Hello everyone,

Last night was our third monthly board meeting via Zoom. I think we are all weary of meeting remotely, missing in-person connections. And yet, there are still ways we can find hope and connection. For me, sometimes it’s in sitting outside, as I am right now, smelling the peonies in my garden, hearing the birds in the background. And it’s in seeing a social media post from my brother, from whom I rarely hear or see, sharing a picture of us siblings, all together, with different skin colors and different experiences of life, and a message of love and gratitude for the values of inclusion with which we were raised.

And so we take what we can from those moments and move forward. This month was our last meeting with Carol and Pat and first with Rosie and Ernie. We were grateful for what was and what will be. Our agenda included items of both action and reflection. We were happy to hear from the ministers that, so far, Sunday collections do not seem to have been negatively impacted by our new form of worship. We debriefed on what we learned from the congregational meeting and what we might do differently or better next time. We heard from a task force completing its work on auxiliary/affiliated groups and committed to actions needed to initiate the work of the Social Justice Fund Panel and FTE task force.  We heard that we could do better about letting folks know how they can attend these virtual board meetings and how they can see copies of the minutes when it’s not possible to just walk by them hanging in the hallway.  On the latter point, for now, please email the board if you want a copy of prior, approved board meeting minutes. On the former, we have taken an action item and we will work on it. In the meantime, our next meeting will be August 10th at 6pm. If you think you might want to attend, please put it on your calendar and send one of us a reminder to let you know the zoom link when it has been assigned.

We will need to all work together to figure out how we can, as a community, continue to find ways to connect and communicate more in this ongoing time of physical distancing. We need your help. We approved a motion to host one or more town hall meetings to discuss this together, and you will be hearing from the ministers soon about timing and logistics.

I have faith that, even if we are all weary, we can continue do this, together, with and out of love for each other.

With immense gratitude and love for this community,

Bridget