteers, lobby legislators in the hallways of the State House Annex in Trenton, urging them to support the Immigrant Trust Act. On Tuesday, December 2, help deliver information on the People’s Agenda to all legislators’ district offices. Sign-up details are forthcoming. On Monday, December 8, meet at the Fellowship’s parking lot and carpool to the State House for the People’s Agenda Rally and Lobby Day, 9:00am - 5:00pm. Contact socialjustice@muuf.org if you plan on attending.

Save the date for the Gifts of Conscience Fair on Sunday Dec. 14 th  from 11 AM to 3 PM in Chu Hall. The Fair is a Holiday Market where you can shop for beautiful gifts, and the purchases benefit a local or global non-profit organization.  Some of the featured vendor merchandise is attached here this week.

In the month of October, the Sunday Plate collected $1,214. These funds were distributed to UU FaithAction NJ, Wind of the Spirit, NJ Together, and Table of Hope. Thank you for your continued generosity!

Please join us at the Service Auction Kickoff Party this Saturday (11/8) from 5pm to 8 pm for a fun evening of great food and drink, and the return of the live auction! Check out the many fantastic offerings at the silent auction! Click below to purchase your tickets online! You can also buy tickets at the door for $30.

After service on November 16th, please stay after for a few minutes to learn about our Evacuation Plans for the Gateways building and the Mansion. We’ll show routes and give tips, then do a walkthrough to give your body memory for a real evacuation. The following week, on November 23rd, we’ll have a real fire drill and see how well we learned the steps. These are both in-person only events, they will not be live-streamed. If you miss the training, please contact the Board for information. Our new Emergency Plan will be available in the notebooks in the offices, and an abbreviated version will be available on Realm.

We'll be opening our congregation-wide discussion this year on the topic of Service. What ministry does the world need from us now? Come explore this topic, starting with the Sunday service on November 16th, and join the discussion in small groups either on Zoom on Monday November 17th at 7pm, or in person on Saturday November 22nd at 10am. The Committee on Ministries will be guiding our discussion and collecting comments and opinions from Congregants, then summarizing results to help guide the Board in developing next year's Vision of Ministry. We want to hear from each of you, so please come to one of these opportunities to be heard! Please register so we can arrange enough facilitators for the groups. Registration link: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080844ACA923A0FD0-60216063-open

The Stearns Matthews Concert is November 15! The Early Bird rate of $40 is extended through 11/9. This concert benefits the Mortgage Prevention fund. Snacks and drinks are available for a suggested additional donation! Please publicize widely outside the Fellowship using the Facebook Event and other materials available here and on request from drww@muuf.org !

It is well documented that Monroe Husbands spoke to a group interested in learning about Unitarianism on Nov. 18, 1955 and that Vincent Richards gave the first sermon on November 30 at the YMCA, topic not known. But for the first few months of the Fellowship’s existence, who spoke at Sunday meetings, the most general term for the events, and the topics, are not known. We do know that Sunday services were held regularly after Richards’ inaugural address. It is also known that the. Rev. Jacob Trapp, the long-time minister of the Community Church in Summit (now Beacon UU) was probably ordained Unitarian minister who spoke most often in the early days when the Fellowship did not have his own minister. The other local Unitarian ministers who were called in were Norman Fletcher, minister of the Unity Unitarian Church in Montclair and the Phillips Endicott Osgood from the South Orange Unitarian Church. However, we have a better idea of when Trapp conducted services than about his subjects. Trapp is first known to have spoken at the Morristown YMCA on Sunday, November 13, at 8:30 pm. as the Fellowship service was shown under the Community Church listing on the prior Thursday’s Madison Eagle and it is logical Trapp probably used the theme he was scheduled to give that Sunday morning in Summit “Three Bible Heroes”. Similarly, Summit’s December 9 listing showed the Fellowship as having an 8:30 pm service and Trapp could have used his Sunday morning topic, the “Negro Spiritual in America”. Morristown also is shown in the Summit schedule in the Madison Eagle of November 24 presumably meaning Trapp was going to speak on Sunday November 27. However, there’s one thing wrong with that—an article in the same edition said Dr. Dale DeWitt, the regional director for the American Unitarian Association about speak on the topic “A Religion of One’s Own”, which was a standard theme DeWitt used over several years. The first surviving order of service is short on facts—it did not give the topic, name of the speaker or the date. However, a handwritten note shows DeWitt was indeed the speaker, although the writer listed the date as November 28, which was a Monday. One more topic is known for 1955—the Fellowship was to hear the Rev. Fletcher discuss the play “The Diary of Anne Frank” on Sunday, December 4, then being presented in New York City. Beyond that, we know more about the business elements of two Sunday meetings, as they were called. No topic was given but the Fellowship reported in the Daily Record that it would be working on by laws on Sunday December 11. On December 18, there was a brief musical program, but most of the attention in a newspaper article was given to the plan to discuss the by-laws, which were approved that night.

Social Justice Council Update If you are interested in taking part in social justice activities, sign up to be part of the MUUF Rapid Response Team by emailing socialjustice@muuf.org . We will keep you informed of local pro-democracy events in the area and opportunities to volunteer on social justice initiatives at MUUF and with our partners. We are looking to grow our numbers. We urge you to stay involved with social justice actions in New Jersey by participating in UU Faith Action NJ’s ACTION HOUR every Friday at noon through December 12 (except for the day after Thanksgiving). UU Faith Action NJ and the Social Justice Council support The People’s Legislative Agenda’s seven priorities for the lame duck session of the New Jersey legislature: Legislation to support immigrants’ rights and protection New Jersey voting rights legislation The Climate Superfund Act Codifying of rights to gender-affirming care Reproductive healthcare insurance Rehabilitative Release and Second Look Use of Force policy Click here for more information . Sign up for email and text alerts. Are you interested in helping with the MUUF Food Drive, which begins in January? If so, please contact us at socialjustice@muuf.org . If everyone takes one small action, we will change the world!

Service Auction Schedule: In-Person Bidding will begin at the Saturday Kickoff and continue on Sunday during Coffee Hour until noon. Online Bidding will take place from Monday (11/10) at 10am to Sunday (11/16) at 9pm. To view the catalog, visit the Service Auction website and go to "Catalog Grid or Catalog List". For online bidding (starting Mon. 11/10 at 10 am), visit the Service Auction website at the above link. Need Help, Questions? Contact us at serviceauction@muuf.org

Our 70th Anniversary celebration will be an all-ages Tea Party to be held in Chu Hall on Saturday, January 31st from 2:00 till 5:00pm (Rain date is Feb 7th). Tea party attire is encouraged but not required, and those who wish to are invited to bring their own tea cups and/or tea pots and tea to share. Stories of tea sets and our MUUF history will be on the menu, along with treats and fun activities. More info coming soon. The Party Registration link will be posted soon in the newsletter and online. Invite your friends and former members to come help us celebrate! We’re looking for volunteers to help with setup, serving, and cleanup, so join us in hosting this not-to-be missed event! More hands make light work, so sign up and help spread the fun as well as the work. Sign up here!