Dear friends,

Thank you so much for the wonderful support you gave me during the Commissioning Ceremony on February 28th! I am proud to wear the chalice necklace gift, beautifully created by Roberta Green, to represent this congregation as a lay commissioned minister.

I will officially begin preaching once a month at UUCRT on May 8th, after I have completed my hospital chaplaincy internship at Vassar Brothers Medical Center. This past month I had the opportunity to represent our faith as a guest preacher in the Greater Newburgh Interfaith Lenten Luncheon Series, where I spoke on the role of forgiveness in personal and community restoration. I am looking forward to future opportunities to serve both within and beyond our congregation.

I would also like to invite everyone to join me at a very special dedication in May. The city of Beacon will be dedicating a plaque to our Unitarian ancestor, activist and scholar, Margaret Fuller, who wrote her women’s rights manifesto Woman in the Nineteenth Century, while visiting Fishkill Landing (current day Beacon) in Fall 1844.

Our own congregation’s roots intersect with this historic visit, as it was our early founder, John P. DeWindt, who invited Margaret to this region. This marker will be part of the Women’s Rights and Suffrage History Trail in New York State as we move toward the 100th Anniversary of Women’s Right to Vote in New York in 2017 and nationally in 2020. The dedication ceremony will take place at the Beacon Visitor Center, on Saturday May 21st at 11 a.m., and I will join historians and public officials in honoring Margaret Fuller’s legacy. You can read more about Margaret’s legacy to Unitarian Universalism in this UU World article. I hope members of all our area Unitarian Universalist congregations will join me for this event!

In Faith,

Terri Pahucki