by Rev. Leslie Woodward

Every once and awhile it is useful to point out that I am disabled.

I have what is called an “invisible disability,” that is, a disability that is not always obvious to an onlooker or acquaintance but sometimes or always limits daily activities. This may range from mild challenges to severe limitations and vary from person to person and sometimes, even from day to day.

“Invisible disabilities” refers to symptoms such as cognitive dysfunctions, chronic pain, fatigue, learning disabilities, anxiety, depression, as well as hearing and vision impairment and more. In my case the hearing in my left ear was severely damaged in late 2015. While I wear a hearing aid, it is nearly useless in some conditions, such as in the Great Hall during potlucks or anytime when several people are talking at once.

Why is this important to know? You might think I’m ignoring you when I don’t respond to a question or comment when I simply didn’t hear you. You might get annoyed when I ask you to repeat something several times. I might mis-hear something that you said and seemingly reply inappropriately. Every day I wonder what I’m missing when I don’t hear the clever quip that makes everyone else chuckle or catch the anxious tone behind a simple request. And sadly, my hearing will only get worse as I age.

The quote in my headline is from the Rev. John Watson and I chose it deliberately because it doesn’t just speak to invisible disabilities but to other things we cannot see. There are people around us struggling with incredible disruptions in their lives. Disruptions like divorce, custody battles, food insecurity, the death or severe illness of a loved one, the loss of a job — the list is endless. The political atmosphere has struck terror in the hearts of many who fear they may lose their livelihoods, their families may be torn apart or indeed, that their very lives may be in danger. These too, are things that you cannot see.

These things are not only happening somewhere “out there,” they are happening within our beloved Heritage community. Please, my dear ones, be kind. Above all else, be kind.

Faithfully,
Rev. Leslie

2/21/2020.

by Rev. Leslie Woodward

Winter into spring is a fruitful time for most religious educators. Often our religious education programs have begun and while they require support, thoughts are moving toward the NEXT BIG THING.

At Heritage, the “next big thing” is our summer programming. Watch for more information coming soon. If you are making summer plans for yourself or your family, now is the time to consider attending a camp or conference that will honor your identity as a Unitarian Universalist and strengthen your faith while you are making wonderful new friends and generally having an awesome time.

Experiences at summer camps can include week(s) long age-based camps, institutes and camps for all ages, family retreats and specific training programs. When attending these camps and institutes, UU’s from all over our region (and beyond) experience the living of our UU values in communities outside the walls of our congregations, strengthening their ties and commitment to Unitarian Universalism. Here are some opportunities within driving distance from Cincinnati.

• SUUSI — the Southeast Unitarian Universalist Summer Institute; July 19-25; Western Carolina University in North Carolina.
• MUUSA — the Midwest Unitarian Universalist Summer Assembly; June 28 – July 4; YMCA of the Ozarks near Potosi, Missouri.
• CERSI — Central East Region Summer Institute; July 12-18; California, PA.

Additional opportunities for high school youth and young adults abound. (Note that many of these programs have registration deadlines in March and April.)

• River Rising Summer Youth Immersion — July 5-11; UU Church of the North Hills, Pittsburgh and July 27 – Aug 2; Main Line UU Church, Philadelphia
• Youth Midwest Leadership School — July 12-18; Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington IL
• GROW Racial Justice (UU College of Social Justice) June 17-20; New Orleans, Louisiana (for young adults)
• Activate West Virginia (UU College of Social Justice) June 20-27; UU Church of the South Hills

If that isn’t enough, other UU summer camps are located in the Adirondacks of upstate New York (Camp Unirondack), on the Jersey Shore (Murray Grove), the coast of Maine (Ferry Beach), in the mountains of North Carolina (The Mountain) and on an island off the coast of New Hampshire (Star Island).

Summer is a great time to be a UU. Won’t you join us?

Faithfully,
Rev. Leslie

March 2020.

by Jim Nolan

We are a few weeks into Rev. Bill’s sabbatical and the board and all the other groups and committees at Heritage are working diligently to keep all the various wheels spinning smoothly.

On the first Sunday of this month, the board and the Committee on Ministry collaborated to bring you a service that provided a bit of insight into what we are doing to make sure all bases are covered and to let you know what to look forward to in the coming months. I am very grateful to everyone who worked to make that service come together.

We then hosted our second Town Hall Meeting of the year. The discussions were excellent and provided both the board and the Finance Committee an opportunity to hear from you – and to provide you with a deeper insight into our collective plans for the future.

In conjunction with that, the board had the first of several meetings with the Finance Committee to prepare the budget for 2020-2021. The proposals being drawn up for the next fiscal year have an eye on the future of the church, with long-term maintenance being a focal point. We strive to remain vigilant for the care of our congregation as well as for our aging building, and to provide a warm and welcoming environment for our first-time visitors as well as our long-time members.

In closing, I want to thank you, as always, for putting your trust in the board and in me – and I want to remind you of two very important dates coming up:

• Sunday, May 1 – Our Annual Congregational Meeting.
• Sunday, April 26 – Our 3rd Town Hall Meeting – the last one before the Annual Meeting and your best opportunity to have your voices heard.

I hope to see you there.

Best wishes,
Jim

For March 2020.

by Jim Nolan

Happy New Year!

With a new year comes changes for many of us – and the Board is no exception.

The incomparable Jaime Castle let us know in December that she is leaving her board position so she can pursue a much bigger, if not higher, calling. No matter where she lands, Jaime will do great things with incredible passion and energy – just like she has done for us over the years. I am sad that I won’t get to see her every month in our meetings but, though she can’t truly be replaced, we are incredibly grateful and happy to welcome Bob Booth, who has volunteered to serve out her term. I don’t know that I could have asked for a better alternative.

As you probably know, our beloved Rev. Bill will be heading out on sabbatical soon. This has been very top-of-mind for the Board; as well as the Committee on Ministry, Worship Committee and pretty much all the other groups and committees that keep Heritage running. Joint meetings are being scheduled and much cooperation and collaboration is taking place. We want to make sure Rev. Bill’s absence has a minimal effect on our day-to-day church lives, while providing him with much-needed time to reflect and re-energize.

Lastly, I want to make sure everyone is aware of our upcoming Town Hall Meeting on February 2. This will be our second Town Hall and we hope to build upon what we started with the first one. Representatives from the Board of Directors, the Finance Committee and other groups will be there to help answer questions and provide a greater sense of transparency to the congregation. We hope to see you there and look forward to hearing what matters most to you.

Best wishes,

Jim

Posted January 18, 2020.

by Rev. Leslie Woodward

By the time you read this, Christmas 2019 will have passed into memory and we will be poised on the brink of 2020. Can you believe it? Weren’t we just celebrating the arrival of 2000 a few years ago?

Many of us get a chance to pause right before the New Year before plunging back into work or school or simply surviving, while some of us need to work straight through the holidays. Be extra kind to those who simply cannot take time off, whether they are medical personnel, first responders, package deliverers, retail staff or some other job or profession. Family caregivers, too, deserve our extra love and consideration.

If you do have a moment to sit and catch your breath, this can be a fertile time, a time that songwriter Carrie Newcomer calls “the beautiful not yet.” What are you hoping to see happen in the New Year? What are you willing to work for? How will you take care of yourself and the ones you love?

In this beautiful-not-yet time, know that your church community is here for you. We will laugh, cry, sing, and pray with you. We will hold you when you are hurting, rejoice with you when you are glad, celebrate with you when that beautiful-not-yet time comes to fruition.

The New Year is a great time to form new intentions. Form the intention to come to church every Sunday this year. (Yes, we know that this is nigh on impossible for most of us, but form that intention anyway.) We need to you be part of our circle of sorrow, circle of sadness, circle of anger, circle of joy. We need you to hold us as we will hold you.

May your New Year be merry and bright.

by Rev. Bill Gupton

This will be my last Heirloom column until late summer. I will be taking a six-month sabbatical beginning February 1 – a leave of absence from my Heritage Church ministerial duties that will allow me to focus time and attention to the startup of our Heritage Acres natural burial sanctuary. By the time I return to church work in August, Heritage Acres will be open for business.

This will be my third sabbatical since coming to Heritage in 2002, but the first that is taking the form of what our Board and I are calling a “hybrid sabbatical” – one in which I will continue to work on a major project that will benefit the church, as well as the wider Cincinnati community. As many of you know, green burial has been a passion of mine for years, and I still have to pinch myself sometimes when I realize that we – this church community – have created the Tri-State Region’s first fully dedicated green burial ground, right here on the east side of Cincinnati. I am deeply grateful for this congregation’s support of, and commitment to, the work that we are doing to change the way people think about death and dying – through Heritage Acres, through our amazing End-of-Life Ministry Team, through Death Café Cincinnati, and more.

Since this upcoming sabbatical is a bit “different,” I want to explain several things about our plan. Because I will be working on getting Heritage Acres up and running, I will still be communicating and interacting with numerous members of the church during a time (sabbatical) when normally I would not. Several folks on the Heritage Acres Board are HUUC members. The same is true for those in the Heritage Acres Founders Circle, and still others who do volunteer work at Heritage Acres. And of course, when we at last have our Grand Opening at 796 Locust Corner Road in Pierce Township, I imagine there will be lots of you in attendance. So I will be seeing, and working with, many folks from Heritage during this “hybrid sabbatical.”

I also will be performing a couple of already-scheduled weddings for Heritage Church members during the six months I am out of the pulpit and away from church. (Lest I fall prey to “scope creep,” however, I will not schedule any other weddings until after early August.)

Otherwise, the boundaries of this sabbatical will be similar to those in the past: I won’t be looking at, or responding to, church emails or phone calls, and I won’t be following what’s going on in the life of the church. I will be unavailable for ministerial duties except in the direst of circumstances (Rev. Leslie Woodward will be your go-to minister). To learn more about the sabbatical, read the 2020 Senior Minister Sabbatical document elsewhere in this newsletter.

While there remains much work to do – particularly in terms of infrastructure and logistics – before we can declare Heritage Acres “open,” do not worry that I will be working too hard! I plan to allow myself plenty of time for rest and renewal – as it should be, during a sabbatical. And, I will be doing some traveling (definitely to the Pacific Northwest, and perhaps even out of the country). I may even spend some time living the life in an RV!

I hope to see you throughout January, and then will look forward to seeing most of you again in August. In the meantime – Happy New Year, and may 2020 be a year of positive change in our lives, and in our world.

Namaste,
Rev. Bill

by Jim Nolan

Hello –

As I write this, it is getting close to the holiday season, there’s a bit of snow on the ground and, as the song goes, “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.”

That being said – 2019 has not been my favorite year. From medical issues in my own family to a social and political environment that just seems to get more and more contentious each day, to concerns within our own congregation about finances, safety and security – it’s been a wild 12 months.

But, throughout all of that, I am constantly being reminded how, when things feel very dark, there is always someone willing to step up and do whatever needs to be done. When something is broken or needs replacement there’s always someone willing to say, “I can do that.” When someone is sick, there’s always someone offering to drive someone to an appointment or to bring over a meal, or just to sit and spend time and offer comfort and companionship.

We truly do have a remarkable community at Heritage. The people that bless us with their presence each week bring with them an extraordinary variety of skills and life experience, and they – I should say YOU – are always willing and ready to offer up the time, the energy and the love that you carry within you.

As you read this, the holidays will be behind us; the new year will be upon us; and with that, the promise that the Winter will give way to Spring. The days will get longer, the sun will shine again and there are brighter things in our future. And we will be there – together – through it all.

So here’s to the new year – with blessings and gratitude – for the joys we will share and the lessons we will learn.

Jim

for January 2020.

by Rev. Bill Gupton

Happy holidays! There are, of course, those who balk at that phrase, preferring instead that one particular religion’s holiday be singled out as primary in our diverse culture. How odd, in a nation that was founded, among other things, on the ideal of freedom of religion.

So this month, I wish you a Happy Chalica (look it up; beginning December 2), a Happy Solstice (December 21), a Happy Hanukkah (beginning December 22), a Festive Festivus (December 23 – again, look it up), a Merry Christmas (December 25), a Happy Kwanzaa (beginning December 26), a Happy Ōmisoka (December 31 – once again, look it up), and a Happy New Year (January 1 – well, it’s technically not this month, but the celebration starts the night before). In short, in this season of holidays and family, celebrations and good cheer, I wish for you warmth, health and happiness.

By the way, did you know December 16 is National Chocolate-Covered-Anything Day? . . .

Anyway – yes, Virginia, we do celebrate Christmas at Heritage Church. In fact, this year, we literally start the month of December off by celebrating Christmas. Stick around after the service on December 1 as we put up and decorate our giant sanctuary Christmas tree. This event is always fun for all ages. Then, the following Saturday (Dec. 7), join us at church at 6 p.m. for a family Caroling Party.

On Sunday morning, December 15, there’s the Heritage Christmas Pageant. And the following Sunday, we’ll be singing and hearing Christmas music and enjoying readings in another special worship service. Of course, it all culminates with our very popular traditional Christmas Eve Candlelight Service, which as always features the nativity story, lovely music by our wonderful Choir, and the soft, beautiful silence of candlelight.

I hope to see you at Heritage during this very special month of celebrations, as together we experience the Love that is the Spirit of this Church!

Rev. Bill

December 2019.

by Rev. Leslie Woodward

Thanksgiving officially marks the start of the winter holiday season, at home and in church. There are so many things going on in our religious exploration program and church community that it might be most useful to just give you a list!

Sunday, December 1: Pajama Day

Yes, today is the day to wear your pajamas to church! Children, youth (and adults too if you dare) are invited to wear their PJs and bring a special stuffed friend to church. We’ll watch movies, do simple crafts and just chill.

Sunday, December 1: Decorating the Christmas Tree

Plan to stay after church to help us decorate our church for Christmas. We’ll assemble and decorate the Christmas Tree together!

Saturday, December 7: All Ages Caroling Party

Gather around the piano to sing carols of the season together with friends of all ages from 6 to 10 p.m. at church. Cocoa and other activities for children are planned. Bring a snack to share. Rumor has it that a karaoke machine will also be available!

Sunday, December 15: “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever!”

Come enjoy a special worship service, a holiday play directed by Feriel Feldman and Jennifer Sanders.

Tuesday, December 24: Christmas Eve Service

All are welcome to celebrate our annual Christmas Eve Service. Our choir will provide incredible music and we’ll end with candlelight.

Sunday, January 5: A New Year: Holding On and Letting Go

All ages are invited to celebrate the first day of the new year. There will be reflection, ritual and a little levity too!

Yes, the holidays will be amazing at Heritage. Won’t you join us?

Faithfully,
Rev. Leslie

December 2019.

by Jim Nolan, Board President

Okay – where did October go? It’s been a very busy month for all of us – and I still haven’t carved my first pumpkin yet.

The theme this month, for me, is gratitude. I have seen so much wonderful, positive energy coming together – from so many different directions – that I’m a little bit in awe of it all… and of you for making it all work.

This month, Heritage hosted our first ever Town Hall Meeting. This was a more casual coming together for a Q&A with the board and the finance committee; and a great way to “take the pulse” of how things are going within the church. The attendance was wonderful, the dialogue was energetic and many great ideas were shared. I’m very grateful to all who attended, and there are already plans in-place to do it again in the early part of 2020.

The Heritage Board VP, Tamilyn Thompson, hosted our annual Fall Council Meeting on October 6. This meeting allows the board to re-connect with the various teams and committees working within the church and assess their needs and understand how the board can better support their missions. Again, the attendance was wonderful, and the discussions were incredibly helpful.

Lastly, there were not one, but TWO volunteer-led efforts to improve the grounds that surround the church. So much amazing and positive energy was put into this effort that saying thank you seems inadequate. The landscaping is improved, the labyrinth received some much-needed TLC and the area behind the church was cleared out and prepared for the arrival of our new shed!

Combine that with the marvelous developments happening around Heritage Acres and I think it is safe to say that the energy of Heritage is definitely being put into action.

For that, I am so very, very grateful.

Have a blessed Samhain, a happy and safe Halloween, and thank you for allowing me to be your president at this exciting time.

Jim

November 2019.