I’ve recently moved to a large city where I don’t know anyone and don’t have a job or friends yet. One of the ways I was hoping to find community is to connect with a local UU church, since I was very active in my former congregation.

I was surprised to discover only one very small congregation exists; it doesn’t have a minister, and only 18 - 20 people attend the services. It’s a long drive from my house, the service was nearly 2 hours long, quite disorganized, and the prominent closed caption television screen made the whole thing feel soulless. So I will try to drop in now and again, see if I can contribute to the community in small ways, but I don’t anticipate it being the spiritual home and community I am longing for.

Does anyone have suggestions for other types of communities or organizations that might meet some of the same spiritual needs that a UU congregation can? Maybe a particular volunteer organization or support group? I’m really alone here and many of my neighbors are not English speakers, so it’s hard to strike up conversations in coffee shops or ask people I meet for recommendations.