Following several weeks away for study leave and vacation, I officially returned to the office on August 17, although you will not see me in the pulpit until this Sunday, September 6.  A huge thanks to Rev. Barbara Wells ten Hove who led and/or oversaw all services from July 19 through August 30, and all the Celebrants, participants, and musicians who contributed to a wonderful series of summer services!  

Other than a week in Fredericksburg, Texas visiting my parents, I spent my time away mostly in Seattle with my partner, Chase.  I caught up on inspirational reading, did a bit of writing, swam in Lake Washington with our dog, Movy, and had moments of much-needed stillness.  After pushing hard through my summers during divinity school and following graduation, filling each and every moment with internships, hospital chaplaincy, and the UUA's fellowship and ministerial application process, my body and being were so grateful for this summer's break.

It's been a busy year, and summer snuck up on me, but looking around BUF and Bellingham these past few weeks, I see it is definitely here. I attended the Choir's end-of-year celebration a couple weeks ago...Community Night Dinner is on hiatus until fall...there are fewer activities happening at the congregation...the Mid-Week Update is on its summer publishing schedule every other week...and I will soon be taking some time off.

When I arrived at BUF very early for Choir Sunday on June 14 to set up for our Dirt Communion ritual, it quickly became “one of those days.” The WIFI was down, and our reliable outside IT guy Eric, who usually works on Sundays, happened to be on a rare vacation, so we were left scrambling...Fatemah, our Steward, notified me that the key for the Fair Trade closet was missing...a block-wide power outage on Saturday had the fire alarm panel on the fritz...it was a hot day, and by the time I was done moving tables, pots, and pouring dirt for my setup, I was a sweaty mess.

Unitarian Universalism has long been on the leading edge of social justice. We count among our ancestors some of the earliest proponents of women’s rights, abolition, pacifism, and environmentalism. These days, our justice work continues through such efforts as democracy campaigns, LGBTQ+ rights, immigrant justice, and anti-racism and reparations through restorative justice. Though our UU movement and its theology have evolved and transformed over time, our commitment to social justice—to the fair and equal treatment of all individuals and social groups—has remained.

In my column last week, I shared I often have a difficult time giving myself permission to rest. Another area of difficulty for me is around receiving. Whether it be a compliment, an offer of help or support, or a gift, it is just so darn hard for me to receive it. This past Sunday, the service devoted to "Our Shared Commitment to Ministry" pushed me to the limit of being able to take in so much kindness and love—my receiving muscles were maxed out!

"I believe rest, sleep, naps, daydreaming, and slowing down can help us all wake up to see the truth of ourselves. Rest is a healing portal to our deepest selves. Rest is care. Rest is radical." — “Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto” by Tricia Hersey,founder of The Nap Ministry'

This past Sunday, we created a service oriented around care, and more specifically, pastoral care within the BUF community. We have been developing a robust Pastoral Care Team, who we introduced at the service. In addition to long-time Care Team members Rick Steele, Carola Tossetti, and Ted Williams, we are thrilled to have recently welcomed to the team Pam Graham, Maryann Welch, and Rev. Marsha Vollkommer. Each spoke a bit about their particular zones of genius and passions around providing care.

This past Sunday, we honored Earth Day, National Poetry Month, and Lesbian Visibility Day.  As a part of our service, we created a shared altar together using objects we collected from nature.  This ritual provided an opportunity to connect with and celebrate the beauty of the natural world. 

In addition to celebration, however, the ritual also invited us to engage with the challenging emotions of grief and anger many of us are carrying due to climate devastation and species extinction.  According to University of Washington Environmental Humanities professor Jennifer Atkinson, our eco-grief is not a bad thing—it is actually a sign of deep attachment and a response that highlights our profound connection to others, including plants, animals, and places. She says “this makes grief a powerful but widely overlooked tool for cultivating hope and empowering ourselves to become agents of change.”

When I opened my newsfeed this morning, I saw so much despair out in the world. And yet, as I sat down to write my column this week, I was filled with hope and gratitude for so much within our BUF community. 

I write to you from a little Airbnb in the East Rock neighborhood of New Haven, Connecticut where Chase and I have spent a whirlwind trip that culminated yesterday in my Ordination Service at the Unitarian Society of New Haven (the congregation where I completed my two-year ministerial internship from 2023-2025). Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship was well-represented at the festivities, with Lin Skavdahl and Steffany Raynes present and participating in the ceremony, and the BUF Board providing the beautiful flowers for the altar.

Following this past Sunday's Easter and Flower Communion service, we received a lot of positive feedback. It was one of my favorite services we've held since I arrived at BUF. And how meaningful and adorable were the kids in their processional with the flowers?

I also heard a few comments from folks who previously had been hesitant to attend an Easter service. I get it. Easter is the oldest and most important festival in the Christian year. And UUs—with our Christian history and non-creedal present and shared value of pluralism—we have a complicated relationship with a holiday like Easter and an idea like resurrection. 

In January, the Stewardship Team held Envisioning Sessions to hear from folks about what they most want to see at BUF in the 2026-2027 congregational year. In mid-February, we kicked off this year's Annual Stewardship Campaign to raise funds not only to cover the necessities, like fair wages for our staff and paying the mortgage on our building, but also to pursue some of the worthy projects and hopes that came out of the Envisioning Sessions. Now, as we approach the end of this year's Stewardship Campaign, it's time to talk numbers (see attached chart for details on our progress).

Last November, we devoted a Sunday service to our Unitarian root tradition. Following that service, someone approached me and asked, "What about Universalism?" I was happy to oblige, and this past Sunday, on March 22, we gave Universalism some attention. 

Exploring the history of our root traditions is important. As minister and professor of UU history, David Bumbaugh writes in Unitarian Universalism: A Narrative History: "Unitarian Universalism is a peculiar religious tradition in that what binds us is not so much a shared theology, or even a shared response to the experience of the sacred, as it is a shared history. We are one people because of our inchoate understanding of the journey through time which we share." 

In August 2025, I began my Year-Long Transitional Ministry Training course, a mandatory course for any UU minister who wishes to do interim or transitional ministry within a congregation. It is hard to believe, but after learning alongsideabout 30 other ministers for almost nine months, we are fast approaching our "graduation" in May. For our final assignment, this week I will be doing a "Capstone Presentation" to the class, where I will highlight how I have implemented or integrated some aspect of my learning from the course into practice in my ministry setting. 

Inspired by the 2025 book “Love at the Center,” in which UUA President Sofía Betancourt collected reflections from over two dozen leaders in our UU movement on what Love at the center means to them, our Sunday service on March 8 offered similar reflections from various BUFsters of all ages. 

At last Sunday's service on March 1, we explored the history behind the recent revisions to Article II of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) Bylaws—revisions that were several years in the making and the subject of much research, discernment, and debate among UUs nationwide before being put to a final vote at the UUA General Assembly in 2024. Over 2,500 delegates voted. With 80.2 percent of them voting in favor of the revisions, our faith tradition made a transition from a list of seven Principles to a set of six Shared Values (Justice, Equity, Transformation, Pluralism, Interdependence, and Generosity) with Love at the center. 

In a recent newsletter from the Unitarian Universalist Minister's Association (UUMA), the Director of Operations for the UUMA, Janette Lallier, writes: 

"In the heaviness of the news cycle and the demands of showing up in this pivotal time, it can be easy to miss the moments that steady us — the reflections of something life-giving in the midst of all that asks our attention and calls us to action. One way to feed that well — to intentionally move out of the rush to remember what sustains us — is by gathering."

In Article II of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) Bylaws, Generosity is listed as one of our six shared Unitarian Universalist values—along with Justice, Equity, Transformation, Pluralism and Interdependence, all with Love at the center. The full description of Generosity in the section on “Values” states: 

Generosity. We cultivate a spirit of gratitude and hope. We covenant to freely and compassionately share our faith, presence, and resources. Our generosity connects us to one another in relationships of interdependence and mutuality. 

As I took my German Shepherd, Movy, out at dawn this morning, something felt different in the air—less chill, more spring. Each breath in smelled earthy and rich. I watched as several American Robins on the nearby ground moved in that funny way they do, dashing off for a few steps, then stopping abruptly. It was all very ordinary, these predictable harbingers of spring. And yet, coming off of Sunday's service—where we explored the questions "What needs healing in you?" and "What is emerging in you?" while celebrating the ancient holiday of Imbolc and the Goddess Brigit—they felt special and timely. 

This Mid-Week Update finds us between two Sunday services, each with its own theme and flavor. On February 1, with my co-worship leaders Revs. Rose Edington and Mel Hoover, we explored the significance of African Americans to our Unitarian Universalist tradition, including some of the storms, both literal and figurative, that shaped the landscape of our faith and its movement for racial equity and justice. On February 8, Rev. Tessie Mandeville and I will lead folks in a celebration of the ancient holiday of Imbolc, marking a turn on the Celtic Wheel of the Year, and honoring new beginnings and emergence. Standing in between these two seemingly different services feels to me much like standing in this current moment in our world.