October's Conversation: Cultivating Relationship

Our whole-church discussion theme this month is about Cultivating Relationship. In Youth and Kids groups, this theme will be brought across by relationship 'skills' for us to learn: the skill of promising, of listening, of telling what you need, of rebuilding, of caring, and the skill of being true to yourself.

Calendar connections this month include Mohandas Gandhi's birthday Oct 2 (1869), Indigenous Peoples Day on Oct 11, which is also the date this year for National Coming Out Day. United Nations Day is Oct 24, and Samhain/All Soul's Eve is Oct 31.

Upcoming Services:

10/3 - At a Snail's Pace: Cultivating Relationship, Rev. Ben Meyers

The pandemic has made it clear that there is no replacement for in-person connection AND that the promise of the common good relies on the ‘network of mutuality’ that connects each to all. But the central thing we learned is that relationships are hard to build and attend to when we are running. To cultivate relationships, one must go slow.

10/10 - Hospitality and our First Principle, with Woullard Lett

Executive Lead for New England UU Region and National leader of N-COBRA (National Coalition of Black Reparations Advocates). When we talk about the need to become more diverse, inclusive, and equitable at a basic level we are talking about hospitality. How do we learn new practices of hospitality for our congregations and our ministries? How is the idea of recognizing past wrongs an extension of this hospitality?

10/17 - Saving Mother Earth, Rev. Ben Meyers

10/24 - Begin Again in Love, with Roddy Biggs

Worship lead for UU-YARN, Board Member of the UU Mental Health network. Almost two years into a global pandemic with stress, fear, pain, and uncertainty impacting all of our lives, our mental health is bound to be affected in ways many of us have never experienced before. Join us as we explore the topics of mental health, self-care, and how we as a community of faith ‘Begin Again In Love’ when we choose to take care of ourselves and each other in new and profound ways, grounded in our spiritual practices and theological roots as Unitarian Universalists in the 21st century.