Dear Ones:

July arrives and I take my annual vacation and study leave. I’ll be returning to full time ministry in the third week of August. As is my summer custom, I will preach once in July (General Assembly reflections on 7/20) and once in August (the coffee house service on 8/24). As always, while I am not present at the meeting house for most summer weeks, I am available in the event of pastoral emergencies. In particular, if a UUSE member or friend dies, I will suspend my leave to attend to the needs of the deceased’s family and plan a memorial service.

Here are my plans for study leave so far:

First, UUSE has two published authors among its newer members, Sam Taylor and Ken Warner. I am definitely planning to read some of their books this summer.

Second, in preparing for our collective work in response to the recommendations of our UUA Discernment Task Force, I am planning to review relevant materials from the UUA. This includes the book Love at the Center: Unitarian Universalist Theologies, edited by Sofia Betancourt and available from Inspirit, the UUA’s bookstore. (I have already discussed sections of this book with God Talk and the Humanist Study Group, and will likely plan to hold a congregation-wide discussion in the coming year.) I will also review the various antiracism resources available from the UUA, including the 2020 report from the UUA’s Commission on Institutional Change entitled Widening the Circle of Concern. I would love for UUSE to move forward with some of the recommendations from that resource.

Finally, I am planning to take a deep dive into the idea of “decolonization.” We’ve used the language of decolonizing from time to time over the years, but we’ve never been able to generate programmatic interest at UUSE. In recent months I’ve become aware of some resources that help people explore in depth how settler colonialism, capitalism and modernity have shaped our consciousness and create barriers to working effectively toward a more just and sustainable world. These resources offer concrete exercises and thought experiments to facilitate this exploration. I will be spending some of my time studying the “Gesturing Toward Decolonial Futures” website. I am also reading a powerful book by the Brazilian/Latinx scholar Vanessa Machado de Oliveira Andreotti called Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity’s Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism. And if I have the bandwidth (I hope I do) I am planning to volunteer with some groups working on decolonizing activities in the Greater Hartford region.

Those are my plans! If I don’t see you on 7/20 or 8/24, I look forward to our Homecoming service on September 7th. I hope you have a great summer!

With love,

Rev. Josh Pawelek

#JulyNewsletter