Greetings!

From the vantage point of September, now that the school year has begun (for those of us who pay attention to school calendars), a lot has happened since we gathered in Bad Homburg for our Spring Retreat. It is inspiring to see the vibrant activity organized in our distributed UU community in Europe, especially the Social Action translation and editing project that began at the retreat and was completed in August; the Rhein-Main Weekend with our UUA Ambassador the Rev. Diane Rollert in Frankfurt in June; and an At-Large in-person gathering in Northern Germany in July. Two small committees have been busy on their assigned study subjects: Retreat Grants and Safe Communities. And progress continues in the preparations for our April 2024 Retreat in Saarbrucken (thank you organizers Peter Jarrett, Carolyn Burlingame-Goff and Janie Spencer!) as well as the beginnings of organization of a Fall 2024 Retreat (thank you, Derek Suchard!).

The engagement of so many in meaningful activities is heartening. This fall, though we will not see each other at a Fall Retreat, I hope that you will engage fully in the essential SPEAKING your thoughts, LISTENING to others with interest, and VOTING at two online meetings – one in October and one in November.

As someone recently stated, our elected and volunteer leaders have been given our confidence, and therefore we stand behind their thoughtful decisions (thank you very much 🙂 ). But we officers and committee members will be bringing you substantial and potentially challenging ideas to consider at our Town Hall Meeting in October and our Annual General Meeting in November, and we need your full engagement to ensure that any voted changes have strong backing within our community. I encourage all of us to prepare for these meetings, to attend, and to vote, so that we can move confidently and with a good understanding of our community intentions, into our future.

I look forward to seeing you soon, in October and November, on screen.

In warm Fellowship,

Karen Kyker, President
president@europeanuu.org