Good People,
As the pandemic is receding and/or we are learning to live with the changes it has wrought in our lives, we get to see what life will be like AC – After COVID.
I will continue to resist speaking of anything as ‘normal’ again – neither in the sense of returning to what was or in what will be new. The most I will say is that we will eventually take up habits that are predictable enough that we can begin to count on them – even make plans based on recognizable patterns…
As we are coming together in person with fewer and fewer restrictions, we have a chance to revisit facets of church life and decide whether to return to them, adapt them, or let them fall away. Which patterns or habits do we want do we want to revive and what can we let go so we are free to reimagine what ‘doing church’ can look like?
And the Board of Trustees wants to hear from you. This is what they asking at their Happy Hour with the Board on Thursday, June 5 at 5 pm. Zoom number 707 277 4205. As UUCV reopens, what should we keep and what should we change?
One example is already kinda decided – printed orders of service.
For years our Environmental Action Team has been proposing that we stop printing orders of service to save paper and ink and labor. I have deliberately said nothing about this when we re-opened in person. Several people have mentioned that they are glad to be done with them, though one person asked about printing them again. As an elegant compromise, our MAGICians have started listing the names of each of the service elements on the slides.
And there are more.
- We haven’t had a printed monthly newsletter for more than a year. The Publicity Team is exploring options of having a lengthier website-based newsletter that UUCV This Week will link to. What else might work?
- Singing the children out under the Bridge of Love after a story in the service. So far, I have heard one person who prefers the service without it. Several say this is one of their favorite elements that they miss a lot. Yet the idea of people breathing into each other’s faces as they form an arch does seem a bit iffy. How might we adapt this practice?
- Coffee Hour. Being in break out rooms on Zoom confirmed some of the limitations of Coffee Hour. Some reported having deeper conversations with a variety of people in Zoom breakout rooms. Meeting outdoors has also been sweet. Is there a way to adapt Coffee Hour? Can we make it hybrid? Or find ways to invite people to circulate more indoors?
We have a chance to look at church with new eyes.
There is very little that we absolutely must do.
So, what do we want to do and why?
As folks who love the questions at least as much as we love answers, we have another opportunity to practice our faith.
So attend Happy Hour on Thursday or let me or Yukio Okano, Ron Dallas, Xenia Young, Rebeca Fasset, Ray Escobedo, or Cassie Tondro know.
As the Buddha noted that everything is always changing, yet as Octavia Butler tells us we can also shape change.
Let us continue down this spiritual and congregational path together,
Rev. Dana
