From Your Minister

Dear Ones,

As the days shorten and the calendar turns toward October, my mind is turning to our Soul Matters theme of Generosity. As the draft text for the proposed new Unitarian Universalist value of Gratitude reads: “Our generosity connects us to one another in relationships of interdependence and mutuality.” And our resources this month remind us, generosity is transformative, connecting, and challenging. 

This connection between gratitude and generosity is important. Generosity can flow most freely and become transformative when it emerges from feelings of gratitude, and when we cultivate gratitude, hope, and a practice of freely and compassionately sharing our faith, presence, and resources. 

I’m looking forward to exploring these ideas with you as we engage in programming together this month. You can read about our upcoming Equipping for Action event, a new children’s choir, our religious education offerings for adults, children, and youth, vespers on second Wednesday evenings, and much more throughout this newsletter. These offerings are part of how we’re Growing Our Story (our stewardship campaign theme). They’re also part of ways we’re living into this year’s Vision of Ministry.

As you may have heard about during our September 17 worship service or in a leader email, the Vision of Ministry that the Board of Trustees adopted for 2023-24 is organized around 3 themes. 

• A year of welcoming, hospitality, and homecoming – including sharing responsibility for welcoming and integrating visitors, making creative use of our building, encouraging more member-developed and easily-accessible programming
• Nourishing resilience as a community – including joyful resistance to extremism,  building bonds with each other and allied groups, engaging in creative conflict, deepening and respecting diverse spiritual practices, and adapting to climate change
• Practicing personal care and compassion for others – including recognizing the effects of the pandemic and political realities, cultivating sustainable practices, practicing patience and setting realistic expectations, focusing on the positive, and resisting perfectionism

Alongside these themes, the Board developed two key questions for staff and members to use when developing programming and encouraged staff and leaders to use the vision of ministry themes from the last few years (connecting with ourselves, each other, and the wider community) as a framework for developing programming. 

• How can we make it easy for people to engage with programming? 
• How can we invite UUS groups into enacting the vision of ministry?

This month, as we practice Generosity, I hope that you’ll join leaders, staff, and other members in helping developing ways that we can live into this vision. 

Connecting and engaging with ourselves, with each other, and with the wider community is one of the great gifts of this congregation. This month, let’s create pauses and take time to connect and engage in new and old ways, and learn together.

Love and Blessings,
Rev. Diana