Minister’s Message

March 18, 2023
Dear UUSA,

I’m amazed that we are already halfway through March. I don’t know how you are experiencing time these days, but for me it feels like I blink and a week or sometimes a month has gone by. A lot has changed in the last three years.

Three years ago, we committed to being an online-only congregation for at least a month that for most purposes stretched into years. We brought cameras into the sanctuary and learned new skills. We tried many new programs that met a need at the time–most of them have faded away along with the need.

What hasn’t faded away is the collective overwhelm and exhaustion of these last three years. For many of us, the world seems to have sped back up without a chance to recharge the profound energy we expended to make it to now. If you are overwhelmed or anxious or exhausted, please know that it’s not just you. You deserve the rest and connection that will restore you.

It’s not just you, and it’s not just our congregation. I recently learned that while 45% of adult congregation members volunteered in their faith community before the pandemic, last year it was only 15%. One third of the member-volunteers who used to do the work of congregations before the pandemic are doing it now. This is a national statistic across many faiths, not a UUSA count or even a UUA one, but I see it among us too.

More of us have had to turn down roles in the congregation to do other things, and I honor that discernment. Your considered no is as holy and life-giving as your yes. You know what you can do and what you can’t

What no longer makes sense for us to do in the congregation is to assume that “somebody will…” or “somebody should…” Somebody is not a member (or even a friend) of our congregation. Somebody’s work usually winds up getting added to the pile of things the board, staff, and I are already holding. Sometimes we make it happen, and sometimes it falls to the bottom of the stack. (I love how visible our Board of Trustees is these days, but I don’t love that this is one of the reasons they’re so visible.)

As a choir member, RE volunteer, or committee member, Somebody always disappoints–but real people frequently delight. The next time you have a brilliant idea, please do the work of staffing it with actual members and friends of our congregation. We’re all hungry for delight instead of disappointment and meaningful connection instead of isolation. Please reach out to one another and make those connections.

And please remember that I am here for those connections too! You can sign up for a meeting with me at calendly.com/revrachael –or email/call and we’ll find a time that works for both of us.

May spring bring you so much joy.

In faith,

Rev. Rachael
February 3, 2023

Dear UUSA,
So many wonderful things are happening in our congregation. Our congregational read of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States had a great first session. The Committee on Shared Ministries is hosting Covenant Chats to discuss our proposed covenant. Small Groups are having robust, meaningful meetings. Our new Reproductive Justice Action Group will meet on Thursday 2/9.
And have I mentioned that our Winter Appeal met its $20,000 goal? Wow! Thanks to all who contributed to this no-fundraiser fundraiser. Members are already beginning work on some community-building spring fundraisers and an action-packed pledge campaign too, so we have those to look forward to!
We are going to have a beautiful month together. In services we’ll hear about Indigenous culture alive and well in our neighborhood, the glory of gender, and Black UU ancestors, and we’ll sing some of the songs we’ve been longing to sing. Which hymns are you humming these days? Let’s sing them together! Use this survey to let us know what you would like to sing during the 2/19 service: https://forms.gle/2wcUUoEPTJQ6ALZm9
As always, it is a pleasure to journey with you. I love hearing your news, and I am here for pastoral care when things are bigger than one should bear alone. If you would like to meet with me, sign up at calendly.com/revrachael or call or email me.
With hope and gratitude,
Rev. Rachael Hayes

December 3, 2022

Dear UUSA,
Happy December! We enter this time of long nights and bright lights again. We have so much to celebrate–and so many holidays too.
We will have regular Sunday services on December 4, 11, and 18. We will also have a 6pm Solstice service on Friday, December 16. We will have Christmas Eve services at 4pm and 7pm.
December 25 and January 1 are on Sundays this year, and I polled the congregation to ask how you would participate in services if we held them those mornings. I also consulted with our staff and the tech volunteers who are so instrumental in making services happen. On Christmas Day, you are welcome to visit our Youtube channel for an on-demand service video. On New Year’s Day, we will have a service on zoom only, not in person. We plan to resume regular Zoom-and-sanctuary services on January 8.
I am deeply grateful to the many people, including tech, greeters, musicians, and staff, who are part of making these holidays bright. Your labor of love makes it all possible for us to gather and to rest in the beauty of these holidays. Our office will be closed during the week between Christmas and New Year’s for our staff to celebrate and connect with loved ones.
If you would like to give our congregation the gift of your time and talent by sharing a song, story, or reading to warm our winter days and nights, reach out to me! I am still planning services and making holiday plans. Likewise, if you have other ideas to share, I would love to hear them.
I wish you all a happy Hanukkah, good Yule, merry Christmas, and a wonderful month of December! And if it’s not happy, good, merry, or wonderful, please reach out. I and the pastoral care team are ready to listen. You matter, and we love you.
In faith and with so much love,
Rev. Rachael

November 11, 2022

Dear UUSA,
In November, my thoughts turn to how we tell the story of who we are. We begin the month in remembrance of our beloved dead. We hold elections for our representatives in government and vote on ballot questions about what kind of a society we want to be. We honor our veterans. We remember those who have died by anti-trans violence. We gather with loved ones to give thanks. We hold the Thanksgiving story critically and try to hear the true story of European colonization on this continent. We try to do better.
Who are we and who do we want to be together? A lot of my work as your minister has to do with this question. Who belongs in our congregation, and who’s left on the outside?
Those who attended our congregation before the pandemic began likely remember how we used to sing the closing song in a circle. I saw how happy it made you to look into each other’s faces as you sang. I also saw newcomers put on the spot to participate in a very vulnerable ritual. Some of them were happy to join, some went along to get along, and some did not or could not move into place. This moment served as a litmus test of belonging: approximately 55 minutes into knowing us, newcomers had to decide and perform whether they were in or out. Some people never came back based on this ritual. When we returned to singing the song, I encouraged you to hold hands with those next to you (or put your hands over your heart) where you were. This way we still sing as one but do not put pressure on newcomers to demonstrate that they belong.
I hear that some of you are missing this moment in the service, and I invite you to help me think of a way to meet that need to behold and be held in the love of our congregation without any sense of compulsion. If you would like to tell me your experiences of this moment or other times when you had a deep sense of who our congregation is, I would love to hear them. Send me an email, or call me up and leave me a voicemail.
We have the opportunity to build a community that truly welcomes the newcomer. Our rituals are one of the ways we create a culture together. What kind of culture do we want to create? Who do we want to be?
In faith,
Rev. Rachael

October 23, 2022

A Message from the Minister
Fall
Dear UUSA,

The leaves are falling, the colors are changing around us, and we’re trying new things in worship.

We’re launching a new program called the Worship Collaborative, a team of folks including myself, Alyson Bull and our DRE Andrew Coate. We will share the planning of all services throughout the year. We are starting small and gaining momentum organically, but it feels like a positive and thoughtful beginning.

Another new role you will begin to see on our chancel is Worship Associates, members who co-lead services by doing readings and reflections.

I will also teach an adult RE class called The Shared Pulpit in the new year to build and practice worship-leading skills together. We’ll talk about what’s in a service, why, and how to do it in a way that gives the congregation tools to help them get through the week.

I believe that planning and leading services is a spiritual practice, not just a job, and that it is our birthright as human beings to make meaning together. If this idea intrigues you, maybe you would like to join us. Please reach out to me if you are excited about joining us in planning and/or co-leading services. Let me know if you are thinking about participating in the class–I will try to schedule it in a way that works for everyone who is excited about it.

I would like to thank the Sunday Services Committee for planning and leading services for many years. You built the house where we now try these new things. Thank you.

I hope you can join Andrew, Alyson, Brenda, choir members, and many other people in our congregation who are taking the first steps into this new journey this weekend. I think it’s going to be lovely.

In faith,
Rev Rachael

October 7, 2022

Dear UUSA,
Our year is under way. Our building is getting a spruce-up (or a cedar-up, since the new shingles will be cedar). Our children are getting to know our new DRE, and he them. In our services we are talking about a mix of very old and ever-evolving things: the sources of Unitarian Universalism. Unitarian Universalism claims many sources, and so do our members. Our ingathering service represented all six sources, and since then we have focused on the power of wonder and direct experience, prophetic people who call us to do better, and the story of Sarah and Hagar from the book of Genesis during the Jewish High Holidays. We’ll also hear from Earth-based traditions, World Religions (but aren’t all religions world religions?), Christianity, and Humanism as we make our way through the year.
Each of us will encounter these sources differently, based on our own history and what inspires us now. Some services may be challenging, but religious community is not a retail experience. If something you experience during a service is not what you expect in our congregation, I invite you to look around (in the sanctuary or by clicking over to gallery view) to take in the congregation. If you feel like an outsider, there may be someone who is feeling at home for the first time.
We’re not all the same here. Though we have a lot in common, we have a lot more diversity of belief than we give ourselves credit for. We love one another enough to meet each other as we are instead of defaulting to a lowest common denominator of belief. So when something is not for you, please know that it’s just what someone else needed; when something fills your spirit, let others know!
My approach through these sources is to offer them by invitation. I won’t ask you to believe anything that contradicts your experience, but I will invite you to try on some stories and sing some songs to listen for what truth you can find in them. Maybe you find new wisdom, and maybe you find comfort in the fact that you made a place for someone else to find the wisdom they needed.
If you would like to be part of planning or leading services in our congregation, let’s talk about it! I’m working through the member interest forms, but you’re very welcome to reach out to me directly to get involved. As the year goes on, expect to see more member leadership in services, and in the spring there will even be an adult Religious Education class to give anyone who wants them the chops to lead services well.
Sundays after services during the fall will have lots of opportunity for members to discuss the business of the congregation as well as the covenant and topics introduced by the services. Watch your emails and listen to service announcements for more information.
It is a pleasure and an honor to begin another year with you.
In faith,
Rev. Rachael