2026/27 Pledge Campaign Update - as of Nov. 16

15 pledges received

$59,956 raised towards $525,000 goal - 11.4%

See more in article below!

VUU's 2026-27 Stewardship Campaign

Hi everyone! This is your Stewardship Chair Debbe S. with an update on VUU’s 2026-27 Pledge Campaign. I’m excited to tell you that since Sunday, we have received 15 pledges totaling $59,956. In the blink of an eye, we are already 11.4% of the way to meeting our $525,000 goal for FY 26/27!

I hope by now you have received the beautiful campaign brochure and letter we mailed out last week. As you read over them, you’ll find details about this year’s pledge campaign and an invitation to attend and make your pledge at one of fourteen Cottage Meetings. 70 members and friends have already signed up to attend a Cottage Meeting!

Click here for Cottage Meeting Sign-ups.

—Submitted by Debbe S.

It's Time to Donate to FUUNd!

VUU’s Let’s Have FUUNd Together Auction is back for 2025/26! Starting this Sunday, and continuing through January 4th, you are invited to donate an event, service or dinner in support of our annual Let’s Have FUUNd Together Auction. 

Throughout January, we’ll compile the auction catalog, and the online auction will run from February 1 through February 15.  You can submit your donation as follows:

1. Online (the easy way!)

Visit https://auctria.events/LetsHaveFUUNdTogether2026. Then select “Online Donation Form” from the menu at the top, and fill out the requested information.

2. Low-tech (the classic way!) 

Pick up a blank form from the FUUNd table on Sunday, fill it out, and return it.

3. Prefer a digital version?

We also have fillable forms available by email—just ask! 

Not sure what to donate? Don’t worry—we’ll have plenty of FUUN ideas!

And as always, our team is happy to help. Email: fuundtogether@vuu.org

Faith Formation Director

Wilbliss Kim (they/them) joins our congregation as a Faith Formation Director with decades of lived experience building community with children of all ages as an educator, program director, and a community care provider. They come to us with a robust family lineage of childhood educators and ministers. As an immigrant, a survivor of interpersonal and institutional abuse, a trans queer parent of two, and disabled from long COVID, they look forward to bringing their compassion for a safe and accessible world to the incredible community that VUU already is. 

Wilbliss's underlying values which fuels their everyday: Landback is the Goal, Liberation is the Key, Love is the Way. 

They sadly could not be with us in service Sunday. They are tending to their Mother who is transitioning. They look forward to being of service soon.

The committee wanted to share these further details with you. Wilbliss’ references describe them as we also experienced them: thoughtful, committed, creative, and engaging.  

One person said this: “I have known Wilbliss in a professional capacity and as a movement peer for over three years...My experience of them is as an experienced organizer, project lead and movement ecosystem anchor in the focus areas of Reproductive Justice, Youth organizing and Trans/intersex/GNC advocacy. Wil leads unabashedly from the heart and from their deep lived experiences of multiple marginalizations--they are a role model in community for how our vulnerabilities are also our fiercest strengths. I recently attended a Gender diversity and family building convening organized by Will and was amazed at their ability to create a functional, welcoming and productive intergenerational space. So often we give lip service to wanting children and youth to participate in our organizing spaces without providing functional containers for youth or parents to work inside of. Wilbliss created a seamless container where babies, children, youth and adults could all engage with the content of the convening and build community while having important conversations about how we make our families. I was so grateful to get to learn from the actualization of their intentions.” 

We hope you’ll help us welcome them into our community and get to know them. They will begin regular hours with us in December.

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A VERY BIG THANKS to Paul and Kanasha Reed (and Riley!) for jumping in and helping us paint two of the three offices that needed to be painted this weekend!!! With some help from Rev. Sarah and Damian P. they look great and we saved some $$$!

Thanks to Jamila Miqbel for bringing snacks for the next few weeks for our kiddos!  

–Rev. Sarah

VUU Ensemble is looking for singers!

This group rehearses the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of each month at 3:30–4:30 pm in the Sanctuary. If you have an alternative work schedule or aren't able to commit to weekly evening choir rehearsals, please join us. We rehearse simple choral pieces and sing one Sunday each month. Some musical experience is helpful but not a must. Contact Lynn D. for more information.

Sandy W. Update

Sandy has been able to get outside with the new wheelchair and the improved weather.

Sandy and her family would love for you to visit. The address is 4820 S. Robins Way, Chandler, AZ 85249. Drop in anytime between 10 am to 6 pm (5 pm on Wednesdays).

–Submitted by Janet C.

Camp deBenneville Pines 2026

Save the dates for two important camps at Camp deBenneville Pines in 2026.

May 8–10 is Camp Transcend Family Retreat

Sept 18–20 Pride Family Camp

If you have Trans or Gay members of your family or know of a family who could be helped by this kind of supportive camp check out the website.

—Submitted by Pat Reed

Moral Monday Vigil

November 24, 12-1p at 14500 N. Northsight Blvd. Ste. 221 Scottsdale, AZ 85260

Please join me on Monday outside Congressman Schweikert’s office from 12-1. I am being called to step up and speak out about the policy violence that is taking place with our national health care. I am being called to speak out against the policy violence that has left families without food and federal workers without pay. I am being called to speak out about the incredible amount of money we are spending to wreak havoc on the lives of immigrants who have committed no crime and whose contributions are important to our communities-- money we could be spending instead to address health care, housing, and food needs in our state for all who live here. Instead, we are traumatizing our communities over and over again. I am being called and I am calling you to join me. 

I said yes to leading a Moral Monday vigil with Repairers of the Breach on 11/24 to highlight these issues, and I want you to join me. It’s just the beginning. I believe health care in America is about to be the straw that broke the camel’s back– and we need to demand that our lawmakers respond with real policy changes. We will hold a vigil with a coffin, offer our prayers and a litany in tandem with folks across the country. For this event we’ll show up outside the office of Congressman Schweikert, with a coffin, dressed for a funeral, and livestream a vigil that calls leaders like Schweikert out for their participation in policy violence and its impact on all who live here.  RSVP HERE

May this be the first of many actions we take together to bend the arc of the moral universe toward justice!

–Rev. Sarah

Come Break Bread with Us

The VIP Core Team wants to meet YOU!

We'll be on the VUU patio this Sunday, November 23, at the Volunteer Recognition Fair. Drop by our table to learn more about VIP and our mission to Build Relationships.

See you there!

—Submitted by Barb Q.