"Follow your heart but take your brain with you." -Alfred Adler
You've all been on this journey for decades and you've been in this space on Mesa Verde East for some three years - is it time to consider working on the next step, that of completing the sanctuary, that was in your plans when you moved here?
I am so happy to have this church to come back to when Sandie and I returned to Orange County. We are so pleased to be part of the ongoing dialogue about this church and its future.
I can envision a place in our "back forty," a Sanctuary that is peaceful, beautiful, inviting, and conducive to continuing our long history as a UU church in Costa Mesa. This place, in my mind and in many of yours, I think, would not only be our new home but a place we could invite others into and begin the expansion in membership we need to truly become an important force for open-minded religion and acceptance of people from all backgrounds in this area. "Come, come whoever you are."
Are we ready? Please consider your opinions and those of others as you each think about our future and how it would feel to start a process of building a new addition to OCUUC.
At the August Board Retreat the Board members decided that we should begin exploring the possibilities for such an audacious undertaking.
We will start a Feasibility Study to determine what we might do, what options we have within our buildings and structures, what the costs might be, and how we might expect to meet the costs and the work necessary to accomplish such a project.
I think it very worthwhile to begin a process of determining how close we are to beginning the next chapter in the OCUUC Great Trek.
We certainly are not ready to begin funding soon. We'll all need to be on board if we proceed with this task. There will be plenty of work and planning to be done before we can take such a step. I repeat, we’ll all need to be on board.
I will also be doing my own personal feasibility study by talking to as many of you as I can for the next several months to help me gauge where we are as a congregation in our readiness. Please give me your thoughts, reactions, feelings about this important issue.
Think about how it felt when you moved from the "old homestead" and thought you could build a new sanctuary quickly. Let's see if we can regenerate those moments of excitement and feelings of a bright future.
Let’s talk - don’t all Unitarian Universalists love to give their ideas? Share them with me, please. Tell me your dreams, tell me I'm fantasizing, if necessary, but tell me how you think we can proceed.
Don Martin
president@ocuuc.org