New River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship an interfaith congregation

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NRUUF Board

New River UU Fellowship is governed by a board. Each year board members and officers are elected at the Annual Congregational Meeting in April, please check the calendar for this year's date.

You can download a copy of the current bylaws as a pdf file by clicking here. To view as a webpage, click here.

The Officers and Board Members for 2011-12 are:

President	Evelyn Phillips
Vice-President	Deborah Thompson
Secretary	Al Youmans
Treasurer	Cathy Abernathy
Board Member At Large	Dr. Wally Johnson
Board Member At Large	Teresa Rose
Board Member At Large	Wilma Meadows

The next board meeting will be the retreat February 3-4, 2012.

Welcome Michelle Adair

New River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship is proud to announce that Michelle Adair of Fayetteville is our new Religious Education Coordinator.

She is currently teaching Preschool and Kindergarten at the New River Gorge Learning Co-op Montessori School in Fayetteville. She is working towards a diploma in Professional Daycare Management from Ashworth University. Her interests include aromatherapy and theater. She is a certified Reiki Master.

Michelle can be reached at energy_healing71 at yahoo.com.

Supportive Relationships Are Not Enough by the The Reverend Doctor Tom Chulak, 2009

As I work with congregations, I often hear people say that congregations are about relationships. I agree with that statement: relationships are the business of religion. Religion has to do with that which connects, or that which binds us together at the deepest and most profound levels.

What I don’t agree with is this statement that I sometimes hear: “All we have to do is support one another and the congregation will be fine.” Supporting one another is important, but if that is primarily what you do, then your congregation will decline. For a congregation to be alive, vital, and growing, it must not only be supportive of personal relationships, but it must also have a focus beyond itself. It must have a sense that it exists to serve as well as support.

One of the most significant movements within UU in the past several decades has been the small-group ministry program that has been developed in many of our congregations. This program is grounded on the belief that our needs for intimacy and ultimacy can be powerfully enhanced in small-group ministries. But in addition…the small-group movement has also called for efficacy—which is the urge and commitment to positively affect the larger world. Many small-group ministries have ignored this factor and have either died or been significantly weakened. An individual, group, or congregation needs a focus outside of itself in order to be healthy…

Research into congregational growth shows that congregations that describe themselves as families are likely to be on a decline. The family patterns, when applied to religious communities, lead to stagnation and eventually deterioration. Our congregations need more than family and supportive relationships if they are to thrive.

So, if your congregation has leveled off or is dwindling, it may be that you are focusing on only one part that makes us a whole. Support needs service just as love needs justice. One without the other eventually leads to stagnation, and stagnation eventually leads to diminishment and decline. …This means reaching out, opening up, and giving of ourselves. And in so doing, we—and our congregations—are renewed and enlivened.

www.uua.org, edited by April Puzzuoli, Media Coordinator