Time flies! It’s hard to believe that, as I write this, my three-month sabbatical is almost two-thirds complete! Especially since the end of January, it has become a deeply reflective and refreshing experience for me, more so than any recent period of time in my life. I feel particularly grateful to all of you for offering me this “window of time and space.” 

This month, I have entered the review of my time in ministry, and I’ve been intrigued by some of what I have found.  For instance, in looking over some of my writings from theological school, I encountered one that described my image of the congregation that I hoped someday to serve as like a banyan tree. For any who may not be familiar with the banyan tree, it is like other trees in that it has many branches and many roots, but it is unlike other trees in that it can have many trunks as well. A banyan tree is a community of trees in a single tree; a single tree can span an acre or more. In some parts of the world, animals, birds, and people can all live in the shelter of the banyan tree’s branches and canopy. The banyan tree provides different kinds of shelter for different species, and its branches reach out to the glory of the sky while it is firmly rooted in the reality of the earth. It offers shelter to all who enter, but doesn’t constrict them. Does that image remind you of our Fellowship?

Also this month, I have been able to return to the study of earlier Unitarians and Universalists in the southern half of Illinois. At the rate that I am going, I should (finally!) be able to return the archive materials that I borrowed during my previous sabbatical. In case you don’t know, there have been, at various times since 1840, a total of about 30 Universalist and about 10 Unitarian congregations in “our” half of the state. Their stories remain quite incomplete, but I do expect to be able to add some information about their members and activities to the “Unitarians and Universalists in Southern Illinois” section of our CUF website within a few months (no later than July 1st).

Some of the materials I have been able to find are dry and institutional: many of them, for instance, relate to the sale of church buildings after the congregation has disbanded. Others, however, are very personal, including handwritten notes, some almost 100 years old, somtimes expressing a hope and conviction that a dwindling congregation can be revived. They invariably note the importance of a liberal religious voice in the small, rural villages where the writer resides. Don’t we feel something of that, today, here in our community?

On February 21st and 28th, I have visited the UU Fellowship in Mt Vernon, and have led services there. I am also scheduled to lead services there the last two Sundays in March. I will be back with you on Easter Sunday, April 4th!
 
Please know that I do miss you, and hope that you are doing well, and finding this sabbatical time an opportunity for some form of renewal in your lives as well! I miss you, and I look forward to seeing you in just about a month!

Yours in the spirit of renewal, Bill S.