Figuring It Out Together

Greetings, and welcome to the new church year!  During the summer Board planning retreat, we selected “Figuring It Out Together” as our guiding theme.  It speaks to why a Unitarian Universalist community exists at all and is intentionally unfinished. It does not tell us what we are supposed to figure out or suggest that we will always reach the same conclusions. Instead, it describes a way of being together: curious rather than certain, engaged rather than isolated, and willing to stay in relationship when the questions are difficult. We gather because some questions are too complex and too important to face alone.

This feels especially important in a world shaped by conflict, division, inequality, climate change, and rapid social and technological change. Our role as a “church” community is not to retreat from difficult issues or rush toward simple answers, but to learn how to sit with complexity. This is a place where we come together to talk about things that are important and to determine what we let go of in our lives.  The seven UU Principles offer a foundation for that work through commitments to dignity, justice, compassion, truth, democracy, community, and respect for our interdependence. Centering those commitments in Love asks us to consider not only what we believe, but how we listen, disagree, act, repair, and move forward together.

“Figuring It Out Together” also invites us to examine the relationship between our history and the community we are becoming. We inherit symbols, traditions, language, and practices that carry meaning because generations before us gave them meaning. But a living tradition must also ask whether those symbols still communicate who we are today and who we hope to become. The tension between honoring our history and expressing our current identity is not necessarily something to avoid. It is an opportunity to ask together what should be preserved, what might be reinterpreted, and what new expressions of our values may be needed.

Ultimately, this year’s theme describes a community that understands itself as dynamic rather than finished. We do not need to present ourselves as people who have solved every problem or reached perfect agreement. We can instead offer something more meaningful: a community willing to wrestle with difficult questions without abandoning one another, willing to let Love guide both continuity and change, and willing to keep asking who we are called to become. In that sense, “Figuring It Out Together” is not simply a theme for one year – it is part of our reason for being.

We as the Board of Trustees are excited for the year ahead as we continue to create our shared space and experience!  We are energized by the potential outreach opportunities, list of great Sunday speakers, and our raft of events.

Thank you,

Eric Studer

Board of Trustees, President