Dear members of religious communities who are getting tired of our professional leadership and services happening virtually,

Leading religious services and religious education over zoom is five or ten times harder than doing so in person. None of us want to continue doing that a minute longer than necessary.

Also true: none of us want to risk having to do funerals over zoom because we gathered in person too soon.

Also true: it seems that 'too soon' is likely to mean a whole year.

Dear Friends,

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“How forcible are right words!”
—Job 6:25

by Rachel Maxwell

Stewardship for Us hosted a lively program at virtual GA on June 26th,  introducing Edgar Villanueva’s book, Decolonizing Wealth, and his seven steps to healing through money, or using money as medicine. Over 175 people joined our session to learn and discuss the ways in which their congregations can engage in this work. 

Villanueva’s Seven Steps are:

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If you attended virtual General Assembly last month, you probably read or at least heard about the Responsive Resolution that was adopted: Supporting and Investing in Youth and Young Adults in Unitarian Universalism.

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Rev. David Pyle, Regional Lead

NOTE: This month’s Dismantling White Supremacy Culture resource is from UUA President, Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray. 

Nancy Combs-Morgan, Congregational Life Consultant, MidAmerica and Southern Regions

Since last March, our MidAmerica regional staff have been actively coaching and connecting with congregational leaders as they have transitioned to a virtualsphere of congregational life. We have been amazed at the resilience and capacity for adaptation of so many congregations. What has inspired me are the countless religious educators who have faithfully helped to provide online, multigenerational, opportunities for UU faith formation.  

Congregational Leaders Check-ins — Led by Lisa Presley
Every Wednesday afternoon in July and August at 1pm Eastern / 12pm Central
This webinar series is for all congregational leaders and will respond directly to the challenges that congregations are encountering during this time of finding new ways to be in religious community and responding to this health emergency. 

Because of the novel coronavirus, we’ve had to reschedule our in-person MidWest Leadership School until 2021. But the need for learning how to be a leader doesn’t take a year off, so we’re moving Leadership Experience training online. 

The Black Lives Matter Movement began in 2013 after the murder of Trayvon Martin. Trayvon, a teenage African American boy was followed by a suspicious neighborhood watchman. The two ended up getting in a scuffle, and Trayvon was fatally shot.

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"I am only one
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something.
And because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do
the something that I can do."
—Edward Everett Hale

Everyone's cries sound different on the phone. Over the phone I cannot see how their faces change, how their bodies tighten as they try to hold back tears and relax when they finally surrender and let the tears fall. That’s what I’m used to.

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“Get In The Way!!!” Congressman John Lewis has reminded us for years that it is our turn to actively make a difference. He stood on the crest of the Edmund Pettus as he marched peacefully for the right to vote. Twice the marchers had to turn back as they suffered the violence of the racists. They finally crossed that bridge and headed for Montgomery to demand their right to vote. This led to the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The Living Legacy Project has continued the struggle for years. The UU The Vote Campaign continues the struggle, today.

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Dear former Youth and Young Adult General Assembly volunteer staff,

In acknowledging your statement and choice to resign from your volunteer staff positions, we regret and are sorry that this experience hasn’t been affirming of you as leaders of our faith. We are grieving the loss of trust expressed in your emails and statement, we feel it personally and deeply.

"Keep fresh before me the moments of my High Resolve, that in fair weather or in foul, in good times or in tempests… I may not forget that to which my life is committed. Keep fresh before me the moments of my high resolve."
—Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman

When my spouse was a little kid, my mother-in-law's father—Grandpa Carter—made a dollhouse as a special gift. The house is two stories, with a stairwell in the middle, an attic that opens with rooftop hinges, and chimneys at either end.

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It is time to say farewell to you as my position with the Congregational Life staff in the Central East Region of our UUA comes to an end on June 30th. I am passing the baton on to Sana Saeed, who will serve you beginning July 6th. Both the global health crisis and the civil rights movement to end racism and reform policing have changed the nature of this farewell. 

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The last time Rattler called from Sandstone prison, I had just returned from the first action here in Fargo to commemorate the brutal murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and too many other Black people killed by police. As a political prisoner from the Water Protector Movement at Standing Rock, Rattler spoke of the historic connections between violence against Black people, Indigenous people like himself, and all people of color.

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“No pride for some of us without liberation for all of us."
—Marsha P. Johnson

Happy Pride. It feels strange to say that; this moment is anything but happy because of an assault in this country on Black and brown bodies that has never really ended.

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One way UU congregations live our values is through our Safe Congregations committees and policies to create a safer and more welcoming community for all. Visit the Safe Congregations pages for complete information.

Below are some particular areas to pay attention to during online programming for the safety of children and youth.

It's that time of the year again. Your congregation has held its annual meeting and elected new officers, or its on your schedule. You have new committee chairs appointed to lead your work for next year. But have you told anyone outside the congregation about these changes?

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Side with Love and Love Resists present:

Unfinished Business: A Study of DuBois’ Reconstruction in America to Now
4 Wednesdays: June 10, June 17, July 1 and July 8

"We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.”
—James Baldwin

Near the end of my sophomore year in high school, I decided to run for junior class secretary. Talked to my guidance counselor, grabbed the required form from the wooden tray on his desk, and took it home for a parental signature.

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How do we respond to the impact of this pandemic in our lives? We work together. Recently, five congregations in Western Pennsylvania have joined together to share worship in rotation- each taking a different Sunday. By doing this, less energy needs to be focused on worship and can instead be directed at supporting individual congregants during this difficult time.

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Each year hundreds of UUs look forward to Central East Region’s Summer Institute (CERSI) especially the hugs, ice cream with families, long conversations with friends, pop up jam sessions and interesting classes. However, like everything else in the Summer of 2020, Summer Institute had to cancel due to COVID-19. Cancel? After 40 years of this wonderful intentional community, cancel? The Planning Committee and other leaders who work on SI all year long went through the stages of grief like a lot of people who have had to cancel plans.

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There’s no question about it: The world as we knew it no longer exists. The upheaval to “normal life” caused by the coronavirus might also bring an upheaval to the structures that keep inequalities in place – but it’s not guaranteed. The pandemic has certainly drawn much wider attention to the inequalities that have always been present in daily life. And even without a pandemic disrupting life around the globe, our planet is confronted with an even greater existential threat: the climate crisis.  

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So…  You’ve run some Zoom meetings where a few folks chatted away, enjoying each other’s video and audio.  Perhaps you’ve ventured into larger scale production and are conducting Sunday Services via Zoom.  But what if you’re called on to stage a full congregational meeting, with formal debate on motions followed by auditable voting?

When his brother died of COVID-19, Mark Hicks helped to plan a meaningful memorial for his family. This is his story.

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We are living in times that are upending our routines and requiring us to think in new ways. We know there is no tried-and-true answer "out there" for us to research. We need to think adaptively and that means we need to try different approaches and see what works best.

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Companioning one another spiritually is one of the most important ministries of a faith community. It’s often referred to as “Pastoral Care,” which might imply that the Pastor should do all of the care. But ministry in congregations is meant to be shared between ordained and lay leaders.

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Who's in Charge? Mickey or Lola?

Please join our ad-hoc group of Indigenous people and allies to urge your Members of Congress to take appropriate actions to protect the lives of our Indigenous loved ones – and all people – living in federal prisons during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

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Dear Leaders,
 
As states around the country begin to loosen guidelines and take actions to reopen, even as COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to climb, we have received many questions from congregations about returning to in-person gatherings. 

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Dear Leaders,
 
I am grateful to share my weekly message today with the Rev. Ashley Horan, the UUA’s Organizing Strategy Director. We write to share an update on UU the Vote and how it is pivoting in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

UU the Vote launched last fall with a mission to mobilize Unitarian Universalists to combat voter suppression, have values-based issue conversations in their communities, mobilize new and infrequent voters, and provide spiritual sustenance for faith-based electoral organizing.

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"..if we could perhaps do nothing for once,
perhaps a great silence would interrupt this sadness,
this never understanding ourselves
and threatening ourselves with death,
perhaps the earth is teaching us…."
—Pablo Neruda, "A callarse" ("Keeping Quiet," translated by Stephen Mitchell)

One of the regular columns in our small town, weekly newspaper is the Animal Activity Blotter from the Animal Control Officer. It’s my favorite thing in the paper. Here is a recent entry:

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Now that we’re entering our third month of social distancing, we’re beginning to discover the possibilities (and well as the limits) of maintaining a virtual religious organization.

At the MidAmerica Regional Assembly on April 18, 2020, our Keynote Speaker Taquiena Boston, Special Advisor to the UUA President on Equity, Inclusion, and Change, asked these questions in her keynote address: 

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Featured Resource: General Assembly 2020 Goes Virtual

The UUA Board of Trustees has passed a resolution to make the 2020 General Assembly a 100% virtual event. This decision alleviates the anxiety and concern shared by many about how GA might proceed given the impact of COVID-19. It also gives the Association time to plan a more robust and rewarding virtual experience.

“Specialists without spirit, sensualists without heart; this nullity imagines that it has attained a level of civilization never before achieved.”
―Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

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This gallery of web-optimized chalice art and is available for informal use. Right-click on any image to save it to your computer. You may edit these images with any graphics-editing software.

Please use the current UUA Logo available for public communications of your Unitarian Universalist (UU) group.

(Some of the chalices below are also available as fonts.)

Looking for new music for your worship service that you can also use online? Check out this resource!

The AUUMM Music Database is maintained by volunteers from Association for Unitarian Universalist Music Ministries. It was created to assist music directors, choir directors, songleaders, ministers, and other worship leaders to find appropriate music choices to enhance their worship services. It is also a tool to help Unitarian Universalist composers and lyricists disseminate their music.

“There ain't no way you can hold onto something that wants to go, you understand? You can only love what you got while you got it.”
―the character of Gloria Dump in Because of Winn-Dixie, by Kate DiCamillo

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After self-isolating for more than five weeks, I had my routine down. My wife and I still got up before 8 a.m. I'd make coffee and she'd walk the dog (wearing a mask, of course). We'd both work in our respective offices for most of the day. In the afternoons, sometimes, we'd do yoga in the living room. At night we'd make dinner together, then watch something, then go to bed. Repeat. 

A weekly guide to stories about Unitarian Universalists from other media sources

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Early in the pandemic crisis my mind kept wandering back to a poem written by my former minister and mentor, Rev Rudy Nemser. The poem, “Long-Haul People,” reminds me that congregations thrive on a million small acts of attention and commitment over weeks, months and years and it is through those acts that we grow the resilience to weather the kind of crisis we now find ourselves in.  

At the core of the commitment to one another in our covenant is how we care for one another as religious communities. And yet, in times of crisis, conflict, or challenge, the patterns of how we have cared for one another in other times can break down. This webinar will explore both practices of how to care for one another in times of crisis and challenge, but also how the care itself must change because of these times.

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