It’s September - time to welcome back our UU congregations returning for the 2024-2025 church year. Of course, not all of our congregations are on the agrarian / academic calendar, and whether we are returning to a brand new church year this month, or rolling into it from a busy summer of welcoming vacationers, September is generally a transitional month in New England. Time to retire our swimsuits and pull out the boxes of flannels and sweaters to see what we’ll carry into the new season. This may mean weeding out clothes that no longer fit, letting go of the beloved homemade sweater that the moths got into, and deciding which of last year’s clothes help us present ourselves to the world in the most authentic way.
What if we took this seasonal turning to look around our congregation with the same discerning eye?
When new visitors come through your door this church year, are they seeing your congregation at its best?
Are they seeing up-to-date styles? Timeless classics? Or maybe something that doesn't fit quite as well as it used to?
Over the summer, I attended worship at one of our congregations and noticed right away that every one of the windowsills sported a children’s book and a Busy Bag. These timeless accessories let me know that this is a church where children belong in worship - where we rejoice in unscripted gurgles and giggles, and we know that sometimes the church busy bag is better than the one your parents brought from home.
This church welcomes families and doesn’t take itself too seriously.
On another Sunday morning, I walked through a hallway toward coffee hour and stopped to examine a painting. One member came alongside me and said, “Yeah, that’s something, huh?” It depicted a historic scene, with a handshake, a piece of land - perhaps the first meeting house? I asked the member about its meaning, but they weren’t sure. “It’s just always been here, at least as long as I have been.” It’s like that Fair Isle sweater from the 80’s that used to be white but now is kind of yellowed and someone’s aunt brought it back from a long-ago vacation no one remembers.
This congregation has been around a long time, but what is their relationship to that past? Is this painting still a good fit for who they are 150 years after it was hung?
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This fall, imagine yourself a newcomer to your beloved congregation. What do you want people to know about you from their first impression?
Imagine you are visiting with your young children and look around your Sanctuary - how would you know your family is welcome?
Do you have children’s books or fidgets available?
Are there unspoken rules that the Sanctuary must be silent during the postlude?
How would a new visitor know?
Is your congregation one of our New England “First Parishes” - holders of community history?
How closely have you curated your congregational history?
How are you embracing the best of your religious ancestors?
How are you reconciling the challenging chapters of your past?
Imagine you are church shopping and you have a visual impairment.
Will you find a large print hymnal?
When was the last time we did an accessibility tour of our building?
If I asked what you love best about your church, I’m pretty sure you’d have a long list. How are those things made apparent to your visitors? Are there practices, habits, or even decor in your building that send the wrong message about who you are as a congregation and how you covenant to be together?
It's a new season but it’s always a good time for taking account and beginning anew.
May our sanctuaries be blessed this fall with old friends and new, and may they know us by our words, and deeds, the warmth of our welcome, and the abundance of Love, held close in the center of our beloved communities.
