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How Shall We Live?

I will always remember a conversation I had when interviewing for a previous ministerial role. It was with an engaging, successful, professional woman…a woman who was seriously involved in the life of that congregation. She was grilling me with questions…I’m sure in the interest of finding out if I would be the right minister for her…then said: “I belong to this congregation because I want to be a better person, and I believe that coming here helps me to do that.”

Wow. What a tall order for a community! If this is what we expect, then it means that we all need to play a role in helping one another to be the best that we can be…always learning, always growing, always challenging ourselves to be more open, more understanding, more compassionate, more generous.

And so this year, we are going to explore the theme “How Shall We Live?” In our Sunday Services, we’ll look at a variety of qualities that might define a ‘good person’, or a ‘good life’. We’ll look at those qualities, not in the abstract, but in ways that help us all to understand and to navigate our daily worlds, all in the interest of being better at this human thing....every day and in every way possible.

I invite you to bring your thoughts, your struggles, your insights, and your questions to me, so that, with your permission, the story of your life can be woven into our community exploration. And, if you have ideas for other ways to investigate this theme…films, workshops, classes, think tanks, discussion groups, books... I’d love to hear them. Everything we do here can be done in the service of being a vital religious community, one that sustains and challenges, one that supports and guides, one that helps us be better people.

So, welcome back. Welcome back from your summer experiences. Welcome to the year ahead. I’m looking forward to hearing your stories and to seeing your wonderful faces,

Julie