I walked out to the rocks in the woods at church today.  The sun was shining, and though there is still a chill in the air, the crocuses were bright outside the door, and a few daffodils were blooming.  I was thinking about our dreaming and planning for a new sanctuary, and trying to imagine where it might come to be situated on the land.  Our architects had been quite taken with the rock ledge in the woods, and I remember how that space was shown to me in my first grand tour of the church.  It is a really special spot. 

In our future landscaping plans there is talk of making that space more integral to our common life—as a garden with a walkway perhaps, or a space for meditation.  And it came to me that we don’t have to wait for our building to take shape to do some of that now.  The future footprint of an expanded building will not infringe on those rocks, so we could give them some tender loving care in the closer future.  They have suffered a bit from being an occasional hangout for unidentified teens.  A suggestion was made that if we put more energy into that space, it might discourage vandalism.  Even today, I found myself picking up broken glass, and imagining how nice it would be to plant some shade-loving perennials.  I would leave the details to our amazing landscaping volunteers… but I encourage you to visit the rocks if you haven’t seen them yet.

Later this spring we’ll see some new plans from the architects, and have a chance to vote on a design.  And our marvelous and hard-working facilities planning committee will have brought us to the completion of Phase One.  I wanted to take a moment to say a really big thank you for all the creativity, hard work, listening, meeting, research, and shepherding that group has done.  Thank you Dan Chase, Jerry Freeman, Terri Grover, Rick Kimball, Trudy McNulty, Ann Packard, and Shane Smith!  And thanks to everyone who suspended disbelief in these uncertain financial times, and shared your ideas and dreams and concerns and hopes. 

Our financial planning committee is even now plotting about what our next steps will be, and most certainly in that mix will be a financial feasibility study, so we can think realistically as well as imaginatively. But I am reminded of a piece of wisdom I learned from somewhere—that nothing can be created in reality without the imagination to see it first in fantasy.

And on that note, I also wanted to send forth a vision.  Sometime in the near future, I see myself conducting many weddings—some in our current sanctuary, maybe some near the rocks in the woods—weddings for same-sex couples who have finally won the right to legal marriage equality in Maine.  There is a lot of hard work still to do, but I can imagine it!  Can you?  Blessed be LD1020!

Myke