August 2024: Words to Lead By |
Welcome to this month’s Words To Lead By from your New England Region UUA Staff!
Here you’ll find our Practice Makes Possible blog and links to enage your congregation in the practices of Spiritual Leadership through articles, in-person or virtual offerings, and other connections with our wider UU faith community. As always, you can reach out to us any time! |
Essays and Resources to Engage Your Spiritual Leadership |
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We're All Swimming In This Stream Together* |
How we found hope, ingenuity, and great company in learning together this year. |
This church year, a small group of leaders and religious professionals from New England congregations gathered together as the Contexts Learning Community. We had a shared interest in exploring more deeply what is happening to church attendance and participation, especially amongst younger people and families. Our focus was the current realities of religious education, stewardship, and volunteerism. Without a doubt, generational trends are shifting and the Contexts group explored ways to reimagine engagement and learn more about the people we wish would join us.
The Learning Community made even more clear that our grief is wide and deep. People miss full sanctuary spaces, with no one logging in online, and Sunday morning coffee hours that resemble a family reunion. Many of us are still not reconciled to the reality that church as we have known it will never be the same again. The idea that only some of the congregations we see today being around several years from now continues to shock.
Most of all, what the group gained was the clearest picture possible that none of us are alone. Time and again, the Contexts group was comforted in its shared experience of inconsistent attendance, strained numbers, and unclear futures. There is great company within Unitarian Universalism, and all of liberal religion right now! That solidarity and kinship can be a powerful encouragement and motivation for action.
And just as surely as the relief that comes from shared circumstances, a competitive spirit also kicks up as people start to wonder: could we crack the code? Could our congregation be the one to figure out how to bring people inside for the first time - or back again? Can we talk to those congregations who have stemmed the tide to find out how they did it?
Friends: there is no magic fix, silver bullet, secret sauce, one-size-fits-most solution. There are no easy ways out of the collective crisis confronting us. Instead, there is resilience, human spirit, creativity, hope, ingenuity, and more.
Centering in gifts, which allows us to bring our own unique genius - as individuals and congregations - to bear in our experiments, is what we have. We ask: what can we do, where we are, with what and who we’ve got?
Below are some of the takeaways shared by the participants of the Contexts Learning Community. I suspect they might be edifying for your own journeys:
- I have learned to be specific about asking for help. Not "who wants to join a committee?" but who can help us do this task in this time frame?
- We cannot compete on the fun stuff. What we need to lean into is providing a rewarding and meaningful experience in the context of tumultuous lives.
- It really is hard out there for people in their/our 30s and 40s. Let's try doing things that support parents, even if they are not how we would have done things in 2019.
- Taking care of our congregation's members and friends is part of our social justice mission — we can't build the beloved community outside, if we aren't doing it inside. That's a big part of why people will come and stay.
- The elders who dominate our demographics need to be convinced to think in terms of paying back to younger generations with time and support.
- We've learned that our challenges are not unique, and we also realize that we are a unique community with unique resources and unique possibilities. We've learned that we can make things happen through careful listening, and we can hope to find what is the next right thing for our congregation.
May it be so!
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*with gratitude to Pat Humphries for the title, from her song, Swimming to the Other Side |
Did you miss Contexts? Check out the resources gathered for pre-work and during the learning community! |
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Do you need some time as a leadership team to deepen connections, orient new leaders, and plan for the year ahead? Would you rather not have to build it yourself? Could you use some tools for leading in these challenging and unpredictable times?
Sounds like some Joint Board Retreats are in order!
- Saturday, September 7 - First Parish in Kingston, MA
- Saturday, September 14 - UU Congregation of the Upper Valley in Norwich, VT
- Saturday, September 14 - UU Society: East in Manchester, CT
- Saturday, September 14 - First Parish in Bedford, MA
- Saturday, September 21 - UU Community Church, Augusta, ME
Registration is now open! Registraion is available on a sliding scale: $40/$50/$60 and includes a light breakfast and full lunch. The registration deadline is one week prior to the gathering or when maximum capacity is reached. Please follow the links above for the registration form. |
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Additionally...
NER has published a Board Retreat Template: design and lead your own retreat with some help from us! Also linked on the page are self-led trainings from the UU Institute. If you have specific questions or needs, please do not hesitate to reach out to your NER primary contact. |
Speaking of your primary contact...
If your congregation is starting with a new ministry this year, please check your inbox for an email sent about start-ups. Can't find it? No problem - kindly send a message to your primary contact.
And more to pay attention to as we come into the 2024-2025 church year...
We will continue with our Board and congregational administrators quarterly gatherings - invites are coming soon! We will have exciting new learning community opportunities as well - please check our programs and events page for updates!
Don't forget...!
The more up-to-date your congregation's leadership and staff information is on my.uua.org, the better we can stay in touch! We appreciate your efforts. |
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AND - save the date for fall Religious Education Professionals (REP) meetups from Faith Development Co-Lab: Sunday, September 22 from 7:00-8:30pm ET and Tuesday, September 24 from 12:00-1:30pm ET. |
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Announcing the UUA's Mosaic Lifespan Anti-Racism Curriculum Series Launch! |
The Mosaic Hub, the UUA's online central location for anti-racism resources, is proud to announce this week's launch of the Mosaic Lifespan Anti-Racism Curriculum Series! This series provides K through adult curricula with a multi-media approach to age-appropriate lessons in understanding racism and how we can work together to dismantle the systems and institutions that uphold it.
The first three lessons of all curricula (K-1st, 2nd-3rd, 4th-5th, Middle School, High School, Emerging Adult, BIPOC adult, and General Adult) are available to those who complete the self-paced facilitator training, free for Mosaic facilitators or available for a $30 fee.
Visit the Mosaic website for more information and a link to the UU Institute training course, Facilitating for Transformation. |
Connecting Congregations - Book Offering! |
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The Unitarian Church of Montpelier has 12 copies of the 2022-2023 Common Read Mistakes and Miracles available. Is your congregation interested in a copy, or perhaps you have a group who missed the Common Read and wants to dig in together? Please contact Judith Hinds via email to make arrangements. |
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Unitarian Universalist Association, New England Region
24 Farnsworth Street
Boston, MA
02210
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