Beloved Members and Friends of UUCG,

A New Year begins, and so do we! How hopeful it is that you and I begin our new ministries together this month. January’s Soul Matters theme is “The Gift of Liberating Love.” Surely in our work and play together, we will be discovering and creating new ways for our love to be a liberating force in the world and in our own lives, even as we build on the old ways that are strong, familiar, and dear.

I have had quite a few months now to ponder what it means to enter into newness, and it strikes me how “new” and “old” streak through each other like watercolors left to run together on a page. Finding an apartment here in Lawrenceville introduces me to new neighborhoods, new architectures for homes and apartment complexes, new streets, new rolling hills. Packing up my old apartment in San José leads to big questions: What “old” objects do I bring with me, what do I leave behind? Do I need every single seashell and polished stone I have collected, or do certain treasures hold more meaning and magic than others? What from the old apartment will make the new apartment feel like Home?

In moving, some things will always get broken, as friends who have moved frequently remind me before my boxes are shipped across the country. Which of the old objects that are broken cause a real pang of loss (oh, my mother’s special teapot; oh, those blue goblets someone gave me 35 years ago), and what can I let go of with gratitude (well, I meant to downsize, and now—thank you, Universe—I have!)? Which of the many things that aren’t broken take on special meaning precisely because they have come through the move still whole? And now, what new treasures do I add to symbolize the beginning of this new life?

We can be sure there’s a metaphor in here. Because you, too, dear UUCG, have experienced a lot of newness in these recent months. You have had to let go of some things, most poignantly your relationship with your long-time settled minister Rev. Jan. You have already made some decisions about what matters most to you in your communal life—what you want to continue from previous years; what makes this place feel like Home for you and for newcomers who enter in.

Our first months together are all about getting to know each other and planting seeds for our new relationships. We will also explore how we want to braid the old and the new together. There will be old indispensable treasures (elements of worship; your strong lay leadership) alongside new discoveries (new voices, new perspectives, new interests). Both old and new will be our guides. Yes, we’ll experience some losses—life itself guarantees that—and we will weather them together.

Through it all, we can be sure, we will be building from strength to strength with this gift of liberating love.

I look forward to meeting many of you at our Welcome Party on Friday, January 5, and others as the days unfold! For now, I wish a Happy New Year to all!

With Love at the center,
Rev. Nancy