“I feel that the courage to expose one’s own spiritual beliefs and the ability to listen to others is essential for building community.”

This is how one of you responded to the work that Peggy Ellertsen, Jenny Lerner, Andrew Morse and Devon Welles did two years ago as our Adult Faith Development Task Force. They reached out to you all by conducting a congregational-wide survey, organizing focus groups and one-on-one interviews to seek out what it is you are thinking and feeling about adult faith development here at FUUSN. Most importantly, they wanted to find out what it is you need.

The responses to all of the ways they connected with so many of you were deeply thoughtful and bravely honest about where you are and why. As you can imagine, what they learned was as engaging as it was diverse. And yet, the overarching take-away is that there is a longing here for more opportunities to share and connect with each other.

To that end I’ve been thinking about how we can establish a wider understanding of worship here at FUUSN. One means to that end is to establish a group (dare I say committee) that works with Anne, Amanda and me to create and sustain other moments of worship outside of Sunday morning. I’m thinking about the High Holy Days, a Monthly Vespers (which will be different in style than the wonderful service that Amy LeClair and Vermilin offer), a Tenebrae service on Good Friday, the Passover Seder, an alternative to Mother’s and Father’s Day for people with complex relationships with their parents/children, and more.

If being part of this visioning group is of interest to you please let me know. I’m hoping to begin meeting soon so that we can make our vision a reality.