April 30, 2012 - Hooray! Thanks, and Good-bye

Dear UUCR folks,

Next Monday your minister, Reverend Tim Kutzmark, will be back on campus refreshed and energized by a hard-earned four month sabbatical.  I know you will rejoice when he’s back!  And I know he is going to be very happy to return to you and his ministry here.

Since this is my final weekly newsletter article as your acting minister, I want to share some reflections on the church that have come out this wonderful and rich experience.

First, UUCR is a healthy church.  The congregation has experienced another person’s spiritual leadership now, and that has given many of you a sense of the deep truth of true Reverend Tim’s words in his last sermon: 

“The church isn’t the minister. It isn’t the buildings, it is YOU, the people!”  

Especially for newer folks who had experienced UUCR with only Tim as the minister, you probably now have a better sense of the congregation as a dynamic and independent organism.  This is important: in any healthy relationship the two people or entities (in this case the minister and the congregation) know who they are, know where they begin and end, and they know the other party’s boundaries, too.  Tim’s sabbatical has given you a clearer sense of this, of who you are apart from any particular minister.

Secondly, UUCR is strong.  The church has many valuable assets.  Some of these are physical: an attractive meeting and faith development space: Loring house; a beautiful and welcoming sanctuary and spaces for gathering and fellowship, including the light-filled Fellowship Hall, and the re-floored Community Hall; and Sawyer, a house in good repair on the Woburn side of our campus.  

Another important asset is the congregation’s relatively high level of financial giving.  Although there is no other source of financial support for UUCR than the people in the pews,  Unitarian Universalists as a movement are coming out of an historical period when financial support was low relative to other denominations.  But we are realizing that a person’s relative financial commitment mirrors emotional commitment and also reflects how well a church is living out a mission of higher purpose.  Thus, if you want to know how committed to the church and its’ mission the members are, look to the levels of giving, in money as well as volunteer time and ministries.  This church measures up well against its’ UU peer churches.  My wish is that this will move to the next level as the church becomes an ever-more important part of the fulfillment of each member’s particular higher calling in the world, and members increasingly commit to live that calling out in the context of the church’s evolving, living and co-created mission.  

The final asset to highlight is the spiritual asset of the congregation’s creativity, energy and desire to make a difference in the lives of people around you, both in the church community and beyond the church’s doors. This requires your faith that you can make a difference, and the desire to understand how to harness the energies of the entire congregation to do so.  The inward focus of care has clearly been very strong for a very long time, and the healthy Caring and Sharing, Pastoral Care, and Creative Hands ministries testify to this.  A collective external focus is also growing here now, and the new two year Food Initiative (the social justice and service them the congregation agreed upon) is starting to get its’ legs, and generate some whole-church energy.  This is an important signifier of a church that cares about having a greater impact on the world around it, and so works to maximize that by acting in concert.  A higher purpose requires this outward look, and it is best built on a strong ethic of caring for fellow church members.  You can both be, and do, much.

The biggest challenge you have from my perspective is to work together to continue the on-going work to refine the mission of this church, in the context of this particular place (the Reading, MA area) and time.  A clear, shared mission, interpreted in the context of the actual historical surroundings, is powerful, life-giving, and meaningful.  I encourage you to continue to engage each other about what the higher purpose of this particular church really is, and engage the your neighbors, in some sense, in this conversation.  What unique gift does this church has to offer the concrete place and time in which it exists?  

Next week, when the clock strikes midnight on Sunday May 6, I will not be changed into a pumpkin, but I will return to my role as half-time intern minister for one final month, and Reverend Tim will be back.  Over the next month and one half I will be saying good by to you as the intern minister.  But for now, as your acting minister, thank you for this wonderful four months.  You are strong, loving and a wonderful congregation in which to minister.  Hooray!  Thank you.  And Good-bye.

Blessings,
Meg Soens