As schools start to open their doors, a new season begins. As an academic, I’ve always appreciated how UU churches follow the same calendar. Summer offers time off for staff and leaders; the congregation enjoys different speakers in the pulpit, church life slows down.
But now we speed up again. Water communion Sunday. New Member Sunday. Religious Exploration Sunday. Each one welcomed as a familiar piece of the life we’ve built together as a congregation, a faith community. I’m pumped.
I cry most every Sunday, now, and that means my feelings are stretching their wings. I’m moved by the story for all ages. The pulpit speaker sparks my commitments to justice for everyone in all aspects of living. Kids are kids, freely moving from playing together to returning to their adults for hugs and reassurances. Adults surround me who I know carry pain as I do, and who come (as I do) to find comfort and acceptance. When gathered together, we know we are recognized as the best selves we can be. Love is at the center of our faith, and we live that faith together as the UU Congregation of Asheville.
New people are joining us in our expanding community. Individuals who’ve been looking for the approach to spirituality that we offer. Parents who want to build families of faith, rearing children who will grow up knowing themselves loved as they are. UUs from other congregations who now call Asheville home, bringing us their special gifts. All are just waiting to be invited to settle in through active participation and service to this new spiritual home.
New people like the Rev. Dr. Audette Fulbright Fulson, her husband, Ron, and their high school aged son, Mars. With her doctorate in Public Theology, our new lead minister has developed an educational and socio-spiritual process called ChangeCrafting, aimed at helping groups like ours be more effective public change agents while also tending our personal and communal well-being. Wow, simply, wow. What’s going to happen with us now? Who will we be next year at this time? Five years from now? What will be our role in making Asheville, Buncombe County, WNC better places, places where all people thrive, not merely survive?
So, to my siblings in faith—I challenge each of us to bring our best selves to UUCA and figure out the ways that we, as individuals, will be contributing to our communal life. According to our Mission statement, that is a life that “connects hearts, challenges minds and nurtures spirits, while serving and transforming our community and the world.” May it be so.
by Mary Alm, Board of Trustees, Clerk