President’s Perspective – Ruth Milledge, 2024-25 President

Love is the spirit of this church,
and service is its law.

UUCC’s Board of Trustees is recruiting people to serve the church on a few of our committees. If you have experience in the area of finance, we welcome your help on our Audit Committee and the Investments and Endowments Committee. Perhaps you would be interested in serving on the Personnel Committee or the Committee on Ministry. To find complete descriptions of these committees, see the Board Policies page.

If you are interested in a shorter commitment, consider serving as a delegate to the General Assembly, June 18-22. 2025, in Baltimore, Md., or you could attend virtually. The church pays for delegates’ registration fees. Some financial assistance toward travel and housing expenses is available.

Let us know of your interest by emailing Board President Ruth Milledge.

Rev. Dr. Molly Housh Gordon

As I write this, I’ve just finished walking on one of our beautiful Columbia trails, and the beauty of burgeoning early spring was just everywhere. The purple dead nettle and henbit were carpeting the side of the trail. Stands of daffodils waved in the chilly breeze, and the redbuds were just getting ready to pop. In a wetland part of the trail, a family of mallards was swimming in a line, and we even spotted a more elusive wood duck near an old tall stump.

It’s so easy to love our beautiful earth, and that love feels even more joyful in the spring! This month at church, we’re exploring how we turn that love into care, which is love’s embodiment.

One of the things we learn about care from our disabled loved ones is that care that starts from a position of distance is often patronizing at best and sometimes harmful at worst. We find ourselves assuming what others need or engaging in dignity-denying acts of saviorism.

The better way? Draw close. Find mutuality in relationship. Recognize that needs differ from person to person and no single practice fits all. And ASK what support is desired.

I wonder what would change if we applied these same principles to our earth care practices. How can you draw closer to the land and creatures that you are in relationship with? How can you experience mutuality in those relationships? What is particular about the patch of earth you are in deepest relationship with?

And what non-verbal, intuitive and connected ways might we find to “ask” before helping? Whether or not we receive a ‘“reply,” perhaps a posture of curious connection is what makes all the difference in our efforts to care well for this beautiful planet that births and sustains us.

See you in church,
Rev. Molly

REflections – Jamila Batchelder, Director of Religious Education

This month we are thinking of care for our earth. So take some time with your family to be with the earth. Sometimes we think that our experience with the earth can only be away from humans in “the wilderness,” a belief popularized by some of our UU transcendentalist ancestors.

But the earth is always present with us. Notice it in new birds in the yard, in dandelions pushing their way through sidewalk cracks, in rain and sunshine soaking into the soil. We begin our care for the earth by remembering we are not separate from it.