“What can a transformative community actually look like? In my experience, it has been about including. It’s about honoring diversity. It’s about being aware of power differences. It’s about playing with art, with music, bringing in ritual, different kinds of wisdom. It’s about going beyond individual disciplines.”
– Marilyn Daniels, in Crone Wisdom

Dear UUCP Members and Friends,

If you attended the May annual congregational meeting, you heard the goals I set out for this year as President. The board subsequently adopted them as their goals as well. They are:

• to build and engage members and friends,
• to expand pastoral care, and
• to work for justice.

In order to achieve any of these goals, we have to connect with each other in a loving way. None of these goals can be achieved alone.

Actually, some days I feel that connecting with each other in love and fellowship is enough of a goal all by itself. Remember “The Force” in Star Wars? I think of that “Force” as the force of good, the force of love, and it is what I think of as God. It’s often what I try to connect to when I meditate. As I mentioned when I took my turn in the pulpit a couple of months ago, the slogan “God is Love” was being bantered around when I was a teen. I believe that there are all kinds of visible and invisible forces around us.  Even physicists agree that atoms are connected in a strange, eerie, and unexplained way, and other scientists have discovered odd physical manifestations of energy all over the world when great tragedies strike. I think these unseen connections explain the power of prayer.

It was such a joy to see the love and connection happening last month at our church campout. We had a chance to eat together, play together, worship together, and briefly live together, and throughout the weekend, there was a deep sense of appreciation, acceptance, and caring. It felt to me as though we were creating love. And if God is love, then we were creating God. What more could anyone ask for?

I’m deeply grateful to everyone who attended and participated. Denise, Joe, Bradley, and I did the initial planning, but everyone participated by bringing food to share, loaning  equipment (or in the case of the Vinsons, their cabin and land), and by leading activities with materials they donated. In particular, I want to thank Joe for cooking for us, Bradley and Denise for shopping, Faerin for bringing wood, kindling, and tinder and teaching the children how to build a fire, Tabitha for her cookie decorating project, and Jayme and Sammy for the candle-making project. Denise did a great job with SO much of the weekend, especially the spiritual service at the campfire on Saturday night. We also did a nature search, played cooperative games, and sang around the campfire while toasting marshmallows and making s’mores. EVERYONE wants to do it again in the Spring, and we talked of making Saturday a “retreat day” for folks who don’t want to sleep over. So watch for announcements and I hope you will join us.

We are also joyful about having the rummage sale back on! Many thanks to Linda Cobb, and I know that she is extremely grateful to have had so many strong and willing volunteers! The money from the sale is very helpful to our continuing existence, but I think the camaraderie that the sale invokes is just as important. Through the pandemic, we’ve all really missed being a part of something larger than ourselves, our jobs, or our immediate family. Participating in activities like the campout, the church services, and the rummage sale keep us connected and when we’re all in “right relationship” with each other they make love. And God is love.

In Love and Fellowship,

Laura