President of the Board's blog

by Phil Wheeler, Board of Directors President

Initially, when Sue and I first joined the church, I persisted in thinking of the church as if it somehow belonged to somebody else. A number of people (Sue chief among them) helped me to see the error of this notion. One on occasion, when I told Jerry K. that "you people should do something" about the humidity in the Sanctuary because it could damage the organ and the piano, Jerry responded, "No, you mean 'we people should do something.'"  This was instructive.

by Phil Wheeler, Board of Directors President

I wrote last year at this time that roughly 2000 years ago Jesus and his band of followers expelled the money changers from the Temple; ever since that event, people in the Judeo-Christian tradition have been conflicted about money. We need to become less  conflicted if our church is to be fair with its staff, maintain our building, teach our children and each other well and make a difference in our community and our planet. We need to be more open about money.

by Phil Wheeler, Board of Directors President 

I occasionally attend a memorial service at a church of a different persuasion (which, by the way, would make an excellent name for a UU Church), and find the service generally in conflict with my preferences. When that happens, I read the hymnal during the service. I was recently interested to find a section in a hymnal entitled "Christian Warfare."

 by Phil Wheeler, Board of Directors President

Back on September 30 and the morning of October 1, around 20 Committee Chairs, Board members, staff members, and others attended a leadership retreat in the church. The purposes:

• to see stellar examples of what other UU churches are doing, and
• based on those examples and our own mission and visions, to give advice to the Board on what our focus should be.

 Here are the links to the videos: 

by Phil Wheeler 

Board of Directors President

by Phil Wheeler

Board of Directors President

by Phil Wheeler, Board of Directors President

 by Phil Wheeler, President of the Board of Directors

Our draft Mission: To be a compassionate, welcoming community that nurtures spiritual growth and practices justice.

Sue and I and other concerned individuals in the church, have written the Legislature about the proposed constitutional amendment to ban same sex marriage. Sue and I are opposed to the proposed amendment and to the bill putting the matter on the ballot. Here are some of our reasons: 

 by Phil Wheeler, Board of Directors President

 By Phil Wheeler