What a beautiful day we had on Sunday, April 18! The rain held off that morning for our first in-person Sunday Service in more than one year. More than 50 of us celebrated the Flower Communion together. As Rev. Alice reminded us, each flower given and received in the Flower Communion represented a person – unique, glorious, and wondrous. We remembered those who couldn’t be with us, too, including Billye and Carol, both of whom passed away since we have been socially distant from one another. We had flowers left over, so some of us brought home extras and kept in our thoughts those we missed. We also created paper flower pedals that will be artistically assembled by Trista Blouin into a poster to commemorate the special day.
This Sunday Service was possible because of the forethought and energy of members of our congregation. Because we covenant together to remain in community and to care for one another, the health and safety of all of our Members and Friends was paramount. While many of us have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, others of us have not yet gotten the shots, and some will not do so for various reasons. Any decisions and actions we as a church take regarding gathering must take into consideration the capabilities and needs of all of us. The service on April 18 was held in accordance with the church’s recently adopted policy for out-door gatherings, which was recommended by the Safer Congregation Ministry Team and approved by the Board. The policy requires masking and maintaining social distancing and prohibits sharing food or drink to avoid germ exposure. The Safer Congregation team now is developing recommendations for a policy on in-door gatherings, and we hope that the Board will be able to review and approve that policy at the May meeting.
The service also took some hard work to prepare the church and grounds for the gathering. The Saturday prior to the Sunday Service, despite drizzles of rain that later turned into a downpour, about 15 of us were at UUCP working like busy bees. We were pressure washing, raking, blowing away leaves, trimming branches, vacuuming, sweeping, mopping, sanitizing, organizing, moving lawn furniture, picking out a tablecloth and vessels for the flowers, and doing other clean-up activities to make the church and grounds clean and fresh for us to enjoy. The heartwarming thing about this workday was that the group was comprised of long-time Members such as the Butchers and Bill Caplinger and newcomers such as our most recent Friend, Heather Stefanescu, and even a couple of young Anzaldo-Satterwhites. The love of our church and desire to see our congregation succeed was palpable that day.
Speaking of loving and working for UUCP, I was proud to see that our congregation was well-represented at the recent virtual rally to prepare for the upcoming Nehemiah Action, which is the centerpiece event of the JUST Pensacola interfaith social justice coalition. Though we may be one of the smaller congregations in-volved with JUST Pensacola, we often have a disproportionally large number of our Members and Friends show up for coalition activities. I hope the same is true for the Nehemiah Action on Monday, May 3, at 6pm, which already will have occurred by the time most of you read this column. That event is when we hope to have 1,000 concerned people in the virtual room to send a powerful message to community decisionmakers that we expect positive changes in the juvenile justice system. Our community cannot continue to have the distinction of pushing exorbitantly high numbers of youth into the criminal system rather than providing options for second chances and help to improve and have a better future.
We at UUCP have dreams and plans and deep commitment to one another and to our Beloved Community. We will learn about some of these plans and commitment during our Annual Congregational Meeting, which will be held virtually via Zoom on Sunday, May 16, at 12:30pm, in lieu of Coffee Hour that day. You will receive a series of emails providing the log-in and call-in info and reminding you about the meeting. Among the agenda items scheduled for that day are votes on our Slate of Candidates to lead and guide the congregation in 2021-22 (refer to the slate posted elsewhere in the newsletter) and our budget for 2021-22. We will also provide an update on plans for UUCP moving forward. The Annual Congregational Meeting is an important element of our church’s governance, and your attendance and involvement is critical. I look forward to seeing and hearing from you all!
Until next time,
Lauren Anzaldo, Board President