Dear Friends,
Not too long ago I received a note and packet from the Rev. Vanessa Southern, former minister of this church. In the packet she included a copy of a statement Dave Skidmore made at a service on August 11, 1996. With Dave’s permission, I want to share with you how he closed his reflections that day on what Universalist National Memorial Church means to him.
We all know that in the past few years this church has had some low points along with the high points. We shed one minister, recalled a beloved former minister and hired a young, passionate associate minister. In between, we opened our pulpit to a series of guest preachers and listened with forbearance as each found a new, and incorrect, way of pronouncing the Romaine-Van Schaik Room.
. . . And living through that period, I acquired, and maybe some of you acquired, an image of this congregation as small and struggling, always in a battle to balance its budget and bring in new members. But, after I let myself journey through the meditation I just shared with you (about what this church means to me), I realized that this seldom-spoken belief just did not square with the much larger reality of what its people mean to each other.
What we have here is not just sparks in the ashes of burnout. We have a flame, a Universalist flame, strong and bright. And, if as individuals our lives are on a path toward harmony with God, whether or not we wander off at times, why can’t we say the same thing about our life as a congregation? For the answer, all we have to do is meditate on the church, its quiet hallways, warm kitchen, soaring tower, to realize the truth that—as much as our congregation’s road twists and turns, we know where it’s leading us.
Amen, Dave. And thank you.
Mary Katherine
Posted by Mark McNabb at May 31, 2005 10:36 AM