Are You There God?...Still Speaking?

Here is an article about the fundraising shortfall for the Advent ad-buy for the UCC’s “Stillspeaking” campaign. As I have mentioned before, Eliot Church isn’t participating in this initiative at the moment, nor is it doing the UUA’s “Uncommon Denomination.” However, that is not because these are bad ideas so much as they do not necessarily reflect the realities of our congregation. We have, instead, started to find ways in which we can do something ourselves.

We understand, of course, that what we do will be on a much smaller scale and will, in many ways, be less effective because of that. It does, however, have one big advantage for us. It makes us take the time to define ourselves. Who are we? That is the question, after all. When we start with our affiliations it is hard to tell. We are constantly saying to ourselves and others, “Well, we are kinda like X, but we are also sorta Y.” This isn’t always the most helpful course when trying to attract folks and to keep them.

So we are looking at ourselves as a unique entity. We are The Eliot Church. We aren’t hostile toward the groups that support us. In fact, we love them all! We just want to be loved in return for who we are, not what others want us to be.

Anyway, I didn’t mean (too much) to digress! Even though we aren’t participating in Stillspeaking right now, it is a worthy program and one that I believe is crucial to the future of liberal Christianity. So, if you have the will and the interest, please give…