Associational

New Titles

Our Whole Lives Sexuality Education for Grades 7-9 Second Edition

By Pamela M. Wilson (UUA Faith Development Office),

A sexuality education program for youth that models and teaches caring, compassion, respect, and justice. A holistic program that moves beyond the intellect to address the attitudes, values, and feelings that youth have about themselves and the world.

Maintaining the OWL values and assumptions established in the first edition, the second edition introduces new content, activities, perspectives, language, and resources for today’s young teens. New topics include body image, social media/internet, bullying/bystander responsibilities, and consent education. Popular activities and discussion topics remain, and users have more options for alternate activities and multi-media resources to accommodate their participants’ specific needs and interests. A new chapter offers suggestions for including youth with special needs in OWL programs. The second edition is comprised of twenty-five ninety-minute workshops in a new order that will make it easier to plan OWL programs that suit participants’ increasing comfort and schedules.

Pamela M. Wilson has taught sexuality courses in several universities, staffed national sexuality training initiatives, and written or co-authored more than sixteen curricula. She served on the Board of Director for the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S., and Answer at Rutgers University.

Assembled, 2014 Select Sermons and Lectures from the General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association (Skinner House Books),

The theme of this year’s GA was “Love Reaches Out,” inviting Unitarian Universalists to consider ways that we can carry our faith beyond the walls of our bricks-and-mortar congregations and engage in new ways of sharing our beliefs and values with the wider world. We gathered in Providence, Rhode Island, to talk about the future of Unitarian Universalism and the opportunities of challenges of liberal religion in the twenty-first century.

This eBook includes the Berry Street Essay by Rev. Lindi Ramsden, the Fahs lecture by Rev. Mark Morrison-Reed, the Ware Lecture by Sister Simone Campbell, and sermons from the Service of the Living Tradition (Rev. Rebekah Montgomery) and the Sunday morning worship service (Rev. Mark Stringer).

Anne Frank and the Remembering Tree by Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso.

Illustrated by Erika Steiskal (Skinner House Books)

Bestselling children’s author Sandy Eisenberg Sasso tells the story of Anne Frank and her sister Margot and their time in hiding from Nazis in the Secret Annex. By narrating the story from the perspective of the tree outside the Annex window, Sasso offers an age-appropriate way to open a conversation with even young children about hate and persecution. “Nature gently conveys how life continues despite loss. I wanted little ones to find hope in the possibilities of new beginnings without being afraid,” Sasso, winner of the National Jewish Book Award, explains. The book, written for ages 6-9, is co-published by the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis and Skinner House Books. The museum, the largest children’s museum in the world, is the first U.S. recipient of a sapling from the tree and houses a permanent exhibit called “The Power of Children,” about Anne Frank, Ruby Bridges, and Ryan White.

Here is a video about the Secret Annex.

Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso is an award-winning author of thirteen books for children, including God’s Paintbrush, The Shema in the Mezuzah (winner of a National Jewish Book Award), and Creation’s First Light. There are more than half a million copies of her books in print throughout the world.

Erika Steiskal grew up in Ohio and received a BFA in illustration from the Columbus College of Arts and Design. Her book and editorial illustrations have appeared in Spectrum, 3×3, and Communication Arts, and her work received a gold medal from the Society of Illustrators Los Angeles. She lives in Seattle.

Recent Reviews

Where Two Words Touch: A Spiritual Journey Through Alzheimer’s Disease

By Jade C. Angelica. Reviewed in Tikkun Daily on November 3, 2014.

Where Two Worlds Touch has earned glowing reviews in ForeWord Reviews, Science of Mind Magazine, Journal of Pastoral Care and Counseling, U.S. Review of Books, National Catholic Reporter, Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy, and Dementia.

Trending in the UUA Bookstore

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

• Singing the Journey: Supplement to Singing the Living Tradition (Unitarian Universalist Association)

• The Unitarian Universalist Pocket Guide: Fifth Edition, edited by Peter Morales (Skinner House Books)

• Welcome: A Unitarian Universalist Primer (Skinner House Books)

• Where Two Worlds Touch: A Spiritual Journey Through Alzheimer’s Disease, by Jade C. Angelica (Skinner House Books)

• Singing the Living Tradition: Pew Edition, (Unitarian Universalist Association)

If you saw Scott Tayler’s announcement yesterday for my new job, you will understand why I am giddy like a schoolgirl on the first day of school. I even considered getting a new lunch box just to celebrate the transition. I thought “Growth Strategist” was a pretty awesome title, but “Innovation & Network Specialist”? Come on! It’s sparky and spicy.  I think it may be even better than “Minister of Abundance & Possibilities,” which I’ve been lobbying for for years.

And have you noticed the new mission of Congregational Life: “Serving Interconnection, Innovation, and Impact”?   I find it irresistible. I think it captures how we’re in a time where surrendering to the greater co-conspiracy of creativity and new models of church is essential to faithful work. As I think about how my new job will support this mission, here are some of the things I’m most excited about:

Interconnection

I have been so happy with the evolution of Innovative Learning Circles. For those of you who have not participated in one, they are on-line learning communities of leaders exploring adaptive challenges in a covenanted format that provides safe space to bring one’s whole self – the questions, doubts, vulnerabilities, passion and innovative ideas. I took the feedback from participants seriously and kept massaging the process and trying new things. It’s now ready to hand off to new facilitators (Congregational Life and Headquarters staff.) I will move into a coaching role to support the spin off of multiple learning circles.

I will also devote new attention to connecting leaders through digital media, looking at redundant and duplicated systems, and how we can best coordinate and compliment what is working. This will include social media, web presence and on-line learning. For much of this work I will be joined at the hip to Carey McDonald, Outreach Director and Sarah Millspaugh, Faith Outreach Strategist. They are very focused on UUA-wide web-presence branding and alignment, and it just makes sense to join forces!

Innovation

Innovative and new models of doing church is another area of my work that has my heart. I will support our regional multisite support staff team, as well as be on a Congregational Life and Outreach collaborative team effort to develop more comprehensive and robust support services for our emerging congregations and emerging “beyond” communities. I have been so impressed with the open imaginations, commitment, and passion of Congregational Life staff to create cultures and capacities of permission-giving and experimentation and authentic hospitality and dare I say, evangelism. The possibilities are endless and this team knows it and is ready to grow it. Holy “Yes!” is swirling all around!

Impact

I will still be conducting data gathering and research projects for our UUA departments, as well as the UUA Board in their discernment to create policies and pathways easier for the next generation of Unitarian Universalist leaders. I am increasing my attention to data gathering and research for your Congregational Life staff team. Scott and the Congregational Life staff are committed to impact assessment. Does the data check our assumptions so we can plan better and do better? Are we doing what we intend to do, making the impact we intend to make?

What a time to be doing this ministry! What are you willing to surrender in order to embrace innovation and experimentation? How can we refresh our embodiment of congregational polity? How are you living out congregational interconnection in a radical and creative way? I am incredibly thankful to join hands with all of you as we leap into these important questions and new possibilities!

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Rev. Tandi Rogers has been playing J. Cole’s’ song Coming Home loudly as she color-codes (virtual) file folders for her new job. She feels great coming home to the staff team in which she started at such an ground-breaking time in our institutional ministry.

I am pleased to welcome Rev. Tandi Rogers to the Congregational Life staff. Her new role will be Innovation & Network Specialist. This comes in the midst of reorganization at our UUA to enhance our support for growth, outreach and innovation. Rev. Terasa Cooley, our UUA’s Program & Strategy Officer, will soon share more details about the changes we are pursuing in a follow-up blog post. Today, I want to focus on Tandi’s new role.

Previously, Tandi served as our UUA’s Growth Strategies Specialist, partnering with Rev. Stefan Jonasson, Director of Growth Strategies and Large Congregations, to make up our UUA Growth Office. Together, they have given our congregations and our UUA many gifts. As researchers, they have helped us understand and adapt to current and coming trends. They’ve brought a new rigor to assessing the impact of our services. And most importantly, they’ve inspired and equipped us to be more bold in pursuing new models of doing church.

Although we face tightened budgets and the retirement of Stefan Jonasson, we are committed to continuing this emphasis on research, rigorous assessment and innovation. To accomplish this, we are pursuing a networked approach to our growth services. Instead of continuing a Growth Office with a new director, growth strategies and support systems will now be developed and implemented through cross-departmental teams. Tandi’s work will focus on these systems of heightened collaboration. In particular, she will help us:

• develop deeper partnerships between field staff and headquarters departments,
• ensure an expanded and more integrated approach to supporting “Congregations and Beyond” efforts,
• assess programming to make sure we are helping congregations adapt to 21^st century challenges, and
• offer research support throughout our entire system.

More simply put–and as her title suggests–we are asking her to help all of us stay connected and focused on innovation.

All those familiar with her work know that Tandi is the perfect person for this job. She has a passion for teamwork and a wonderfully creative mind. The entire Congregational Life staff and I are thrilled to have her as our partner. And we look forward to all the ways she will help us partner with you.

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Reverend Scott Tayler, Director of Congregational Life, our UUA.

Congregational Life Mission:  Serving Interconnection, Innovation & Impact

As we advance deeper in to it, what will it mean to “do church in the 21st Century.”  After years of being in silos of our own making, actually in opposition to the suggestions in the Cambridge Platform, we have such great potential to impact each other and our communities when we work together and see ourselves as one.  This means blurring the lines of our traditional congregational and geographical borders to share resources, work together and increase our presence and impact to each other and the communities we serve.

Below you will find some general ideas for discussion, please insert your geographical area designation. Understanding there are some more rural congregations than others, it is just a starting point for possibilities.

Level One Cooperation

Have Yearly Board Kickoffs That Include: 

• Shared Orientation and Training – What do Boards do and how do they do it, including sharing congregational information and what can be learned from each other and leadership training that includes conflict and change management
• Serving with Grace – Learning how to make leadership a spiritual practice
• Social time – Time for congregational leaders to form informal links

Share Cluster Calendaring/Meetings/Gatherings

• Sharing Calendars – in order to inform and support each other in our efforts – Too often we double book things, not entirely unavoidable, but certainly more foreseeable.
• Cluster Social Events – Designed to bring UU congregations together to cross borders and create joy, opportunities for connection
• Committee Leaders Meeting by Function – To brainstorm, share ideas and best practices. – Membership, Social Justice, Fund Raising, others
• Regular meetings of professional staff by category such as Administrators, DRE’s, Music Directors and the like – To brainstorm, share ideas and best practices
• Cluster Workshops, Activities and Events – Music events such as combined Choir Concerts (such as Sources Cantata), Seminary for A Day, co-sponsored speakers, Worship Retreats

Level Two Cooperation

• Shared Purchasing – cleaning supplies to insurance, could we find better deals?
• Shared Website Hosting – Maybe use one vendor and one shared webmaster.
• Shared Custodial Services
• Faith Formation in the 21st Century – Creating shared content for Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Weebly, and other electronic and New Media

Level Three Cooperation

• Shared Cluster Staff – These positions could be housed in one of our larger congregations (or maybe not) and the ratio of pay and the hours of each position would vary, but the intent would be for them to assist with cluster-wide efforts and to support individual congregational efforts as well.
  • Social Justice Coordinators
  • Young Adult and Campus Ministry
  • Marketing/Outreach/PR
  • BOOKKEEPERS

Level Four Cooperation

• Ministerial Specialization – A certain percentage of minister’s time would be spent in other congregations. In other words, in addition to or instead of shared cluster staff, there would be a minister that would help coordinate all the cluster social justice efforts or pastoral care for example.

Level Five Cooperation

Legal and official cooperation – Budgets of the congregations would be shared to support a broader perspective of what congregation means. Examples could include:

• Ministers who serve more than one congregation
• Preaching in more than one place each month
• Providing support and expertise in many ways to area congregations
• Looking at staffing differently/centralizing efforts in one place or another.

That could possibly lead to The Unitarian Universalists of [fill in the blank] County – North, South East and West Campus with one ministry staff led by a senior minister or ministerial leadership team and one board.

Rev. David A. Miller and Rev. Tera Little will be facilitating workshop on “Doing Church in the 21^st Century” based on this information at General Assembly on Thursday, June 26 12:30-1:45 pm Eastern (RICC West Lobby.)

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The Reverend David A. Miller is the minster of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of San Dieguito in Solana Beach, California.  Reverend Miller is a graduate of the Claremont School of Theology receiving a Master of Divinity degree with an emphasis in Social Transformation.

Before entering the ministry, Reverend Miller had over 25 years of management, marketing, business development and fund-raising experience with both private sector and non-profit organizations.  He has also been a trainer and consultant specializing in working with organizations on building organizational capacity, and strategically integrating marketing, communications and relationship development.

He serves Unitarian Universalism as a Member of the Pacific Southwest District’s Ministerial Transitions Team, a National Advisory Team member for the Standing on the Side of Love Campaign, as a mentor in the PSWD In-Care Program and district consultant for congregation boards.