by Admin | Dec 4, 2017 | Minister
With one big holiday behind us, we turn to the rest of the winter holidays with a combination of trepidation and delight. There is such a combination of wonder and mystery and overwhelm and overdoing in this season, it’s hard not to have some mixed feelings.
Our theme for December is Hope, which is fitting both for the season and for the times we are living through. My favorite time from the Christian calendar is Advent, the time that we sit in the darkness for something new to be born. I love the metaphors that abound in it all. The journey to Bethlehem, awaiting the birth of the Son and the return of the Sun at the Solstice. I love sitting quietly in the dark with only candles or twinkling Christmas lights to illuminate the world.
With all our frenzy about this time, it can be especially useful to take time out to rest and reflect. Daylight grows shorter and nights grow longer. Seeds lie dormant, awaiting the return of light and warmth. What is dormant in you, waiting a new birth? Yet in the dark, it can also be easier to lose hope, to see no way ahead. Even in these unsettled and anxious times, we must not lose hope. It is all that keeps us going sometimes. The hope I speak of is more than a simple optimism. Our hope now must be robust, even fierce. And we must put our faith in something beyond our individual human capacity to resist and renew. Yes, each of us has such capacity within, though it’s not sustainable over the long-term if it does not reach beyond the individual. We can be waylaid by despair and hopelessness.
That which is larger may be the strength and hope you gain from community, from others’ hands to hold. It can be a faith in the collective goodness of humanity. It can be faith in a larger love that creates and holds us, and sometimes carries us. So this holiday season, nurture your hope. May the darkness give you rest and respite. May the twinkling lights bring you delight. May gatherings with friends and family be jolly. May your favorite holiday traditions – eggnog, stockings hung by the chimney with care, fruitcake, bouche de Noel – whatever they are, offer comfort and peace.
And may the candles we light in the darkness give you hope.
Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Blessed Solstice
Happy and Hopeful Holidays
with love, Rev. Dana
by Kitty Merrill | Nov 4, 2017 | Minister
While money clearly does not grow on trees, it sometimes strikes me as even more miraculous that food actually does. It’s probably my mostly suburban and urban life so far that makes this seem so remarkable. Still, it’s a wonder to drive around Ventura County and see oranges, lemons and limes actually hanging on branches, not just in pyramids at the grocery store.
Our November theme of Abundance is well suited to this time of year. In the Northern Hemisphere the harvest is pretty much over by now and many cultures have celebrations. The fall is a time to consider what we have and be grateful for the abundance in our lives.
Some hold the view that life is a zero-sum game. The more someone else has the less they have. They compete for more so that there is no chance they will ever go wanting. There are people and whole corporations in the world that deliberately seek to profit from our fear. That want to pit us against one another, that tell us to deny the humanity of others.
We live in a culture that often equates abundance with having massive quantities of everything. What if true abundance is just having enough?
Part of why we come to church is to live by a different set of values. Seeking enough, not everything. Satisfaction, not ecstasy. (A little ecstasy goes a long way, after all.) John Lennon asked us to “imagine all the people sharing all the world.” A pretty big dream, though that is the world we seek.
Our message must be that there is enough. We are enough. What if the deepest truth is that there really is enough? Enough love, enough truth, enough integrity, enough kindness, enough goodness in human hearts. So much enough-ness that we can actually share what we have. There is enough, though it is not equitably distributed.
To the extent that we are a people of abundance with enough – and often more than enough – for ourselves, we are called to reach out to others who clearly do not have close to what they need.
In this season of gratitude, may we all consider the abundance in our lives. Not simply of material things, but the abundance of love, friendship, kindness. The fullest bounty of our lives. My fond hope is that no one who is part of this community will feel a lack of the gifts of community.
Happy Thankgiving
Rev. Dana
by Kitty Merrill | Sep 29, 2017 | Minister
I just seem to grow more deeply in love with this congregation every day.
I love the way people show up, bringing (almost all the time) your kind hearts and best selves to this endeavor of community.
I loved seeing 15 folks from the church at Bep Hogen-Esch’s memorial at the Ted Mayr Funeral Home. Someone said they wished it had been at the church because it feels more like home, and yet they were there. Often, I see people who didn’t know the person who died well or maybe not at all. They come because the community has lost someone, which means they have. Now that’s what I call church people.
We had 30-40 people show up after church a few Sundays back to share thoughts about whether or not to take down a tree as part of the Outdoor Sanctuary Project. Earlier in our process, concerns about removing a canary pine had not gotten a full enough airing. There was some frustration felt on many sides. So the board decided people needed a time to give full voice to those many sides. The conversation was thoughtful and respectful. People shared their thoughts about the tree and also about the process of getting to this decision point. Folks reported that they felt heard.
By the time you are reading this, a decision about the tree will have been made by the hard-working Outdoor Sanctuary Team. I loved hearing folks express their support for the team’s work and leadership while offering their decided (and undecided) opinions. The work of the church is sometimes slow and a little messy. It is that way because living in covenant can be slow and a little messy.
Y’all show up for all generations services. The Water Communion was joyful and fun. I suspect that most of you missed my favorite part of all because it was happening mostly behind you. As we sang “Blue Boat Home” as our final hymn, a gaggle of girls were dancing – twirling and swinging their arms gracefully – by the west alcove. I loved how much fun they were having, how at home they seemed.
One Saturday in September, only a few UUCV people showed up for a coastal clean-up day. Yet that was also the day of a choir retreat, Open Mic Night, a Building and Grounds work party and Bep’s memorial. We show up, though it seems that five events in one day may more than we can manage.
You are a congregation so very easy to love!
Rev. Dana
P.S. – The next place for people to SHOW UP! is for the auction on October 14. It’s an important fund raiser and a really, really good time for all.
by Kitty Merrill | Sep 18, 2017 | Minister
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
by Kitty Merrill | Jul 29, 2017 | Minister
I write to you just before I hunker down at home for some days of Study Leave this summer. It used to be our churches operated on the old academic calendar based on an old agrarian calendar of school being out for the growing and harvesting seasons. By now this rhythm is practically written into our collective DNA. It’s even stronger for me given I have spent 50 of my nearly 60 years as a student, a teacher or a minister. It used to be ministers took off the whole summer. Some churches even closed down for the summer.
All that is changing as the world changes and as UUCV is becoming a year-round church. This summer we welcome two new staff members – Office Administrator, Jennifer Seale began on July 1 and Director of Religious Education, Emily Carroll, begins August 1. So, I am working the first two weeks of July and August, and taking 4-5 weeks of mostly study leave at the end of both months. We’ll see how far I get through the stack of books I want to read. I also plan – at last – to get my will done. As your minister, I will always encourage you to get end-of-life documents in order long before they are needed. I’ve seen the burden on grieving people sorting through their loved-one’s unsettled affairs.
This year I have another impetus to follow my own (sage) advice. The UUA has just launched a program called Wake Now Our Vision. Thanks to a grant from the UU Congregation at Shelter Rock, new bequests (i.e. naming UUCV as a beneficiary in your will, trust, IRA, etc.) are eligible for a 10% matching cash gift, up to $10,000 per donor. It’s like those matching grants on public radio pledge drives that bring in extra money when you donate. The program means to encourage UUs to name their church – or another UU institution – in their will to help ensure the long-term future of our faith.
I am naming both UUCV and Starr King School for the Ministry. Both institutions will receive a 10% match now, and a bequest (hopefully) decades later. I want both of these fine UU institutions to continue being strong voices of love and justice for a long, long time.
The Stewardship Team is calling this the “Legacy Challenge.” New bequests made between January 1, 2017 and June 30, 2020 will qualify for this match program, yet the matching money is first come-first served, and may run out sooner. So I encourage you to get this done now, this very summer. For more information and to download a form, visit http://wakenowourvision.org. Questions? Call Maura Raffensperger, Stewardship Chair at 805/616-2466. May your summer be filled with sun, refreshment of the physical and spiritual varieties, and time to take care of a few of those tasks you have been meaning to get to….
With Love, Rev. Dana
by Kitty Merrill | Jul 10, 2017 | Minister
I write just a few days after our Annual Meeting where we approved the Outdoor Sanctuary Project, made a bylaw change, approved a budget and voted in new officers. A lot accomplished in an hour and a half!
I wanted to clarify one thing about our finances. More than once at the meeting people said church finances are healthy. This is true both in the immediate and long term. Yet it is also true that in the next 2-3 years we will have some decisions to make.
Long-term financial health comes from both operating reserves and the legacy funds. While our policy is to have 3 months operating expenses in reserve, due to careful stewardship by the Finance Committee, we presently have nearly 5. The Legacy Fund has been well cared for and still has well over $200,000. Indeed, I have never served a church with such healthy reserves, so well-stewarded for the long term.
The immediate financial health is funded by 3-year “bridge pledges” made last year. These have allowed us to continue “staffing for growth.” The bridge pledges give us about another $40,000 for two more years (including 2017-2018). Coming to the end of that bridge, we arrive at the crossroads. The vast majority of the budget is made up of staff salaries, and we may well have some staffing decisions to make.
This year we had a very successful Celebration Sunday and pledge drive. We increased pledging by about 5 percent, which is to be applauded. You are a very generous congregation. Yet you can see that we’ll need to grow our resources significantly more in the next couple of years.
Often people think of growing in numbers of members, yet there are many ways to grow a church. We grow in spirit, in generosity, in commitment, in engagement, and in numbers. We are looking for growth in all these qualities.
We have many resources, yet there may be some hard choices ahead. I’m reminding you of this now, not to induce panic. We will not be falling off a cliff in two years. I just want to paint the fuller picture so that we are all holding it.
Ultimately the questions we need to ask are about the mission of this church and how we sustain it for the future. If we continue to grow in depth and clarity of mission, we will be the church we are called to be. That’s the very best we can do.
In faith and in community,
Rev. Dana
