May 7, 2012

Dear Friends:

After a truly wonderful sabbatical experience, I am back in the office and looking forward to leading worship and preaching this upcoming Sunday morning.

I am deeply grateful to each of you for allowing me these past four months to renew, rejuvenate, learn, grow, and explore!  Meg Soens was splendid as Acting Minister, and worked in successful partnership with Governing Board President Tracy Sopchak and the entire Governing Board to provide skilled and sensitive leadership.  I extend my appreciation to Meg for stepping into the minister role, and to Tracy for dealing with the added workload that my sabbatical created.  Our staff team, as expected, continued their exceptional work.  I feel fortunate and blessed to have such a dedicated and collaborative staff team.  Special recognition to Rosemary Fiori, our able Church Administrator, for holding so many pieces together and doing so with warmth and enthusiasm.  Our skilled Interim Director of Faith Development, Anne Principe, continued to use this interim period to help our Faith Development Program assess and reevaluate.  Amy Burton, our Member Services and Volunteer Coordinator, continued to astound with her endless energy, genuine warmth, and professional expertise.  The music at Sunday Services continued to be strong and moving; my thanks for this to Mark Bennett and Alex Gordon and all our UUCR musicians, vocalists, and choir members.  Marc Evans continued to keep our facilities running, while our bookkeeper Cindy Salloway kept our finances in order.  Seth Robinson came on board while I was away and has provided able leadership and facilitation to your Youth programming.  Last, but not least Lynne Flammia,  Karyn Carmicheal, and Terry Hill and kept our little ones safe, clean, and contented in the nursery and play school.  I also want to extend a special thank you to our hard-working and creative Worship Arts Team, led by Al Murray.  Coordinating and running services during my sabbatical was a bit more complicated with so many guest speakers.  Thanks for meeting the challenge.  Lastly, the entire Sabbatical Support Team held the congregation in their knowing embrace, so a big and grateful hug from me to Sharyn Taitz (chair), Ron Cavicchio, Don Pearson, Molly Smith, and Dru Wood-Beckwith.

The last few weeks also brought some significant loss to our church community. Long-time member Alan Riley died in early April.  Alan was a true gentleman, and possessed a keen and searching mind, a way with words, and an artist’s heart.  He will be missed.  Just ten days ago, our beloved Ruth White died after a long illness.  For those who knew Ruth through the years, the empty space she leaves is real and large.  For those who are newer to the church and never got to know her, Ruth was strong and inspiring.  She was born into the congregation, baptized here, and lived her entire long life as a member of this church.  She was a splendid Mom, Grandmother, Great Grandmother, music teacher, choir director, music coordinator, committee member, and friend to many.  Music filled her soul, sparkle filled her eyes, and she filled this church with so much love, warmth, and generosity of spirit.  Ruth, you were our “spirit of life.”

The next few weeks at church will be busy.  In June, we will be helping to ordain Meg Soens into professional ministry, and also saying goodbye to her as she ends her two-year internship with us and leaves us to begin her work as a Unitarian Universalist minister.  These next few weeks we’ll be winding down the church year, while also beginning to plan the next.  We will had our Senior High School Bridging Service, Ferry Beach Weekend, New Member Sunday, and our annual Flower Communion Service.  

Our final “An Introduction to Our Faith: Unitarian Universalist Basics” class will be on Saturday, May xx (breakfast and childcare provided).  Please join me for this interesting introduction to what it means to be a Unitarian Universalist.  Our final New Member Sunday before the summer will be on Sunday, June 10th.  If you’d like to become an official member of this faith community, we’d love to welcome you at that special service.  Just contact Amy Burton, Member Services Coordinator, at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ,

Lastly, in the next few weeks we will also have to together address our significant deficit that currently exists in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year 2012-13.  We didn’t raise as much as we needed during our recent Operating Budget Drive.  So we must grapple with how to address this challenge and opportunity, whether by raising additional funds from the congregation, cutting programming and services, or some combination of both. 

It is good to be back.  It is good to be with you again.  I hope to see you this Sunday (Mother’s Day).

See you on the path (and at church)
Tim