Getting Excited about the Philippine Council Meeting

Hello friends,

It's Brian Kiely, ICUU President writing.

I am started to get excited abut heading to the Philippines on Thursday in advance of next week's Council Meeting. We will have a very full house at the meetings and the conference. And as someone in the middle of a Canadian winter, the idea of south sea breezes and swaying palm trees also holds some attraction.

But the real attraction, as always, is the chance to spend time with Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists from six continents, finding commonalities and exploring and appreciation the differences in the way we celebrate our liberal religion. And of course this will be the first Council Meeting ever held outside the North America or Europe.

The meetings formally convene next week, running February 7-12. I am heading over early, because I have been invited to preach twice next Sunday, a real honour. One service will be in Quezon City. I am told it will be familiar to me as a North American, a congregation of educated professionals and middle class folks. But the other service will be at an outreach community they have begun in Bicutan, one of the poorest parts of Manila. It should be an fascinating experience.

I hope to use this blog to record some of these experiences with pictures, and perhaps some short video clips, and invite any other conference participants to post comments as well. Hopefully we can convey some of what makes these events special.