Hallie Bowie, President of the Board of Trustees (she/her)

UUCA: Ready to meet new challenges together. It has been very nearly a year since the pandemic started affecting life at UUCA. It was March 11th , 2021 when I Rob Sturr and I got a call from Reverend Tim. I don’t recall if he had left a message or sent a text, but I do remember that it was clearly something that needed immediate attention, so I pulled off to the side of the road on the way home from a meeting. He called to tell us UUA was advising that congregations be ready to suspend in-person services, and find a way to do services online in order to keep members safe. It was Wednesday, and that afternoon we expected that we would have one more service in person, but by Thursday the staff had determined that it was best not to meet even one more time in the sanctuary. I know the Coronavirus had been in the news a bit prior to this, but I had no idea when I attended church on March 8th that that would be our last time together in the sanctuary for quite a while. Amazingly, Rev. Tim, Abby, and the rest of the staff worked out a way to hold a Zoom service just days later!

Since then we have had to change almost everything about the way our faith community works. Besides Sunday worship, we have found ways to continue our community meal, Whole Foods distribution, Religious Education Classes, UUWA, Hermitage of the Heart, COYA, UU the Vote, and much more. We have not only continued these important ministries, we have welcomed a new interim minister, adopted the 8th Principle, and started new initiatives such as the Neighborhood Pods! While we very much miss being together in person, the online format for Sunday services has made it possible for us to post past services to our UU Church of Akron YouTube channel! So far we have about 4 services posted, plus a fabulous re-boot of our Welcome to the UU Church of Akron video put together by Deb Lemire. It’s great for sharing with friends who are curious about our congregation.

The next 12 months are going be different than the past 12. We will be finding ways to safely see more of each other in person, even if our faces are still masked for a while longer. These are challenging times, but our congregation has met the challenge and will continue to do so. I’m excited to see what we accomplish together next!