March 27, 2024

“We are so good at imagining dystopia.”
–Laurel Schneider

“May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.”
–Nelson Mandela

Dear Ones,

At GNUUC, we’ve been focused on Transformation this month, and we will soon dive into our usual springtime activities of preparing for the next church year (July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025): creating a budget, asking for your pledges of support for the work of the congregation, recruiting and discerning leadership roles, and the annual meeting (May 19) at which members vote to affirm choices which I hope will reflect our hopes for the life and work we share. 

My friend Laurel Schneider (a religion professor at Vanderbilt) points out our fluency at thinking about dystopia not to discourage, but to steer us toward exercising our capacities to notice and nourish human thriving. 

Throughout the thirty-year (30 years, really!) history of our congregation, the vision of our shared ministry has been to embody love and connection in a world that often seems determined to move in opposite directions. I wonder how we will choose, in this coming year–which we might consider the first year of the next three decades of our shared history–to live into new possibilities that nurture our connections with each other and with all that we love.

Yours in fear (because we are human) but also, oh so much, in love and hope ,
Rev. Denise
RevDenise@gnuuc.org

P.S. Don’t forget: Palmer Lecture by Councilwoman Olivia Hill at First UU Church (on Woodmont Blvd) at 7 pm on Saturday evening! 

P.P.S. Notes from the most recent Board meeting are published in this Eblast on the 4th Wednesday of each month–which is today. Scroll down for a peek into our last meeting. (Catch up on previous meetings on our website, if you wish.)