Our December Share the Plate partner is the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee Guest At Your Table Program. UUSC works around the world to promote human rights and social justice, transforming UU values into action. This year marks GNUUC’s 25th year of participating in the Guest at Your Table program. Our primary fundraiser for UUSC is our Share the Plate program.

This month’s Share the Plate organization is Room In The Inn (RITI). On the first Thursday of every month in the winter, GNUUC has been providing shelter for eight unhoused guests. Winter is deadly for people without permanent housing. By opening our doors, serving dinner, offering a safe, warm place for the night, serving breakfast and providing a bagged lunch, we make a difference and improve the lives of some of our most vulnerable neighbors. Money collected will be used to replace air beds, buy warm socks, and purchase other necessities for our guests. You can make even more of a difference by volunteering to help! Come make beds, serve a meal, drive, clean up. This is a great family volunteer opportunity! Contact Jesse Spencer-Smith, Coordinator jesse.spencersmith@gmail.com, 217-377-4867 to volunteer.

Listen to the Duffy Jackson Trio while dining on delectable finger-foods; between bites discuss the attempt to redefine religious liberty. Detailed Description (unlimited words) FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, from 6 TO 9 pm
at CHRIST LUTHERAN CHURCH.

GNUUC has raised $2,196 for Nashville Cares, with their matching. Thank you GNUUC members!! Our volunteers at the GNUUC AIDS Walk community outreach booth were: Elizabeth Marlowe, David Frese, Charles S., Wendy S. Alexander, Nancy C., and Doug L.. (See booth photo.) Kristin and Nathanael R., and Kris T., assisted in preparing and organizing GNUUC materials for the booth.

The weather was perfect, with a lot of visitors to the booth asking about GNUUC and UU’ism, and with conversations with people staffing other organizations’ booths. Our gratitude to all who represented us there, as the Welcoming Community that we are, and as GNUUC, a Unitarian Universalist congregation.

Credo invites youth (and other visitors) to attend the discussion on October 6 at 9:30. We will discuss the Sunrise Movement which is a movement by you to get the older generations to work to save the planet.

Great News !!! GNUUC has raised over $1000, so we have a booth at the Fair. With the recent Nashville Cares challenge matching, we have raised a total of $2,196 for Nashville Cares. Thank you GNUUC members!! Come visit our Fair booth, hear the musical entertainment. Open 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. (map of booth locations, follows). 

Our Share the Plate recipient this month is The Sunrise Movement.

This Sunday afternoon, is the NOAH public meeting of the mayoral runoff candidates, 15th Avenue Baptist Church (1203 Ninth Ave North). Come hear what the two candidates, David Briley and John Cooper have to say about NOAH’s key issues: Affordable Housing, Education, and Economic Equity and Jobs. To carpool from GNUUC, gather near the main entrance, at 2:00 pm.

“At Urban Green Lab, we teach communities how to live sustainable lives ... working to ensure all of us have access to sustainable living education ... a focus on classrooms, households, and workplaces -- places where culture begins -- transforming spaces into “labs” ... connecting institutions with services, and encouraging people to feel good about being part of the solution." Urban Green Lab - Kroger Compost Pilot, MNPS

Our Share the Plate partner for July is Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi. Planned Parenthood's mission is to improve health and well-being by providing high-quality, nonjudgmental sexual health care, honest and accurate sexuality education, and reproductive health and rights advocacy.

Roy Zimmerman brings his clever and timely songs to Nashville again. The topics are always current, and his slant on them is often devastating. Hear him Friday, July 12 at 7:30 at First Unitarian Church.

Nashville Chapter Americans United for Separation of Church and State thanks you for sharing the collection plate. We came close to defeating school vouchers and will be vigilant next legislative session for attempts to expand them.

GNUUC was well represented at the NOAH Issues Convention, with 15 of us in attendance! Delegates listened to two-minute “pitches” for each of the ten proposed problem areas and then voted for the three problem areas for NOAH to focus its work on going forward: Affordable Housing, Economic Equity & Jobs, and Education.

Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market, TN, has trained generations of organizers in the labor, civil rights, and other movements working for social justice and human dignity. Highlander serves as a catalyst for grassroots organizing and movement building in Appalachia and the U.S. South. Click to watch slide show!

Thank you to all the members, family, and friends who joined us for the “People as Populations, Politics and Prophets” workshop sponsored by the GNUUC Social Action committee.

All students were appreciative of Greater Nashville UU’s efforts and donations for the SIFE Hygiene Project. They enjoyed the experience, gained knowledge they likely wouldn’t have without hands-on learning, and much appreciated the hygiene products.

The Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) is a statewide, immigrant and refugee-led collaboration whose mission is to empower immigrants and refugees throughout Tennessee to develop a unified voice, defend their rights, and create an atmosphere in which they are recognized as positive contributors to the state. Please give generously to share the plate in May!

NOAH’s fourth annual banquet will be held on May 9

The April Share the Plate is the Black Mama's Bailout Project. Thank you to everyone who helped us raise over $250 for the group!