I am really looking forward to this new year. While I will dearly miss Phyllis Daniel and Birdie Reed on the Board, we will have new energy with Emily Scherping and Eric Noël. Welcome! We have lots to anticipate. We will have a new intern, Wendy Karn, and I very much look forward to getting to know her and work with her. With very mixed feelings, we will have a big transition in staff with Beth leaving. We are all waiting to meet our next music leader.
We also have some big decisions to make this year. We need to get the new sanctuary moving forward again. We solicited the last bid at the height of inflation last winter and felt that letting that pressure cool off was appropriate. However, it is also clear that the sanctuary we envision is going to be more expensive than the money we have already raised. We are so fortunate that we have a great hybrid service that keeps attendance at pre-pandemic levels. We need it more than ever!
I have been active in our anti-racism efforts for several years now, mostly in book discussion groups. However, it has changed me as it is changing broader Unitarian Universalism. We have a Widening the Circle group that has been considering how to bring these changes to our whole congregation. I hope we can strengthen our efforts in this new year. Please talk with me if you are interested in joining in this important work.
General Assembly, the annual gathering of Unitarian Universalist congregations, was wonderful. Please see my report elsewhere in the July REACH.
Tom and I will be in Scandinavia for the first two weeks of July with my sister and her husband. Vacations are good! See you in church when we return!
Nancy Loughrey
president@ocuuc.org
Nancy Loughrey was Orange Coast Unitarian Universalist Church's Board President.