Throughout the month of October, as a part of our annual theme of Weaving Community, you are invited to help us share our collective story and history. Our lives are interwoven with one another and with this church community over time. This is true whether you descend from the people who engaged in the work of founding our church between 1865 – 1867, or whether you are brand new.
One of the ways we can tell our story is through a timeline and weaving our stories through it – both our individual stories and our collective story over time. Our history reminds us of our interdependence with one another, with those who have tended our church in the past, and with those who will tend our church in the future.
Most of the children, youth, and adults of today are particularly intertwined with the history and people who have tended our spiritual home through the events, traditions, changes, and new possibilities that our community has engaged in over the last 30+ years. Some of our folks’ history here stretches back 90+ years! That is, if they were born into this church.
We are kicking off our Community Timeline Project: “Weaving our Collective History” this coming Souper Sunday, October 12th, following the service in Fuller Hall. You are all invited to participate either in person or online over the course of this month.
Weaving our Collective History – Community Timeline Project Instructions:
- Place a star on the timeline when you arrived in Unitarian/Universalism. If you arrived here – use a blue star. If you arrived in another congregation – use a red star.
- Place a star on the timeline when you felt connected and/or made a decision to be part of this community – use a gold star. If you’ve ever served on the staff – add a green star when you joined the staff team.
- Write on a post-it(s) a memory about our collective church history from 1990 onward and place it on the timeline. Please write down year or approximate year. (Younger people might choose to draw a picture)
- Write on a post-it(s) major church events before 1990 and place it on the timeline. Please write down the year or approximate year.
This coming Sunday, we’ll also encourage people to have conversations and share their memories at the tables.
This Community Timeline Project is part of prep work before the Mission, Vision, and Strategic Planning happens in 2026. In order to understand who we are today, we are learning together about our shared history and how we got here.
May this be a season of honoring the many people who have taken turns in leadership, mentorship, justice-making, caring, spiritual growth, creativity, and more over the years.
In faith,
Rev. Alison