April 10
Dear Friends,
I am with you in spirit while physically in Boston at the First Year Ministers Seminar. I came here directly from Regional Assembly in St. Louis, where I confirmed proudly that our Fellowship is a long-time Fair Share supporter of the UUA and the MidAmerica Region. These several weeks have been a tremendous time of affirmation and rejuvenation for me personally and for my call to ministry with you, and I look forward to letting you know in the coming weeks all that I have felt and learned.

One bit of wisdom I hold very dear: I best serve the Fellowship and the greater spirit of love and life holding us all when I know who I am—deeply and honestly, including all my abilities and foibles and flaws. In our Soul Matters spiritual practices this month, we are invited to consider ourselves through the lens of the Enneagram, a tool for helping us to know our wholeness, both when we are at our worst and when we are at our best. You can read about the Enneagram here. And here are two links to the Enneagram (one a short version and one a more in-depth version). I invite you to see what you might learn about yourself. Knowing ourselves as individuals enables us to be in the deeper and richer relationship that we might embrace so that we as a people may be a force in the larger world, upholding our Unitarian Universalist values and striving for more compassion and more justice everywhere.

While I have been away, I have communicated regularly with Penny Herickhoff, chair of the Installation Committee, and I am deeply touched to know that work of many hands and hearts that prepare for our special celebration this coming Sunday. Thank you so much for your efforts and for all of you, the living and loving embodiment of our Fellowship. May you be safe and well as the weather turns, and may you remember, today and every day, you are loved, you are worthy, you are welcome, and you are needed. May you feel it so.

Blessings, Rev. Rita