Category Archives: Church admin.

Best-case scenario

I walked to the church this morning in my usual daze (I’m not exactly a morning person, except when I’m out fishing). It is a beautiful, sunny morning, and everything looks bright and new. For some reason, the church looked especially bright and new….

It took me a couple of minutes to realize exactly why the church looks so bright and new. The last of the landscaping got finished over this past weekend while I was away in New Bedford. This is just about the last of the capital campaign project that restored the exterior of this historic church. And Susan Conant’s landscaping looks fantastic.

As an interim minister, I especially like the new sign. It is much easier to read than the old one — and much more attractive. Passers-by get a much better sense of what this church is — which makes it more likely that they will stop in for a worship service.

Good things happened inside the church while I was away, too. The preschool class made huge paper “mosaic,” the Religious Education bulletin board got updated, and there’s a nice picture and biography of next year’s interim associate minister, Rev. Jennifer Innis.

This is what interim ministers hope for — that our congregations do great things while we’re away.

Great evening

If you missed the canvass dinner yesterday, you missed a good time. Desserts were provided by Elba K. and William E. Needless to say, William’s strawberry rhubard pie was extraordinary, but I must admit I don’t even know what Elba baked because it was all gone before I saw any of it. Susan C. put together the entertainment, and Tracey M. (or was his name Erskine?) was the Master of Ceremonies. We got to hear excellent music by many of the usual suspects — Ruth C., Wendy E-G., Cynthia S., Kristin M. with her dad Tracey, Michael M., Lynn F. M., and of course Susan herself.

All the music was wonderful — this congregation has so many talented musicians — but I have to give a special mention to Caran W.’s non-musical contribution to the entertainment. Caran took her beloved Norton Anthology of Literature on a field trip to Chicago. She took photographs of various people with her Norton in some rather unexpected places, photographs which she shared with us in the form of a delightfully strange Power Point presentation. My favorite was the photo of the Norton with geese — turns out geese are not impressed when you try to read Faulkner to them.

One of the best parts of this canvass dinner is that we’re already most of the way to the goal. Instead of asking us for money, canvass chairs Jim and Diane E. were able to celebrate the generosity of this congregation.

Don’t judge a book by its cover…

They say we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. But my partner (who is unchurched) says she thinks you can judge a church by the food they serve.

Judged by that criterion, the Unitarian Universalist Society of Geneva is one of the great UU churches. This year’s Canvass Tea ended about an hour ago. Forty or more people gathered in the Common Room to enjoy absolutely fabulous food prepared by Elba K., William E., and their cadre of fantastic cooks.

Among my favorites were the tiny open-faced cucumber sandwiches, although the turkey salad sandwiches were equally delicate and tasty. I should also mention the chalice cookies, with a touch of frosting for the flame. The cream puffs were rumored to be amazing. The birthday cake (it happened to be the birthday of Elanor L. and Ellen M.) was incredible. A wide array of cheeses. There were so many choices, I didn’t even get to try everything.

(I also have to mention William’s rhubarb pie. He brought it for social hour last night, but there were a few slices left over this morning. This was a poem of a rhubarb pie. Lou P. and I were exchanging ecstatic comments as we ate two of the last slices.)

Needless to say, we had good conversation along with the good food at the Canvass Tea. I sat at a table with some young people, a few middle-aged folks like me, and a couple of elders, and we talked about everything under the sun. Churches are one of the few places where people of all ages can sit together, share a meal, and just talk — it’s one of the main reasons I go to church.

Good food. Good conversation. What more could you ask for?