This week as part of our countdown to the Annual Congregational Meeting I’ve asked Board member Larry Drake to introduce himself in the following video and talk about how the church fits into his and Heidi’s lives.  And as a tie-in to our Wednesday blog theme of Nature, he also speaks to the importance of the 7th Principle of Unitarian Universalism for him and recounts a recent move to an ‘eco-community’.

As your Director of Administration, I’ve enjoyed my responsibility to incorporate the 7th Principle in my work;  input during the Green & Growing campaign with a focus on environmental design, establishing our first solar array, partnering with the city for our Weisheimer Road raingarden, and managing a grant supported green facility study that we are now using as a guidepost for constant improvement.   We have a lot to be proud of, further to go, and the continued support from you -our members- is greatly appreciated.

Brian Hagemann

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Greetings from Board member, Larry Drake

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Reflection on the Seventh Principle  – Rev. Forrest Gilmore

Respect for the interdependent web of all existence

“Our seventh Principle, respect for the interdependent web of all existence, is a glorious statement. Yet we make a profound mistake when we limit it to merely an environmental idea. It is so much more. It is our response to the great dangers of both individualism and oppression. It is our solution to the seeming conflict between the individual and the group.

“Our seventh Principle may be our Unitarian Universalist way of coming to fully embrace something greater than ourselves. The interdependent web—expressed as the spirit of life, the ground of all being, the oneness of all existence, the community-forming power, the process of life, the creative force, even God—can help us develop that social understanding of ourselves that we and our culture so desperately need. It is a source of meaning to which we can dedicate our lives.”

—Rev. Forrest Gilmore, Executive Director of Shalom Community Center, Bloomington, IN (read more from Forrest in The Seven Principles in Word and Worship, ed. Ellen Brandenburg)