Let’s connect! Join with your peers to share ideas, strategies, questions, concerns, and to receive and offer support. Across all regions, we are trying something a little different this year. We will be offering our leadership gatherings monthly with some time dedicated to recorded content on a particular topic. These recordings will be led by your Congregational Life staff and others across the UUA, and are intended to share the most recent trends and best practices across a wide variety of topics of interest to congregational boards. Then, we will spend time in break out groups to discuss either the recording or other areas of interest.

We will gather next month on Thursday, September 10 from 7:00-8:30pm ET (a full list of dates for the upcoming year is available at the previous link). Join us for Congregational Foundations with Natalie Briscoe (Director of Congregational Life).

This gathering is open to current Board members and those who will be on the Board within the next several months. Invites and reminders with the Zoom link will be sent to all Board members later this summer. To ensure receipt, please check that all information for your congregation on my.uua.org is current and correct. Latecomers and early departures are welcome.

We look forward to gathering with you!

Let’s connect! Join your peers to share ideas, questions, concerns, and support on Thursday, September 24 from 10:30-11:30am ET. This will be our first gathering for 2026-2027.

This gathering is open to all New England Region congregational administrators.

The Zoom link will be sent to all congregational administrators. To ensure receipt, please check that all information for your congregation on my.uua.org is current and correct. Latecomers and early departures are welcome.

We look forward to gathering with you!

Religious education is shared work—woven by staff and volunteers alike. To support that work, the New England Region team is continuing our gatherings for Religious Education Professionals (REPs) and lay leaders engaged in faith formation.

Join us to strengthen your leadership, build community, and find support for the transformative work of faith formation. The invite and reminders for the first gathering with the topic and Zoom link will go out later this summer and fall. All RE professionals and lay leaders will receive the invite via email. To ensure receipt, please make sure your congregation’s information is up to date on my.uua.org.

Save the dates below! Topics will be announced soon. All gatherings will be recorded.

Joint Leadership Retreats (JLR) will continue on per request basis for cluster events in 2026-2027. Please email your primary contact to discuss what possibilities there are for you and your neighbors this fall and beyond! Check out this NER News blog to find out more about what a JLR might entail.

This three-part series will cover child and youth safety standards and protocols, using real-life scenarios to deepen our exploration of how to best equip our congregations to create spaces where our young people can thrive. Sessions will be held on Tuesdays, October 20, November 3 and 17 from 2:00 to 3:30pm ET - more information is available on the previous link.

Sessions will be facilitated by members of the Congregational Life and Lifespan Faith Engagement teams at the UUA. The target audience for this series is religious professionals and lay leaders with extensive child and youth interaction.

Registration is required and available on a sliding scale. The registration deadline is Tuesday, October 20.

As we launch a new congregational year, make some space to pause and notice the new beginning at the RE Kickoff: New Ways of Being Together gathering. In these live sessions, UUA staff will share our latest resources for Religious Education, from curricula to policies and practices to training opportunities. You’ll find tools for taking stock, setting intentions, and moving toward your goals. So, gather your team – including any professional Religious Education staff, key RE lay leaders, ministers and Board presidents – and join us as we kick off the year together.

Three identical sessions will be offered at a variety of times to accommodate many time zones and individual needs. Choose one on the registration form:

Registration is free and required.

At the UUA, we’ve witnessed the steady, growing call for an updated UU faith development curricular series—and we’ve responded to the call! We created Woven Faith to both honor our past and incorporate our present and future expressions of faith. Woven Faith also integrates our most current associational learning around anti-oppression practices, supporting the cultivation of both internal and interpersonal social-emotional skills essential for sustainable justice work.

Interested in piloting Woven Faith? Register for a free pilot year for the 2026-27 congregational year and receive access as soon as materials become available.

Join us for any one of the following August orientations to the new Woven Faith pilot materials (each session is the same). We’ll start by grounding in an approach of whole church faith development, cover tips for preparing your congregation, and provide an overview of each component, feedback mechanisms, and have time for Q&A.

Registration is free and required; all sessions will be recorded and shared out to registrants, so please register for one even if you cannot make it live!

Do you have questions about what makes a pledge drive effective today? Join us for a three-session webinar designed for stewardship teams engaged in a spring pledge drive on Thursdays, October 22, 29, and November 5 from 7:00 to 9:00pm ET. We will explore current congregational giving trends, pledge drive practices that are working, and examples of real UU congregations who have experienced pledge drive successes. Congregations must register as teams, with three to four people per congregational team.

Registration is required for a fee (based on congregation size). Teams for registered congregations must be finalized by Thursday, October 15.

Meet the team supporting the UUA Property & Casualty Insurance Program including Hugh Dennis, Director of Benefit Plans and Services; Kenessa O'Dell, Account Manager; Greg Hunter, Managing Director; and Abby Greeno, Program Sales Operations Leader. During the session, we'll discuss current property and casualty underwriting trends, what they mean for congregations, and answer your questions. Whether you're new to the program or looking to stay informed, we encourage you to join us for this informative conversation.

Join on either Tuesday, August 4 at 12:00pm ET or Wednesday, August 5 at 3:30pm ET. Registration is free and required.

Registration is open for Moonrise 2026! Join transgender, nonbinary, intersex, Two-Spirit, gender-expansive, and other gender-diverse UU religious professionals for rest, joy, spiritual grounding, and community in Provincetown, Massachusetts, Monday to Friday, October 12 to 16. Registration closes Saturday, September 12.

Jan Gartner, Congregational Life Staffing Practices Director, has launched a new publication - The Staffing Inquirer. Check out the first edition from July and sign up to receive The Staffing Inquirer directly!

Join Side With Love’s monthly event to strengthen your spirit, make sense of the threats to democracy, and take meaningful action alongside others! You can watch or share the recording with your congregation afterwards.

The Gathering is on the second Monday monthly at 8:00pm ET. Register for the upcoming event on Monday, August 10. This month join for Declarations of Democracy - Healing and Repair.

Find this and many more events from Side With Love on their website.

Join for Side With Love's Democracy Defense and Community Safety Training series - designed to expand our capacity for election protection and neighborhood defense. They will share concrete safety tools and practices for our collective wellbeing. Drop in to one or each of these trainings! Please see the link above for on-going dates in August and September.

The Woodlands is a monthly, online spiritual community gathering for trans, non-binary, gender non-conforming, gender expansive, and intersex people, as well as the parents, caregivers, partners, and spouses who love and support them.

Join next on Sunday, September 6 at 5:00pm ET. Registration is free and required.

Beloved Gathering 2026 is happening in September in Unity Village, MO. DRUMM invites People of Color from across North America and around the world to join in-person to cultivate spiritual resilience, foster transformative connections, and empower People of Color across Unitarian Universalist communities.

The Association of Unitarian Universalist Transitions Professionals is again offering their Transitional Religious Leadership Course. Interim Training: Part One will begin on Thursday, August 13. Registration is required for a fee. The registration deadline is Wednesday, August 5. Find out more (Google doc)!