This week’s letter
It’s just an experiment
A2U2 Community,
Fall Equinox blessings to you! Autumn has arrived. Being back together on Sunday filled my heart, and I appreciated the conversations I had with many of you after about “finding your role in the village.” Join us after service this Sunday for the Opportunity Fair to take the next step!
This week’s service will be a grand experiment. As you know, I love leading experiments because an experiment is a low stakes way to try something new. We test it out, gather data, evaluate, and then make the next decision… instead of making a change and assuming it will stick forever and become The New Thing.
A few years ago, we spent time working to develop a congregational covenant–a set of promises about how we want to be together as a community–that would help guide our relationships and act as the North Star of our life together. The more you all engaged in thoughtful, nuanced conversations and deepened your learning about cultural differences in communication, the more we realized together that a one-size-fits-all covenant for our community actually didn’t make the most sense. So we paused. I then developed a workshop just for church leaders on practicing covenant and led that a year ago with our Board, committee chairs, and leaders from other UU churches across southern Maine. That went well, but didn’t reach enough people. It really needs to be an all-hands-on-deck conversation. Since then, I have puzzled over the next best step for us: a covenantal community with no actual covenant.
Then, last spring, I found myself sitting in our Gathering Room, 7/9. On the wall was our kids’ RE covenant for the ’25–’26 program year. It was written in marker on a giant sticky note with things crossed off and added. Everyone had signed their name. At the end of the year they’d take it down, and create a new one in the fall to reflect the addition of new kids and fresh ideas. No years-long wordsmithing process, endless meetings to agree/disagree on definitions… no beautiful, poetic words framed on the wall gathering dust, untouched since their writing. Why have I never heard of adults doing it this way??? I started to wonder
Fast forward to this Sunday… to our experiment. We will gather together (in person and on Zoom)–A2U2ers of all ages–and create a set of community practices we’d like to commit to for the next 11 months in the worship service. It will be our covenant for one year. We’ll try and use it. Live it. Probably break it at times and then refer back to it and try again. Figure out what it’s missing. And see how it goes! Perhaps we’ll become a congregation that covenants every year to keep our promises to each other relevant and fresh. Or maybe it will be a flop and we’ll never do it again… Who knows!?!
I am excited to try it out. Some of you will be rolling your eyes… oh no, Rev. Tara.. this is my worst nightmare! I’d prefer to just sit and listen to a sermon! You’re going to make me TALK to people on Sunday?! I get it… I really do.
AND… It’s just an experiment. So I’m going to ask you to try it, to bring an open mind and heart and, at the very least, humor me in this endeavor which has the potential to be a great success at best, and at worst a chance to meet and chat with some cool new folks.
Practice doesn’t always make perfect… but it can make so much possible. What shall we practice together this year? How might focusing on community practices create new possibilities for our shared ministry? Maybe one of our practices will even be staying open to experiments and trying new things…
See you Sunday!
In faith,
Rev. Tara