[printprofilepic]Happy New Year!
The New Year of course brings with it the desire and the intention for change. We make promises to ourselves about those things we hope to improve in ourselves. Sometimes, we put a little too much pressure on ourselves to change in the New Year, or we create a list of resolutions so tremendous we don’t know where to begin, and give up before we’ve even begun. Social surveys have indicated that most of us have broken our New Year’s resolutions before the month of February is finished.
I know that I keep in the hip pocket of my mind a rather long list of personal changes that I’d like to make. It’s hard to choose just one, so I often end up choosing none of them, instead. This is a year-round activity for me—not just one relegated to the first of January every year. Perhaps I’d be better off starting small. Perhaps I’d be better off making a resolution that would be healthy for me to break, call it an “unresolution”—something along the lines of: “I resolve to snarl at every person I meet.” I could stand to break that resolution, how about you? However you choose to go about resolving or unresolving this year, take care of yourself—your body, mind, and spirit. I wish you all the brightest possible blessings in the months to come.
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Change is also a major theme for the congregation during the month of January. First, of course, is the change to our Sunday school schedule. Starting on the 10th of this month, when we return from our school break, we’ll move to a single class session at 10 a.m. between the services. I expect there’ll be some confusion at first, and that’s only natural during any schedule change. I ask you all to be patient. Benette and the RE Committee have put in a lot of hard work to prepare for this change, and I think they’ve done a commendable job. Let’s all remember to act in a spirit of goodwill and speak to one another with kindness as the months progress.
The RE schedule change presents us with an opportunity within the services as well. Our hope is that the one class session will help to balance out attendance between the two services. I know there are many families who sacrificed their preferred early service time to take their children to the later RE class time. I’m sure many of those families are feeling some relief that they can return to the early service. For those of you without children in the Sunday school, I’d ask you to consider the time you attend, as well. We’ve had a heavy migration toward the second service this year, creating some of the same crowding problems at 11 a.m. that led us to add a second service to begin with. The RE program has done what it can to help alleviate some of this. Now, it falls to the rest of us to do our part and to help to balance things out in the sanctuary. Please consider attending the 9 a.m. service, if you can.
Change is also coming to our mission and vision statements. January 30th, the date of the “Searching for the Future” workshop, is fast approaching. I’ve talked about vision quite a bit in this space over the last several months. In the weeks leading up to the workshop, I’ll be preaching more concretely on the subject. The board and the workshop planning team have been hard at work getting ready. Now, the real labor belongs to all of us. The beauty of our tradition is that the governance of the church belongs to everyone. We all have a voice in the direction of the congregation. However, you need to use that voice if you want it to be counted. Please make an effort to come and participate in this very important workshop. It’s set up in a format where everyone’s hopes and dreams for the future direction of our congregation will be heard and recognized, but we need you to be there to be heard. Please be sure to RSVP with the church office, and join us on Saturday the 30th.
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Saturday, January 16th will be an evening of excellent music, as singer-songwriter Peter Mulvey makes our church a stop on his current tour in support of his new album, Letters From a Flying Machine. I’ve been a friend and a fan of Peter for almost twenty years (yikes!), and I’m excited that we’re able to introduce his unique voice to Los Alamos (check out <www.petermulvey.com> for a sample). Admission is $10, and you can reserve a seat with Susanna in the church office.
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Once again, my best wishes to all of you in the New Year!
See you in church,
Rev. John Cullinan
