Elizabeth Culmer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
edenfalling) wrote2014-04-22 01:01 am
edenfalling) wrote2014-04-22 01:01 am
random church stuff
1. Apparently I purchased a seat at a champagne brunch from the Service Auction last fall. I suspect I was thinking something along the lines of "I like waffles, I like champagne, and I really ought to try being more social." But since I am not naturally a social person, I had completely forgotten about that purchase and made no arrangements to either get the day off work or find transportation to Trumansburg. Whoops!
But it turns out that a couple other attendees have a scheduling conflict on the designated day -- not to mention that Sunday has also been earmarked for a congregational meeting after the Sunday service, which I will miss because I'll be at work, as usual -- so the hosts are trying to reschedule. I've replied to their email to say which of their offered dates works best for me, and to request transportation home from the brunch. You see, I can get there around 12:30pm, via TCAT bus and a two mile walk (which is no hardship on a nice May afternoon), but I would not be able to get back to Ithaca until roughly 6:00pm, unless I felt like walking over nine miles, much of it alongside a two-lane highway, which frankly does not sound appealing.
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2. I have sent an email to the woman who is offering an adult RE evening class this May, about owning your religious past. That sort of thing interests me a lot, and I think I could also bring a fairly unique perspective as a born-and-raised UU (rather than the more standard narrative of leaving one's childhood religion and coming to UUism as an adult), but the classes will run 7-8:30pm on Wednesday evenings. I couldn't possibly get there until 7:15pm, considering I almost always close the smoke shop on Wednesdays. So I have asked if that would be workable, or if it would be too disruptive for me to show up 15-20 minutes late every session.
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3. I participated in an online congregational survey a while back, and the results have since been processed and sent out to the congregation at large. There is widespread dissatisfaction with our current minister's sermons, which comes as a surprise to me, because I hardly ever attend actual Sunday services so I have not experienced much of his preaching. I am not sure how much weight the survey results had, versus whatever soul-searching he did on his recent sabbatical, but the upshot is that he announced last month that he will be retiring as of this coming December.
So we are now having a lot of meetings, both to decide where we want to go as a congregation, and to start setting up the ministerial search process and find an interim minister for the next year or two.
For various and sundry reasons, Sunday morning services have never been a very big part of my spiritual life -- sermons are not what makes or breaks my commitment to and involvement in a religious community -- but they are obviously important to a lot of people and since I want a healthy, happy, and growing community, they are sort of important to me by proxy.
But what I really care about is the religious education program, and also -- not personally, anymore, but on principal -- that there be some kind of outreach program to Cornell and Ithaca College. Which there has not been for several years. I am not the right person to organize such a thing myself, and I know it. I do not have the patience or spoons to deal with college bureaucracy, I do not have the people skills to contact students and set up meetings and activities, and I do not have anything like a reliable schedule or transportation. But I would be willing to help out in some small way if somebody else got such a program started.
...
I should mention that to someone. I really should.
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4. We are currently in the middle of our annual pledge drive, and I'm in something of a fix. I want to pledge, if only because I represent a fixed cost to the church by virtue of being a member. (There are dues to the UUA and so on.) But my job situation is so uncertain right now, and I just blew my financial cushion for the year on my new laptop, and I don't feel I am in a position to give much money to any cause.
Then again, giving to charity makes me feel better, and it's not like I can't scrimp a bit in other places. And I do want to at least cover what I'm costing the church, so...
*makes weighing gestures*
I guess I'll decide this weekend and turn my pledge card in on Sunday.
But it turns out that a couple other attendees have a scheduling conflict on the designated day -- not to mention that Sunday has also been earmarked for a congregational meeting after the Sunday service, which I will miss because I'll be at work, as usual -- so the hosts are trying to reschedule. I've replied to their email to say which of their offered dates works best for me, and to request transportation home from the brunch. You see, I can get there around 12:30pm, via TCAT bus and a two mile walk (which is no hardship on a nice May afternoon), but I would not be able to get back to Ithaca until roughly 6:00pm, unless I felt like walking over nine miles, much of it alongside a two-lane highway, which frankly does not sound appealing.
-----
2. I have sent an email to the woman who is offering an adult RE evening class this May, about owning your religious past. That sort of thing interests me a lot, and I think I could also bring a fairly unique perspective as a born-and-raised UU (rather than the more standard narrative of leaving one's childhood religion and coming to UUism as an adult), but the classes will run 7-8:30pm on Wednesday evenings. I couldn't possibly get there until 7:15pm, considering I almost always close the smoke shop on Wednesdays. So I have asked if that would be workable, or if it would be too disruptive for me to show up 15-20 minutes late every session.
-----
3. I participated in an online congregational survey a while back, and the results have since been processed and sent out to the congregation at large. There is widespread dissatisfaction with our current minister's sermons, which comes as a surprise to me, because I hardly ever attend actual Sunday services so I have not experienced much of his preaching. I am not sure how much weight the survey results had, versus whatever soul-searching he did on his recent sabbatical, but the upshot is that he announced last month that he will be retiring as of this coming December.
So we are now having a lot of meetings, both to decide where we want to go as a congregation, and to start setting up the ministerial search process and find an interim minister for the next year or two.
For various and sundry reasons, Sunday morning services have never been a very big part of my spiritual life -- sermons are not what makes or breaks my commitment to and involvement in a religious community -- but they are obviously important to a lot of people and since I want a healthy, happy, and growing community, they are sort of important to me by proxy.
But what I really care about is the religious education program, and also -- not personally, anymore, but on principal -- that there be some kind of outreach program to Cornell and Ithaca College. Which there has not been for several years. I am not the right person to organize such a thing myself, and I know it. I do not have the patience or spoons to deal with college bureaucracy, I do not have the people skills to contact students and set up meetings and activities, and I do not have anything like a reliable schedule or transportation. But I would be willing to help out in some small way if somebody else got such a program started.
...
I should mention that to someone. I really should.
-----
4. We are currently in the middle of our annual pledge drive, and I'm in something of a fix. I want to pledge, if only because I represent a fixed cost to the church by virtue of being a member. (There are dues to the UUA and so on.) But my job situation is so uncertain right now, and I just blew my financial cushion for the year on my new laptop, and I don't feel I am in a position to give much money to any cause.
Then again, giving to charity makes me feel better, and it's not like I can't scrimp a bit in other places. And I do want to at least cover what I'm costing the church, so...
*makes weighing gestures*
I guess I'll decide this weekend and turn my pledge card in on Sunday.
no subject
no subject
(I am also sparing with my use of the word friend. I have had people say to me, "But aren't you friends with So-and-So?" and I'll say, "No, just acquaintances," and get funny looks because apparently what I call a friendly acquaintance is what the majority of people around me would call a friend, and what I call a friend is what other people would call a very super special best friend. Like, I would honestly say that -- excluding my sister because family operates under different rules -- I have exactly two friends right now, and this has been the case for the past fifteen years. Period. I had a few other superficial friends in high school, but once we weren't in physical proximity those connections lapsed incredibly fast; ditto my college roommates. I have people I'm friendly with online, but that's not quite the same thing. And I think I'm on decent terms with my coworkers, but we don't do stuff outside of work so they're not really proper friends either.
When I say I am an asocial introvert, I'm not kidding at all. *wry*)
Anyway, I do want to be part of my church as a community, so occasionally I make efforts to fix myself into its social fabric despite my natural hermit tendencies. Teaching is one of those. Volunteering for fundraisers is another. So is this brunch. :-)