As our church family has embraced the return to our community connections we are again facing new variant threats. It feels like a kind of twisted déjà vu when our world felt so close to emerging from this pandemic. I feel reassured that the leaders of the COVID taskforce have been vigilant and flexible in providing critical guidance for the continued safety of UCG’s ministries. We remain a masked community to protect each other, especially those that cannot be vaccinated for various reasons and our youth.
Fellow UCG members are traveling this summer, or even staying close to home, as we enjoy the Florida sunshine. We have one Sunday service, many boards and committees are on hiatus and our minsters and staff are enjoying camp time and vacations. You may think that our faith family is on a full break but I can assure you the work of the church is continuing even during the dog days of summer. The work of UCG continues throughout these hot, humid days as there is much to be accomplished.
The installation of our Coordinating Minister, Bromleigh McCleneghan, on August 22nd will be a day of joyous celebration. Our church community will be joining together for a double-header event on August 29th: the annual Gathering of the Waters service and the return of Time and Talent, led by Moderator-Elect Barb Gibbs, for recruitment to our Board and Committees. On September 12th we will be invited to a collaborative Sunday Service event to share perspectives of this year’s church theme: Return, Reunite, Reimagine. I look forward to coordinating with The Board of Parish Ministry, the Lively Arts Committee and other talented folks to create a shared space in the sanctuary to collectively define these thematic words.
The “and” was purposely left out of the words of the church theme “Return, Reunite, Reimagine” so that they would stand alone and independent. For some the verbiage easily strings together to encompass the past, present and future. But for others, when considering the definitions, these terms may feel compartmentalized. My hope is that we can explore what a return to sacred UCG traditions will mean to each of us, how reuniting after this past year and a half of upheaval has changed us, for the good or the worse, and where reimaging the boundless potential of UCG’s future may lead us.