Dear Friends,

As most of you know, something remarkable has just happened at University Unitarian Church. Over the past six months we have conducted a successful capital campaign which has raised over $1.7 million to ‘finish the job’ of paying for our recent building remodel. We will now be able to move forward, debt free, to fulfill our church’s Mission and Vision. Thank you, thank you: we are overflowing with gratitude and hope for the future!

But you know, perhaps we should pull our gratitude lens back out just a little bit further. I believe we will see something even more remarkable has happened.

It was about twelve years ago that our church community discerned and created a new strategic plan, a process which refreshed our understanding of ourselves and of where we wanted to go in the future, including our Mission “to awaken spirit, nurture hope, and inspire action.” In the ensuing years, we have worked to fulfill this Mission, building relationships with one another and with myriad community partners and justice-makers along the way, beset by a pandemic and other challenges along the way, yes, but somehow always moving forward. When I close my eyes for a moment, and allow my mind to trace the arc of these years, I see a flood of images: I see your faces joyful and connecting; I see your hands working and reaching out to others; and I hear your voices singing and calling out for greater understanding and a more just world. Do you see that too? Isn’t it remarkable?

And in that same twelve year timeframe, we embarked on a big building project. Yes, it started that long ago! We realized that in order to move forward, we needed to remodel our church campus, which though it had been lovingly used, had also been deeply neglected over the long term. We realized we owed it to those who had established this place, we owed it to ourselves, and we owed it to our future members and children. Over these twelve years, so many of you contributed so much to make our “building for the future” happen: a Building Team who worked tirelessly for over eight years to design and fulfill the building; Capital and Stewardship teams who inspired (and cajoled) us to generously fund a $19M project; all of you members and friends who made unprecedented (truly!) financial and volunteer gifts to make this dream a reality; and of course our ministers and staff who held us together (and a lot of our worry and emotion) along the way. And just now, you all have put the “cherry on top” by making another round of significant gifts to pay off the project. Simply remarkable.

This is a moment, certainly, to celebrate and “burn the mortgage”. But even more, this is a moment when many of us feel tremendous gratitude: for the generosity and witness of our UU forebears, for twenty-five inspiring and joyful years with our senior minister Jon Luopa, for our beautiful and welcoming new church building, and for the joy of new members and families arriving each week to help us build for the future.  May we, with renewed energy, move forward with open minds, loving and generous hearts, and hands that are willing to serve, for our church community, and not for our community alone!

Steve Carlson

On behalf of the Building for Our Future Planning Team: Steve Carlson, Kevin Clark, Kathleen Cromp, Byron Krystad, Rev. Jon Luopa, Katie Renschler, Scott Renschler and Jim Thompson