March 10, 2023

We are in the first stage of assembling a Search Committee for a new settled minister.  In the next few weeks, church members can expect a call from a Board member asking your suggestions for this important function.  We are trying to assemble a team of people with diverse life experiences and connections to the congregation who can represent us faithfully and well to applicant ministers. We need people who are good listeners, work well with others, and can represent the whole congregation (not just one aspect of our ministry). We encourage you to think about members with whom ...

March 2023

This time of year is always one of the busiest. Our stewardship campaign is in full swing. We are about to begin the process for identifying our Search Committee for a new settled minister. We are knee-deep in the Interim Ministry process. We have all of the current year business to attend to while we need to make plans for next year. An unplanned change in our staff adds even more complexity.

There are dozens of new and exciting projects in the works. The Interim process involves both a ...

Feb 5, 2023

Dear Fellow Countrysiders,

As we kick off our 2023 campaign “A Future With Hope,” I realize that you will have a great deal of information coming your way in multiple formats. Some of you will review every bit while others will be challenged to do more than scratch the surface. So, I’ll keep this short.

It’s natural to think of “The Church” as our building and staff, but it’s really our mission and our people that make up CCUU. While the building gives us ...

Jan 30, 2023

The efforts in forming the committee to search for a new settled minister will be kicking off this spring. There will be 5 members of the search committee who are nominated and elected from the Congregation and 2 additional members appointed by the Board. The first part of the process is that Board members will be contacting each member to ask who you would trust to be on the Search Committee. We will then have a pool of names for our Nominating Committee to start with. Being on the Search Committee is ...

February 1, 2023

Being a modern guy, I have been hearing a lot about ChatGPT. So with the Stewardship campaign right around the corner, I asked the A.I. why someone like me should be supporting Countryside. Here’s the response, unedited by me:

Giving to Countryside Church Unitarian Universalist can have a profound emotional impact on individuals. The act of giving, whether it be of time, money, or resources, can bring a sense of purpose and fulfillment to one’s life. It can also foster a sense of community and connectedness with others.

State-of-the-Church ~ Jan 29 at 11 am

At the Congregational meeting last May, the Board promised to have a mid-year State-of-the-Church meeting to keep everyone informed as to how we are doing financially. That meeting will be January 29 immediately following the service. We hope to see everyone there. 

(Soundtrack: Have a Little Faith in Me by John Hiatt)

January is often seen as a time to clean house, take inventory, get rid of items that are no longer useful and maybe develop some new habits and procedures. To be sure, there are 11 other months that are just as good to turn over a new leaf, but sometimes the turn of the calendar page gives us extra motivation.

I try to have that attitude when I meditate or engage in other spiritual practices. The goal is to let go ...

November 2022

When there is a “Prez and Trez” column, I keep this one short.

Welcome

I was happy to attend the “Path to Membership” session on November 20. This very well-organized class is led by Tom McTavish. It’s inspiring to meet with new members and think of all of the gifts and talents they will contribute to CCUU. Welcome, all.

Soundtrack

The deadline for this column is the day before Thanksgiving. The song that is playing in my head ...

November 28, 2022

Here’s the winter edition of our quarterly letter designed to keep you informed and involved in our finances. Often, these columns deal with financial transparency and hone in on the costs of salaries, building and utilities. This month, we want to also consider the mission of the church. Countryside is a community center of spiritual growth as well as a focal point for people wanting to know about and join work that is being done in our community to promote the goals we name in our Covenant. At our recent Board ...

Nov 2022

Saying “goodbye” to Kathi Hillyer this past week was difficult. Kathi has been a member here for eleven years. During that time, she was active in many functions, a harmonious voice in the choir, the music librarian, and a valuable church leader. She was an important presence during her six years on the Board, first as a member, then as Secretary and finally as Vice President. She chaired the Worship Council and the Program Committee. When COVID struck, Kathi was one of the first Zoom worship assistants and quickly became skilled at ...

October 2022

Thanks go out to all of the members who conducted summer services.  The depth and breadth of the topics was impressive with attendance to match.  We’ve rolled that enthusiasm into the new church year with our first month of services with Rev. Denise.   It’s also been great to have some celebratory events that allow us to reconnect after 2 ½ years of various degrees of separation.  Both the potluck on September 11^th and the memorial for Martha Atherton were strong reminders that we are a close-knit community with a shared history that ...

Aug 31, 2022

Having spent most of my life on a “school calendar,” it feels natural to regard September as the start of a new year with new routines, traditions and people. That’s especially true this year as we welcome Rev. Denise Cawley to Countryside, continue to emerge from the 2 ½ year period of COVID disruptions, and try to get back to a semblance of normalcy.

It’s been great to see such high attendance at the summer services. There has been an impressive display of topics and formats. The services ...

August 1, 2022

Please read this month’s “Prez and Trez” column. It’s another in our quarterly efforts to make church finances more transparent and to have all members feel informed and involved in financial matters. For this column, I’ll just update a few items that might otherwise fall through the cracks.

Our hybrid services will resume on September 4, which is the last Sunday of the summer schedule. Our Tech Coordinator, Jessica Maricich, has a full-time job which requires some weekend work in the summer. She will be ...

August 1, 2022

The 2021-22 church fiscal year ended on June 30, so we thought it’d be a good time to let you know where we are now and how the year went financially. It has been an up-and-down year for us in so many respects; our finances are no exception.

If we look back to the end of the stewardship drive in March, our picture looked bleak. We were facing a deficit for the 2022-23 fiscal year of over $100,000 and less pledge income than expected for the 2021-22 year. ...

July 2022

July 1 marks the start of a new fiscal year and church year for us. This year, it marked the end of a 14-year ministry and the beginning of a two-year phase of interim ministry. It’s also the time that we say “thank you” to a group of previous Board members and “hello” to a new crew. This year, we have very little turnover on the Board. Chris Hitchcock completed a 4-year term and Kathi Hillyer completed a maximum 6-year stint that included terms as Board Secretary and Vice President. We’ll let ...

June 15, 2022

I’m pleased to announce that we have finalized arrangements with the Rev. Denise Cawley to be our Interim Minister. She will start with us on September 1. As you may have heard, this year’s match process through the UUA had several ups and downs. Our committee (Crystina Smith, Tim Reuter-Bowers, Joy Simon, and me) learned a lot in this process and enthusiastically selected Rev. Denise to be with us on this next exciting chapter. We expect to start the search for a settled minister in late winter. More about that all ...

June 2022

Last weekend, like many of us, I attended the memorial service for Krista MacTavish. While it was extremely sad to say “goodbye” to such a dynamic person, there was so much beauty and poetry in the readings and music. Tom MacTavish had given an eloquent eulogy and also stated that Krista wanted to have the song “Both Sides Now” played. When it came time to run the Joni Mitchell recording, there was a technical glitch and a few seconds of awkward silence. But one person started singing the song a cappella and ...

May 2022

As I’ve mentioned before, I always have a song in my head. Like dreams, at times it takes a little time and effort to recognize, remember and then interpret why it’s there. Today, it’s Salt of the Earth by The Rolling Stones. I found this surprising as I’m not a big Stones fan. That might be why I initially misremembered the lyrics as “Hat’s off to the hardworking people ” when it’s actually “Let’s drink to the hardworking people ”. “Hat’s off” is probably more appropriate for a church newsletter anyway. As ...