Vinery Update

From Judy Parsons

You may have heard about or read about the new Vinery program that UCG is participating in. I wanted to share with you a bit more about what the Vinery is and where we are in these early days of exploring what this will mean for us at UCG. 

There are 3 of us serving as the UCG Vinery Leadership team; Rev. Bromleigh McCleneghan,  Emily Anderton and me, Judy Parsons.

First let me introduce myself and my role. For a number of years now, I have been the campus ministry and Young Adult (YA) group coordinator which also includes being UCG’s representative for some Santa Fe events and UF’s CMC or Campus Multi-Faith Cooperative. You may be aware that UCG has had a Young Adult group that prior to the pandemic met for lunch on Sunday’s after church. During the first couple of semesters of the pandemic, I hosted a YA zoom lunch, and even though attendance was limited, it was great to find a way to meet. The plan to resume meeting in person has so far been blocked by the Pandemic, In the meantime, we are excited to imagine the possibilities of what may grow in the coming months and years.

You all know Bromleigh, but we are delighted to let Emily introduce herself to you:

Hi UCGers! I joined the church in summer of 2021, so there are a lot of you I have yet to meet. I am very excited to help our young adult population grow and thrive. I graduated from UF in 2018, and during my time there, my friends and I felt the lack of truly inclusive, safe spiritual communities, despite the number of religious organizations with large campus presences. It took me years to find a space like UCG, and I would love to spare other young adults in our community that search!  

Now on to the Vinery.  I think the best overview of what the Vinery is that I have seen is from their website: 

• The Vinery: Awakening Faith and Flourishing at the Intersection of Church and University, to cultivate congregational thriving in ministry with their university neighbors and broader communities.  Our vision is to be an incubator for thriving congregations ministering faithfully and effectively with young adults and other members of nearby universities and supporting vibrant local communities. The Vinery cultivates dynamic learning cohorts of congregations located in close proximity to universities and helps them remember their calling to ministry with students and other members of universities as a part of their total ministry in the world.

At the end of January, Bromleigh and I attended a retreat at Clemson University to meet the other churches in our cohort and to begin learning, planning and brainstorming what this could mean for UCG and for our relationship with UF and Santa Fe College. 

If you would like to know more and to get involved please join us on Sunday, March 20th for lunch. We will share more info and talk a bit about the process of using PublicNarrative – story of self, sorry of us and story of now. We will meet by the fountain after the 11:15 service and go to a local eatery for lunch and discussion.