April 29, 2020
Beloveds,
Since my writing last week, Boulder County made the decision to extend “Stay at Home” until May 9th. Staying at home has definitely flattened the curve in Colorado. Thanks to everyone who has sacrificed to prevent the spread of this virus.
The extra time gained by not driving kids to and fro has provided more time for morning centering and prayer. Prayer helps me allay my fears and keep open-hearted and compassionate.
These days, I’m praying for ease and health for those of you who
are required to leave your homes to earn a paycheck,
and those who can’t wait to get out of the house
those whose homes are a mess
and those whose homes are unsafe
those facing economic uncertainty
and those who have already lost their jobs
those who simultaneously wearing the hats of parent, teacher and employee
and those without enough to do
those of you with loved ones you are concerned about
and those of you who have been exposed or contracted COVID-19
and for all those who are grieving losses of any kind
I invite you into prayer this week. If you are new to prayer, I recommend a Buddhist Metta Prayer. Take some quiet time each day. Breathe in and out slowly and deliberately, and focus on the simple in and out of your breath. After feeling centered in your breath, begin saying to yourself:
May I be well.
May I be safe.
May I know joy.
May I be free.
Then broaden out — to anyone for whom you would like to experience more compassion. Name individual people, name groups, name people you have difficult relationships with. Feel free to shift the words around to meet the universal needs you see around you. My own experience with prayer is that it impacts my capacity to have compassion for everyone I meet during the day. And for myself. Let me know how it goes for you.
Beloveds, even though we are physically distant, you are always on my mind and in my heart. Please do let me know if you are sick, and/or in economic distress. The Fellowship is here for you.
Practicalities
Connecting via Zoom
We continue to explore ways to make our Zoom access both accessible and secure.
All Fellowship Sunday Services can be found at: https://uuma.zoom.us/j/993783355
or call in at: 1-346-248-7799 Meeting ID: 993 783 355
There is also a link on the home page of the Fellowship website.
Meetings with me will be on my personal zoom link. If you get stuck, remember that the meeting IDs for meetings with me are the same as my cell phone number.
All School of the Spirit events can be found at: https://zoom.us/j/552956886
Check out our Fellowship google calendar for all our activities.
For security reasons (who wants a Zoom-bomber in the middle of a covenant group?) we will no longer be putting these zoom links on our Fellowship calendar. If it is helpful, you can bookmark them on your browser.
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Sunday Services
Sunday Services on Zoom are our primary way to gather the whole community together. For consistency, they will continue to be held at 12:30 p.m., with School of the Spirit Zoom class at 11:45 a.m.
This week, we start with the May SoulMatters theme of Thresholds — a juicy theme for this time in the world’s history.
For this Sunday, May 3, we’ll look at the threshold moment we are in as a civilization. These days of social isolation, thousands of deaths, world wide economic anxiety have provided us with an opportunity to experience the challenges with the way we’ve been living our lives, individually and collectively. While the pressure will be on us to ‘get back to normal’ as soon as possible, any threshold provides a choice to walk into a new way of being, or walk away. What will we choose?
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Office Hours
Each week, I’ll open my Zoom Room for anyone who wants to hang out. (Zoom office hours!) This time can be used for personal meetings as well. If we are chatting and someone else joins in, I’ll let them know I’ll text them when our time is complete. Here’s my office hours schedule for the next couple of weeks:
- Thurs. April 30 7 — 8:30 pm
- Wed. May 6 3:30 — 5 pm
- Thurs. May 7 5 — 6:30 pm
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Our Fellowship Building
The building is almost complete! Our final inspection could be as early as next week. I know that once we get our Certificate of Occupancy (CO), the desire to get into our new beautiful space will be fierce. Under normal circumstances, the CO would mean that we can begin occupying our building. But these times are anything but normal. So, for now, we will need to follow the directives from the state, the county and the City of Lafayette, regarding physical distancing.
For the health and safety of everyone, it continues to be important to minimize the number of people at the building. For at least the next week, no one from the Fellowship is allowed in the building without specific approval from Carol. (officemanager@bvuuf.org and phone number?)
The Move Back In Team is beginning meetings with our COVID-19 Response Team to develop protocols for us to begin the process of emptying the pods and moving items into our new space. Stay tuned on how you can help in the coming weeks.
As for when we will be able to have services in our new building, we will be following orders and protocols developed by our public health agencies.
It feels surreal to me that after years of an outpouring of generosity, love and hard work from so many people, here we are, at the moment we’ve all been waiting for . . . and we still have to wait some more. While it’s hard to not have control over this, public safety will remain our highest priority.
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The Conversation Project and Covid-19
The many impacts of this pandemic are hard to take in, and can feel overwhelming. But spending some time thinking about your own needs and wishes should you become ill can be empowering. I share this video from The Conversation Project with you about what to think about in terms of end of life wishes in this unprecedented time we are in.
Please feel free to reach out to me, Constance Holden, or Scott Nelson and Mzia Chatara (our lay pastoral care associate coordinators), to discuss your plans or concerns during this time.
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Some Offerings to consider:
When the leadership of the congregation decided in August of 2018 to adopt one congregational goal, and then reaffirmed that goal in August of 2109, I don’t think any of us could have ever imagined that “Staying Connected” would take on this much importance! Please do stay connected! Don’t let physical distancing lead to social isolation. Check out the BVUUF Calendar to see all we are offering.
Here’s some options to consider:
Mist Ari’s Morning Merriment: Monday through Friday 9:30 — 10 am Keep connected with all your BVUUF preschool friends and Mist Ari every weekday morning!
Strengthen and Stretch: Every Tuesday and Thursday 12 — 1 pm. Fitness trainer Juli Mackenzie offers this online opportunity.
Longmont Unitarian Universalist Presence (LUUP) Online Dinner Church: This Friday Night, May 1, 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Grab your meal, put your feet up, and join with other UUs. All are always welcome to join this evening of ritual and eating together. The LUUP dinner church is an opportunity for a multigenerational community to share a meal and meaning-making rituals. Each time we gather, we explore questions and do an activity around a theme. The experience is interactive and accessible to people of many ages, even online. Every first and third Friday night.
Mama’s Movie Night: Saturday, May 9 7 pm – -9 pm Kick back and start your Mother’s Day Celebration early with this School of the Spirit staff offering.
Poetry Night: Second Thursdays in May and June. Join Rev. Lydia on Thursday, May 14 from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. for a contemplative evening of sharing using poetry. Rev. Lydia will provide a poem for us to dive into, based on the SoulMatters theme of Thresholds. There will be time for personal journaling or drawing, followed by small group sharing. (These events used to be called “Deepening the Conversation,” and are based on the work of Parker Palmer).
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