As I wind down my first year on staff here, I can only express appreciation and amazement for the many committed and creative members of our community who share the ministry by volunteering their time and talent in many arenas. Please consider this your personal invitation to consider a leadership role in the Learning Community by working with your children and youth! We’re recruiting now for fall.   No experience necessary. There are, however, a few essential requirements. You need to be: a member or someone who's made a commitment to the church (so, not brand new) interested in knowing people…

I don’t know about you, but I always feel like my life speeds up in the late spring, as though I'm barrelling towards the summer with no breaking mechanism. I don’t want to waste the first warm and sunny days, these blessed late sunsets, so I pack them in with walks, picnics, dinners on patios, and outdoor festivals. My calendar begins filling up with summer travel and concerts. And the church year gets especially busy, celebrating everything we’ve accomplished this past year and planning for the year ahead. We’ve been training new lay ministers, enjoying the last Alliance luncheon of…

We are a center of community for our members and friends, and we are a community center for the greater Portland area. Among other purposes, we are a place where people can foster meaningful connections across differences and divides. We are a place where people can count on hearing impactful information about the ethical issues of our time. The escalating conflict between Israel and Hamas and the humanitarian crisis that has ensued is an example. It is important that we not turn away from the mounting loss of life and the psychological, spiritual, and physical injury that has occurred. The…

Happy spring, everyone! I know spring officially arrived a few weeks ago, but I hadn’t quite gotten there myself until a few days ago. The transition from winter to spring has been more on the winter side this year, it seems—cold days more than warm ones, a certain reluctance in the thawing process. There has been something this year in the transition that seems to have been especially resistant to what is emerging. But trees in bloom and the blessing of some warm days have made what is emerging harder and harder to miss. And I wonder if part of…

One of the most basic Lenten practices is to slow down and pay attention. This is a natural orientation when we are awakened to the fact that our lives are finite, and we might proceed differently if we were present to a limited number of tomorrows. The Lenten Season of Ash Wednesday through Easter Sunday is an invitation to encounter the fragility of human nature, “from dust we have come and to dust we shall return,” which it turns out is also a doorway to experience the holiness and goodness in life. Before we rush to the liveliness and loveliness…

One of the most formative experiences of my time as a lay leader at a large church was participating in a small, informal Bible study. We jokingly called ourselves the “Underground Bible Club” since we met in the church’s lower level. We started reading the Gospels one at a time, one meeting discussing the text itself and then the next meeting discussing photocopied pages of Biblical commentaries one of our seminarian members would scan and send to the group. So many beautiful things grew out of this time together, including new friendships, an advent practice of daily scripture reading, and…

In the middle of this month, I gathered with Senior Ministers of Large UU Churches from around the country for our annual conference. It was an opportunity for reflection, renewal, and the exchange of insights. I would like to share with you a couple of the highlights I have taken to heart and taken back with me to my work with you.One of the highlights was meeting with our teacher for the conference, Aurora Levins Morales (www.auroralevinsmorales.com). Aurora is a Puerto Rican, Jewish, feminist writer and poet engaged in movements for social change. Her ability to imagine another world was…

We are meeting right now to discern the priorities for the budget for the year ahead. I have been involved in conversations with our Board of Trustees and Executive Team, with our Staff Team, and with many of you at the January update. We are discerning what we hope to be able to do together in the coming year, July 2024 – June 2025. (See the priorities below.) We are very fortunate to be a congregation with about 800 adult members and 160 children and youth in our Learning Community. We have the people power and the pledging power to…

As we wrap up this month of exploring generosity, I invite each of us to be inspired by the profound lessons we've absorbed. Let's channel this inspiration into tangible actions by generously giving our time and talents. Embracing the principles of "creative altruism" advocated by Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and aligning with the theme "Love Is at the Center," let us contribute meaningfully to our community and embody the spirit of service that defines our shared values I am reaching out to ask you to consider offering your time and talents to support our community at First Unitarian…

I hope that all of you are safe, warm, and dry. If you aren’t in that situation, please reach out to let us know, so we can be of assistance. A storm is a reminder that we all have need of one another at one point or another. Our church community is a place where we have opportunities to practice asking for help when we need it and offering help when we are able. This practice of mutuality, of self-care and care for others, matters a great deal. Relationships of giving and receiving are the basis of human existence. They…