New Office Mate!You’re probably thinking this post is about Sara Sautter, our new Interim Director of Lifespan Faith Formation, but it’s about our new mascot and office ESA (emotional support animal)! Milo is Todd’s new companion, and he comes to the office to make sure we have some joy and to oversee our work. He doesn’t bark…
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Rev. Sarah visits Friendship Village! Last week I took half a day and visited Friendship Village. It was a wonderful opportunity to see ten of our VUU’ers, take a tour of the facilities, enjoy lunch, and talk about end of life planning as well as enjoying life while we can! I got to see Gaylee Fretz, Jayne…
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This weekend John and I celebrate 16 years of marriage. For both of us, this is a second marriage–one which we came to wiser because of what we learned the first time around. We never expected John to already be teaching this early when we got married in 2008, but it has happened. So while we both have…
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Returning to the office and the pulpit, accompanied by a number of meetings with members and teams at VUU, has felt energizing and engaging. I am planning many details of the program year with many VUU leaders. My husband is back in the classroom, my son starts school in August, and my mom is celebrating the many…
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I am back in the office! I am still catching up on emails, etc. I look forward to writing more next week, and to seeing all of you this Sunday! Thanks for your patience as I return to all of the tasks and planning for our 2024-25 program year. We’ll celebrate the water communion on…
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Although our meeting was long, and we had some areas of contention, I appreciate the hard work we did last weekend at our congregational meeting and the learning we did as we tried new ways of voting. I am sure the Leadership Development team will be reporting the results of the meeting in this edition of…
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This week I met with participants in the closing circle of the music program process led by Rev. Sam. We spent three hours together reviewing our work, our commitments, and our hopes for the future. I am grateful for the 30+ participants in this process and for the work we did together this year and I am…
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Last week I joined music program participants at an end of year celebration that was joyful and delicious. Sunday, we celebrated our diversity and pluralism through a Flower Communion. As you may have noticed, we have experienced a near-miraculous financial re-bound as so many of you have stepped up to increase your pledge, make new donations, and…
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The Transformative Community Conferencing process with Rev. Sam is in its final stages of completion. We have two short gatherings to close this work out after six small groups met for 2.5 hours each and then 6 hours with those participants last Saturday. We’ll offer more reflections from this work soon, but I want to say that it…
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There’s a lot going at VUU! I hope a takeaway for you is that we can have hard conversations and share what’s on our minds and in our hearts–and when we listen to each other we have the opportunity to be changed, to see things differently, even if we still disagree. Agreement isn’t a requirement for…
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