It is already 5 weeks into the new church year and - as usual at our church - a lot has happened. Activities such as the Welcome Back Reception to Sandy Island or the Youth Group's Buddhist retreat to the the fact that a lot of our kids are training hard to become fierce pirates. It is that incredible activity and variety that makes our church the special place it is.
But we also learned something from some of our newer members, we learned that this variety and activity can be confusing to navigate or engage in - or even be a bit intimidating. Thus, one of the focus areas of the Parish Board for this year is taking a close look at our communication and try to find ways to make it easier for all our members to dive into all these activities and to become more active and integral parts of this strong and vibrant community.
The first manifestation of that took place at the end of September in the form of the Program Council's Opportunity Fair. During both coffee hours, members of our congregation were able to browse presentations of the committees that run the many programs at this church while sipping a coffee and nibbling on some snacks. It was very well received and allowed our members to not only learn about the programs, but also gave a chance to look into opportunities to engage.
Another initiative on the horizon is a revamp of the electronic newsletter - the e Unitarian. The first samples look very promising and we hope that it will make it much easier to know what is going on at church every week.
Many more things were discussed at the Parish Board retreat in September, such as better insight into our membership for all programs and last but not least innovations and ideas about how to financially balance our books. I'll keep you informed about how we progress on these over the year - stay tuned to this channel.
I am looking forward to an exciting church year and hope to spend some time with as many of you as I can.
Stefan
