Author Archives: Tandi Rogers

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Tandi Rogers

A Big Night for a Small Church

Peter & Joe
UUA President Rev. Peter Morales and Rev. Joe Cherry

Last week we invited the group Repairers of the Moral Breach to the UU Society in Cleveland, and it was a wild ride.

 

So often we UUs talk about interfaith work, and I do believe we try our hardest, but there so often feels like so many barriers to doing the work. So many questions about how we can engage authentically and without laying our own agenda over the work that we often stop ourselves before we begin.

 

I, too, have this concern.

 

But, when I was approached by the Repairers group I took a deep breath, I did a quick check by email with the Board of the congregation I serve and we were a go!

 

UU Society Entrance
UU Society of Cleveland, OH

The UU Society of Cleveland is a small church, about 60 people, and having this big, national movement come to us was daunting. We had about 300 people in our church last Monday, and it was definitely not church as usual.

 

The Repairers of the Breach Team is a well-oiled machine that knows what it needs to put on a good program, and they used their own social media and contacts in media to bring folks from at least 15 different congregations to our church. The result: Historic Black Churches in Cleveland, Historic Liberal Churches in Cleveland, all coming together in a church that had to rent chairs to fit everybody.

 

As minister, I try to greet every person who comes through our church door with a handshake and a how-do-you-do? I ask for everyone’s name and tell them mine as I welcome them in. It was such a joy to meet so many new people who walked through our “Black Lives Matter” and “All Lives Are Precious” signs as they approached our front door.

 

The service was loud and lively. I welcomed everyone to our church, and gave a short history of our ritual of lighting the chalice. I ended our chalice lighting with these words:

 

This is the 50th Anniversary of the Hough Rebellion/Hough Uprising, and our congregation was there, at 82nd and Euclid. This weekend our Black Lives Matter banner was stolen from the front of our church. Again, we find ourselves in a world in the process of giving birth to a new way of living.

 

They may steal the sign from the front of our church, but they cannot steal our determination to work for a world more fair and more just.

 

As we light our chalice this evening, symbol of freedom, assistance and faith, let our hearts become and remain open to one another.

 

After the lighting of our chalice, I stepped back and stepped out of the way.

 

The experience of having so many world-class preachers in our sanctuary was electrifying. For an evening, it didn’t matter that we hadn’t had enough chairs. It didn’t matter that people had to sit in Fellowship Hall (the basement) watching the events upstairs via live feed. It didn’t matter that our air conditioning wasn’t up to the task of 300 people alive together.

 

What mattered was that we were alive, together.

 

Photo Gallery of the Event:

James Forbes
Rev. Dr. James Forbes
Traci Blackmon UCC
Traci Blackman, United Church of Christ
Stories of Witness
Stories of witness
William Barber II Telling Truth
Rev. Dr. William Barber II
closing prayer
Closing prayer

 

_____________________

RevJosephMCherryphoto2Rev. Joe Cherry is a giant history nerd and unapologetic evangelist for Unitarian Universalism. When he’s not out sharing our good news, you can find him engrossed in research at the Western Reserve Historical Society, practicing his clarinet, or in his basement quilting studio.

 

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That’s Camp. That’s Church. That’s faith.

quuest-indoorsLast week I was the only adult of color on a 16+ person staff for QUUest church camp in CO. There were 14 youth of color at high school camp.

 

Being the only staff Person Of Color (POC) during this week of violence, protest, and grief was the toughest challenge of my professional life.

 

I’ll say this: The choice between white fragility and solidarity really matters.

 

We had 14 young people of color who were terrified that they or family members or friends might be the next hashtag, and we had folks who seemed more concerned about the camp schedule/their idea of what camp ought to be.

 

The POC high schoolers spent a lot of time in POC-only space last week. It was hard and healing.

 

At first the group feared gathering. It’s unusual for them to be around other POC, and they worried about dividing the camp. Quickly they saw that it was most important for them to *take care of themselves* and be in community. They ate, laughed, grieved and sang–together.

 

They got close not just through mourning Philando Castile and Alton Sterling and the officers in Dallas, but through seeing that they are not alone. It was life-changing, life-affirming space. They found and made home.

 

I was the lone adult POC supporting them. Luckily several of our white adult/youth staff members helped. Predictably, that wasn’t true of everyone.

 

As the schedule kept changing, as tragedy and need to process kept “getting in the way,” though several were supportive and helped the schedule shift, some folks expressed frustration–with me, with the prospect of losing camp traditions, with the POC-only space, and more.

 

I badly want white UUs and other progressive folks to know and see that carrying out white supremacy isn’t always obvious. It can look like never asking “How can I help?” or “How are you holding up?” It can be never asking “I wonder how this black person is handling two black persons’ murders.”

 

It looks like responding to a white person’s statement of “next year Kenny can’t be the only POC on staff” with “beware of affirmative action,” like there aren’t fifty other wonderful religious professionals/young adults of color we couldn’t pay and have join us.

 

If you take nothing else from this status, take this:

 

I’ve attended camp since I was four. It means eeeeeverything to me. We can get stuck on whether to sing Rocky Raccoon or I Wanna Linger at Bridging, or whether it’s Good Friends or Dear Friends (it’s obviously Good Friends ‪#‎SWD4lyfe) or whether moving talent show/coffeehouse back a night messes up the flow of camp, or who knows what else. I say this as someone who *loves* traditions.

 

Camp, and church, and faith, are about showing up for people when they need us. It’s about finding compassion even through our frustration. It’s about loving hard and saying “how can I help?” It’s about letting people cry and weep and holding them as they do.

 

I barely made it through this week, friends.

 

I called and texted UU adult POC like Elizabeth Nguyen (UUA’s Leadership Development Associate for Youth and Young Adults of Color) and Jamil Scott (Director of Religious Education serving First Unitarian Society of Denver) in tears over and over because I didn’t think I could be what the youth of color needed and because the killings brought such grief.

 

Alicia Forde (UUA’s Professional Development Director) drove two hours on one night’s notice to spend Friday with us so I wouldn’t be alone and so the youth could be with a minister who shared their experience.

 

That’s camp. That’s church. That’s faith.

 

If we’re not doing that for each other–supporting others when we’re less directly affected, and sitting together in hard times, and driving or moving to be there for each other–then I have to ask: what’s the rest of it even for?

 

I fail at this all the time. I’ll fail at this tomorrow no doubt. It’s hard work. But it’s worth it.

 

To my UU and human families: I love you. To my POC UU fam: as we’ve said and sung to/with each other so many times this summer, I need you to survive.

 

May we demand more of one another, be kinder to one another, and remember why we gather.

 

_________________________

SONY DSC
SONY DSC

Kenny Wiley is a UU World senior editor and director of faith formation at Prairie Unitarian Universalist Church in Parker, Colorado. His writing has also appeared in the Boston Globe, the Houston Chronicle, and Skyd Magazine.

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Sophia Fahs Sunday 2016

SFS meme 1[1]So many of us are longing to be a part of an authentic multigenerational community. A place where children, youth, adults, and elders share, learn, worship and grow together. We believe one of the most important ways to build multigenerational community is through worship.

Sophia Fahs Sunday 2016 Here Together: Developing Multigenerational Communities Through Worship is a resource that is free online for you and your community. It is a video course on all the aspects of planning, creating, and celebrating worship to include everyone!

The Fahs Collaborative brought together a team of musicians, ministers,and religious educators to create a “best practices” learning course, to help you create great, multigenerational worship. This includes videos, resources, reflection questions, and music. Sophia Fahs Sunday highlights multicultural diversity, multiple learning styles, and the best of what we know about faith development.

Watch the videos on your own, or invite your team of planners to watch the videos together and discuss them together. It’s all about Collaboration!

Find Sophia Fahs Sunday 2016 Here Together: Developing Multigenerational Communities Through Worship and information on other Fahs Collaborative projects here.

SFS meme 2

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Organizational Maturity, Resources, Spiritual Vitality

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Study Guide for UUWorld Article: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Central Oregon

bridgeCongratulations to the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Central Oregon (Bend, OR), for being the newest UUA Breakthrough Congregation! Each year the UUA’s Congregational Life Office recognizes a handful of congregations that have “broken through” barriers to achieve exemplary goals.

UUFCO is highlighted in the current edition of the UUWorld, as well as the 2016 summer print edition. The following study guide is intended to accompany the article about the  congregation. We hope that this enables lively discussions for your congregational leaders.

 

Questions for Discussion and Deeper Study

 

UUFCO has identified identified some rituals that they will continue observing as they grow, because the rituals are central to their core identity.

Questions for Discussion 

  • What rituals are core to your congregation’s identity?
  • How else do people learn what it means to be a member of your religious community?

Bend foyer

The article identifies ways in which the town of Bend, OR and the congergation are similar.  Bend, OR is one of the fastest growing areas metropolitan areas in the country and the congregation has more than tripled in size in twelve years.  Bend, OR is an “oasis of natural splendor” and the congregation’s new building is an awarer-winning “green” design. Both are laid back and small in culture. Both are liberal beacons.

Questions for Discussion 

  • How does your congregation compare to the area it serves? What is similar? What is different?
  • How does this effect your mission?  How does this effect how your congregation is organized?

 

UUFCO was named a Breakthrough, not only because of it’s remarkable growth, but because the creative, adaptive way they used technology to overcome the work visa challenge that kept their new developmental minister from being able to travel to them. 

Questions for Discussion Bend announcment island

  • What are ways you could use technology creatively to meet an adaptive challenge?
  • What are ways you could use technology to communicate, both among your religious community and throughout the wider community?

 

They were also named a Breakthrough because of the spiritual way they deigned their building. The building was designed to fulfill their mission.  Their mission is not the building itself.

Questions for Discussion 

  • How does your space serve your mission?
  • How does your space reflect your values?

candles

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4 Things Crowdfunding Can Teach The Church

e-book coverI became a Unitarian Universalist for one reason, and one reason only. You might have many reasons why you became a Unitarian Universalist, or remained one if you grew up within the faith. I have only one reason and her name is Gaby.

 

I became a Unitarian Universalist because my high school friend Gaby invited me to church one springing Sunday morning. It truly is that simple.

 

According to Dr. Thom Rainer, 82% of people who don’t attend church would probably try it out if they were invited by a friend. But only 2% of churchgoers actually invite ANYONE to church.

 

I can’t really remember what Gaby said that convinced me to venture to church for the first time in my life, beyond the odd funeral or wedding. But if I am to be honest, I am the type of person who doesn’t turn down the opportunity to try something new, so it probably was a pretty easy sell.

 

What I never expected was how Unitarian Universalist would change my life. How it connected me to some of the most fabulously creative, intellectually challenging, and compassionate people I have ever met. How I would have my heartbroken by the numerous moments when we fell short of our lofty values and ambitions. How I would fall so in love with our movement that I would go to divinity school and become a minister so I could devote my entire life’s work to our faith.

 

None of this would have occurred, if Gaby had not extended an invitation for that first encounter, and for that I am profoundly grateful.

 

Currently I have the priviledge of working for FAITHIFY.org – our Unitarian Universalist crowdfunding website. Every day I get to help to support individual UUs and congregations to crowdfund their dreams – and each day I am reminded of Gaby.

 

Why? Because the success or failure of crowdfunding campaigns relies on one simple thing: Did You Invite People In?

 

The stats are staggering: successful campaigns on FAITHIFY have been shared an average of 300 times on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. (Unsuccessful campaigns are shared  less than twenty times).

 

People don’t come to church, or to your crowdfunding campaign, if you don’t invite them in. That’s the hard truth.

 

In the last one and a half years FAITHIFY has learned some important lessons that could help our congregations thrive in the 21st century world in which we find ourselves. We decided that we shouldn’t keep our learnings quiet…so we wrote a book (well an e-book!).

 

Four Things Crowdfunding Can Teach the Church explores four practical lessons that can help congregational leaders, like yourself, amplify their impact. Each lesson is accompanied by a set of exercises or questions that can help you implement the lesson in your local context. Better yet, the book is free! Want to get your free copy?

 

Claim your free copy of Four Things Crowdfunding Can Teach the Church here. 
______________________________

neil-barron_seanSean Neil-Barron is the project manager of FAITHIFY, who loves the crowd so much he is contemplating spending an entire day crowdsourcing his every movement.

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Study Guide for UUWorld Article: Unitarian Universalist Church of Delaware County (Media, PA)

www.flickr.com/photos/uuworld

Congratulations to the Unitarian Universalist Church of Delaware County (Media, PA), for being the newest UUA Breakthrough Congregation! Each year the UUA’s Congregational Life Office recognizes a handful of congregations that have “broken through” barriers to achieve exemplary goals.

The UU Church of Delaware County is highlighted in the current edition of the UUWorld, which will be hitting Unitarian Universalist members’ mailboxes at any moment. The following study guide is intended to accompany the article about the congregation. We hope that this enables lively discussions for your congregational leaders.

Picture from www.flickr.com/photos/uuworld

 

Questions for Discussion and Deeper Study

 

The UU Church of Delaware County has a culture of saying “yes” and is described as a “congregation that puts themselves on the edge” in bold ways.

Questions for Discussion

  • In what ways does your congregation says “yes?”
  • How might a culture that encourages innovative thinking help leaders and members deepen their own spiritual growth?
  • What is the boldest action your congregation has taken in support of its mission? How did it feel to take a bold step forward and what did you have to “leave behind” to move forward?

www.flickr.com/photos/uuworld

Delaware County has an innovative “Growth through Service” program that integrates volunteer service opportunities with faith development. Congregants develop individual goals for spiritual growth and are matched with volunteer opportunities to help them meet those goals.

Questions for Discussion 

  • What are some of the ways that your congregation connects volunteers to service opportunities?
  • Is there a process by which congregants can articulate individual spiritual goals and do you see a connection to service within your context?
  • How might such a program help your congregation reimagine the way in which leaders are trained and developed?

 24349250654_65e2527438_o

At UUCDC, several volunteers identified a target group, young families, and sought permission from the leadership to develop social opportunities for connection that evolved into several small ministry groups.

Questions for Discussion 

  • As you think about your congregation, are there groups or ministry areas that are ripe for connection through small group ministry?
  • Is this something you can imagine happening in your congregation? Why or why not?

 24684335740_26a7c62f96_o

UUCDC has raised its expectations for members in a number of ways including asking for an increased financial commitment, the Growth through Service program and an overall culture that values “showing up.”

Questions for Discussion 

  • What areas can you think of where higher expectations could help your congregation live its mission more fully?
  • How receptive is your congregation to change and how might leaders prepare the congregation for this work? What might be a first step to raising expectations?

 

24861853192_377e2eb4df_o

 

Photos from the UUWorld pages on Flickr.

_____________________________

pinfanteThis Study Guide creator is Patricia Infante, Congregational Life Staff with the Central East Regional Group. CERG offers many excellent growth resources. Please check them out! Thank you, Pat, for so generously serving our faith.

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By The Numbers: Religious Education breakdown by size and age

Today on the Unitarian Universalist Religious Educators‘ FaceBook page there was a thread that caught my eye about congregational certification.  Specifically the Religious Education Enrollment part of certification.

 

Joy Berry, the Director of Lifespan Religious Education serving the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Asheville, NC, ponders, “Anyone else wondering why, if RE for all ages is a best practice, we aren’t asked any question about lifespan RE?”

 

She goes on, “What might we learn if we gather data on the number of adults enrolled in RE? As a % that can be compared to the membership and to children and youth in RE. For DREs in search who are considering lifespan positions, it might be really useful to know the relative size of that element in the program. And for settled DREs, to be able to quickly compare numbers for adult RE across years (like I just did to see we had a sizable increase in children and youth RE) would be great.”

 

When we analyze the certficification numbers, (children and youth) RE Enrollment is analogous to adult membership. In this case think of adult membership as “adult enrollment.” Think about it, just because you’re registered in a book doesn’t mean that you actually show up consistently, right? I think those can stand together rather well.  The Average Sunday Attendance is the figure that captures everyone actually gathered.

 

Over 50% of our congregations responded to the Faith Communities Today Survey. In that survey the interfaith consortium ask congregations to break their religious education programs down by percentages: senior adults (65+), adults (50-64), adults (35-49), young adults (18-34), youth (13-17), children and preteen (0-12.)

 

The following are charts from those figures and are broken down into these sizes of congregations:

Fellowship Congregations (0-60) – 80 in this size responded
Small Pastoral Congregations (61-160) – 159 in this size responded
Midsize Pastoral Congregations (161-300) – 97 in this size responded
Transition Congregations (301-400) – 20 in this size responded
Program Congregations (401-600) – 22 in this size responded
Large Program Congregations (601-800) – 12 in this size responded
Corporate Congregations (800+) – 5 in this size responded

 

The following pie charts are the averages of the congregation that responded.

 

RE fellowship

 

RE Small Pastoral

 

RE midsize pastoral

 

RE Transition

 

RE program

 

RE Large Progarm

 

RE corporate

Joy wonders, “what might we learn if we gather data on the number of adults enrolled in RE, as a % that can be compared to the membership and to children and youth in RE. For DREs in search who are considering lifespan positions, it might be really useful to know the relative size of that element in the program. And for settled DREs, to be able to quickly compare numbers for adult RE across years (like I just did to see we had a sizable increase in children and youth RE) would be great.”  Yes!   Measuring such things can help break down assumptions or flag things to pay attention to.  Over time you can measure change and then change course accordingly.

 

Our FACT survey didn’t ask for either a membership/enrollment or Average Sunday Attendance percentage breakdown by age.  It would be nice to be able to compare and see which groups may be underserved. It’s also good to keep i mind that these figures come from people in congregations self-reporting.  It’s soft-data.  But it’s a start.

 

More figures from both the FACT survey and congregational certification will be coming out in about a month. A team and I are working on publishing a report based on the UUA Board Monitoring Report of our Ends.

_________________________________

Tandi Feb 2012Metrics and analysis are a small part of Rev. Tandi Rogers’ portfolio, but it’s one of her favorites.  She’s grateful that this year she gets to team up with Michelle Rediker, Carey McDonald, Heather Bond, and Annette Marqui to report out. That’s simply a formula for more fun!

 

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Numerical Indicators

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Road Trip! We’re better together!

road-trip-sign-285x190We’re better together.  You’ve heard this before. And often it is in the context of pooling resources to create something larger than we could offer as a separate entity.

I’m hear to tell you that we’re better together also in the opening of imagination that happens when we experience other religious communities.  I was working with a stuck congregation years ago.  Let’s call them UU Society of East Cupcake. Every suggestion I had was met with “we’ve already tried that” or “that just won’t work here.”  Those are signs that people need to get out of their heads and into new experiences, out of their congregation and into the streets.  I gave East Cupcake an assignment to visit a congregation 3 hours away to freshen their views.  I will cut to the chase — they came back fresher and bonded and ready to try some new ideas.

 

Characteristics of a Better Together Road Trip

  • First things first.  Unless you are already the president or minister, pull them into this idea from the get-go. Please don’t surprise them after the fact and say, “Tandi suggested this idea.”  Really.
  • What are we searching for?  Possibilities, my friend.  How do other UU communities do stuff? What do they feel like?  How do they treat each other? How are they alive and awake outside their walls?
  • Pre-Trip Connections.  Call ahead and let your sibling congregation know you’re coming. Arrange to meet with and perhaps share a meal with their leadership. If there is a specific piece of this congregation’s ministry that captures your attention, ask to learn about that while you’re there.  Visit their website ahead of time and start crafting some questions and things to pay attention to.
  • Innovation-adoptionRoad trippers. You know that bellcurve of change? Consider that curve when choosing your road trip mates: “2 Innovators, 3 Early Adopters, and 2 Early Majority”. (This comes from the Diffusion of Innovation Theory.)  You want folks who generally see possibilities and adopt them quickly along with some who are a little slower in convincing and adapting.
  • Magic Vehicle. Borrow a 7 person van.  You want to keep people together.  That van is actually a Fresh idea Incubator on wheels.
  • Van Conversation, there.  What brought you to East Cupcake? What brought you to Unitarian Universalism/ what makes you choose to stay in Unitarian Universalism? When do you feel most Unitarian Universalist?  How does East Cupcake help grow your soul?
  • Paying Attention. Come open and curious. There are various tools from Mystery Greeters programs that may be useful to help you organize your thoughts.  Participate fully. if asked let your siblings in faith know who you are, where you’re from and why you are visiting.
    • What felt familiar?
    • What was new?
    • What was surprising?
    • What was delightful?
    • What gives you holy envy?
    • What challenged you?
    • What grew your soul?
    • What stretched you further into Unitarian Universalism?
    • What might you like to experiment with at home? And who from this congregation might be able to give you some guidance?
  • Van Conversation, back. See questions above.  Make sure someone is recording.  What was challenging? What was sparky? What might you try in your own UU community and who do you need to talk to when you return?
  • Leadership Check In. Gather again over coffee with your leadership to share what you learned.
  • Next Road Trip.  Keep heading out there. Find another congregation to visit. Rotate people so eyes and conversations stay fresh.  Pass around the fun.

My last advice.  Wear your seat belts.  Literally and metaphorically.  Happy travels!

 

_________________________________

Tandi Feb 2012Rev. Tandi Rogers is the Congregational Life’s Innovation & Network Specialist and loves most everything about road trips and visiting new congregations.  She’s usually in charge of games and bad road trip food.

 

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Reflection on Moving, Wisdom, Humility, and Reaching Out

Last week I took a quick trip to Boston to attend Terasa Cooley’s good-bye party and to meet, in person, with several colleagues who normally are only in my zoom room on my computer screen.  The weather was beautiful – cold, clear and crisp – which prompted me to spend time doing what I love best to do in Boston, walk around the city.

One morning I walked up to our old UUA headquarters at 25 Beacon Street to see what was going on.  “25” and the other two buildings that the UUA sold on Mt. Vernon Street and the former Eliot-Pickett Houses, were covered with giant “tents” out front, with a back hoe digging dirt and many construction workers scurrying around.  I took a peek inside 25 and saw that the main staircase has been torn down and much of the ground floor, as I remembered it, had been cleared away.  As I walked across town to our new headquarters at 24 Farnsworth Street, I remembered with fondness walking up those stairs to see the MFC in 2000 and imagined all the lives that were touched and changed in the place the UUA used to call home.

24_Farnsworth

It has been less than two years since the UUA headquarters have moved.  The area has changed a lot and the many cranes and construction workers in our new neighborhood predict more change is on the way.  I love the modern feel of our new headquarters and the opportunities they provide for easier collaboration, more productive meetings and new ways to connect today while remembering our yesterdays.

“24” and 25 provide a metaphor for the work we must do as ministers in the future; a future that has virtual cranes digging up many of the practices and foundations of our past, while building up new expressions of community and spiritual practice all around us.   Perhaps it wasn’t a coincidence that my walk through the streets of Boston and UUA office history prompted my ponderings about the future of our work and our faith.  The weekend before my trip I was at the third intensive of our Beyond the Call – Entrepreneurial Ministry program learning new ways to finance and market innovation; and the importance, practices and “how tos” of cultivating and nurturing the eco-systems to sustain innovators and the organizations they lead.

We’ll be sharing the highlights of our third intensive in a webinar sometime in March.  Our guest speakers inspired and challenged us in many ways but one phrase stuck with me, especially while I was walking around the streets of Boston.  Greg Jones, the former Dean of the Duke Divinity School who worked closely with Greg Dees the “father” of social entrepreneurship, talked about “traditioned innovation” (https://www.faithandleadership.com/content/traditioned-innovation) as a practice for those of us in religious leadership.  The cranes of sociological, cultural and religious change are all around us digging up the old and building the new.  We stand, hopefully, with one foot in tradition and one foot in innovation dancing back and forth as fast as we can.

In these days of change, challenge and opportunity I pray we each have the wisdom and humility to continue to learn how/when to stand in each stream knowing that our spirits and our people need both waters to thrive.  And, most importantly, we reach out to each other so we don’t need to swim in these choppy waters alone.

______________________

DonRev. Don Southworth is the founding Executive Director of the Unitarian Universalist Ministers’ Association. He lived in the corporate world before ministry where he spent ten years in parish life before joining the UUMA in 2009.  He’s a bit on the old side of life but fights through his crumedgeony ways as much as he can looking for pockets of innovation and radical change that provide the main hope for religion in the 21st century.

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In Spirit!

New Titles from Skinner House

 

 

Turning PointTurning Point: Essays on a New Unitarian Universalism

Edited by Fredric Muir (Skinner House Books)

 

In fresh, inspiring essays, 20 Unitarian Universalist leaders issue a clarion call for change. Unitarian Universalism is at a crossroads. Will we cling to individualism, exceptionalism, and anti-authoritarianism or will we embrace the promise of what we can be? Turning Point presents stories of innovative new types of Unitarian Universalist communities across the country and inspires faith that Unitarian Universalism can deepen and grow, meeting the aching needs of a new generation.

 

Fredric Muir serves as the Senior Minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis, Maryland. He is a board member of the Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry of Maryland and the UUA ambassador to the UU congregations of the Philippines. He has written and edited several books, including The Whole World Kin: Charles Darwin and the Spirit of Liberal Religion (2009) from Skinner House Books.

 

Recent Announcements & Resources

 

New Bookstore Name!In Spirit

 

In order to reach a broader audience and to share the good news of Unitarian Universalism, the UUA Bookstore has been renamed to inSpirit: The UU Book and Gift Shop.

 

As inSpirit, the bookstore will continue to offer a wide range of books and gifts that reflect the values of our UU movement, including titles from Skinner House Books and Beacon Press, selected titles from other publishers, and fair trade items.

 

The name inSpirit is one that we ourselves have adopted for our series of “Meditation Manuals.” The series name changed in 2015 to the inSpirit Series, but the tradition lives on. The many rich meanings of the word inSpirit—including to hearten, to enliven, to bestow with strength or purpose, to fill with spirit—reflect the many ways these books and our bookstore tend to us and our faith lives.

 

We invite you to visit the inSpirit website and the inSpirit Series page for more information.

 

 

Selma Awakening Curriculum

 

SelmaThe Unitarian Universalist History and Heritage Society has awarded the UU History and Heritage Prize for Best Original RE Curriculum to the curriculum created for The Selma Awakening: How the Civil Rights Movement Tested and Changed Unitarian Universalism by Mark D. Morrison-Reed.

 

“This is a deep and challenging adult education curriculum that invites participants to research their own congregations’ Selma stories and thus broaden our understanding of one of the most important events in twentieth-century Unitarian Universalist history.”

 

The curriculum is available on our companion resources page.

 

 

New Resources for Older Adults from the UUA

 

The UUA has just announced the creation of a collection of resources to enrich and support the journey of older adulthood. On the pages, you will find resources to support the older adult journey, whether you are an older adult yourself, a caregiver or family member, or part of a congregation engaged in ministry to and with older adults

 

Explore these resources to find books (including many Skinner House books), programs, videos, and further information on a variety of subjects particularly resonant to older adults. We are so grateful to those involved in creating this resource!

 

 

Resources for Teaching English with Islamic Stories

 

Jamish

We’re pleased to present a series of free lesson plans and videos to teach English to students from oral traditions. The lesson plans are linked to the stories in Ayat
Jamilah: A Treasury of Islamic Wisdom for Children and Parents. The lesson plans demonstrate the use of folk tales to show how narration provides a basis of recognition and response. Using oral language and storytelling, the lesson plans and videos will show how to later prompt students into reading and writing. The resource is available here.

 

 

 

Kayla

Trending in the UUA Bookstore  

 

The following have been particularly popular in the month of January:

 

 

 

 

 

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