Dear A2U2 community-
Fall is upon us! It’s so great to be back in the swing of things. On Sunday we wrapped up the ‘26 summer service series with a backpack blessing, backpack collection drive for Maine Needs, and reflections on our relationships to work through a theology of vocation. This week is the official start to the A2U2 program year where all staff are back from their summer breaks, programming for our young people returns, and committees and groups that paused for July and August are meeting again. We have a freshly painted Sanctuary, just launched a fabulous new website, and will have many invitations in the coming weeks for you to get involved in our shared ministry.
I am still holding onto the energy of late summer, though, not quite ready to let go fully… looking for ripe tomatoes when I go into the yard, putting in the extra effort to bring dinner outside to the picnic table and get those final hours of sunlight, and just generally take the transition back to busyness with gentleness and grace.
One of the highlights of my summer was doing a lot of reading. I’m a “feast or famish” kind of reader… I struggle to make time to read material longer than magazines and articles during the church year. Then I get lost in books all summer. As I have in years past, I’ll share with you my summer book list (with an asterisk next to my favorites). Some will make appearances in sermons throughout the coming year for sure. Let me know what you read (or listened to) and enjoyed this summer!
Nonfiction
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Ordinary Time: Lessons Learned While Staying Put by Annie B. Jones
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The Secret Despair of the Secular Left: Our Fraying Connections with Our Communities, Our Bodies, and the Earth by Ana Levy-Lyons
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*The Glorians: Visitations from the Holy Ordinary by Terry Tempest Williams
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Next of Kin: A Memoir by Gabrielle Hamilton
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*Defiantly Joyful: Unitarian Universalist LGBTQIA+ Histories ed. by Diana McLean
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Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi’s Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging by Angela Buchdahl
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Everything is a Story: Reclaiming the Power of Stories to Heal and Shape Our Lives by Kaitlin B. Curtice
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Grace Will Lead Us Home: The Charleston Church Massacre and the Hard, Inspiring Journey to Forgiveness by Jennifer Berry Hawes
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Life After Doom: Wisdom and Courage for a World Falling Apart by Brian D. McLaren
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Polyamory: A Clinical Toolkit for Therapists by Martha Kauppi
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Smartphone Nation: Building Digital Boundaries When Offline Isn’t an Option by Kaitlin Regehr
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Life Everlasting: The Animal Way of Death by Bernd Heinrich
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The Beginning Comes After the End: Notes on a World of Change by Rebecca Solnit
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Where Two Worlds Touch: The Spirit and Science of Alzheimer’s Caregiving, 2nd ed. by Jade C. Angelica
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*Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon
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Bless the Weary: Meditations for Religious Leaders ed. by Connie Goodbread
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*Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson by Tourmaline
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*Against Breaking: On the Power of Poetry by Ada Limon
Fiction
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Circe by Madeline Miller
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*The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
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The Dog Who Followed the Moon by James Norbury
The coming week brings us the annual all-ages Ingathering Service which this year will be led by our Director of Religious Education, Emily! It will include the annual Water Communion ritual, so don’t forget to bring some water with you to add to our common vessel. The rest of our September services will invite us to reflect deeply on what being part of a community like ours means and how we want to build this congregation with love and intention. Can you believe we are beginning our fifth year of ministry together?! Time flies… See you in church!
In faith,
Rev. Tara