I am also looking forward to taking some vacation time this summer. In fact, I plan to be away from GNUUC for the month of July. I’ll be busy resting and reading and helping my daughter prepare to begin college at the end of August. It will be a full summer for me, and I appreciate working for a congregation that recognizes the importance of allowing me time to pause, process the year behind us, and prepare for the coming year. Your Board and I are already looking forward to the launch of the 2022-23 church year, with our annual visioning process plus the added bonus of a Startup Workshop (because I am still your “new” minister) with Southern Region staff in August. I can’t wait to see what awaits us!

Please email gnuuc@gnuuc.org if you need ministerial support during this time. You may also leave a voicemail and Kris will forward your request to either Cynthia S. or Michelle P.

The hillside next to my office window at church has become thickly green over the last few weeks. Looking out, I can now see the sky only in very small patches, and the hawks (there seem to be three living in close proximity to our grounds) I see only when I’m outside.

Dear ones, hello. I’m thinking of you and hope you are well.

It feels so long since I have written you a note like this. What a busy spring we have had! We have celebrated spring, had a rollicking good time raising funds at our annual auction, began work on various building projects, are watching things bloom and get very green on our grounds, are about to pause to recognize the graduating seniors among our youth (join us live in person or on Zoom this Sunday for that!) and have been mourning the death and celebrating the lives of congregational elders. (Read the Eblast for details about Charles Sumner’s Celebration of Life service coming up later this month.)

I hope you are enjoying this spring-into-summer time in middle Tennessee (or wherever you are). It’s always a beautiful time of year; this year, there’s something about the overlay of pandemic re-emergence that makes these days feel even more precious for being full of possibilities that we now know (more keenly than we did a few brief years ago) are still (and may always be) fragile.

As you move through these days of light & green & endings & new beginnings, go gently and remember to pause, breathe, and take it all in. When that “all” seems too much, remember we are here together and together we are big enough to hold it all, perhaps even to celebrate it all.

Yours in greenness and hope,

Rev. Denise
revdenise@gnuuc.org

"Please come to the auction; it will be fun!" ~Rev. Denise

Dear Ones,

How are you this mid-March day?

I am … feeling hugely grateful–for sunshine and for the beings with whom I share this life–and a little, well, soggy.

You may or may not have heard, but our church building had a water-logged weekend due to a plumbing problem in one of our restrooms.

The Soul Matters theme for this month is Widening the Circle, inspired by the title of the report released by the UUA’s Commission on Institutional Change not quite two years ago: Widening the Circle of Concern, which focuses on addressing racial discrimination and dismantling systems of white supremacy within our Unitarian Universalist movement. (It’s a big topic and a report worthy of study, if you feel called.) I particularly appreciate the title of this report because it feels both strong (centered, if you will) and compassionate–truly welcoming and offering an invitation into expanding our learning about systems and social/cultural dynamics which some of us have not recognized, understood, or considered until recently.

For what do you look genuinely and consistently? Or, for what do you intend to look? At the beginning of this church year, your Board decided to make connection our shared mission this year. And many of you have been genuinely and consistently doing the work of creating and strengthening our connections: phone calls to check in with each other, meeting with covenant groups, joining worship online or in the sanctuary, spending time with our young folks in Children's Religious Education, working together in the garden or on our new covered pavilion, planning service projects, and so much more.

I expect our hybrid meetings will continue through the current spike in COVID cases, but I want to ask each of you to think carefully about your own safety, health, and risk levels. If you would like to join us in person, please continue to sign in when you arrive, to wear a good mask properly, and to maintain space between yourself and others while inside–these measures help us keep each other safer. Please, please, be sure to get vaccinated and boosted as you are eligible. But also consider your own individual level of risk: if you have underlying health issues, or other areas of your life involve higher levels of risk or exposure, please be mindful of whether or not your overall well-being is best served by joining us in person or online. Our policy and practices cannot keep us perfectly safe, but if each of us is thoughtful and careful, we will all be safer and able to sustain the congregational connections that nurture us.

I hope your holiday season is filled with whatever you most want or need, and that you are taking time to relax and enjoy it.

I am away from work this week (returning to work on Tuesday, January 4), enjoying some time away with my family.