As the days begin to shorten, the morning air becomes crisper, and my fuzzy socks have reappeared from storage, I find myself reflecting on how our congregation continues to embody our shared commitment to co-creating positive, alternative futures; futures that imagine new ways of being human together.

This month, I had the opportunity to connect with global communities I am a part of, traveling to Czechia for a leadership conference and hosting colleagues from Guatemala for a week of co-creation activities. These experiences were incredibly powerful reminders to me that the challenges and opportunities we are facing here in Manhattan are shared across borders. Solidarity, beloved community, and intentional action will not only get us through these difficult moments in history but to also reimagine how the world could and should function.

The Board has been deeply engaged in this work throughout the month, and we have been discerning how to strengthen the structures that sustain us while remaining flexible enough to respond to emergent demands. In many ways, the work of the Board this month has been about cultivating space. Space for ideas, for deep listening, and for the courage to test what might at first feel impossible or unfamiliar. We are learning to see governance and leadership as a spiritual practice, one that calls us not simply to manage what is, but to also make room for what could be. The delicate balance of preparing for long-term sustainability and addressing immediate needs is not something we take lightly, and we appreciate the contributions of this community that have helped us in this work, both practically and spiritually.

I want to specifically thank the members of the Income/Spending Discrepancy Task Force, Catherine Long, Cybil Perkins, Jay Williams, Brice Hobrock, and Jason Coleman, for the exceptional work they have done engaging with the congregation to make sense of our financial situation and provide tangible recommendations to the Board. I also am grateful to each of you who provided insights, questions, and other feedback to the Task Force to inform these recommendations. As the Task Force prepares for the second phase of their charge, which will shift focus to long-term sustainability, I hope you will continue to generously share your perspectives.

As a congregation, we are at a beautiful point of possibility. The realities of the world around us demands new stories that emerge from cooperation, creativity, and compassion. Our calling at Unitarian Universalists is to respond to this call not with fear of failure but with curiosity and radical imagination. What would it mean for us to see this congregation as a space for possibility? A place where we can safely experiment with new ways of learning, leading, and loving?

As we move into the coming month, I invite each of us to embrace this curious, experimental mindset. To ask, “what if?” and “why not?” more often. Let us be a community that not only dreams of a better world but also practices the small, creative acts that make that better world possible. 

 In community,

Mac Benavides

Board Chair