Congregational DNA: Continuing our Discovery

Event details

  • Saturday | December 10, 2016
  • 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
  • 579 Polly Drummond Hill Road, Newark DE 19711

Join us for continued discernment on Saturday, December 10!

As many of you contributed to the Congregational DNA discovery we want to make sure you did not miss out on the meeting on Saturday, December 10th where we will share the work done by you, members of chalice groups, the choir, the leadership team and others, on discovering the values and beliefs that underlie our DNA. Taking this work as where we see our congregation to be today, we will create a vision of the future of our church and how we want to get there.

The meeting will start at 9:30 am and finish with lunch at about 12:30 pm. We value your participation and we truly hope you can all attend.

Recommended Reading

Part of this DNA process has included a Ministerial Study Group. While their work is just beginning, we wanted to share with you resources that generated compelling questions and creative thinking.

» The first book we read together was a collection of essays edited by Fred Muir entitled Turning Point, Essays on a New Unitarian Universalism. I am able to email you a copy of Muir’s opening essay, “The iChurch Revealed” as a pdf — please email minister@uusmc.org if you would like a copy.

» Muir’s work stemmed from a Berry Street essay given to the UUMA Ministers Conference in 2012.

» That essay was summarized and adapted in a UU World magazine article.

Don’t Have Time to Do the Reading?

I recommend that you read one of the above prior to our conversation on Saturday. Please know that I know you are busy, so even if you don’t get a chance to read any of this — PLEASE COME ON SATURDAY ANYWAY!

And — if you find yourself with the bandwidth, I also recommend the following:

» Fred Muir talks about moving the UU Church toward “Beloved Community.” But what does that mean? Rev. Carl Gregg has written a nice blog post on the topic of Beloved Community.

» And finally: I commend to you a video below of the Sunday Morning worship service at the UUA General Assembly this past June. The sermon was offered by Rev. Nancy McDonald Ladd. [Please note that the entire service was something like 1 hour and 40 minutes long. The link I have here begins at around 1:12, when Rev. Ladd begins her sermon — she ends at about 1:39. If you have the time, the whole service is wonderful, but I will let you decide if you want to invest that.]

See you Saturday!

Blessings,
Greg.