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Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Sunnyvale, California
Comments, Essays, and Sermons (Collection 1) |
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There is a lot going on here! In spite of what you may think, however, we try NOT to offer one more thing to do, just to have one more thing to do. As I see it, UUFS offers only one thing - an invitation to experience community, true and deep community. UUFS has only one set of products. Our products are the opportunities and the structures for building relationships. At UUFS, relationship is Job One. At our long-range-planning workshop, we clarified two significant decisions and challenges: Should we support growth? Should we plan to finance and obtain a facility? Consultant Helen Bishop recommends that we hold "cottage meetings" to discuss major issues like these. She noted that we have a revolving door of membership, typical of smaller congregations. The risk of burnout is also typical of smaller congregations. Given these topics, what are your feelings? Hopes? Fears? Visions? Ideas? Cottage meetings are one-time meetings, two hours each. They are scheduled at different times and days, in different neighborhoods, so everybody might attend one. Each trained facilitator must not be attached to getting a particular outcome from the conversation. (But could attend a separate conversation to voice his or her own opinions.) Major decisions are inherently conflictual. Not necessarily divisive, just a source of disagreement. We must express our disagreements. We must be heard - and hear one another. What I trust and what I have learned is this: Beneath the disagreements, something larger and unifying will begin to resonate. Only then can we know that if we vote for a certain decision, we will remain committed to this community, regardless of the outcome. Only after such a process should we vote on whether to grow, or whether to plan to buy space or to move. Only then can we know if we have a true, deep consensus. Any major change will take a major commitment. I wouldn't want to set sail on a major change without the confidence that we are in this together. Would you? Of course, we do need to plan for change, for change is inevitable. But at UUFS we are not here primarily for action. At UUFS something else is primary - something more important than making a decision for the sake of getting a decision made. At UUFS, relationship is Job One. |
Yours in the spirit,
-- Rev. Roger Jones,
Parish Minister
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Sunnyvale, California
Comments, Essays, and Sermons (Collection 1)
Back to index