“Often in reclaiming the freedom to be who we are, we remember some basic human quality, what we find is almost always a surprise but it is also familiar; like something we have put in the back of a drawer long ago…”
— Rachel Naomi Remen, Kitchen Table Wisdom

The UUA Soul Matters theme for January 2020 is Integrity. In this month’s curriculum, the path to integrity is described as “tending to wisdom and wholeness within”. The UUCM Board has been working on discerning our congregation’s path in finding our next minister. Feedback from the Listening Sessions which the congregation took part in last fall revealed a lot about what our church is, and what the congregation wants to continue to be in the future.

One of the clear messages we discerned is that most of us sought out this church for the Unitarian Universalist beliefs, but we have stayed because of our UUCM community. In answer to the question “Why are you part of this church?”, the most frequent theme was that people are looking for community and connection, and they find it here.

So, as we go forward in choosing a minister to join us in fulfilling our mission, vision, and ends – we should not lose sight of the importance of the community and connection among us. We must take special care to foster this sense of community for both current and new members!

In so doing, we are remembering the basic human quality that is so familiar and needed that we may have put it “in the back of the drawer long ago” – the need for human connection. In recognizing and remembering this quality, we are “tending to the wisdom and wholeness” within us. The need to help us nurture our community’s connections is one of the key goals the UUCM Board has developed (with your help from the Listening Sessions) in our search for our new minister.

Stay tuned this new month for more updates in the exciting unfolding process of finding the minister who will help us tend to our integrity, our wisdom and our wholeness.

— Cindy Busch
Member, UUCM Board of Trustees