There are times when good news can be hard to come by, and even when it’s not, I’m glad to spread it around. There’ve been a couple of bits of good news that I’ve seen lately that I want to direct you toward. Both are about our wider religious movement and looking toward the future.

The first comes – surprisingly – from the Washington Post. On November 27, Perry Bacon, Jr., writing for the Opinion department, offered his recommendations for what to do instead of doomscrolling through social media. Number 2 on his list? “Join a Unitarian Universalist Congregation.” He tells his readers that he’s been attending for a while, and appreciated that the members were working on specific actions. It’s hard to know what kind of impact that might have for our Unitarian Universalist community here or across the country, but it’s good publicity for our broader community.

Before moving to the second bit of good news, I want to note that one of the best ways of growing any congregation is for members and friends to invite people to come with them to services. Are there friends that you might invite to come along? They may find a home here, too.

The second bit of good news comes from our Unitarian Universalist Association. I recently had the chance to listen to a presentation about how our congregations are faring overall. Each year, congregations are asked to submit data about their congregation as part of certifying congregations as an ongoing part of the UUA. It includes worship and religious education attendance, financial health, among other indicators of health. If you’re interested in hearing the whole presentation you can access it here.

Some of the news wasn’t as cheerful as I would have liked, but none was troubling. For example, about half of the congregations who took part reported that there was growth in the number of members they had. The other half reported a decline. I’ll call even in membership a win. While growth would be my hope, knowing that mainline denominations are all undergoing a decline in membership, staying even says that we’re not losing. That’s a win, right?

Congregations reported that they were retiring long term debt. In 2016, congregations had around $113 million in debt. By this year, that had fallen to $69 million, a significant decrease. The data also showed that rental income increased, as did endowments which grew by 44% since 2016.

Most cheering to me, though, was that enrollment in religious education, including youth, was up by 16%. What cheers me most about that is the impact it can have on the future. While I am all for raising up kids to be Unitarian Universalist adults, I care a lot more about the impact that both children raised in our community and their parents can have on the world.

Beloved colleague Bob Karnan wrote: “The quality of love and goodness we expose from our sometimes reluctant hearts will change the world. Our task is not to make more UUs or to make bigger congregations or to raise great gobs of money. It is to heal and inspire, to open and to remake, and thus change what is sorry to what is a joy. It is why we gather in the spirit of love and justice. It is why I give my life in service to what can only be described as invisible and intangible but which is also the most powerful force of all:  our all too human, sometimes faltering, sometimes complete, sometimes painful and sad, sometimes serene and laughing love – that speaks, if anything at all does – with the voice of God.”

We Unitarian Universalists don’t have the market on spreading goodness and love in the world, but when we’re doing it right we have a role to play in making the world better, to offer hope and care when life seems difficult and dangerous.”

I’m glad to be in this work with all of you.