Sunday, August 2, 2026
Service at 10:30 am
Guest Speaker – Rev. Bob Murphy
“Accountability”
To who or what, if anything, are the Unitarian Universalists accountable?   Rev. Bob Murphy, a community minister, will mention some possibilities.

Rev. Bob Murphy is a UU community minister for Florida. Bob asks people to love and care for each other and their natural environment during some difficult days for planet Earth.

There will be a New to UU session Sunday August 2 at 11:45 in the Teen Room(rm 5) of the Multipurpose Building. This is an informal 15-20 minute session to answer questions about UUism, how to get connected here at UUCT, as well as the next steps to becoming a UUCT member.

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Sunday, August 9, 2026
Service at 10:30 am
Guest Speaker – Robert Sichta
“Due Process in the Time of Immigration”
Bob Sichta is an Immigration Lawyer. He is also the Senior Pastor Emeritus of the Bradenton Congregatonal Church and currently attends the UU Church in Sarasota with his wife, Pia — something he does to confuse theologians.  Before all that, he was a corporate lawyer for two Fortune 500’s and practiced criminal and civil law in Denver, Cleveland, and Buchanan County, VA, where he also served as the County Attorney. The son of teachers, he grew up in central and northern Illinois before joining the Navy, which led to the GI BIll, allowing him to obtain a BA from Old Dominion University, followed by a Juris Doctorate from the College of William & Mary. Many years later he completed a Master of Divinity degree from the Florida Center for Theological Studies. He and Pia live in a corner of Manatee County that pretends it’s in Sarasota, where they care for their two rescue puppies. Between the two of them, they share three children and four grandchildren, all of whom share the goal of being part of an inclusive, welcoming World where people are kind to each other in ways that are open, understanding, and selfless.

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Sunday, August 16, 2026
Service at 10:30 am
Guest Speaker – Rev. Charles McKenzie, Jr.
“Idea Heroes Part 2”
Come and hear about individuals who have positively impacted and altered our world because they refused to accept first assumptions, and to stay within even widely accepted ideological frameworks. They had the courage to challenge and transform our world beyond those frameworks and first assumptions. In the arena of our theological and cosmological traditions we need individuals who are willing to be “idea heroes”.

Rev. Charles S. McKenzie Jr. is a 1982 graduate of Bethune-Cookman with a B.A. in Religion and Philosophy. Rev. McKenzie is presently an ordained minister and a full- time public school teacher in Manatee County. He has been involved in the political landscape promoting civil rights for minorities, women, farmworkers and the youth. He is the State of Florida Coordinator of Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow-PUSH Coalition. He served locally as the Vice President of the Haitian American Foundation of Tampa Bay.

Experiencing hardship and an unstable background growing up, McKenzie developed a

passion for helping the less fortunate, the undeserved, the exploited and the neglected.

Sunday, August 23, 2026
Service at 10:30 am
Guest Speaker – Fred Hearns
“Tampa’s Black History Museum.”
Fred Hearns was born in the Bronx, New York. He grew up in Tampa’s Belmont Heights community in East Tampa. Hearns graduated from George S. Middleton High School and from the University of South Florida (USF) in 1970. He then worked as a newspaper journalist and in the Office of Public Contacts at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In 1975 he returned to his home town to begin a 32-year career with the City of Tampa. Hearns retired as director of the city’s Department of Community Affairs in 2007 and founded Fred Hearns Tours LLC. For the next thirteen years Fred led over 200 bus and walking tours of Tampa’s most historic Black communities. He also found time to earn two masters’ degrees, in Human Services from Springfield College and in Africana Studies from USF, and write three books. In 2021 Fred was named Curator of Black History for the Tampa Bay History Center, a position he still holds. He is responsible for leading walking tours for the History Center, giving talks about local Black History to interested groups and helping guide the opening in 2027 of Tampa’s Black History Museum. Fred and his wife, Gloria, are the parents of six adult children, twelve grandchildren and one great grandchild. He and his wife live in the same East Tampa community they both were raised in.

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Sunday, August 30, 2026
Service at 10:30 am
Guest Speaker – Jamie Robe
“Standing in the Storm: Hope, Preparedness, and Our 7th Principle in an Altered Climate”
As lifelong Floridians, we know that tropical weather shapes both our landscape and our lives. But as warming seas fuel stronger and more frequent storms, hurricane readiness is no longer just a seasonal chore—it is a vital act of spiritual and community resilience. Drawing from a lifetime of fascinated storm-watching and a background in engineering, Jamie Robe will take us on an honest look at climate change as the defining challenge of our era while offering a message of grounded hope. Together, we will explore personal and congregational steps for disaster preparedness alongside cost-effective, strategic ways we can honor our Seventh Principle—respect for the interdependent web of all existence—to protect the home we share.

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