There is no escaping it:  while the calendar says it’s still summer (and the temperatures as well) vacation’s over, back to school and back to work have descended, and your ministry and support staff at Follen Church are fully back to work and preparing for Sundays through September and well into the fall and even winter.

For me it’s been a summer of up’s and down’s:  up, as I spent an idyllic week at Lovell Lake near the Maine Border, listening to the loons, watching an eagle, swimming, sunning, talking with our closest friends, painting.  And down, as I continue to deal with an arthritic left knee that has let me know, loudly and obnoxiously, that it’s time to get a new bionic replacement.  It’s been a time of listening to the latest horrible pieces of news coming out of the mouth of our elected leader who chooses to put the status of beloved youth who have grown up in this country at risk;  who seeks to tell our transgender military members that their support of our country’s defense is not valued; a summer of watching the appalling devastation of parts of Texas and Florida and the Carribean and other places people called home, while more storms come roaring through the water and earthquakes shake land to the south– all reminding us of the ‘inconvenient truth’ of global warming.

It’s a time of considering how we want to provide religious growth and faith development here at Follen while the congregation moves closer toward raising its first Black Lives Matter banner; celebrating a Capital Campaign that is showing resounding and thrilling signs of support; dreaming about what new space and new energy will bring to this historic congregation.  We’ve been pushing change in different ways:  instituting a new online Religious Education and Music program registration and data collection program; welcoming a new music ministry colleague; thinking about how we teach and encourage our children and youth to explore their faith and grow it.  Our FUUY, Coming of Age, and OWL leadership teams are complete while our in-class teaching teams still need your support in order to function effectively.

Dreams come in many shapes and sizes – practical and fantastic.  In order to fulfill the dreams of the members and friends of Follen Church, all of us need to be willing to put our hands, and hearts, to the work – and those imaginations will lift the congregation higher.  In this time of soft rememberings of summer and gazing toward the autumn, I invite your dreams and your hands to join in the labor that has the promise of yielding great things.  Welcome and welcome home, yet again.

— Deb

Deborah Weiner, Interim Director of Religious Education