A Cup of Joe for December 13, 2024
It is spiritually restorative, healthy, and (frankly) impressive to practice being fully present to the present moment. But sometimes, what needs to happen in the present moment is to do some planning ahead! There is a lot I’m trying to keep in mind, and a lot that we are all trying to keep in mind as a congregation, too. What I’d like to do is give a brief overview of some things I hope we’re all including in our plans.
In chronological order, I here’s things to know, followed by some more informational tidbits:
For this Sunday, Dec 15:
- Please bring an ornament for our tree this Sunday, if you haven’t already. (And if you have an ornament you can contribute but getting to the meetinghouse isn’t easy, I’d love to pay a visit and bring your ornament to our tree.)
- After the service this Sunday, you’ll have one last chance at the craft fair items. Yay!
- After the service will be the congregation’s Annual Meeting. Due to the enthusiastic response to a recent appeal, there will be an amendment offered to the proposed 2025 budget. You’ll also vote on new Trustees and Leadership Committee members as well as a bylaw amendment. We’ll offer thanks to those elected leaders who are transitioning to other things.
Please come get to know our liberal religious siblings and neighbors at the Interfaith Movie Night in our sanctuary at 6:30. There will be times in the coming months when we will be thankful to have partners and allies, so let’s build our connections now! We’ll watch a fun romantic comedy that also happens to be about living a faithful life, and we’ll share our thoughts and ideas in a discussion afterwards.
Upcoming Winter Holiday Services:
We will celebrate Winter Solstice at our Sunday morning service at 10:00 on December 22. We will celebrate the gifts of darkness and welcoming the returning of the sun. Our choir will be singing, too!
Our Annual Christmas Eve Candlelight Service will be at 4:00 on Christmas Eve. We’ll hear sacred stories, inspiring words, and sing some of our favorite carols. And, of course, we’ll light candles in the dark and sing Silent Night.
You’ll always find a link to Upcoming Services on our home page — which reminds me:
We’ve made some updates to uusaratoga.org
I hope you’ve been starting to make a habit of visiting our new website at uusaratoga.org! All the content from our Journey Well newsletter is also on the website. We’ve recently updated the Congregation News section of the website. All recent news posts are there. And, to make it easier to keep up to date, there are also links on that page to a number of blogs.
Active blogs are:
You’ll also find a Minister’s blog which I call a Cup of Joe.
And, by the way, if you’re looking for a link to your Breeze account, check out the Members Resources that you’ll find under the Resources tab in menu.
When are we moving?
I’ve had a few people asking this week about when we are leaving the building. With so much going on it is hard to keep track of things!
The short answer, as best we know: We will continue to occupy our North Broadway meetinghouse into next summer.
While our contract with our purchaser indicates a closing date in January, it also asks that the purchaser have a few ducks in a row before closing will happen. This includes getting a few permits from the city and its Planning Board. That can be a long process and it certainly won’t be completed by January. Our best estimate so far is that we will likely close in the late summer or early fall of 2025. We are in close communication with our purchaser and there will be announcements whenever we learn more.
We are currently working toward the drafting of construction-ready plans for our new building, but that will take some time, too. So it will be good that for at least much of the meantime, we will be able to simply stay put at North Broadway. When the time comes, we have opportunities for temporary space at both Caffè Lena and the Saratoga Arts Center. But for the next several or many months, we will continue to be occupying our North Broadway meetinghouse.
Lastly, a thank you
Thanks to an anonymous donor, our Congregational Administrator, Juliana, has a new computer! I believe this may be the first time that the congregation’s Administrator has a computer that isn’t a hand-me-down. It’s definitely the first time the computer is Zoom capable. Juliana is enjoying getting to know this new, bigger better faster machine and its capabilities. So, to our anonymous donor, BIG thank you!
May these winter holidays offer you the gifts of respite and rest, happiness and hope, peace and the feelings of connectedness and belonging.
Love to you all,
published December 13, 2024