This Sunday, we get to experience a trifecta in our UUCPA year: We will celebrate with our annual Flower Communion, we officially welcome recent new members into our community, and we have the opportunity to formally show our commitment to our youth, families, and Religious Education program by voting to call Rev. Cat Boyle as our Assistant Minister of RE. It will be a joyful Sunday and a wonderful kickoff to June at UUCPA.
Flower Communion and New Member Welcomes are pretty familiar to us. A call vote, however, is unfamiliar, so some of you may be thinking it’s not relevant to you. Like many of you, I don’t have children in the RE program, so why does it matter whether I vote to call our RE minister? It matters to us all, in short, because we care about UUCPA!
I care that:
- UUCPA attracts parents of young children who are seeking comprehensive liberal religious education programming for their children and not able to find it in many of our neighboring UU communities (Redwood City, San Mateo, Sunnyvale, or Los Gatos).
- UUCPA depends on membership growth, and a significant portion of our growth for years to come will be from families with young children.
- Children in UUCPA’s worship services and on our campus bring the energy and excitement of discovery and learning that inspires all of us.
- Parents with children in UUCPA’s RE classes say they and their kids are glad they found us.
- UUCPA’s families LOVE the Game Nights and Parents Nights Out that Rev. Cat added to our regular programming.
- in Cat, UUCPA has a trained UU minister with tremendous EQ (that I have personally observed) and pastoral care skills who models all of these for our children and young adults.
If you have not been on campus on Sundays in a long while, you may not have noticed—but let me tell you—there’s been a palpable increase in the energy (and yes, happy noise) from the classroom wing over the last three years during Rev. Cat’s tenure. There is also a growing puddle of kids in front of Rev. Cat during the Stories for All Ages during worship services. And, there is cheerful anticipation from the folks in chairs not only of what story Cat has chosen but of what new and wonderful sounds will arise from that puddle.
You don’t have to tell me that UUCPA is at the beginning of many changes—ministerial transition, campus demolition and construction, membership and stewardship shifts—all in the midst of an external world that is increasingly in need of stability. We, too, long for sources of stability, positive energy, and care regardless of our identity, our story, or our need. I care that UUCPA continues to be that source and beacon in our community. And, I know that Rev. Cat will continue to be one of the reasons why. If you care about UUCPA, please join me in voting “Yes” to call Rev. Cat this Sunday!
In faith,
Mayo Tsuzuki, Board President