Melissa Nedza

February 19, 2023

Hello, for those of you who do not know me, my name is Melissa Nedza and I have been a member of this church since 2015.

I am going to start this testimonial perhaps non-traditionally but with a guided meditation. This is something I offer my clients as a Clinical Therapist. So now sit back and get comfortable as we go for a brief inward journey:

-Settle in, feel your feet on the floor and where the chair supports your body. Close your eyes or soften your gaze and be aware of your next inhale gently coming in, and then your exhale out. In your mind’s eye, imagine yourself on a path that is leading you home. Perhaps to the home where you live now, your
actual home, or perhaps it is a path back to your tent or cabin after a long hike, you decide, whatever feels right. And there it is, in the distance, you can see HOME up ahead and as you do, your heart soars and you feel relief flood through your body, You start to pick up the pace, and walk faster, until finally, you have arrived, you are standing in front of the door, about to open it, YOU…ARE…HOME.

Gently begin to bring yourself back now by feeling your feet on the floor and opening your eyes.

That is how I feel when I am with this community, that ‘ahhhh, I am home feeling’. I feel it down to my bones.

Here, with all of you, with those people I know and those I do not know well yet.

Here with Reverend Fritz, Chrissy, the choir, and other church staff.

I feel seen and held in love. You are my beloved community. We all need this feeling of being welcomed just as we are. Us humans are social creatures, we need each other. I would argue that we need each other more than ever, to stand on the side on love, especially at this point in the pandemic.

I came into this world as a sensitive and what I now understand to be, a Spiritual being, and I have always been looking for a space to explore this sense of Spirituality. I did not have that growing up, except for when I was in nature.

I will never forget the first time I came to UUCDC for a summer service back in 2010, when I was attending grad school. Not only was I impressed with how beautiful and unique the church building was and the wooded setting through these windows behind me, but it was how I was welcomed that I will never forget. With smiles and genuineness, and warmth. The minute I stepped through the door I felt
like I wanted to come back and the people around me wanted me to return as well! I have been reflecting on the ways that this church community has been there for me and my family, and how I have grown, and the list is vast. Here are some examples:

  • This church community has been here for our family in truly incredible ways. Reverend Peter married us in 2014-one of my most sacred memories-with members of this church singing, playing the piano and arranging flowers for the ceremony. And when we dealt with an infertility diagnosis and struggled to get pregnant, so many people provided support and their own stories of how they struggled. And when we finally got pregnant, and we brought Finnegan as a baby to that first church service, the joy and celebration from all of you was apparent.
  • Singing in the choir, and finding my voice through Bob’s direction and learning from members of the choir, some who are no longer with us.
  • Joining with other church members in the community to bear witness to injustice and for me to organize and raise my voice to protect The Affordable Care Act.
  • And the joy I get on Sunday mornings when I offer our preschool aged children not just the RE Curriculum, but a way for the children here to know they are held in love and that their love and who they are is a powerful gift.

With all of this being said, each year I hold in my heart and mind how much this beloved community means to me-to our family. The gift of being ‘home’ and in really feeling this inside my heart is a great gift. That is what we kept in mind when we pledged. And I hope that whatever this community means to you, that you will take the time to reflect on that and pledge what is right for you. Thank you for listening.

Gabe Small

February 12, 2023

Good morning.
The first time Liss and I stepped into this church for a Sunday service – this must have been about 2005 or 2006 – there was a palpable buzz in the air, a giddy excitement, like everyone was holding a wonderful secret that they couldn’t wait to share. And sure enough, during the service, the ministerial search committee gathered up here on this stage to announce to the congregation that at long last they had found Our Guy, and introduced us to Reverend Peter, who they would be recommending as our next
minister. The moment that stands out most vividly in my memory was Penny Bartlett saying “We cannot WAIT for you to meet him.” I don’t know how accurate that memory is, but that’s how that day is encoded in my brain.

Everything about this first impression of the church was contagious. Here was a community aligned with our values enthusiastically pooling their energies and resources together towards a self-determined outcome. We felt as though we were getting in at the start of something new, and we jumped in with both feet – quickly becoming official book-signed members, joining every committee that asked us, and making a fund drive pledge.

Since those heady early days, our participation in the life of the church has been more judicious and sustainable, and it’s gone through several periods of ebb and flow as our life circumstances and needs have shifted – welcoming new babies into the world, adjusting to new work responsibilities, addressing mental health challenges, living through a pandemic – all the cross currents of life.

Of course, the life of the church has gone through its own ebbs and flows as well. While Peter’s retirement is the most obvious example right now, we’ve experienced many other retirements, departures, deaths, and welcomed many new staff, new families and new babies, and we’ve seen many programs evolve or come and go in a spirit of experimentation and creativity.

And yet at the heart of all this change and dynamism lies the steady, pulsing heart of the church. A community populated by an ever-shifting mosaic of faces, yet held together by a shared set of purposes and principles.

So regardless of the ebbs and flows of our own lives or the life of the church, we pledge every year, because that’s what keeps this pulsing heart strong. And in a community pooling its energies and resources together towards its own self-determined outcomes, there’s always a chance of getting in at the start of something new. Thank you for listening.

Neil Goldstein

Feb. 5, 2023

  Good morning.

  I’ve been a member here for about 30 years. Like many of you, I have stayed mainly for the free coffee. Ooops, sorry, I meant to cut that part! But seriously … what first drew me and my wife, Jean Wallace, to this congregation were the Unitarian Universalist ideals — we were the kind of people you’ve probably heard about, who were UU but didn’t know it till we encountered the Purposes and Principles. Also, part of the initial attraction was the Religious Education program, which helped us raise our daughter, Veronica, who’s now 33 years old and is, objectively speaking, a credit to UUCDC.

  I have stayed because this place is special to me. Some of us say we came because of the ideals but stayed because of the people.

  In the last few years, I have been gratified by how, over time, we met an unusual double challenge — while still dealing with the disruptions of Covid, we had to cope with the departure of the Rev. Peter Friedrichs, our much-loved minister of 15 years. For many congregants, he was the only Unitarian Universalist minister they’d ever known. It was little wonder that the double challenge threw some of us for a loop for awhile.   

  But, a fair number of us have remained here as the congregation has evolved through several settled ministers, interim ministers and lay leaders. It has become clear to me that however committed, skilled and even charismatic our ministers may be, they are NOT the church. WE — you and I — are the church. There is no auto-pilot. What we choose to do — or to not do — determines what UUCDC is.  

  Through the years, I’ve been inspired by seeing you nurture this congregation while increasingly bringing UU values into the wider world, which needs those values now more than ever. I thank you for that.

  But enough about you.

  My life has been enriched by involvement here through several activities — including serving as Board president at the time we built  this beautiful sanctuary. I’ve been a member of a ministerial search committee, I’ve done social-justice work and participated in small gatherings now known as Soul Matters groups in a rewarding program that I highly recommend.

  This place is special to me because it’s the only place where I feel truly safe to work on myself and on that wider world. Here, I feel I’ll be supported when I express my feelings and opinions. I savor that feeling of trust.

  We here are part of one liberal religious community but we’re not all the same, either theistically, or culturally, or politically, or in several other important ways. Nevertheless, here we are, having pledged to support one another on our searches for our own personal truths.

  That’s a radically wonderful thing. How lucky we are.

  All this for the bargain price of a yearly pledge donation to the fund drive! I hope you agree that’s a pretty sweet deal. In fact, my pledge is going into the box in the lobby this morning. Thanks for listening.