Written by the GA Delegation

Your GA 2016 delegation— Rev. Allison Palm, Ellen Barr, Jeanne Hochstetler, Lori Lerude, Seth Bonvouloir, and Dave Hudson—is back from Columbus, OH and we wanted to share some of our excitement by giving you an update on what happened.

In addition to … read more.

Our country has been thrown into mourning once again this week with the shooting in Orlando. Once again the news is inundated with musings on motive, questions about how this could have been prevented, harrowing stories of survivors, and the names of too many dead. … read more.

It was great to see so many of you at Annual Meeting on Sunday! It was a full and productive meeting.

For those of you who did not attend, or had to leave in the middle, here are a few highlights:

We passed a whole bunch of … read more.

This five-year plan was created by a six member Strategic Advisory Team who were brought together in the late Fall of 2015. The Team consisted of four lay leaders: Gillian Hinkle, Gary Lerude, Mary Merkel, John Sanders; and two staff members: Sandra Greenfield and Rev. … read more.

In the busy end-of-school year, end-of-church year, beginning of summer month of June, simplicity can seem like no more than a distant dream. And yet, that is the theme of the month for June. Together we’ll be exploring: What does it mean to be a … read more.

We had a fabulous “Budget, Bylaws and Brownies” evening on Monday. Folks brought great questions and we had some thoughtful conversations about governance and finances. It reminded me of everything I love about our congregational polity. As members of a congregation like ours, each of … read more.

In preparation for our Annual Meeting, the Board of Trustees and Rev. Allison will be hosting an information session at church on Monday, May 23 at 7 PM to review those bylaws changes and next year’s budget. We’ve affectionately called that meeting Budget, Bylaws, and Brownies, … read more.

It is that time of year in church life when we are engaged in the task of both looking back at the year that has just gone by (writing Annual Reports, evaluations, etc.) and looking ahead to the year to come (filling in dates on … read more.

This week, our T-UU-sday evening class created blessings, first for the whole group, and then for individuals in the group. Each person wrote on an envelope what they might need a blessing for at this particular moment, and then each other person present wrote a … read more.

Thanks to everyone who participated in our Fire Drill on Sunday! It may have been old hat for some of you, but with three new staff people this year, it was an important learning experience for us.

One thing we learned is that it is hard … read more.