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Dear Ones, I am a New Englander so imagine my shock when I recently read that Florida lays claim to the first Thanksgiving, which occurred on September 8, 1565 between Pedro Menendez de Aviiles and the Eastern Timucua, who long lived on the land surrounding the St. Johns River. Apparently they celebrated a feast of Thanksgiving. This just may be considered some form of blasphemy in New England. If it is true, what do I do with the first Thanksgiving story that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony? To make matters more confusing I read that the first Thanksgiving is also claimed by Virginia and Texas, though those feasts were long after that of Florida. Since 1863 when America claimed her national feast day we have been celebrating Thanksgiving Day by recounting the first Thanksgiving as a time of peace, prosperity, communion, and a grand gesture to God giving Him thanks and praise for a good harvest … IN MASSACHUSETTS. I don’t believe that story and understan...

Dear Ones, Risk. I wonder what came to mind when you read that word. We often associate risk with inviting negative consequences into our lives. The work of taking risks can be unnerving and for some of us counter-intuitive. For some, like me, risk is comfortable and necessary. You might be thinking that this newsletter article is late. It is. I intentionally held it back so I could do a little research on taking risks. It involved observing and working with our youth and their advisers. Not too long ago one of the youth, Natalia, had an idea. She wanted to rally the youth group and the Congregation around the idea of hosting a Peace Festival. A colossal undertaking and a risk. The youth decided to run with the idea. My kind of people! Many of us had doubts, had concerns whether the youth could pull it off or not, worried about inviting the community into our spaces, and just plain anxious about the risk. I've learned a lot from our youth in the process. We avoid risk because it...

Dear Ones, On August 17, 2014 I will return to the Congregation full time and am ready and grateful for another year of congregational life. In June I left for Providence, Rhode Island to attend General Assembly along with thousands of other Unitarian Universalists. I was appointed by the UUA's Board of Trustees to serve as a Commissioner on the UUA's Commission on Social Witness last year. I tell you this because General Assembly is very different for those of us who serve. Our week is packed with meetings, follow-up and preparation for plenary sessions where delegates vote on the business of the UUA. Though I'm glad to serve it doesn't leave time for workshops and other gatherings. It's simply the nature of the work. I did have a chance to attend the Barre Street and Ware lectures and worship. You will hear many themes from our pulpit that originated in Providence. I then visited our home in New York and spent some time with family in New York and Canada. After ...

Dear Ones, If you've read my Facebook posts you'll know that I've been struggling with something. I've served congregations in the northeast where church begins on the Sunday after Labor Day and ends for the summer usually the third week of June. You can count on it. The congregation gathers in September and goes on their way in June. It never changes. Some congregations have summer services but they are usually quite small and held in different places. Our congregation is quite different. I'm not struggling with year-round services. We should be ready every Sunday for whoever walks through our doors. It's more of the snowbird situation I'm struggling with. In April members and friends start to migrate north, some not returning as late as November. I prefer that we stay together all of the time. I have an innate urge to herd and keep track of each of you. I need to know where you are and what is happening in your lives. I can't do that with these migra...

Dear Ones, Do you like feeling vulnerable? We have all had times in our lives when feeling vulnerable wasn't our choice. Parts of ourselves that we keep hidden are exposed without our permission. But what if we chose to be vulnerable? If we reveal our true selves, our authentic selves, we are at risk of being judged, the topic of conversation, misunderstood, and -- worst of all -- rejected. What if we were so comfortable with who we are that vulnerability wouldn't be such a risk? I have chosen vulnerability. Well, the truth is, I need to be vulnerable. There is no other choice for me. When I entered seminary I decided on vulnerability. It was horrifying because I was among the academic elite and mostly people of privilege. You see prior to that I had spent years guarding my true self -- the real story. Almost no one knew that I was raised in poverty, had had a difficult childhood filled with abuse, homelessness, and dysfunction. I was becoming an expert of "class passing...

Dear Ones, Each day in my ministry I'm asked to weigh in on situations or advocate for what I believe is what the Congregation wants or what is most healthy for us. I'm aware that I am not the type who has to win or who can never lose. In fact I think using the win-or-lose model is dangerous in our congregational life and work. It lacks spiritual and faith maturity. That is, if we employ that model we are operating from a place far below our best selves and far below what our tradition calls us to be.  Win or lose instantly sets us up as adversaries, which we are not. I often wonder about what the baggage is that we carry that pushes us to risk dignity and relationship in order to win. What elicits the anger and resentment when we feel we've lost something. These are some interesting dynamics for members of a congregation, and their minister, who are on the same team with the same goals. Desperate are we when we must win and not lose. Forgiving and understanding are we wh...

Dear Ones, Many ask me if Richard, my husband, is happy in our Congregation and if he is happy in South Florida. I feel I can confidently answer these questions for him because we, too, ask one another the same. The answer is yes. We are both loving the connections and relationships we are making with this generous Congregation. It's true. You are generous. You take very good care of us and each other. We know and feel a circle of support around us. We both talk about the paradise factor of South Florida, which for us has been simply divine. So back to Richard. I have been working in congregations for 13 years now and Richard has been by my side all that time. He has served as president of a congregation, served on ministerial search committees and many other committees and boards. He has always been a youth group advisor and a member of small group ministry. That was until I began professional ministry in 2006. As a spouse of a minister, your relationship with the Congregation...