Just before getting back to a regular schedule (with a little less summer spontaneity) I’m taking a trip to Transylvania next week, and Jamie Petts and Skyla King-Christison are coming too. We’ll be attending an International UU Women’s Convocation gathering in Koloszvar with U-U women from many different countries, and making a very short visit to our partner church in Bozod Korispatak. I was the newly-called Associate Minister of the Fellowship in 1995, and also a member of the UUA Board of Trustees, when the Partner Church program began (first called Sister Churches) and my family and I traveled to Transylvania to begin this partnership. Members of the Fellowship have nurtured and continued the partnership for nearly thirty years now, through changes of ministers in both congregations.

I’m so glad that Jamie and Skyla are both interested and able to come to this gathering, as a way of helping sustain this partnership and other of our international UU connections into a new generation. Transylvanian Unitarianism is our ancestral home, our lineage. It was a product of the Reformation in the Catholic Church in the 15th and 16th centuries – it was the so-called Radical Reformation which moved away from trinitarianism. Unitarians in Transylvania (now Hungary and Romania) kept this liberal tradition alive through centuries, through dictatorships and communism, through war and peace. We have much to learn from them today, from the present-day Hungarian Unitarian Church.

This visit is part of that ongoing learning. And, from Sept. 20 – 30 our Partner Church minister, and her son will be visiting us! Rev. Katalin Szasz-Cserey and Mate look forward to being here again (for Mate, his first trip to the US), to spending time in Oregon and with us, and to continue the learning and the partnership. There will be lots of opportunities to get together with them, including an all-Fellowship Hungarian Dinner on Friday Sept. 27.

I’m grateful to worship team member Susan Sanford for hosting the September 8 Sunday Service at the Fellowship, which will include the annual Joining of the Waters ceremony. It will be an intergenerational service. I hope you’ll plan to be there. All are invited to bring a small amount of water from somewhere important to you, to share in the ceremony.

Summer is not yet over, but oh – the rain has been beautiful! It feels like everything with roots is no longer thirsty, and I feel the same way. I know it will get hot again soon, for at least a few more weeks, but it feels different now. That’s how things should be when seasons shift and move.

Seasonal changes are underway at the Fellowship too. This Sunday, August 25, is the last of our Summer Services – and we’ll be outside, weather permitting. (So far the predictions look good). It may be cool – bring layers. And given the spike in Covid again – I’m glad we can be outside.

The following Sunday, September 1, there will be no Sunday Service. We’ve been taking that Sunday as a break for several years. Not to worry if you think you’ll miss togetherness – come to the Saturday August 31 Pop Up Parking Lot Rummage sale and to the Monday September 2 Annual Tuna Roast Picnic (in Avery Park). Find out more about both in these weekly announcements and please sign up to help!

On Sunday September 8 we’ll regather with the Annual Joining of the Waters Ceremony — an intergenerational service. All are invited to bring a small amount of water from someplace that’s important to you, as we consider the gifts of water and autumn and a new Fellowship year ahead.

On September 15, we’ll start the new church year theme of Ancestors, Descendants and Us – How Shall We Live Now? Spirit Play for children, and YRUU for teens will re-commence on this day as well.

The last two weeks in September we’ll be hosting the minister of our Transylvanian Partner Congregation, Rev. Katalin Szasz-Cserey, and her son Mate. She’ll help us learn more about our Transylvanian ancestors and modern partners, and will be with us to rededicate our Memorial Garden on Sept. 29.

So many beautiful things coming our way in September. Until then, may blessings of summer days and harvests, blessings of friends and community, blessings of this circle of care and support – be yours, and may you pass them on to as many others as you can.

See you Sunday – Jill