Susannah Numa is the Volunteer of the Month for January. Susannah was raised Unitarian Universalist. When she came to UUCSS in the fall of 2010 and experienced a few services with Rev. Liz Maclay and Rev. Ellen Jennings, it felt right, open, and comfortable. The music program was enticing, and she appreciated the diversity of services and worship styles. Susannah began by volunteering for nursery and came to know Pi Thi, UUCSS’s senior nursery staff member well. She then joined the Diversity Team. As a member of the Diversity Team, she helped to facilitate the two-year Building the World We Dream About curriculum, bring Rev. Mark Morrison-Read to preach, and host Miguel de la Torre, who presented his documentary on immigration and embracing hopelessness. She is currently active as a member of the Racial Justice Task Force and the Ministerial Search Committee. She agreed to join the Ministerial Search Committee because she was raised with the philosophy that it is important to contribute and share a part of yourself with your community. Although Susannah has been coming to UUCSS for eight years, she is aware that much about how UUCSS functions can go unexplained and unspoken. She appreciates Rev. Lyn Cox’s intentionality in expressing some of these unspoken assumptions, including very simple ones such as where to go for Coffee Hour after the service. Susannah thinks it is important to find ways to make easier for people to integrate into the community at UUCSS.
Coming to UUCSS allows Susannah a safe, meditative, and thoughtful space to reflect and think about spirituality and who we are in the universe. Elsewhere she gets wrapped up in the day-to-day activities of living, but at UUCSS Susannah finds a place to think more intentionally. To Susannah UUCSS means identity, community, and spirituality.