Dear Beautiful UUI Families*,

As you may have heard by now, I’ll be leaving my time of service to you at the end of June, 2023.

If you’ve talked to your children about our departure, or are planning to, here’s a story that might help. It’s a story about change and permanence.  

Rev. Jamie wrote his letter to the congregation several days ago regarding our new circumstances and in the space of time between our letters going out to you, I’ve been thinking a lot about you, as a community and as individuals. 

I believe in you so strongly. This congregation isn’t wonderful because of Rev. Jamie or me. It’s wonderful because of each and every one of you. We have been so blessed to be a part of this community of truth seekers and tellers, of dreamers and workers, of loving hearts and helping hands. At UUI, you are a people who don’t walk away from this community when times have been tough or painful. This is not a social club, we are a covenanted community, meaning we’ve made a Commitment to Community. Because we know that this congregation is richer and more vibrant because of each of us. When you are here you make the experience of being here richer for everyone else present. When you bring your child or youth here, you open up possibilities for programming that wouldn’t be possible if you didn’t. That matters. It changes the world. It can even save lives because what we have to offer the world at UUI is radical love, radical welcoming, and a deep connection to something big and wonderful.

I start a lot of my letters to you with “Dear Beautiful UUI Families.” Do you know where I learned that phrase? From the last DRE that was here before me, Natalie. Everyone loved her—she was wonderful!  At the beginning of every month as Rev. Jamie welcomes new members he says, “We don’t exist for our members but we can’t exist without them.” And when we get a new member, someone we didn’t know a week ago, before we know it, we don’t know how we ever had a UUI without them! But we did. That’s how it can be with new religious professionals. When they are here we can’t imagine UUI without them, but as Theodore Parker said, and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. made famous, the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice. We are the hands of the universe and it’s the work of all of us to bend that arc. As religious professionals we take it in turns to do the work where we are planted. There will be someone here after us to pick up the baton and run with what we have all been working on together. They will have new skills and talents to share with you in this work and you will come to see that they are wonderful.

All of that said, I’m not ready to let you go. I am grieving. You are my families. And we’ve built something beautiful together, you and I. It needs to be tended and cared for so it can thrive and continue to serve you, enrich your lives, and plant the seeds of our UU faith so our children and grandchildren can take them out into the winds of the world where they are so very badly needed.  I’m not ready to say goodbye, but we will get there together over the next six months. 

In Peace, Faith, and Love,  

Susanne
 
*Please know I’m addressing all families at UUI—people with and without children, single people, people who are in pairs or polycules.