I am so happy to be embarking on our second year in ministry together. Last year was full of firsts, and this year will have a few of them as well. We have welcomed two new staff members, Jennifer Seale as office-administrator and Emily Carroll as our Director of Religious Education. Both have hit the ground running, and folks are being welcoming and helpful to them as they join us. I do hope this staff team we are building will last a good while.
This year we will also begin planning and programming thematically using Soul Matters, a program from the UU church in Rochester, NY. More than 200 of our congregations are using it, becoming a kind of nation-wide UU community. Soul Matters has resources for worship and music, religious education and small group ministry, aka covenant groups. Though we will be easing into it, you will begin to see themes weaving into the life of the community.
Throughout the year, you may find yourself talking in a Covenant Group about some ideas that you heard in a sermon earlier in the month. Or your children may give you a whole new perspective on the same topic. And all the while we will know that UUs across the land are considering the same themes.
The resources provided are extensive and have been growing over the last five years or so as the program has deepened and expanded. I hope that we will also deepen and widen our spiritual growth as a congregation using these materials over the next years.
September’s theme is, fittingly, Welcome, and the first service of our “program year” will be a Water Communion service, as we gather together from our travels, near and far, and merge our waters as we sail on together once more.
In October will come Courage. November, we’ll explore Abundance; in December, we will consider Hope. The new year will bring us Intention. As you can see, the themes flow with seasons and holidays and church rhythms and events in the wider world.
My hesitation in taking on themes was that they might feel constricting. I’m not sure I want to link every worship service to a theme, and yet they are broad and deep enough that it is easy to imagine two or even three services each month to be linked in.
We may even see messages on our church sign linked to the themes. A couple of relative newcomers – Chris Chalquist and Peggy Anders – have taken up the ministry of changing the message of our sign every month or so. They hope to catch the eye of people driving by and perhaps draw some of them in. Check it out.
So much love and so much energy arising – thematically – at UUCV!
With Love,
Rev. Dana
805-644-3898
administrator@uuventura.org
