The Rev. Dr. Craig Rubano

If there were a theme or a goal for my idea of ministry, it probably couldn’t be more pithily stated than “flourishing together.” Surely, as the author of one of the best novels written in the English language—Middlemarch—George Eliot (pen name of 19th-century author Mary Ann Evans) suggests above, if we aren’t in the business of making life less difficult for one another, then we are probably making life more difficult. Many times, when we feel restless, overwhelmed by the world, it is important to heed the warning of Mother Teresa, and remember that we belong to one another—how would our behavior change if we really took that to heart? Now, no one said UUCMC mission’s first prong of creating community was going to be easy—Dutch Catholic priest and theologian Henri Nouwen goes so far as to say that community is inevitably the struggle to live with the very persons one most would want to avoid. But, living outside of community deprives us of what I believe life is most beautifully ready to teach us: that we can, as the African proverb says, “go farther”—go deeper, go longer, go stronger—together.

June brings with it some wonderful opportunities to practice our congregational theme for the month of “flourishing together,” and it begins with a chance to rise in solidarity with some of our siblings in spirit most in need of flourishing community. In honor of LGBTQ+ Pride month, this congregation once again commits to participating in the annual state-wide Pride Festival in Asbury Park. To do so, on Sunday, June 7th, we will begin our worship service one hour earlier—at 9:30 AM. We have done this the past few years and—no matter how many times, in how many ways, we make the announcements—inevitably, someone is arriving just as the service is ending. But I think, with the political climate so cravenly cruel, especially toward “gender creative”—transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming—persons, showing up as a community is more vitally important than ever. My own academic and ministerial trajectory was set in a direction toward considering and advocating for those more gender creative than I, with my dissertation, and then a book publication (Emerging as Affirmative Pastoral Caregivers Beyond Gender Binaries: Gender Creative Promise) on the subject—set in motion by a sermon I gave at UUCMC ten years ago (!) during my two years as your Intern Minister. I will revisit that day and that sermon in the June 7th service.

June 14th is one of the biggest days in the life of our congregation as we engage in our Annual Business Meeting, which follows a multigenerational service in which we acknowledge and celebrate members who signed the membership book in the past year. This will also be our annual commemoration of the legacy of Unitarian minister Norbert Čapek’s institution of the ritual of Flower Communion, with an array of flowers as varied and beautiful as our membership. It was Čapek’s Communion’s emphasis on diversity that led directly to his being martyred at the Dachau concentration camp during the second world war, so, gorgeous as Flower Communion is, it is also deadly serious business. Flourishing together is difficult and counter-cultural work and is at the center of what we do in Unitarian Universalism. On June 21st, we will have another special service as we join with UUs across the world in watching the livestream of the Closing Worship Service of the annual General Assembly of the UU Association of Congregations. For that service, we will gather not in the Earth Room, but more casually (and with food!), in the Community Room. And then, to bring our 2026–27 fiscal year to an end, we welcome back to the pulpit the Rev. Dr. Mary Early-Zald, a chaplain in settings of hospice, hospital, and activist fronts. She will seal our month of flourishing together with a meditation on the lessons of interdependence derivable from the charming Pixar movie, Finding Dory.

It has been an amazing year, one that, I know, wasn’t the easiest, as it began with my sabbatical time away from you, but our June theme characterizes the tremendous job you all displayed, along with a collection of UU ministers and laypeople from across New Jersey, continuing in my absence to flourish together.

I look forward to seeing you in June. And I look forward to a new fiscal year beginning July 1st that will include our 70th Anniversary as a congregation in January!

Rev. Craig