Blair C. Marks

Every year, I receive one or two calls from people who want to “run something by me.” They know that I spent many years as an ethics and compliance professional, and they want to get my opinion as to how to handle something they have observed or been asked about. It’s often a concern about a leader abusing the power of their position, generally involving relationships and behaviors between volunteers, congregants, clergy, or staff. Sometimes, it’s within a congregation, and sometimes it’s within one of our movement’s organizations. From my perspective, every person who makes one of these calls is a hero. They are upstanders, people who have listened or observed and recognized that something seems wrong, and they are not willing to just sit by and do nothing even when they are not personally involved.

My congregation’s women’s group recently held our annual “Sisterhood Shabbat,” celebrating the women of our congregation and installing our new board. Services were preceded by a yummy potluck dinner that attracted a fair crowd. As dinner was getting underway in our social hall, one of our congregants spotted a couple of millennial women in the lobby who had arrived early for services….and invited them to join the dinner.

Will you do the same things you did last year or will you add something new and different? “Keeping it fresh” leads to vitality, increased membership, a deeper volunteer pool, and well-attended programming. Even when we have a program every year, like a YES Fund event, we should find ways to introduce new dimensions. This could be a different venue, different theme, different program, or a different way to recognize an honoree. Take a road trip. Have a picnic. Host a traditional tea. Go to a football or hockey game. When I was in Girl Scouts, I learned the simple song sung in a round: “Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver, and the other is gold.” I think the same principle can apply to everything we do: add new and innovative ideas while at the same time keeping the core of what has made us successful so far.

My favorite prayer from the liturgy has always been the one beginning, "Grant us peace, Your most precious gift, and give us the will to proclaim its message to all the peoples of the earth." I remember it from my childhood, especially the evening services for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur – although, of course, then it was the more formal Union Prayer Book II version beginning, "Grant us peace, Thy most precious gift, O Thou eternal source of peace, and enable Israel to be a messenger of peace unto the peoples of the earth."