Dear Members and Friends of UMA,
Whew! What a few months it has been for me!!! Like all of us, I have had challenges throughout my life, and mostly, as the saying goes, they made me stronger. BUT during the challenging time, it sure can be hard to see those places of light that will make us stronger. It has been an exhausting and stressful couple of months, not something I have been accustomed to in recent years.
But despite the major stressors of my surgeries and a couple of weeks of significant eye pain, and then Brandon’s 6 hour surgery and 6 month recovery time (at least,) plus some other issues, (when it rains it sure does pour sometimes!), there have also been some major brightness shining forth! Obviously Zaki and Fardin’s citizenship! Also, the Witness to Injustice by the Onondaga Nation in partnership with Wells College was very powerful. It is one thing to read and hear about the injustice done to the Indigenous People, but another to be immersed in a very powerful experiential exercise. Last Sunday we also were treated to an experience of Spiritual Direction with Edie Reagan (my former colleague at Hospicare) and Debbie Allen who are now a part of the Finger Lakes Anam Cara: A Center for Spiritual Direction. There are some brochures in the Social Room if you would like to learn more. Rebecca has been going to them for some of their group and individual sessions and is happy to share her experience with you.
But one of the brightest lights shining forth is you all! Your love and support means so much to me and to others who have found themselves in difficult life situations. This is what church is about, being there for one another and also for those outside our beautiful sanctuary walls.
As we continue to grow and thrive as a place of Sunday morning worship, welcoming newcomers and learning to be Christ’s eyes, ears, feet and hands in a difficult world, we are also reaching out to our community as a center for spiritual and religious learning, for community building and service, and as a welcoming place for all without judgement or expectations. In the past four years many people are now viewing us as their church, even if it isn’t necessarily on Sunday mornings. Several people in the community have contacted me for spiritual and pastoral counseling. I am often asked to do graveside services as well as services in the church. Young people are coming through our doors to enjoy spirit uplifting programming and to learn about service. It has been so soul nourishing for me and all our participants as we experience these new ways of being church that do not center on Sunday mornings. It is also the future of “church” to find new ways to nourish ourselves and our community as young people seek new ways of finding God, the Holy and the Sacred in life for which there is still a hunger.
I have now been your pastor for four years, as we continue to grow and thrive in love, I encourage you all to join us for some of our events, presentations and experiences that will deepen your faith and your connection to God.
This Sunday at 4, Arthur Bellizoni (Wells Professor of Religion Emeritus) will once again challenge and inform us on the historical aspects of the Book of Job, should be great fun! As I find myself feeling a little like Job these past few weeks and months, I will focus on the light that shines beneath the history – God.
With love and blessings to all!
Barb