A community of Purpose 
It’s hard to believe but I am entering our ninth month together and will wrap up my first year on June 19th. I will pick up again in August assuming our contract discussions wrap up successfully. I believe they will. Considering a previous situation, a contract is most appropriate and necessary. I look forward to the next church year. The overarching worship theme for 2016—2017 will be “back to basics”, back to the heart of our faith, our Principles and the Sources of our Faith inspiration.
Turning to worship I am experimenting with some new ideas. One is a coffee house set-up, more informal in approach, more conversational. Our service on June 19th will offer members and friends an opportunity to share sacred items, totems, or pictures and poems that have special meaning in your life. You are welcome to share how these objects demonstrate a connection to your past and an influence on who you are or are becoming.
I welcome your ideas and suggestions as to what you would like our shared worship time to look and feel like. Our connection to the sacred, the holy, the transcendent is why we gather in this faith community to share our lives, our trials, tribulations, joys and celebrations. We are far more than a social club where we pay membership dues and receive services in kind. Here we gather to worship and pray together, join our lives to something greater than our individual lives. Church, this Fellowship unites us in common purpose to enriching our lives spiritually, moving our souls to connect to the rest of humanity and the need of the greater good.
All of our global citizens need shelter, universal medical attention to heal what ails us physically and emotionally. The world needs fair employment with a living wage, education, necessary to lift people out of poverty. People need to be free of fear, war, prejudice in its many ugly forms. Faith communities are uniquely suited to this enriching goal.
As citizens of America we have the good fortune to mostly have comfortable lives. Our call as Unitarian Universalists is to share our spiritual and economic bounty with those less fortunate. Coming together in a worship community reminds us we are part of the human community and we can reach out together to save humanity, save ourselves. Our souls, our spirit, our very being cries out for connection to something more than self-interest, to the great mystery that some call nature, some god, or love. It is all pretty much the same.
I believe we can only experience this in a shared community of worship, not in a social club, fraternity, etc. Let us always strive to a greater calling, a nobler life that our ancestor created this religion as a guide to a holy calling. United as one for the greater good we can create a meaningful community, this fellowship, into something worthy of our devotion.
Yours in Faith,
Rev. Paul Daniel
minister@uupottstown.org 678-939-4854