Happy to be back!

It has been wonderful to see everyone again, as I've come back from sabbatical and we've all come together again into our autumn church life! I have been a little overwhelmed by emails, so if you have emailed me and not heard back yet, please try again. I want to connect! I have appreciated your welcome back messages, and feel happy to be with you all again.

I am so terribly excited about our funding campaign, “Walking With Care on This Earth.” After our long process of sorting through ideas and principles and options for our building and land; after our permaculture design process in which those ideas were brought together in a plan; after hours of research by many church members about sustainability and costs and feasibility—now we are actually raising the money to do it! Our consultants say we can do this. There are great leaders involved in the work. Now they just need all of us to participate in whatever we are able, and we will be able to begin work next spring.

Thanks to Connie and Dave for co-chairing this effort. Thanks to all the members of the group working on it. If you weren't in church when they made an announcement, I will mention that they are organizing one-on-one visits for all church members, in two waves. Margy and I were visited recently by a member of the team, and he answered any questions we had about the project, we had a chance to chat, and then Margy and I made a confidential pledge for our contribution to the projects. It was really fun to connect, and I was blown away by the brochure that they created for the campaign.

The first wave of visits will conclude by mid-October, and then the second wave of visits will happen between mid-October and mid-November. So if you are a member you'll be getting more information soon. And if you don't get information, but would like to participate, contact the church to make sure your contact information is all up to date, or to pass a message along to Connie and Dave. Non-members are welcome to be involved too. This is one more way we can bring our mission alive.

I also wanted to mention that this year I will be serving as a teaching pastor for a first-year student at Meadville-Lombard Theological School. His name is Israel Buffardi, he is a member of First Parish, and is beginning to follow a call to UU ministry. This year he and I will meet once a month, for mentoring and reflection on ministry. Then, if all goes well, he may serve as a half-time intern for A2U2 during our next church year starting in Sept 2016. The Board and I were happy for our church to continue on a path of helping to teach our next generation of UU ministers.

All the best, Rev. Myke