Hi Y’all,
My Gratitude and Thanks to UUFF for a Sabbatical! As many know, I took June as a Sabbatical month from ministry to do some reflection, personal work – both physical and mental, some grieving, and to catch my breath. It was a good start, and I appreciated it so much! Besides enjoying my backyard mockingbird babies (second batch), I wrote my fathers Eulogy (the one that should have been given at his memorial), and that helps my continued work on other places of grief, love, and relations that are important to me. It takes time to process life, and we should all have this time when we need it. Part of the unfairness of our economic system is the lack of time for people to take care of themselves properly, let alone someone else, as we should… but I’ll come back to that another time.
For July I’ll be available now and again as I take Study/Leave time. I’ll be in the office part time, reading, writing, meeting with leadership, and doing some pastoral care. Check with Fawn in the office and she can get hold of me if needed, and not on a “do not disturb” part of the leave. Otherwise, we have leadership and volunteers for worship and pastoral care that are doing a wonderful job. At the end of July and beginning of August I’ll be on a silent retreat, then a week of time with family. The rest of August is work to get ready for the beginning of the church year in September! Second Sunday in September is our “Water Ingathering” where we fill our fountain and community Joys and Concerns bowl with water reflecting our Principles to begin the Fellowship’s year!
I’m looking forward to our Fall Season together! I love having New UU classes, new themes for the year to work with, and a dialogue around taking the Fellowship into the future. We shall have some fun together with a “UUFF Bake Off (and chili!) event end of September, so be thinking about recipes! I hope we will create more Music this year, open up Religious Exploration and worship, do more Social Justice work, and whatever else rocks us and the community – bringing our Principles to bear and into reality!
Peace,
Rev. Jim
