As your newly elected President of the Board, I want to thank you for your confidence in me. Although I served on the Board some years ago, I haven’t been recently involved in the Board’s work, so I ask for your patience and understanding as I get up to speed. As you may know, your Board meets each month; these meetings are typically conducted via Zoom, although once each quarter, we meet in person at the church on a Saturday morning. Our next in- person meeting will occur in August and we are looking forward to having our young adults join us and providing input about their experiences at OCU ..read more

Last Sunday as part of Question Box Sunday, someone asked if I loved my job. I do! I absolutely love being your minister. I don’t want to be or do anything else. And being a minister is also exhausting. Isn’t that strange? We can love something, but it can also cause us “harm” - lose energy, feel run down, even burnt out if we let it. As a minister I notice that my work is in fact never done - there is always that pastoral call I can make, that project that needs boosting, that email to be answered, the sermon to be picked at. And after a while, it can get exhausting trying to keep up. I’m gue ..read more

When Rev. Sian was recruiting me in 2021 for President, she said, “Just get the sanctuary built, we really need you for that.” Huh. Just get it built, right? The sanctuary has been the focus of all my terms and will continue to be so for the future, apparently. While working with the architect and the City has definitely had its trying moments, working with all of you has been wonderful. We have kept in communication and relationship, and I am so grateful. I keep saying, “We will get there!”, and I mean it. We will. The City has agreed that we are ready to pull the permit and start constructio ..read more

Once again, a busy time at OCUUC. We are apporoaching the end of our fiscal year. The pledge drive is mostly done, although we are still waiting to hear from some members. The Pacific Regional and deBenneville meetings are behind us, and preparations for General Assembly are under way. Please see the information on Article 2 in the REACH. Those things happen every year. In addition, we have two staff members who will be leaving us – Karen Magoon Pearson as our Director of Religious Education and Julian Berger as our Collaborative Pianist. We are sad they will not be serving us as staff members ..read more

We contain multitudes. And yet we are one. It’s a strange paradox. I’m struck by two quotes I found recently. The first is from Winona LaDuke: "The first thing I am is a person… But people either relate to you as an Indian or as a woman. They relate to you as a category." How true that is. It’s part of human nature to find those categories that we can relate to (or not), and to put one another in those categories - to “one” people, without recognizing their “multitudes.” Here’s the second quote, by Carl Rogers: "People are just as wonderful as sunsets if I can let them be. In fact, perhaps the ..read more

My first sermon at OCUUC was commemorating Earth Day last year. Earth Day is always a good reminder that every day, we can do something to contribute to the health of the amazing planet that is our home. I know it’s hard to imagine how our individual actions can play a part when the changing climate, and poor practices continue to impact the planet our communities. We can and do make choices that make a difference, however. Every time you remember to bring your reusable bags to the grocery store, it matters. Every time you choose a biodegradable bag while you’re there, it matters. Recycling ma ..read more

Getting to a building permit is an exercise in patience and is full of frustration for me. We continue to make progress at a snail’s pace. At this point, there have been so many missed expectations by both the city and our architect, I truly don’t feel confident in any promises. I do know the ball is back in the city’s court. We are waiting for a response to our fourth submission. I am committed to keeping everyone informed and please feel free to ask if you would like an update. The March 24th service included some comments on the proposed revisions to Article 2 of the UUA bylaws. Based on wh ..read more

“When is enough, enough?” This question ran through my mind when in a business meeting in my 30’s, when the president of the company complained that a competitor was charging more than we were. And yet we were quite profitable, we did good work helping people, and we were respected (they were not). I asked the question to the president, and he looked annoyed and never answered. One of the challenges with capitalism, as Eric N. recently reminded me, is that it doesn’t come with a set of morals or ethics. There are no limits, no sense of what is right for the community in capitalism. Which is wh ..read more

I spent the first week of February in Chicago for a week of intensive study at Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago. It was a week of learning, but also a week of deepening my connections with my cohort. Some of the best conversations I’ve had in my life have been in the community kitchen of the school during class breaks. Currently, I’m a few weeks into my 4th semester of seminary. Much of the work I do there is in community with small groups online. As time has gone on, some deep friendships have formed in those small groups. It got me thinking about small group ministry and how l ..read more

As February comes to a close my role as a choir director starts to ramp up. The 2024-2025 choral season as I like to call it is quickly approaching. But how does that affect me? It simply just means that I need to start finding music! This article will give a little preview of what’s to come for my first Music Sunday in May as the Director of Music Ministries. It will be titled: Rise Up! Music by Women Composers. Below I’ve highlighted some of my favorite pieces and why I picked them. O Quante Volte in Van Cor Mio Ti Chiamo- Vittoria Aleotti (1574-1646): During the time that Aleotti was alive ..read more