What will this year produce?
Do we have any choices?
Margaret Mead is quoted in our Hymnal, Reading # 561
| "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it's the only thing that ever has." |
We don't have to change the world but we must change how we think of ourselves. We are not desperate and we not closing the Church. Our numbers are small but we can grow. Friday, I spent an hour at the Church with a fellow named Carmen from Irving Oil. I invited him to visit the Church and he told me the story about his religious experience. He's a born again Christian and started attending again” showed great interest in who we are and what this Church was all about. I don't too often invite people to Church but it's a practice we should all start trying. It was a good experience. Maybe Carmen will visit some day.
We all know and have heard the haunting song, "Taps". A friend gave me the words recently and the story of how it was written by a Confederate soldier found dead by his Yankee Captain father. It's a sad story but words in part read:
|
Thanks and praise for our days 'neath the sun, 'neath the stars, 'neath the sky.
As we go, |
It's a sad song played to recognize a passing. But it also speaks of the here and now. It is the here and now that we must concern ourselves with and enjoy it as much as we can. Church for each of us should be a joyful experience; not a stressful one. We should not be trying to get through this existence but we should be getting to the community we want to build.
Last year we heard a recommendation from the North East District to close the Church. In January the advice from our UUA Small Church Minister was also to close the Church. And just two weeks ago, as if to emphasize the point, the Church completely freezes up.
We passed a budget at our Annual Meeting that would surely put us out of business by the end of the year if nothing changed. But this past week we looked at a budget that would give us at least a fighting chance. Members of the Board and I will be working during February to finalize the budget for 2004 and to complete the Pledge Drive for this year.
Things are changing but we have tough questions to answer for ourselves and for this Church: What is the purpose of this Church? Of any Church? Who cares if Church closes or not? What good is a Church anyhow? What good is this Church for, anyway? Why did someone build it?
Of all those questions the easiest seems to be why it was built. I don't know the answer directly to that question but of all those questions, it seems the easiest. The other questions we will answer for ourselves and agree why we are here.
I believe the Church was built to house a congregation. It seems there must be a congregation first before there is a Church but we seemed to have wondered into a situation where we have a Church with only the smallest congregation. It seems we have lost ourselves in the effort to maintain something that was. This Church no longer has one hundred members and we should stop trying to act like it does.
January was a cold month and even though the ground was frozen and hard, it felt like we had found the bottom of a wagon wheel rut. Wagon wheel ruts are hard to find on frozen ground. What I mean to say is that we hit bottom. Things couldn't get worse. So maybe that's the good news. We have hit bottom and have no place to go but up.
Up, that's sounds like a good place to be. Whatever this year brings, let it bring us "up". Two of our members have urged us to think about the coming Spring and the growth and new life associated with the nature's wake up call. We can hear that call.
The congregation that we are, can be built upon, and make this Church thrive. Let us speak no more of surviving. Let us think no more of making it through another year and maybe then some. Let us work together to make the Church what we know it to be. Warm and friendly and a place where one might go weekly to have the batteries charged. Let us be in community with people we truly like and love.
We are beginning to work more closely with Bangor Theological Seminary and their student ministers. And we know there is a great fountain of good will in the Ministry that currently tends this Church that will help us to grow a congregation dedicated to the Principles embraced by Unitarian and Universalist union.
In a fit of bravado and determination, we just purchased a pulpit from the closing Methodist Church. This new pulpit can be the symbol of our determination to continue and to thrive. We can build around this Pulpit a congregation with a common purpose that will be an influence in our Community. We have a Pulpit that speaks the truth about our World; and we listen with open ears.
Last year we planted a Peace Pole and now we are one of over 200,000 locations in the World that has a Peace Pole. Peace can be part of our message to the community, a message that will help to insure that our Unitarian Universalist beliefs are heard.
Let us be happy with who we are and what we have. The Church is a beautiful building and the community we have is a good place to
Let us not sell ourselves short. Let us learn to thrive.