Hello wonderful UUCLers!

My staycation has come to an end and I am back to work on worship and programming and building this church community. I’m feeling ready for a new adventure into this church year and I hope you are, too! It’s been a challenging year but I still feel confident that we can co-create new possibilities!

I think it will be important for us to look back at what we have done and what we have accomplished despite all the difficulties. We should ask ourselves how this has helped us to grow in perseverance and grace and hope. Things did not go at all as planned, but things did happen- even new and wonderful things, alongside the heartbreaking things- and we traveled along together. What have we learned from all this that we can harvest and carry with us into this new adventure awaiting us? And likewise, what have we learned about what doesn’t work and should be left behind to wither?

I’m asking for a rejuvenation of your curiosity. It’s easy for the excitement of new adventures to be dulled in troubling times. And while it’s certainly essential to our souls to honor and work through our grief, it is just as essential to honor and be grateful for what we have accomplished and what we do have growing and living around us. Let us take some time to be curious enough to dig into this recent past and shed some light on what grows love and community and what does not. And let us be curious about what more we are capable of doing. So many possibilities lie before us. What are they?

We will do this together. We will get through the tough todays so we can build a better tomorrow. Worship and programming will be built around this as we start our new church year together. Take some time to be curious about your needs and desires and please bring them to our shared Zoom table as we move ahead into an unknown future. It is a future that we can shape together.

With much faith and love-

Heather