It’s Good to be Back
Tom and I had a wonderful trip around our country. 7374 miles, two hurricanes, one parent, two children and spouses, three grandchildren, four siblings and spouses, and many nieces, nephews, cousins and great friends later, we are back. All of it was a few at a time and as COVID safe as we could manage. My overriding impression is of a fantastically diverse and spectacularly beautiful country, and how lucky we are to be able to visit the people and see everything we…
Fall Programs
Here in Religious Education for Children and Youth, we kicked off fall by sharing a beautiful Water Ceremony created just for kids on September 12th. We had 19 children and youth with us, and it was a fantastic experience. I was so touched by the way the kids were eager to participate and showed reverence in their own ways. It was very special for me, and I hope it was for them, too. On Sunday, September 19th, we began our…
Cultivation of Relationships
As we celebrate the cultivation of relationships this month, it is my great pleasure to let you all know about two wonderful new relationships for this congregation: Affiliated Ministers! Affiliated ministers are different from called ministers (like me). They are not interns, they are board approved, and generally they are not paid for the covenantal work they offer. They are ministers who would like to affiliate with a congregation for a variety of reasons. Rev. Judy (who you all know)…
September Update
This past week we submitted our Development Review Plan to the City of Costa Mesa Department of Development Services. Prepared by domusstudio in collaboration with the landscape architectural firm, the structural engineer, the geotechnical engineer, the civil engineer and the contractor, the comprehensive design review application is a requirement for the building permit submittal application. All property owners within a 500 foot radius of the new sanctuary will receive notification of the pending project now that the application has been…
Be Engaged
We have so much to look forward to as Rev. Sian returns from sabbatical and we start the church year. We are all looking forward to figuring out our “new normal” and to some new and returning programs. Sermon Discussion Groups will re-form soon, and the Fall Auction is planned for November 6th. Depending on the survey results, we might even have a de Benneville weekend soon at our camp in the San Bernardino mountains. On top of all the…
Handling Trauma
AUUMM (Association of Unitarian Universalist Music Ministries) sponsored an online workshop about how to handle overwhelm and trauma, presented by the creator of The Trauma Stewardship Institute, Laura Lipsky. She reminded us of how traumatic the last 18 months have been for the whole globe, dealing with the upheaval that Covid and our faulty response to it has wreaked. Her list of side effects of Overwhelm and Trauma rang true for me and so many of my colleagues: saturated nervous…
Let’s Keep it Up
We have fully settled into our Circle of Trees program, and it seems the children and youth are really enjoying our time together on Sunday mornings. The teachers are, too! We have had several new families join us this month, and we recently had a total of 17 children and youth with us on Sunday morning, which is the highest attendance we’ve had since the beginning of the pandemic! It has been wonderful to be together, and cohorts of new…
