From Our Minister
Dear Beloved Community,
As I’ve shared in multiple places, my first weeks at CCUU have confirmed what so many of you told me from the beginning: this congregation’s greatest strength is the mutuality and profundity of its relationships. Worship, Religious Exploration, and adult education have all begun the year with a collective energy of hope, care, interdependence, and excitement. There is a hopeful buzz in the building, and not just from the coffee. I continue to hear your hopes for deeper belonging, broader participation, and helping more people beyond our walls discover what CCUU has to offer.
Throughout this month, as we explore the topic of courage, you are invited to help create an intergenerational courage quilt, adding your own stories, images, and reflections to our shared exploration of what courage looks like. Courage may be grand and dazzling, but it may also look like a difficult conversation, an honest question, an uncertain first step, or finally pressing “send.” I’m excited to see what you share about your own journey.
Our AI and the Interdependent Web workshops are also continuing, and you are welcome to drop into any session without having attended the others. No prior attendance, technical expertise, or fondness for robots is required. These gatherings are intentionally collaborative and crowdsourced: I offer background, perspectives, and examples for us to consider, but the most valuable part is our mutual discernment – the chance to wrestle together with a technology that is both fraught and increasingly woven into our lives. Courage does not require having all the answers. Sometimes courage is just showing up.
Early in October, our Board and council leaders will gather for a retreat focused on building trust and strengthening our sense of collective leadership and vision. We will continue the foundational conversations about how we want to function, deepen the relationships that make the work possible, and dream together. Then, on Friday, December 4, the Rev. QuianaDenae Perkins of the UUA will lead a congregation-wide Start-up Workshop, helping all of us carry this work into the larger life of CCUU. As I have been saying from the pulpit, trust is the most important part of this process. And trust takes time and intentionality to build. My hope is that we will practice the kind of courage that trust requires: showing up honestly, listening generously, risking new possibilities, and staying in relationship as we create our ministry together.
With courage and care,
Rev. Dr. Emma