Beginning the new church year

Thank you to all of you who have been reading my blog – and who are still here! It’s been a while since I wrote something. You can be assured, however, that the Board is hard at work over the summer. Our focus in July and August has been reviewing the bylaws with the goal of addressing changes that reflect reality for today and into the future. We will be bringing our proposed changes to the congregation for discussion in the coming months.

We held our annual leadership planning retreat with the Board and Executive Team on Friday and Saturday of this past weekend to identify key initiatives to work on over the next one to three years – along with all the usual work of the Board.  Beginning on Friday with an engaging discussion based on the book, “Serving with Grace: Lay Leadership as a Spiritual Practice” by Erik Walker Wikstrom, we entered into a very purposeful Saturday planning session.  Coming out of that meeting we will be continuing our exploration of congregational growth and the interim steps we need to take along the way as well as how we can become a more mission-focused congregation. More on that to come.

I must admit, my walks have been few and far between this summer. Alas, I am a fair weather walker. I’ve tried walking in the heat of the summer – and I have tried walking in a blizzard. Neither was really effective at helping me to still my mind. I realize if I am to stay spiritually centered, I must have more than one practice in my spiritual toolkit. And so I am “trying on” other practices to see how they fit.

I participated in a 3-month long program this summer with about 20 others via audio conference on mastery of the mind and applying the principles to accomplishing our passions. Fascinating stuff –amazing people! One of the key concluding points of the program was “You have to be in a state of calm to be able to create anything. It’s that simple.” Getting to that state of calm is what I’m doing on my walks or when I'm looking at a beautiful landscape like the almost-midnight sun I experienced while in Norway; it’s what some do through meditation and others do through writing or music – or whatever resonates. You may have noticed “UU 201” mentioned in a recent eNews.  It's an offering at our church on Sunday mornings this fall where members of our congregation will talk about how their spiritual practices connect them to their own faith as UUs. I’ve been invited to share my experience and thoughts – hope to see you there!

In faith,

Nancy