This month in worship and in our chalice circles, we are exploring the last of the values expressed in the UUA’s proposed new description of our central values: Transformation. This value is shared with these words:
Transformation. We adapt to the changing world. We covenant to collectively transform and grow spiritually and ethically. Openness to change is fundamental to our Unitarian and Universalist heritages, never complete and never perfect.
One of the things that attracted me to our Unitarian Universalist tradition when I found it in the early 1990s was this encouragement—perhaps and expectation?—to growth and change and development. Not for its own sake, but in response to our exploration of truth and meaning, in response to our encounters and growing relationships with each other, in response to the needs of the world. That out of all of these activities and encounters we would regularly build new understandings of ourselves and the world, grow new vision.
Slowly and quietly over the coming months we will continue an exploration of how our vision for this beloved community—UUCOD—has grown and changed over the past years and how we understand our mission in the world, which grows from that vision. I’ve engaged the Board and the Church Council in beginning conversation and reflection and will be broadening that invitation in the coming months.
I’ll invite you to continue reflecting on the question I asked a couple of months ago in worship, “What is the purpose of our congregation in the world? What is its purpose in my life?” I can’t wait to hear your imaginings.
And, of course, as a denomination, we are grappling with the possibility of the change, the transformation, of the language we use to describe our common values. At General Assembly in June the gathered delegates will vote on whether the new Article II language, which we’ve been exploring this year, will become one new way of describing who we are to ourselves and to the world.
Jane Zaun and I will be hosting a conversation after service on May 19 when we hope you’ll join us to talk and think together about the new language and how it may or may not represent who we believe ourselves to be.
I’d invite you to take some time to explore information and resources about the new language at: Click here for Article ii: Study Commission and Click here for a UU World Article.
I hope you’ll join us.
As we do all this exploring and wondering, don’t forget that we are not aiming to express everything we believe or envision completely and perfectly. We are striving together to share how we understand ourselves to be in this moment and commit ourselves to always wondering and deepening and exploring together, in beloved community.
in peace and love
Rev. Ian
Minister’s Message Recent Posts
Bread not Stone: Together in Love
Dear ones,
As you read this we are heading toward Election Day on November 5. Though we know (and fear) that we won’t know for sure the results of the election on that day, it will certainly be a moment of great change in our political and social lives.
I know that many of you carry anxiety and fear and anger and disbelief at the state of our political and social lives. I do as well. And I am reminded strongly in times like these why we come together in community. To care for each other. To share our fears and anxieties so that we can feel heard and seen and so that we can see and hear those we care for. To share our joys and hopes so that we can strengthen and enliven our individual and collective possibilities.
Bread not Stone: The Past and the Future
Dear ones,
An ad was placed in The Desert Sun in October of 1959 that asked readers “Are you a Unitarian and don’t know it?” It was placed by the Rev. Ray Manker, from Riverside. And then on the evening of Wednesday, October 19, 1959, a diverse collection of people—a few humanists, liberals, and at least one person who was already Unitarian—gathered for the first time at the Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce office.
Since then, this community has grown and thrived, through struggle and wandering in the desert, through ministers coming and going, through dreaming and hard work. And here we are, 65 years later, stronger than ever!
Bread not Stone: Crafting Relationships/Coming Together
Dear ones,
Our theme for the month of September is Nurturing Sustainable Relationships. As we live into our value of Interdependence we commit to create and nurture sustainable relationships of care and respect, mutuality and justice.
As this month goes along I’ll invite you to ponder and consider your closest relationships and your more casual relationships. How do you choose to nurture these relationships? Do you pay active attention to how they’re going? Do you check in with your partner, your friends, your acquaintances and figure out together how to make your relationship stronger, richer, and more sustaining?
Bread not Stone: A Year of Covenant and Celebration
Dear ones,
As we settle into the deep heat of the summer the life of the congregation quiets a little and gives us some brain space to ponder the year ahead.
2024-2025 is a double anniversary year for the congregation. In October we’ll be celebrating our congregation’s 65th anniversary. And in late March of 2025, we will have been in our own church building for 20 years. What a year! What joy it is to celebrate our past and envision what the future can be. In the early months of the fall, we’ll be engaging in conversation and discernment together as we seek to reimagine the vision and mission of our beloved community. Keep your ears and eyes out and I hope you’ll jump into those conversations with intention and commitment.
Bread not Stone: Envisioning the Future
Hello Friends,
And the wheel of the year turns and December becomes January and a new year begins. In some ways it’s an arbitrary shift—a flip of a page in a calendar. But so many of us see this shift as an opportunity to imagine new possibilities in the year ahead.
Dear ones, in many ways, the life of the congregation continues: we worship together, we learn together, we raise the money we need to help our beloved community thrive, we grapple with the painful realities of the world and how we can understand and make change, and we engage in the work of moving ourselves and the world toward justice, kindness, and love.
Bread not Stone: Minister’s Message
This is the time of year when the days get shorter and shorter and the night gets longer and longer. When it feels like we live more in darkness than we do in light. And so the festivals and celebrations of this time are all about light: the light of candles, the...
Bread Not Stone: Pluralism
This month we continue our exploration of the values that unite and inspire us as Unitarian Universalists. A reminder that individuals and congregations across the Unitarian Universalist Association are exploring these values in preparation for deciding on adopting new language in our UUA bylaws that express our shared values and covenants with each other. We’ll be sharing conversation and reflection together, including in our Chalice Circles each month.
For November, we’ll be looking at Pluralism.
Bread Not Stone: Interdependence
Hello friends,
This month we begin our exploration of the values that unite and inspire us as Unitarian Universalists. A reminder that individuals and congregations across the Unitarian Universalist Association are exploring these values in preparation for deciding on adopting new language in our UUA bylaws that express our shared values and covenants with each other. We’ll be sharing conversation and reflection together, including in our Chalice Circles each month.
For October, we’ll be looking at Interdependence.
Bread Not Stone: How Can We Help?
Hello friends,
We see in the news so many stories about hardship and abuse of immigrants and refugees and those seeking asylum in our country. It’s often difficult to know how we can help.
A small group in our congregation has been meeting and having some conversations about ways in which we can help and have an impact on the situations of people in our valley and area.
And we want to explore ways our congregation and its members can help in more ways, especially with people experiencing struggles with our immigration and asylum systems.
Bread not Stone: Pondering the Principles
Hello friends,
It is such a full time for us in our congregation. We’re kicking off our pledge drive to plan for next year’s budget. We’re working to create new possibilities for moving from contract ministry to settled ministry. We are beginning to read and explore Mistakes and Miracles together as a congregational read.
And there’s lost happening in our larger movement as well, including exploring how we describe and envision our faith tradition through Article II of the bylaws of the Unitarian Universalist Association.
If you don’t know, Article II of the UUA bylaws contain the formal statement of our UU Principles and Purposes: saying what the purpose of our association is, what are the principles around which we live our faith out in the world, and what the sources and inspiration are for that work and that faith….