Kim Wade, 2025-26 President

Dear UU folks,

Before we dive fully into June, let’s declare May the “Massively Momentous Moments Month” at UUCC. To recap, here are just some of the significant events that took place last month:

• We finished and dedicated our new, fabulous playground.
• We held our Annual Meeting with 63 members voting in-person, online or by proxy to approve the ordination of our Intern Minister, Monica Clark-Robinson, elect folks to serve on our Board of Trustees, approve our FY2026-2027 Operating Budget, and authorize the Board to borrow up to $60,000, if needed, from our Endowment Fund to replace our decaying exterior siding.
• Reverend Molly began her sabbatical. She’ll be back with us on August 3.
• We ordained (the now) Reverend Monica who has also stepped into the role of our Sabbatical Minister for the summer.
• We celebrated four of our UU youth bridging into young adulthood.

Each of these events, decisions, and milestones was years in the making. Each came to fruition due to sustained and loving commitments. And looking back over that list, I am struck by this realization: Each Massively Momentous Moment is an example of collective efforts that lift up, celebrate, and support individuals. AND each resulted from individual efforts to lift up our community.

Which is to say that May showed us, once again, that our individual thriving is bound up in our mutual thriving.

Our Board of Trustees is no exception. Several individuals who contributed to our board’s thriving are completing their service this Spring. Please join me in extending deep gratitude to these individuals: Ruth Milledge (who served as last year’s President), Roger Nettleton, Andrea Baka and Sarah Oldfather. Each brought unique and valued insights to the board. Thank you!

And as Ruth, Roger, Andrea and Sarah step off, new Board members are preparing to step on. Please also join me in wishing a warm, enthusiastic welcome to newly elected Board members who begin serving on July 1. Jerry Brenner, Mark Price, and Vulture Young will serve three-year terms. Diane Suhler will serve a one-year term. Jeremy Duke begins a two-year term and will serve as our church’s 2026-27 President. Congratulations to each of you!

This is my last letter to you as President. I’m so thrilled and grateful to have served as your 2025-26 President alongside fellow trustees, alongside our phenomenally talented staff (Rev. Molly, April, Jamila, Violet, Rev. Monica), and alongside each of YOU.

I once took a week-long photography workshop in which the instructor said on day one: “Don’t worry too much about these initial introductions and first impressions; our respect for one another will only deepen and grow as we work and learn together over time.” This has been true for me since joining UUCC in 2017. My hope is that you also find this to be true here, whether you are just getting to know us or have been showing up for decades.

And as we go about the working, learning, playing, grieving, and celebrating together, I predict more massively momentous moments in our future, along with equally sustaining quiet ones . . . those everyday mundane moments, like seeing friends settle into seats before service, that weave us individuals ever more deftly into a community of mutual thriving.

Kim Wade
2025-26 President

Rev. Monica Clark-Robinson, Sabbatical Minister

Beloved UUCC folks,

This LGBTQ Pride month, we will be having a special Pride service on June 14, complete with a Glitter Blessing! Especially in a red state like Missouri, Pride month is so very important because there are youth who still wouldn’t be accepted by their families and need to see themselves as someone to be proud of. It’s also incredibly important during the second Trump administration, when anti-trans laws are flying around the country and it feels like we’re going backward instead of forward. We need Pride more than ever.

Years ago, my wife and I led the youth group at our home congregation. We had plenty of teens who were from member families, but over the years we also had lots of their friends come – Queer kids who needed a place where they could be accepted and celebrated exactly as they were. I wrote the poem below for those teens, and this month I’m sending it to you as my offering for Pride month, just in case some of you need it, too. I can’t wait to celebrate with all of you this month!

Much love,
Monica

LET US FILL IN

Let us fill in, for just the space of
One poem,
As the ones who tells you:
You are Perfect.
You are exactly as you were meant to be.
You are a physical realization of Divine delight.
Let us fill in, just for the time being,
For those who should have said these things to you.
It doesn’t matter to us if you are a boy who loves boys,
A girl who loves girls,
Or any manifestation of one human loving another human.
It doesn’t matter to us if you were named as one gender at birth
But you know your truth to be different.
We understand. Many of us are just like you.
So let us fill in, just in case it’s what you need.
We want you to know that if you were ours,
We would hold you and comfort you and tell you that all will be well.
Maybe your parents or uncles or friends didn’t say these things to you.
Maybe they couldn’t see you because their fear or prejudice got in the way.
Maybe they would say these things, but your fear got in the way.
Maybe they just don’t understand.
Let us fill in, though we know it’s a poor substitution,
For the adults who didn’t stand for you when they should have,
Whose own path was too narrow to help you on yours.
If you were ours,
You would never for a minute
Think that you were less than whole.
Let us fill in the holes left
After the weak hurtful words were said
By the bullies who sought to ease their own pain
By inflicting it upon you.
We would fill those bruised and empty spaces in you
With light and love and magical mystical hugs
That would somehow make it all alright again and forever.
Let us fill in, until your someone can take over,
Or until your spirit, so strong and free and brave,
Can be all that you need to soar.
We are here. We see you.
We honor all that you

Spectacularly
And beautifully are.
There are so many more of us than you know,
Loving you, cheering for you, valuing you.
It will be better one day. You will be fine.
One afternoon in the future,
You will be buying a pear
Or picking up your child from school
Or gardening with your beloved
And you will realize:
You made it through.
Love won.
But until then, dear hearts,
We will try to fill in, if we can.