Letters from Leadership (Page 3)

It’s only the very beginning of September so there are still some warm days left, but the crisp chilly air is not too far off. This is one of my favorite times of year. Along with the changing weather, it’s also time for a new church year. While we have been open for in-person gathering for quite some time, the upcoming Water Communion service and Homecoming celebration (with a catered lunch!) on September 11 will be a wonderful time to…

Inside: September 11 date set for mask optional worship services!! Who is planning for the restart of our childcare program, making sure our building is well maintained, checking in that the Worship Team, Music and RE programs have what they need, and debating how reopening of the church should progress? It’s the Executive Team, or ET for short. I’m Mary Harlos and I’m a member of the Executive Team along with Mike Moutrie as Secretary and members Mila Brinker, Steve…

Dear friends,  June 7th and 8th I attended the Association of Unitarian Universalist Administrator (AUUA) Zoom Professional Days and Annual Meeting. I had a wonderful experience, and I would like to share with you some of what I took away from this conference.   110 administrators from the US, Canada and Mexico attended Pro Days. As a member of the AUUA, I have committed to continued administrative education, which I love, and it is a wonderful opportunity to connect with colleagues.…

It’s Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of Summer in America. Newer members may not realize it, but for most of our history, Unitarian Universalist churches were closed during the summer. No one is sure where this practice originated, although the prevailing theory links it to the fact that Unitarianism has its root in the Northeastern United States where congregants left town to spend the summer on “the Cape”. Whatever its origins, our own church continued the practice until roughly…

My son, Ethan, started his first job on Monday.  It is a salaried position with benefits and everything!!  I can barely stand myself!!! Has a mother ever been so proud!?!    Ahem.  As I was saying…  Watching him take this first real step into adulthood makes me think back to when I got my first job.  I was just out of college and had moved into my first real apartment.  It was so freeing!  I could arrange the furniture however I…

Religious Education will be taking a Summer Break. As our beloved community prepares for summer, and our families prepare for vacation and adventures, the RE program will wind down classes for a couple of months. The last day of classes will be June 12. Instead, we will be focusing on adding some resources to the sanctuary to make intergenerational services more accessible for both kids and adults! We’re also hoping to plan some more activities with youth from other congregations,…

Hi everyone!  Time for another update on what your board has been up to!  This month the board has been focused on getting ready for the Annual Meeting on May 22nd. The meeting will be held in person in the sanctuary, and we encourage all members to attend and vote. A big part of the annual meeting is approving the budget for the year, and the finance committee has been hard at work crunching the numbers and trying to put…

Greetings from the Worship Team. We are now several months into being a lay-led church. While the Worship Team has always participated in shaping our Sunday services, we are now doing it all. We as a team have actually absorbed the role of Minister. Every Sunday, we deliver a complete worship service to you, from music and video, community connections and share the plate, to the sermon and readings. As a team, we develop a weekly theme, and each of…

Hello all! The Revitalization Team has been busy! In March, several members of our team attended ‘A Second Slice of Pi’, which was a virtual conference held by the UUA for small congregations. It was great to get together to share ideas with others that are having some of the same challenges as UUCE, and hear some fresh perspectives on how we can be more efficient and effective moving forward. Alongside this, the Revitalization Team has had several meetings with…

As we approach the last couple of months of the religious education year at UUCE, and prepare to enter the slower, summer months – I find myself starting to think about what the RE Program might be able to do in the future. I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to continue to have RE on-site into the fall and long into the future, but the simple fact remains that to do much of anything with our incredible kids, we need RE…

Hi Everyone! It has been great finally getting to see many of you in person at our services over the past few weeks! I’d like to thank everyone involved in getting the church open and figuring out how to do services while keeping everyone safe. They all continue to meet and discuss how to improve your experience at the services. I attended the last meeting, and we did decide to continue masking for now to protect our most vulnerable congregants.…