By the UUCF Membership Committee
You may have heard that it’s New Member Welcome Week at UUCF! While hopefully ALL members feel welcomed and appreciated throughout the year, this week the congregation celebrates those who have recently joined and those who are ready to commit to making UUCF their faith home.
The Membership Committee has talked a lot recently about what it means to be a member – what brought each of us to UUCF and why we decided to join. Over the coming months, you’ll read some of those stories and hopefully want to share your own, but the common thread running through each was the search for connection and community – wanting to do good in the world while in covenant with others.
This week, the Membership Committee hopes that whether you’ve been attending for 50 years or 5 weeks, you’ll spend a few minutes thinking about your own reason for visiting UUCF the first time. What made you return? If you’re a member, was it a quick and obvious decision or did you need to mull it over for a year or two? And if you’re not a member yet, are there questions you still need answered?
The reasons for returning to this space to fill our cups are as numerous as we are. We attend services to be energized or to learn or to find a peaceful moment. Some of us are here to be uplifted by listening to or participating with the music. We may be here to work for social justice and find like-hearted people. Often our spirits are filled by volunteering our time doing things we love – working with children, tending the gardens, generating spreadsheets, cooking for events. And sometimes our spirits just need tending by others. Whatever brought you to UUCF and whatever keeps you coming back may be the reason you committed to becoming a member or may be the reason you’d like to become one.
Church membership as a concept is evolving. People find their way to UUCF and commit to its mission for years without feeling moved to become a member. But for those who are looking for a long-term partner in their spiritual journey, membership can offer a deeper meaning to that commitment. It means you’ve found the place you want to be at this particular time in your life or moment in your journey and you’re ready to make it official.
If you have become a UUCF member in the last 12 months or so and would like to be celebrated at our Member Recognition Ceremony during the special 10 a.m. service on Oct. 20, please RSVP to Mary Foster. If you are not yet a member, but would like to become one, there will be an opportunity to sign the membership book in the Commons after that same service (or contact Mary Foster if you’d like to become a member, but are unable to attend that day.) Whether you are a member, a friend or just visiting that morning in anticipation of the Fall Festival, please join us in the Commons to enjoy cake, welcome our newest UUCF members and join in celebrating the commitment we’ve made to each other and to UUCF!
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