This Sunday

The Freethinkers Space

Remembering what they died for — freedom of expression and assembly. Led by Rev. Barnaby.

Learning at CVUUS

Learning at CVUUS

We provide children, youth, young adults, and adults an opportunity to explore, reflect, and learn in a nurturing spiritual community.

Religious Exploration

Welcome to CVUUS

Welcome to the CVUUS website! We’re glad you’re here.
Ground Floor Construction to Begin in September!

Ground Floor Construction to Begin in September!

Funds for Kitchen and A/V Still Needed. Click for more information.

THANK YOU!

Rev. Barnaby Writes

From the Minister

Rev. Barnaby Feder, Minister

We are coming up as I write this on the one-year anniversary of my mother’s death. The week began with the sudden, unexpected passing while Michele and I were not with her of our beloved dog, Lyra.  Still, looking out from my personal grieving, I see in every direction trees gearing up to leaf out.    

We as a congregation are facing the largest gap in our time together between your initial pledges for the coming year and our preliminary budget goals, which were very modest to begin with. We are stumbling toward budget cuts that should be a cause for grief. And yet the congregation is expanding joyfully into our beautiful new fellowship hall and kitchen, and bustling with new activities. Our New UU class is shaping up to be the largest – and youngest average age – since you called me. Looking beyond everything that worries me about CVUUS, I see cause for faith and hope. And the trees are gearing up to leaf out.     

We as a nation are mired in political crisis, fear, and draining antagonisms. We are too timid and complacent to face up to our greatest challenges. And yet, looking up from all that invites me to despair, I see exciting new alliances being formed and young people stepping up to innovate and lead where we elders have faltered. And the trees are gearing up to move from budding and flowering into leafing out. Read More about “From the Minister”…

Save the Dates!

Member Stories

Love is the doctrine of this church, the search for truth is its sacrament, and service is its prayer.

I love those words, and to me they capture the essence of CVUUS, what we do here together each week, and what we take with us when we leave and go out in to the greater world.

I believe that everything in this life at its most fundamental level is based on love, and that everything we do in life must have love as its foundation.

I believe that justice, compassion, and respect are all born of love, and I feel that righteous anger, too, springs from love and a passion to make things equitable and just.

I believe that love will always win in the end. Always.

This may all sounds well and good, and I will readily admit that I am an idealist. But am I a PollyAnna? Not by a long shot. I know there are tremendous obstacles and trials on the path of love. It’s something we all deal with every single day.

But I see CVUUS as an incubator of love and hope, as a safe haven in which to envision and build the stepping stones to a more loving and peaceful world. CVUUS is a place where I come precisely because we don’t all look the same, we don’t all think the same way, and we don’t all approach things from the same perspective. That’s the way life is. We respect and value our differences, and even though we may not always be perfect when it comes to bridging our differences, it is something we yearn for and strive to do.

Every time we welcome someone through that door and every time we walk out of it, we are ambassadors of justice, of compassion, and of love. And at CVUUS we are committed ambassadors.

I see it time and again in our readiness to face challenges, in our passion to act, in our fearlessness to confront hatred and violence, in our willingness to admit mistakes and to regroup and go at it again; in our eagerness to reach out and share, I see it when we look in each other’s eyes, clasp hands and honor each other and our work together.

We may be small here at #2 Duane Court in Middlebury,VT, but we are mighty. I know that our efforts and the love we build here together does and will have an impact far beyond our little burg.

So, let’s squirt some WD-40 on the hinges of our hearts and open them even wider. Let’s continue to be resilient and creative in the face of animosity and difficulties; let’s build and share more love in every possible way we can.

Because love in all its manifestations is the only way forward.