Your Membership Contributions At WorkYour Membership Contributions At WorkRev. LoraKim Joyner, D.V.M.
President, UFETA
4425 Byron Street
El Paso, TX 79930
amoloros@juno.com
Dear Members,
I would like to let you know of how UFETA has been involved in many exciting events during the past year, and how your membership contributions have been at work.
During General Assembly 2004 we had an exhibition booth that was our communication, networking, and relationship building center. We also conducted a Board meeting and Annual meeting. In addition we hosted our Albert Schweitzer "Reverence for Life" worship service, with sermon award recipient Rev. Charlotte Shivvers preaching her sermon, Eating Our Way Through the Interdependent Web: An Ethic of Food for Unitarian Universalists. As always, we hosted a seminar, which this year was given by Dani Denneberg, a renowned Humane Education Specialist: "Humane Education: Creating Social Change for All." Finally, we made an valiant effort to have the Study Action Item on Extinction become selected, but instead threw in our support and helped pass the current Study Action Item on Global Warming.
For this year's General Assembly we plan to do similar events. Our "Reverence for Life" worship service and annual meeting will be on Friday, June 24th, at 6:45 p.m. in Room 108. Our seminar this year is "Animal Worship - Blessing, Honoring, and Memorializing All Species," and it will be on Friday, June 24th, at 9:45 a.m. in Room 204B. If you would like to help with any GA events, especially the exhibition booth, and will attend GA in Ft. Worth, please contact me.
Our website continues to grow, as do our numbers of UFETA chapter congregations and members on our UFETA listserve. Please check out our website if you'd like to see more of what is happening with UFETA ( www.uua.org/ufeta ). The Blessing of the Animals Resource Guide continues to sell well, and can be obtained by sending a check for $4.00 payable to UFETA, c/o Rev. Gary Kowalski, First UU Society, 152 Pearl St., Burlington, VT 05401.
Of particular excitement is UFETA's campaign to run animal advocacy advertisements in the UU World. Our first one was in the March/April 2005 issue on page 12. You can obtain this ad by going to our website.
To do all this wonderful work we need your help. We are a small volunteer organization with no paid staff. We depend totally upon the contributions and dues of our members to sustain our work. If you have not done so, please consider joining or renewing your membership at this time. Membership in UFETA requires an annual pledge of $20 ($10 for students). UFETA is a non-profit organization and contributions are tax deductible. You may join or renew online, or you can send your check to our Secretary/Treasurer, Rev. Gary Kowalski, First UU Society, 152 Pearl St., Burlington, VT 05401.
I thank you for all your support and for journeying with us as we celebrate and advocate with compassion for all beings.
With deep hope,
Rev. LoraKim Joyner, D.V.M.
UFETA President
Any religion not based on respect for life is not a true religion. Until one extends his or her circle of compassion to all living things, humans will not themselves find peace. --Albert Schweitzer (adapted)
