WellSprings News (Page 2)
WellSprings Returns to In-Person Worship on September 12th
Dear WellSpringers, It’s finally time. 🙂 Our annual WellCome Back Sunday service on September 12th will be like no other… truly welcoming our whole congregation back into our gathering space for the very first time since March 8th, 2020. The room will finally be alive again with our energy and noise, our care and love for this community radiating with a new, impossibly hard-won kind of preciousness. For so long, we have not had access to this experience – and…
Welcome Beth Monhollen, our new Ministerial Intern!
Come September 1st, we’ll have another new face on WellSprings’ Staff Team… Beth Monhollen, a Candidate for Unitarian Universalist ministry and student at Meadville-Lombard Theological Seminary, will be joining us for the next two years, as our Ministerial Intern! I’m so excited to introduce Beth to our congregation virtually now – and, she’ll be here with us in-person on September 12th, when we re-gather physically for WellCome Back Sunday at the Montgomery School. In our denomination, an internship in a…
WellSprings Live Concert Recap
On Sunday, June 27th, our congregation gathered together in person for the first time since March, 2020. Our band played a selection of our favorite songs, as community members gathered beneath shady trees to watch the show. You can watch the show too! Click here to access a recording of our livestream. Our two ministers addressed the congregation in person for the first time in 15+ months. Rev. Lee rededicated our gathering space, and Rev. Ken led us in a…
Congregational Meeting Recap
At our Congregational Meeting on June 6th, the Board of Trustees shared five goals for the coming year, introduced new Board candidates, gave an update on our finances, and more! A full recording of the meeting is available online. You can also view the individual reports on the YouTube playlist, below. The report from WellSprings’ President Chris Chepel includes details on five new congregational goals for 2021-2022. They are: Assess, strengthen, and build on WellSprings’ partnerships in the community. Test…
New Guidelines for In-Person Gatherings
This month, the CDC released new guidance relaxing safety recommendations for people who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19. Full precautionary measures, including masks and distancing, are still recommended for unvaccinated people. Our congregation is comprised of a mix of vaccinated and unvaccinated people – especially while vaccines remain unavailable to children under 12. Further complicating this guidance is the reality that none of us has a fully reliable way to verify who is vaccinated. Different precautions will be needed at different types…
WellSprings is Having an Intern…
After discussion this Spring between myself and our Board of Trustees, I’m thrilled to share that WellSprings will be hiring a Ministerial Intern, to start in the Fall of 2021! WellSprings has been a teaching congregation before – supervising the internship of Rev. Greg Pelley from 2011-2013, and then my own internship, from 2013-2015. I’m so excited that once again, we’ll be able to support a new minister, in service to our wider Unitarian Universalist movement – and to see…
WellSprings Band, LIVE!
Join us as the WellSprings Band reunites to play – live and in-person! – for the first time in over a year, at the Montgomery School. Come sit outside and enjoy the music on Sunday, June 27th at 1pm, and help us rededicate the gathering space of our beloved spiritual home. Since we’ll be entirely outdoors, we’ve set a rain date for July 11th at 1pm. If you’re excited to join us, you may want to save both dates, on…
Interested in Joining Our Congregation? Start with a WellSprings 1.0 Session!
Our WellSprings 1.0 gatherings are a chance for you to learn more about what it means to become a member of our spiritual community. If you’ve been attending services for a while and feel like WellSprings might be your new spiritual home, you are warmly invited to join us for these special small-group discussions. Since we are still distancing, 1.0 sessions will take place over Zoom. WellSprings 1.0 takes place across three separate sessions. Each session will be held on…
“Heirloom Connections” Our May Message Series
We’re more aware than ever these days, that we are all living through history. All of us inherit the world our ancestors created, and future generations will be shaped by the choices we make today. How might we be enriched, by building relationships with people at different ages and stages of life? In this message series, we’ll take inspiration from “pen pal” exchanges between ten members of our community – ranging in age from 5 to 82 – who’ve agreed…
Moving Towards a Post-Pandemic Era: A Letter From Rev. Lee
Dear WellSpringers, There’s a joke ministers often tell – a groaner… really, “joke” might be a strong word. A well-worn line for when strange problems come up in the life of a congregation. When a family of racoons builds a nest in the church bell tower, for example. Or when a mischievous eight-year-old gets into the storage room, and writes “butt” on the inside cover of every hymnal. “Well,” we say to each other, “…they didn’t teach us how to…
Renewing Our Membership Commitments
This Sunday, we’re welcoming new members to WellSprings at our Belonging Sunday service online. But because Belonging Sunday is a celebration of all members, not only our newest, we are also inviting you to renew your membership commitment this spring. Here are two ways to renew your commitment: The “New Member” Website Section – We’ve created a section of our website specifically for new members. There, you’ll find all the new information we hand out to members during our revamped…
What’s Belonging Sunday?
Coming up on April 11th, WellSprings is celebrating a new twist on an older tradition. Introducing: Belonging Sunday! In past years, we’ve welcomed new members at a special New Member Sunday Service; usually once in the Spring and once in the Fall. This year, we’re introducing something new. We’re celebrating WellSprings membership at a special service, and we’re inviting our existing members to come meet our newest members as part of this all-ages service. Rather than offering membership twice a…