Letter from the Minister

 

Dear UCM members and friends,

It was such a joy to gather with you on the sanctuary chancel in a resplendent rainbow of color, ages, genders—a delightful and hopeful display of Beloved Community. We need one another, and we need these community connections to reinforce all that is good and beautiful in ourselves and in our world.

This next Sunday service, our annual Flower Communion Sunday, will mark the end of the church year and our transition to the summer season. While we take a break from our regular Sunday services after June 8 until September 14, we do not take a break from our shared ministry nor from the cares and concerns of our community and broader world.

Our ministry teams and committees are offering additional programming this summer to make sure there are many ways for you to connect with the UCM community over the next few months. There will be opportunities to connect informally over meals, play together outside, find grounding in contemplative worship, learn how you can take action to defend democracy, and build community-led movements for change. You can read more about these offerings below.

Our caring ministry also continues. The Lay Pastoral Care Team, Caring Network, and Care Fund remain active. I will also be available for pastoral visits at various times this summer.

I wish you a summer of heart-filled joy, meaningful action, rest and delight. There will undoubtedly be ways that we are called upon to be of service to our neighbors and to respond to the suffering we experience and witness in the world. Your attention and action is needed. Be ready and willing to answer the calls for faithful response. Know, too, that you are allowed time to rest and that we can each do our part in our own ways.

May you tend to your soul and to the broken places in our world with compassion. May you find joy amidst sorrow as well as in an exuberant yes to life’s beauty which also is in our midst.

With love,