Letter from the Board 5/1/2025
Dear Second Unitarian Friends,
Last month, my family and I took a long weekend and went on a mini-road trip to Kentucky and Tennessee. There were many wonderful moments on that trip, but one unexpected joy was that we stumbled across the Nashville Earth Day festival and got to join in! I love an outdoor festival, but it was particularly gratifying to land in another state and find that joyful celebration of environmental community. So many people who didn’t know me, and I didn’t live near them - but we were instantly at home among all of these folks who shared our values and wanted to celebrate and work towards a greener future. (I think we also made the hotel staff laugh when they saw we were bringing a small serviceberry tree home with us! Apparently, we were the first guests who brought a tree into the hotel.)
Whether you are new to 2U, or have been coming for years, I hope you find a similarly joyful experience of being among people who share your values and want to work together on things that are important to you at 2U. I’ll also give one last reminder that we are making plans, in the form of our current pledge campaign, to expand and grow our community and our work together in the 2025-2026 church year - and that all of our planning depends on your willingness to share what you might contribute in the next church year! Even if it is not precise, please take a minute to use this easy online pledge form or email office@secondunitarian.org with your pledge for next year - any amount makes a difference (and maintains your membership), and every amount helps us continue to make Second Unitarian an amazing community. If you have already made your pledge - thank you!
I also had the opportunity in the last month to teach in the Spirit Play classroom. These are our Pre-K and Kindergarten learners, and last week during the questions service, our lesson was on UU principles and sources. I enjoyed revisiting the principles and sources in the simpler language used for young learners, especially in light of our faith moving to update the way we describe our fundamental values for today and tomorrow. At last year’s General Assembly, the Unitarian Universalist Association voted to move to new language to describe our shared values. This year, individual congregations have the opportunity to decide whether they too will update their agreements and covenants to include that new language. Please take a look at the article in this newsletter sharing more about the question of adopting the updated UU values as a congregation and don’t hesitate to reach out with questions.
Happy May Day and bright Beltane blessings to those celebrating,
