Last spring during our visioning and strategic planning process we discovered many of the fundamental values of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Pittsfield (UUCP) that attracted us to the church and have held our commitment for its mission. During this process we reminded ourselves of the transformational issues of religious faith and culture it provides within a safe and loving community. We thought of the past opportunities it has made available to serve social responsibility and the roles of activism it offers in sustaining the principles of humanism in the local and wider world communities. We mourned the diminished role that religious education now plays due to the reduction of children in our congregation. We regretted the less significant opportunity for supporting our children and their families to learn and live the UU principles of open faith and search for truth in the changing world in which we live. We then spent several hours of thought in how to preserve and extend these fundamental values of our church. The results were a number of aspirations that were identified and translated into destination targets for our shared future. These aspirations were then consigned to the Executive Committee and church standing committees for further planning and action.

At the Executive Committee Retreat in August of 2011 the committee discussed many of these aspirations and asked the standing committees to look at others. One of the central issues of the strategic planning process was the need for a minister as key to new growth in membership and family support. Laurel Calouri and Anahid Avsharian were asked to look at the prerequisites for acquiring a minister. The financial commitments and other significant considerations in getting a minister have convinced them that we need a broader conversation regarding this step with the wider church community and several events are being planned for that purpose. The Social Responsibility Committee has subsumed the Green Sanctuary Committee and we have recently received a $16,000 grant to expand the Berkshire Food Net project, in partnership with CoAct to provide fresh garden produce to the hungry in central and southern Berkshire County. The grant only covers part of the operational budget for the project which will be the single largest social responsibility endeavor ever taken on by our church. Eddie O’Toole is the Project Coordinator and needs lots of help and support. The Religious Education Committee is initiating a series of Family Support and Development initiatives and a new Adolescent group. It is also working with the Membership Committee to attract more young families with children. A set of brochures have been designed and printed and are currently being distributed. The Finance Committee is planning the 2012 Canvas Campaign with a series of activities to better educate and illustrate to the UUCP community the components of the operational budget and the purpose of various activities that our pledges support. Our Vice President, Sheila McKenna is leading the Canvassing Committee and our drive for new growth. As the 2012 Annual Meeting approaches Ron Giancola, Chair of the Nominating Committee is looking for nominees for the various leadership positions in the church and needs the participation of new members to bring new blood to all of these vital efforts now underway. Make no mistake; none of these ventures can succeed without broad congregation wide participation and assistance.

We are in an era where right wing religious fundamentalists are expanding their efforts and becoming more and more active in their efforts to dominate the political and cultural aspects of American life. They are too smart to preach it from the pulpits but they are taking advantage of large multi-media and social network to exploit the fears and biases of those alienated to a culture of diversity and egalitarian principles. This is no time for liberal churches and progressive faith organizations to sit on the sidelines. Even if we had that luxury and we lived in a perfect world we could not afford to simply sit still. There are many wonderful aspects of our religious community with which  we have all become comfortable, but without new growth, without new commitment, even these familiar attributes of our religious community will eventually fall by the wayside and all that we discovered and valued in our visioning process and past will be lost. C’mon let’s get to work, your church needs you.

Blessings,

Gerry Robinson, President

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