Dear Ones, Yesterday, as part of my study leave, I participated in a small group conversation with Kai Cheng Thom, the keynote speaker of my upcoming UUMA Institute (our ministerial association offers this professional development program every three years). I share this experience with you here in our congregational meeting packet because it impacted me […]
Building community is to the collective as spiritual practice is to the individual. ~ Grace Lee Boggs, Community Organizer My Dear Ones, A year has gone by since I last wrote a formal letter for you and our congregational packet. As most of you can attest, a great deal has happened in this year. We
My Dear Ones, The sky is bright blue, the air is crisp, and the leaves on the trees are bright orange, yellow, and red. At this time of year, I like to sing “It’s the most wonderful time of the year!” Not with the kids jingle bellin’, but with nature getting ready to take its
It’s impossible to practice living in community—loving, flawed, diverse, surprising community—without showing up. It’s that simple . . . and that complicated, because “showing up” often means choosing to forgo momentary enticements or solitary pursuits by bringing yourself to worship, week after week (or as often as possible), not because you might get something out
My Dear Ones, Please accept my apology for my recent, low column production, whether in The Forum or in my separate Keeping the Faith message. While I am getting better at slowing down and doing more that feeds my heart, I am still not able to get everything on my to-do list or in my
Dear Ones, Here, where already you have left behind, by choice or by force, what you knew what you cherished what you maybe took for granted. Here, where not yet do you know where you’re headed, what it will take what it will give how it will change you. ~ Rev. Karen Hering, “Here” in Trusting
Dear Ones, First and foremost, thank you to everyone reading this letter. Thank you for caring enough aboutMVUUF to stay engaged with us as we try to find a new way of being, a way that is both sustainable andinspirational. It has been two and a half years since the Board presented the jaw-dropping budget
Dear Ones, Would it be bad to admit to y’all that I still sometimes forget that I am a spiritual leader? Especially when bad things happen in the larger world. I remember to do the small things that I’ve always done, like reaching out with love to those that I think may be more directly
Dear Ones, I hope that you have enjoyed your summer, whether that means vacations with family and friends or quiet moments in nature listening to the animals and insects around you. As I may have shared before, when I was growing up we didn’t go on vacations. My mother was a single mom who worked
