Dear members and friends,

We are making our way through January, the days are growing longer little by little, and we’re entering the post-holiday season at church. I love the holidays, and I love when they end =) . In the Christian tradition, this time in the liturgical calendar between Christmastide and Lent is called “Ordinary Time”. And there is something so sacred about that, to me. The ordinary. Practically it looks like more flexibility in worship themes and a little more spaciousness in my own schedule to collaborate with leadership on stewardship and budget and visioning… the less glorious but still important parts of church life. But spiritually it offers a time to be present to the sacredness of the ordinary – to see planning, meeting, and preparing as a spiritual practice. A challenge and a gift of this work.

In our own Unitarian Universalist tradition, the justice branch of our UUA, Side with Love, celebrates 30 Days of Love beginning on MLK Day and ending on Valentine’s Day. It’s a season to focus on love in action. That space where love as a feeling intersects with our values and calls us to the work of collective liberation.

So what’s ahead?!  LOVE will guide me through the coming weeks in work and in worship. Perhaps it will be your guide, in addition to your Star Word, too!

This Sunday we’ll reflect together on the role of accountability in our work in building the Beloved Community. I’ll return to the pulpit in February with a three-part series focused on Love: “Planting Seeds of Love”, “Midwives of Love”, and a service exploring reproductive justice and our faith.

These weeks ahead may be “ordinary”, but perhaps it is in the ordinary that we might encounter the extraordinary. In nature, in each other, and in that larger love that holds us.

Please reach out if you’d like to connect! You know how to get in touch.

In faith and with love,

Rev. Tara