March 2016

-
In his sermon yesterday, Mathew Sydney described one of the tenets of his faith as honoring and actively caring for the earth. The beautiful way he articulated it captivated me. It's the way I articulate our ministry. Look around you. Look at all we do to transform lives through liberal religious community. Our mission. We respond to many calls for help from and to be allies to many in our community. We are able to gather freely and welcome those who are looking for a spiritual home. We are the liberal voice in our area. We have buildings that offer space for learning, worship, and outreach to so many.

And so we need to actively care for our Congregation and its people. If you support an organization financially I urge you to make our Congregation a priority. Here you build your spiritual home that helps you articulate your values, live your values, and one that will support you with learning, friendship, and fellowship. We need to remain strong and viable. We need staff, we need buildings, we need programs. If you have yet to pledge your support, I implore you to pay attention to this task. If you want to invest in justice, equity, and compassion you have the opportunity to do so. Help me guide a ministry that is bold and life changing.

In faith, Rev. CJ

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

January 2016

-
For a moment last month I realized I was human.  Having had a difficult and emotional month of ministry I found myself stepping back and not being as present as I typically am. You've noticed. I was hard on myself for taking the time to step back, discern, and increase my time for spiritual practice. I thought that as the minister this "luxury" couldn't be mine. But, I'm brave enough to say that isn't true. When stuck in difficulty we should all have the opportunity to step back. It's healthy and we return renewed and revived with deeper understandings. Sometimes we lack compassion for oneself and the compassion that we should expect from others.  I share my intimate lesson lesson with you as minister, as teacher. As a fellow human being, I too have the same struggles and emotional processes that you do. My hope is that my sharing will lead you to share with me and others. I'm stepping out of the shadows having taken the time to think and to unders
Read more

Individuality or Greater Community?

-
Image
I 'm sitting in my favorite spot in a tiny French restaurant. In front of me are two patrons speaking Parisian French. I understand a few words, very few, having a French Canadian grandmother. Beside me are two 50-something women who are obvious colleagues. I overhear religious language, so naturally my interest peaks. They were leaders of the local Catholic diocese responsible for a group of Catholic churches in the area. Between my cafe au lait and salade de la Constance, I was privy to venomous conversation. Worse than my eavesdropping was my discovery that parishes were being pitted against one another, receiving the news that they are not good enough because their Holy Thursday was not up to snuff, not as good as that of the church across town, personal attacks on leaders, all brought together with the ugly bow of insular thinking. Clearly it was a strategy based on competitiveness used to help the individual parish churches become bigger, better, and -- let's face it --
Read more

June 2014

-
Image
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
Read more