Happy wet February and Happy Valentine’s Day everyone. I trust your roof didn’t leak and you that feel the love of people around you.

Of course, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe your roof did leak, or maybe you’re feeling relatively unloved today or this month. If either of those are true, I am sorry for your difficulty. Please let me know if there is anything that I can do for you.

Trust is our theme of the month for February. There’s one tricky thing about trust though – sometimes things don’t actually work out. Perhaps you trusted in a person or a situation and were disappointed or even devastated. That has happened to me, and to all of us at some point.

But I would still rather trust, in my family or friends, my coworkers or my congregation. I prefer to believe in the good intentions of others, and even if it turns out badly I will prefer to believe in those good intentions again tomorrow. Trust helps us love, helps us believe, helps us thrive. It will help us to transform the world through justice and compassion.

Our congregation is in the middle of an exciting but also difficult process. A new alternate name could give the congregation renewed purpose or energy; it could help us grow to become a bigger part of our surrounding community; it could increase the power and impact of our mission.

But we need to do this with care and thought and empathy for those who may not agree. The final vote may be only a few months away, but what is equally important is how we act each day and in each conversation before that vote.

I trust in our people. I trust in our process. I trust in our Covenant of Good Relations. I trust we can proceed with this process and keep the love under our roof.

Please help this be so.