“If the path before you is clear,
you’re probably on someone else’s.”
~Krista Tippett

Dear Ones,

My path through the next few weeks is pretty clear: I’ll be going to Memphis with a few of you to participate in TUUCAN’s Solidarity Summit (TUUCAN = Tennessee UU Community Action Network, and its members are the UU congregations across the state) and preparing for my formal installation as your called and settled minister later this month. Both are very exciting and leaving me little time to think about what comes after September…

AND at the back of my mind, I’m holding the expectation that October will bring opportunities for various GNUUC groups (the Board, the Worship Team, the Shared Ministries Council, and more) to reflect on the year behind us and plan for the current church year (which officially started in July). More importantly, the task for each group is to wonder what our congregation’s path could be through the coming months, to look for where we are called to do the work we chose and affirm in our covenant: to be a welcoming congregation. 

Over the last five years, I have noticed that we are continuously reassessing, reaffirming, redesigning, and re-envisioning the ways in which we practice welcome and embody love, sanctuary, and justice. The path in front of us is only sometimes clear–for example, come spring we will most likely have a balanced budget for the next church year as usual, but how we manage to do that isn’t precisely the same every year–but that path is always our own. I am looking forward to seeing how we wind our way through the coming seasons. 

Yours in love and possibility,
Rev. Denise
RevDenise@gnuuc.org

We create transformative, resilient realities 
by becoming transformed, resilient people.
~Krista Tippett

Friends,

As you may have noticed, this is the time of year when my thoughts about ministry turn toward the new church year (which doesn’t follow the official calendar, but more closely follows the typical western school calendar). I am wondering how we will shape our shared ministry this year: What will we choose to learn, to notice, to address, to cultivate, or to do, in both our individual and collective lives? What new tools, projects, and relationships could we decide to embrace? How will we envision living out the commitments we make to each other and the world around us every Sunday when we recite our congregational covenant? 

Every new year (or month, or day, or moment, for that matter!) is an opportunity to do our best to see clearly the worlds within and around us and to nourish the conditions for change and a sturdy, persistent commitment to growth. Both we and the world around us are always in need of transformation and resilience. I am grateful to Tippett for the reminder that we need not–and in fact, should not–think of the inner work and the outer work as separate. 

In our current environment, it is distressingly easy to be aware of the need for the transformation of social, economic, political, environmental, legal, and diplomatic realities. The call to pull our energies in closer to home–to our selves and our smaller human groupings–seems helpful in these overwhelming times. I do not know how tomorrow’s news will affect me or my neighbors, loved ones, and wider networks of relations, but I am curious about, invested in, and excited to discover how our own beloved community of faith will choose to nurture resilience and transformation this year.

Yours in change and love,
Rev. Denise
RevDenise@gnuuc.org

I keep hoping I will finally get it right
and become the ideal specimen of a
spiritually awakened human, calm & kind, 
both self-actualized and selfless.

But the only flawless butterfly 
is a dead butterfly, pinned and mounted.
I choose life–an ever-unfolding adventure involving 
multiple meltdowns and glorious reshapings.

~Mirabai Starr, 
Ordinary Mysticism: Your LIfe as Sacred Ground

Beloveds,

Individually or collectively, we’re never quite done becoming human, are we? 

Some seasons in life, some periods of history, even everyday awkward transitions from here to there–all remind us that living beings and living communities are never finished and certainly never flawless. It is a choice, perhaps even a spiritual discipline, to appreciate the adventure and the hidden glory in the goo of change. 

This time of year is always interesting to me, as we transition from summer to fall, from Summer Song Sundays to the main body of our church year, from last year’s Board, committees, and working groups to the configurations of congregants who will serve the many needs of this year’s version of our vibrant faith community. These transitions are not always immediately glorious, but I am, every year, intensely curious about what new reshapings of people and visions and commitments will guide our way and serve our communities through the coming year. Every year I am reminded that our shared life, despite its decades-long history and stable traditions and practices, is still unfolding. 

As we settle into the 2026-27 church year, I wonder what adventures will unfold, and I am grateful for good company and the love that surrounds us all.

Yours in the adventures of meltdown and reshaping,
Rev. Denise
RevDenise@gnuuc.org

P.S. This is the last week to register for the Solidarity Summit being hosted by TUUCAN and UU the Vote in Memphis on Sept. 18-20. If the chance to gather with UUs from across the state and beyond for fellowship, training, witnessing, and an appearance by Justin Pearson is calling you, please go here to begin the registration process, or ask me or Caren S-S for more information.

Solvitur ambulando./It is solved by walking.|
~somebody a long time ago
(often attributed to Diogenes the Cynic 
or Augustine of Hippo)

“I learn by going where I have to go.”
~Theodore Roethke, “The Waking”

“We are going…and we will get there…”
~#1020 Woyaya, Osibisa

Dear Ones,

I hesitate to articulate this (because I don’t want to get stuck in it, or resigned to it, or discouraged by it), but I think overwhelm is in many different ways a distinct feature of the world and the times in which we find ourselves–for some time now and, it seems likely, for some time to come. 

I feel encouraged by these ancient and modern writers who suggest that deliberate forward motion (which need not be literal walking) leads us to what we need. Sometimes, I feel overwhelmed by all the things already on my to-do lists (plural!), as well as by all the things that I feel/think I should be adding to those lists. Planning ahead is all well and good and often very necessary, but sometimes, maybe what is most needed, instead of checking things off the to-do list, is to keep moving with curiosity, attention, and willingness to learn. I suspect this (as with most true things) applies to both individuals and communities. Where and how are you moving, and what are you learning? Where are we moving? What might we learn?

Yours in faith and going,
Rev. Denise
RevDenise@gnuuc.org

P.S. If you’ve ever wanted to know more about creating worship for Unitarian Universalists, please consider participating in Worship Well, a new online (Zoom) program created by the UUA, designed to equip lay leaders with a variety of skills for leadership in worship. (More information here.) If you are interested, please let me know by noon tomorrow (Thur. 8/20), as we hope to assemble a team who will participate together.

“Your life is the poem.”
~ Naomi Shihab Nye

Beloveds,

One of our congregation’s cherished practices is “Summer Song”-- the practice of filling our Sunday pulpit with volunteers from the congregation willing to share their thoughts, expertise, personal experiences, and wisdom during the months of July and August. 

Every year, I am (almost) sad to take vacation during July, because I will miss so much. And every year in August, I am glad not to have missed all the goodness of Summer Song. Every summer, we are gifted with a wide variety of topics presented by people we know and love, and every year we remember and reflect throughout the year on what we’ve learned together. The poet says that your life (singular) is the poem, but my experience of Summer Song is that our lives–collectively and in conversation with each other–are a magnificent poem. 

I am grateful for the speakers who volunteer their thoughts, preparation time, and presence, and I am in awe of this congregation which gathers over and over again to listen, support, affirm, and be challenged by each other. 

Yours in the poetry of community,
Rev. Denise
RevDenise@gnuuc.org

P.S. If you’ve ever wanted to know more about creating worship for Unitarian Universalists, please consider participating in Worship Well, a new online (Zoom) program created by the UUA, designed to equip lay leaders with a variety of skills for leadership in worship. Look for the announcement below, and click through to read more and get detailed information. If you are interested (no experience necessary!), please let me know by next Wednesday (8/19/26), as we hope to assemble a team who will participate together. 

“What lies ahead. Reimagining the world. Only that.” 
~Arundhati Roy

Dear Ones,

It’s August! Yes, it’s hot, but it’s also the glorious height of summer: the time to notice that the nestlings and hatchlings are growing, that trees damaged by our icy, tumultuous  winter have grown leaves and new branches and are feeding themselves and many other creatures in preparation for the seasons to come. 

For faith communities, too, this late summer season is a time to take stock of the year behind us and to enjoy the results of our collective labors, so that we can consider the year ahead and imagine who and how we will collectively decide to be in the coming seasons. I can’t wait to see how we reimagine our world. 

Yours in love and imagination,
Rev. Denise
RevDenise@gnuuc.org

Jul 1, 2026

“I teach my sighs to lengthen into songs,
Yet, like a tree endure the shift of things.” 
~Theodore Roethke (The Renewal)

Dear Ones,

It’s July, a month I have usually reserved for vacation from my work as a minister. Most years, I find it very helpful to have some time away, but this year is a little different. Because we as a congregation have some exciting things coming up early in the fall (the UU the Vote Solidarity Summit in Memphis, Sept. 18-20, and my installation as settled minister at GNUUC on Sept. 26), I am going to continue working on these special projects through July, but on a limited basis. I will be trying to give myself space to allow a few sighs to lengthen into songs and to enjoy time with my family. 

What this means for you: you may not see me on Sundays or at meetings, and I will not be checking email regularly or responding to most church-related Slack messages, phonecalls, or texts. However, if you find yourself in urgent need of pastoral care, please be in touch with the church office (see below).

This summer, may our sighs lengthen into songs of surprising beauty and perhaps joy, and may we all find a sense of graceful endurance among the shift of things. 

Yours, with sighs and songs and (as always) the trees,
Rev. Denise
RevDenise@gnuuc.org

P.S. During the month of July, if you find yourself in urgent need of pastoral care, please email gnuuc@gnuuc.org or leave a message on the phone at church requesting pastoral care. Be sure to state that you are asking for pastoral care and leave your name and contact information.

P.P.S. If you are (like many of us) feeling some feelings about certain so-called justice decisions that came down yesterday, I commend to you today’s blog post from the Rev. Kimberly Debus: Unalienable Rights. She has challenging and hopeful words just for us Unitarian Universalists.

what is my gender to a night sky?
my pronouns to an ocean who opens for me? 
~Isa Borgeson,  

Beloveds,

The lines above are the last two of Borgeson’s poem entitled “[last summer I folded my dresses into storage]”. Please do not read them as dismissing or minimizing the importance of gender and pronouns or the deeply human work of self-discovery and self-naming. (You can read the whole poem here, along with a note about it from the author.) What I read in this invocation of sky and sea is an assurance that we–however we identify ourselves–are above all part of a whole that is generously wide and welcoming. I hope we each feel a bit of that now and then; I think both we and the world depend on that.

Yours in all the pride and all the pronouns,
Rev. Denise
RevDenise@gnuuc.org

P.S. This evening TUUCAN* is sponsoring what looks like a good warmup for Sunday’s Pride Service: 
The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee is heading up a "comment campaign to oppose the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) rule that would strip safety protections from federally funded shelters for transgender, nonbinary, two-spirit, and intersex people. The main action page can be found at www.UUSC.org/Pride-In-Action. TUUCAN is hosting an action hour on June 24th (tonight!) at 8 pm on Zoom. The action hour is a space for people to come together and find out about the comment process and then send in their response. (You can follow the UUSC link above to submit a comment on your own.) 

Here is the registration link for the TUUCAN action hour. Please share!
*TN UU Community Action Network, of which GNUUC is a founding member

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: 
it is the courage to continue that counts.” 
~Winston Churchill

Friends,

In honor of General Assembly (the annual Unitarian Universalist exercise in self-government, group discernment, and fellowship that is going on this week), I thought about offering you Churchill's famous (albeit somewhat snarky) comment about democracy being imperfect but better than everything else that’s been tried. 

Instead: his reminder that success and failure are impermanent and that courage in the task of keeping on with the work in front of us is a more important focus seems a good answer to much of this week’s discouraging news as well as a good companion in my work this week, of joining with ministerial colleagues and UUs from far and wide, to conduct the business of our association (the UUA). 

Heading back to Zoom now, but looking forward to seeing you on Sunday,

Rev. Denise
RevDenise@gnuuc.org

P.S. Reminder: Instead of our usual Sunday service, we will be joining the service being live-streamed on Sunday morning from the General Assembly of our Unitarian Universalist Association. You also have the option to arrive before the service for a sing-along on Zoom! Please join us in our sanctuary or on Zoom; see below for the times. See below for the time: these events are earlier than our usual Sunday meeting time!