Minister’s Message
Dear Friends, I prepare to be away from the Fellowship for both personal and professional reasons much of the next three weeks. Family birthdays, visits with my ageing parents, and sorting cubbyholes and crawlspaces in preparation for selling our house in Buffalo will occupy the space between the next two weekends.

I’ll be back in Mankato for a few days in earlier April before heading to my first Regional Assembly, and then on to a First Year Ministers’ Seminar in Boston, where I reconnect with others serving their first churches, with lots of opportunity for both spiritual retreat and continuing education. I will be available for emergencies March 23-April 1, and in touch for Fellowship business April 4-11. And then the Installation! about which there is information elsewhere in the Weekly.

In keeping with the Soul Matters theme of Journey, I invite you into a spiritual practice of naming your own journeys in six words or less. This is something the Youth tried when they gathered last Wednesday, and I encourage you both to try it and to ask them what that experience was like.

The practice goes like this: “Pair down your life journey to six words. It was inspired by Ernest Hemingway taking up a bar bet to write a novel in 6 words. Hemingway’s response: “For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn.” Besides making the telling of your journey easier, this six-word challenge helps people focus on, celebrate and hold on to the essence of their stories.”

Our journeys need not be as heartbreaking as Hemingway’s. Some other journeys are: “Down for maintenance, be back soon. Threw spaghetti on wall; some stuck. Told to marry rich. Married Richard. Obama did, now so can I. The exits were entrances in disguise. Play. Play. Play. Play. Play. Play.” Here’s a link that gives a bit more explanation. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR1V7lxsOu0 ]
Map your journey from childhood to adolescence or from adolescence to adulthood. Map the journey of your life with family. Map the life of this Fellowship. Give it a try, and then reflect on the meaning these six words can reveal to you about what matters to you, what causes pain or joy, where you aspire the next leg of your journey to take you.

Blessings and best wishes, Rev. Rita