Mission Process
 
 
I've been eleven house meetings now -- all of them different, all of them interesting, all of them experiences I'm very glad to have had.

There are four more scheduled. If I haven't seen you at a house meeting yet, please try to make it to one of these. Simply alert the host that you're coming.

Any Zone and Zone P (zips 10464, 10803, 10805)
Saturday Oct 26, 4:00p
Host: Rev. Meredith Garmon
at The Parsonage / 466 Rosedale Ave
[email protected]
948-1696

Zone I (Irvington, Dobbs Ferry, Sleepy Hollow, Tarrytown, Blauvelt - zips 10522, 10533, 10591, 10913)
Sunday Oct 27, 4:00p
Host: Barry & Tricia Litcofsky
[email protected]
[email protected]
980-3169

Zone N (New Rochelle 10801)
Saturday Nov 2, 5:00p
Host: Diana Echevarria & Tom Ryan
[email protected]
[email protected]
235-1651

Zone E (New Rochelle 10804)
Sunday Nov 3, 4:00p
Host: Becky Kurth & Randy Marshall
[email protected]
[email protected]
633-3115

MISSION: MISSION

After the last House Meeting (Nov 3), the Mission Team (Mary Cavallero, Joe Majsak, and Randy Marshall) will meet. One of these three was present at most of the House Meetings. We'll review our notes of what people said, and I'll leave them to create a draft mission -- or maybe a couple draft mission candidates -- with these criteria:
1. Brief and memorable (preferably expressible in a 3-word phrase that serves as a mnemonic for a longer -- but not too much longer -- mission statement);
2. Directive (gives direction to both the members, as to what sort of spiritual work CUC is all about, and to the Board and Program Council, as to what sort of programs to begin developing);
3. Representative (represents as many as possible of the hopes and yearnings expressed at the House Meetings and throughout the year-long process of CUC's mission inquiry).

Congregational Meeting #1: Sun. Nov. 24

During the last part of the service we'll break into small groups to discuss the draft(s) presented by the Mission Team. Following the small-group break-out discussion, suggestions for changes may be proposed from the floor. Any suggestion that gets seconded will go on a list of proposed amendments. The only actual vote I foresee we'll need to take at this first meeting will be a procedural one: What's shall be the minimum percentage of the vote in favor of a new mission required for the congregation to adopt it? I will recommend that we set the bar at 80%.

Congregational Meeting #2: Sun. Dec. 8

We'll have a second congregational meeting. Each of the proposed amendments will be voted in or out. We'll arrive at a final version of a mission -- and vote to accept it or not.

If a mission statement is approved by the margin decided at the first meeting, then, by the end of the day on Sun. Dec. 8, CUC will have its new mission!
Sat. Oct. 26: Start-Up Workshop

Tomorrow! Andrea Lerner, the District Executive for the UU Metro New York District will be at CUC for a "StartUp" Workshop. The workshop is a standard and valuable part of UU congregations getting started with a new minister. This workshop is for ALL C.U.C. MEMBERS interested in the direction of CUC with its new settled minister.

The workshop uses a combination of group exercises and discussion to explore the history of ministry in the congregation and asks participants to identify patterns in the relationships between ministers and the congregation. Andrea will invite participants to brainstorm important priorities for the first year in the new ministry and to explore areas in which shared ministry between the congregation and its new minister needs clarification and focus.

WHERE: C.U.C. Sanctuary
WHEN: Sat. Oct. 26. Come at 8:30 for coffee and greetings; we'll start promptly at 9:00, and be done at 2:00.

See you Saturday!

Sun. Oct. 27: "Why Not Be Evil?"

Maybe it seems that pursuing our own "self interest" (defined the way that, say, our legal system understands a person's "interests") would be the way to go -- and that we should be as evil as we can get away with in advancing those material interests. Why not? Because, for the most part, we weren't built that way

See you Sunday!
.
Tue. Nov. 5: Dorry's Diner

Dorry's Diner (468 Mamaroneck Ave, White Plains) hosts a speaker's series every Tuesday, 5:30 - 7:00p. On Tue. Nov. 5, I'll be speaking there. Here's the billing:
* * *
Rev. Meredith Garmon
"What Were They Thinking?"
It's hard for us to imagine how our ancestors could burn people for witchcraft, or could hold slaves. We wonder what they could possibly have been thinking. What are we doing today that will make our great-grandchildren wonder what we were thinking? Rev. Meredith Garmon, who has been minister at Community Unitarian Church since August, will help us think about this challenging question. It turns out, he says, that there's an objective method for making a pretty good guess about the future direction of moral evolution.
* * *

Thank you for being a Unitarian Universalist! Ain't it great?

Faithfully,

Rev. Meredith Garmon
Minister

"C.U.C. Matters"

Meredith's draft of a general vision and plan for CUC. Click here.

"THE LIBERAL PULPIT"

Meredith's sermons and other reflections. Click here


Meredith On TV

Jack Lohr interviews Meredith Garmon on "Views from the Pews." To watch, click here.

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