Dear UCM Members and Friends,

 

In just a few days, the doors to this sanctuary will be open once again. What a joy it will be to welcome you back here and to begin a new church year as a spiritual community!

 

As we start this new year together, I hold in my heart the deep need for us to reconnect as a community. We have each experienced the past two-and-a-half years of the pandemic, and of pandemic church life, differently. Moving forward together, we will need to commit to reconnecting and to strengthening the bonds of our relationships with one another. 

 

We have new members who have yet to meet other church members in person! We have long-time members and friends who didn’t find online church satisfying and will be attending a worship service for the first time in a long time this fall! We have children who were born just before or during the last two years of the pandemic who have never been to the nursery or the Children’s Chapel! 

 

And, we also have members who have shown up all throughout this time to check on the building, to put up the flags, to call and check on other church members, to hand out meals, to lead small groups over Zoom, to lead worship to an empty sanctuary, to offer hospitality through Zoom chat messages, to operate cameras and the sound board, to lend a listening ear to a church friend.

 

Each and every one of you – no matter if and how you engaged with our UCM community over the past two years – is an essential part of this congregation. Your passions, your questions, and your hopes and dreams make us who we are. And, it is only with your engagement and energy that we can continue to be a force for love and hope for one another and for our broader community.

 

So, I invite you to return once again to the life of this Unitarian Universalist congregation this fall. 

 

It may be with some trepidation that you return. It may be with some uncertainty or unease with being with a large group of people once again. It may be that you return with unfettered joy and excitement!

 

All of these emotions are accepted and welcome here. All of you is accepted and welcome here. The Love that holds us is vast and all-inclusive.

 

I look forward to being with you once again in just a few days! I am excited for this year ahead in which we will share in our ministry of welcome and love, of learning and growth, and of service and stewardship together.

 

See you soon!

 

Rev. Joan