Members and friends,

What a delight to spend time with so many of you in the sunshine at beautiful Ferry Beach last weekend! I left with salty skin and a full heart. Spending time deepening our connection with one another is such a gift. A huge thank-you to those who coordinated and made the retreat possible. A huge effort!

I’m really looking forward to worship this Sunday, followed by our first discussion of the Common Read Mistakes and Miracles. Both will be rich. It is Faith Development Sunday, so our all-ages worship service will be a celebration of the RE program, our children and families and volunteers, as well as an opportunity to reflect on how we are ALL engaging in faith development across the lifespan. I hope you’ll join us for a thoughtful and FUN service!

Emily and I will be referencing a favorite quote of both of ours, by religious educator Connie Goodbread – “Faith development is all we do. Unitarian Universalism is all we teach. The congregation is the curriculum.”

This morning I woke up to a Braver/Wiser reflection in my inbox called “Fingernails as Faith Development” by a colleague of mine. I encourage you to read the full piece using the link above! In it, the author recounts a story of a young boy in her congregation who loved to have painted fingernails. He began experiencing school bullies who teased him, saying painted nails are for “girls”. Some men at the church caught wind of this and the next Sunday the child arrived at church to find all the men with colorful fingernails. He was DELIGHTED!

Rev. Crawford writes, “In many of our congregations, we carefully craft curricula to teach the values of our faith. But sometimes, the lessons simply appear.” This was certainly one of those moments! The congregation is the curriculum.

Join us as we dive deep into this holy and heartwarming truth. I can’t wait to see you.

In faith,

Rev. Tara