Adjusting Our Priorities
Last August, when the Parish Committee (PC) began the church year by setting goals for 2024-2025, the top priorities were: (1) to integrate Rev. Beau into the church; (2) to address the need for major restoration of the building’s exterior; (3) to strengthen our committees; and (4) to have fun. The PC and the congregation have made progress on all of these goals during the past 4 months and this will certainly continue into 2025. But rapid changes in our social and political environment have significant implications for our church and our denomination. Protecting our church family and property is now a top priority for the PC, and supporting vulnerable people in our community and beyond becomes a top priority for our Minister, our Social Justice Team (SJT), and the UU Association.
The PC and Rev. Beau discussed these issues at length during our monthly meeting on December 18. Rev. Beau described resources available to UUs to help congregations prepare for challenging situations such as threats, vandalism, and violence. She outlined steps she is taking to work with other churches to re-build an Interfaith Coalition to strengthen our mutual safety and security. We will hear much more from Rev. Beau and from the SJT about these initiatives in the coming weeks.
The PC identified steps that can be taken to assure the safety and security of our building and its contents. We plan to ask the State Police to provide a threat assessment for the building. The Building and Grounds Committee will investigate security systems including cameras and keypad entrances. The SJT will coordinate another de-escalation training early in the new year. Rev. Beau will develop new content for the Wayside Pulpit (the small framed message board facing Nickerson Ave) to let the public know who we are and what we value, which is key to building support within the local community.The PC will continue to work on the other goals identified earlier, especially membership development, creating a system for digital file sharing and archiving, and policy updates. The next PC meeting will take place by Zoom on January 22, 2025, 6:30-8:00 pm. All members and friends are welcome to attend – please contact the church administrator (office@middleboro.org) or myself (president@uumiddleboro.org) if you would like to receive an agenda and a link to the Zoom meeting.
