by Rev. Dr. Stephen H. Furrer
Daffodil time
is past. This is
summer, summer!
the heart says,
and not even the full of it.
Or so writes the Unitarian poet, William Carlos Williams in “The Ivy Crown.” Yes. This is summer, summer! …and not even the full of it.
So much is coming to fruition! Or will things somehow fail to fully thrive? Will ESUC’s optimistic budget end up being worth the risk? The Ivy Crown is a love poem Williams wrote to his wife, but it applies to us, as a congregation, trying to live with people we claim to care for, and rightly do, despite being sometimes neglectful and sometimes even cruel. But in the end, he confesses…
we have,
no matter how,
by our wills survived
to keep
the jeweled prize
always
at our finger tips.
We will it so
and so it is
past all accident.
It is my hope that over the course of the summer we can mobilize our collective energies to make 2019-2020 a year of dynamic growth and new-found warmth here at ESUC. We can keep this jeweled prize vital and alluring; may we will it so!
Eric Lane Barnes and I are reshaping and re-ordering the Worship Committee in ways we hope lead to more participatory and more radically inclusive Sunday services in the months and over the year to come. We are especially interested in those of you who might be interested in joining up. There are two dimensions to what the Worship Committee does: organizing and focusing on lining up services and assisting the worship leader (Worship Associates) on Sundays. Meanwhile, as I explained on June 9th, I feel that the relatively abrupt and circumspectly explained departures of my three most recent predecessors have contributed to feelings of suspicion and contention among some of the membership. In an effort to heal lingering unresolved feelings about these able colleagues, I intend to hold up one at a time and, to the best of my ability, honor their manifold contributions to our congregational story. The first of these—focusing on the ministry of Joan Montagnes—will be on July 21. Services about Peter Luton and Elaine Peresluha will be later this coming year.
So go on and enjoy the lush, prodigal summer, summer and not even the half of it! May it be a glorious summer for all of us!
Yours in faith, Steve