Hello! It is so good to finally be (virtually) among you! I’m excited to begin meeting with members and staff by phone and Zoom, and to learn more about the Washington Ethical Society. I’ll be doing a lot of listening during this month of new beginnings. I’ll also share with you, via blogs and platforms, more about the practice of Interim Leadership, and some ideas we can work on together to help WES move forward. 

We are living in a time that offers abundant opportunities for creativity, mutual care, and discerning our priorities. As my DLL colleague, Lara Profitt, mentioned in her greeting last month, COVID means we have to re-think how we gather and what our purposes are for gathering. We can re-evaluate what is most important as members, families, visitors, and community partners engage with WES. I really appreciate what Lara said about embracing ambiguity and working together for positive change. These are excellent topics for an Interim period at any time, and are vitally necessary to engage with now. 

Often, one of the first things an Interim Leader does is to set up “cottage meetings,” which are small group, one-time gatherings of members to explore their commitments and hopes with regard to the congregation and to hear more about their histories. The stories shared during these meetings help the Interim Leader and the Transition Team to create a framework for the rest of the interim period. In our case, we will create these gatherings by Zoom and conference call. Some might be organized by experience or identity — such as meetings especially for new members or longtime members — and other cottage meetings might appeal to you based on schedule. I’m hoping we can get the majority of members involved in a cottage meeting between now and Thanksgiving. Stay tuned for a Google Form that will help you express your availability and preferences. 

Connecting is part of what humans do, and is deeply woven into what it means to create a community, particularly a community that finds meaning and purpose in the practice of right relationship. Yet connecting is happening differently now, with new technologies like Zoom and also the revival of some old technologies like handwritten letters. I know many of you are eager to connect and to tell me the things you value about WES. I look forward to that! Members will receive a separate email with my contact information, and this will also be available in the members-only section of the website. 

Now that I’m on staff, I will happily accept Facebook friend requests from members. That being said, out of concern for Facebook’s policies, I have decided to reduce my usage of the site and will probably limit my time on Facebook to once a week. I may have access to the Facebook and Google groups for members, but I will not be able to read them consistently, so please contact me directly if there is news you think I should know. You are also welcome to subscribe to my YouTube channel (search for RevLynCox on YouTube) or to follow my Twitter (@RevLynCox), though I don’t post to either one frequently. 

Please do reach out to me and to the Pastoral Care team if you are having a pastoral emergency such as a death or a critical hospitalization in your family. Email is often the fastest way to reach me. I will respond to a voicemail about an emergency fairly quickly between 7am and 9pm, and to non-emergency voicemail within a business day. 

Apart from that, I will have “office days” for WES-related meetings and communication (usually working at home during the pandemic) Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Fridays and Saturdays will generally be writing days, when I try to clear my schedule of meetings to make room for planning, research, and preparing platforms. Of course, on Sundays, we gather for Platform Services. 

The year ahead of us will be a grand adventure, with so much to learn about ourselves, about the world, and about how we shape change to bring out the best in ourselves and others. I’m so grateful for the chance to adventure alongside you. 

Take care,

-Lyn