“Excel” used to be my second language. Spreadsheets are what I used all day long to create models translating environmental, health, and economic data into information that could be used by decision makers in DC. Which might explain why I am so tickled to see the responses of our Ends Survey come in and why … Continue reading 2020 Member Survey – early results
Our mission has never felt as relevant as today: Connecting in love and service, growing spiritually, transforming ourselves and the world. In record time, we’ve had to transform ourselves from a brick & mortar, relish-in-person-proximity, love-to-share-food-and-hold-hands kind of congregation into an online, phone-line, keep your physical distance kind of community. None of us know the … Continue reading Church in a Time of Pandemic
So much of what we love to do together happens in close physical proximity – the sharing of food, our worship, the singing, holding hands, playing games, eating chocolate, sitting in circles, or embracing one another as we show our care and affection. Now, as always, and perhaps more than ever, we need each … Continue reading Suspending All In-person Church Activities
It’s 10:21 pm. The parents have said their good-byes. Five more hours and we are headed to the airport. The youth are excited, roaming the church – and nowhere near ready for sleep. Time to finish these musings, musings about the importance of stories and the impact of church when it helps to create stories … Continue reading Telling Our Stories
What do we mean when we say that Unitarian Universalism is a covenantal faith? It points to our history as a faith focused on the quality of how we relate with one another. In 1648 The Cambridge Platform gave expression to the way congregational churches are intended to work. Institutionally, we emerged out of these … Continue reading Ours is a Covenental Faith
In January, adults will be exploring the theme of “Diversity” while our Soul Matters circles for children will focus on what it means to be a people of integrity. I am always interested in how the adult theme and the children’s theme interact with each other and this month is no exception. When we hold … Continue reading Diversity with Integrity
I’d like to think that my sermons help inspire you to greater and greater acts of compassion. Apparently, I’ve been fooling myself. What shapes our readiness to act with compassion is something quite different. A podcast of a German radio program (SWR2 Wissen) provided this summary: A number of seminary students were divided into two … Continue reading Pacing Ourselves, for Compassion
Whether December delights you or depresses you, I can assure you of this: it will not last. Many of us will decorate our homes for Solstice, Hanukkah, and/or Christmas (if we haven’t already), remembering holidays past as we bring out candles, ornaments, maybe those cookie-cutters that only get used once a year. We will sing … Continue reading Winter Holiday Impermanence
“Stress is caused by being ‘here’ but wanting to be ‘there,’ or being in the present and wanting to be in the future.” So simple these words by Eckhart Tolle, yet how true. We never really have a choice, of course. We are always ‘here’ rather than ‘there,’ always taking this one step right now … Continue reading Right Here… Right Now
October’s themes of Belonging and Commitment are a serendipitous pairing. Our Children’s Sunday School theme is Belonging while our worship theme is Commitment, and that raises some deep questions for me and maybe for you. What does it look like to be a congregation committed to the idea that children belong to the congregation? What … Continue reading Belonging and Committment
