Winter 2009/10 From the President ... Volume 43, Issue 2 In the early 1970’s while studying at Starr King School I took a course called “The Courage to Be a Minister.” It was taught by Byrd Helligas, a wizened old-school humanist who wouldn’t stand for any guff. I dearly loved Byrd. He taught me a lot. The course covered the nuts and bolts. It was a pragmatic primer for how to stay out of trouble while still taking good care of your people. I have to assume the course title intentionally echoed Tillich’s Courage to Be . Byrd certainly shared Tillich’s existentialist perspective and taught minis- try as a way of being, as an existential reality. It’s taken many years for me to understand the kind of courage he was calling for. Though we spent considerable time listening to Byrd regale us with stories about, shall we say, the situational ethics of ministry, the courage he asked us to summon had to do with actually living out Emerson’s adage that we should give them “our lives passed through the fire of thought.” That takes real courage. I think we need to learn to testify. I think we need to learn to risk the wrath of the literalists among us by trying to talk about what really matters most. Too many of our colleagues tell me they’re afraid to go deep theologically. “They’ll kill me if I even try it,” they complain. And so they refrain from doing the very work our people need us most to do. It’s time for us to learn to testify. And it’s time, as Paul Rasor likes to remind us, for us to let the laity do their own translating. Just as we need to learn to testify to the depth and power of the experience of the holy in our lives those with whom we serve need to learn to listen with more open hearts and minds not only to us but also to each other. It’s with that holy work in mind that UUMA Vice-President Sarah Lammert, following–up on an idea which arose at the Summit on Excellence in Ministry last December, prepared a proposal entitled “Whose Are We.” The program will prepare colleagues from every chapter to help to facilitate theologi- cal conversations among our members. You can read more about this exciting project on page 3 of this Newsletter. Friends, this is a rewarding time to serve on the UUMA Executive Committee. I’m in my third and final year as your president. It hasn’t always been easy. We’ve made some bold moves which, we know have made some of you uncomfortable. I want you all to know that our boldness has been grounded in our understanding of the best interests of our ministry and of our members. My colleagues on the Executive Committee and I deeply appreciate the confidence so many of you have expressed and we are committed to working to regain the trust and yes, the active support of those who disagree with our vision for the future of the UUMA. I can assure you that we’re listening and that we treasure the organization you have entrusted to our care. Yours in Faith, Inside this issue: Rob Eller-Isaacs [email protected] Introducing the Acting Executive Director 2 Whose Are We?: A Theological Conversation 3 CENTER Institute for Excellence in Ministry 4-5 It’s time for us to learn to testify. From Communications 5 UNITARIANUNIVERSALIST MINISTERS ASSOCIATION to the depth and power From the UUMA Treasurer 6 of the experience of From Chapter Connections 8 the holy in our lives . CENTER Chapter Presenters 9-10 And We Remember . 11-17 UUMA News Sermon Awards 17 Announcements 18-20 Introducing the Acting Executive Director ... For more than ten years I have gotten in a rhythm as a parish minister. Staying up late on Satur- day, or getting up early on Sunday, to finish writing a sermon. Worshipping on Sunday morning. Taking a nap Sunday afternoon and struggling to enjoy Sabbath on Monday. Writing a newsletter column once a month, whether or not I had anything much to say. Pledge drives. Staff meetings. Committee meetings. Board meetings. Meetings to plan meetings. All of us, no matter where our ministries have taken us, have rhythms. Hopefully they are rhythms that serve us, and those we serve, well. The UUMA has rhythms too. Gathering at chapter meetings and cluster meetings to learn, to have fun, to connect more deeply with colleagues. Coming to General Assembly early for CENTER and Ministry days, to learn, worship and listen together. A time for connecting with colleagues and honoring those who have served so long and so well. UUMA mem- bers volunteering to serve on committees and task forces, spending days and weeks in more meetings so that we can be the best professional association, and the best religious movement, we can be. I am learning new rhythms these days...and so is the UUMA. One of the joys of my first three months on the job has been the chance to visit and talk with so many colleagues at re- treats, cluster meetings, CONVO and on the phone. The two most frequent questions I get are: why did you want this job and what do you do? Since I am the first Acting Executive Director of the UUMA they are both good questions. I wanted this job because I believe we can be a better professional association and because I feel a deep calling to help my colleagues more fully live their callings. Before I had the honor and privilege to serve on the UUMA Executive Commit- tee, I did not think the UUMA was much more than my two chapter retreats, a monthly cluster meeting, CENTER and Ministry Days and dues that I felt obligated to pay. My service on the Exec revealed the UUMA is much more and, more importantly, can be so much more than what we have been. I took this job because I want to help make that so. Which leads to the second question I am asked, what do I do. The question more appropriately should be, what will I do. I will help the CENTER committee host the first CENTER Institute for Excellence in Ministry in February 2011. This will not only be a residential learning experience it will provide a model for how we will integrate continuing education, coaching and stronger collegial and chapter connections. I will be working with Sarah Lammert, our Vice President, on facilitating a year long process of theological reflection on the question, Who Are We? I will be working with our Chap- ter Connections portfolio holder, Kathleen McTigue, on producing a chapter handbook which will share the best practices for how our chapters are working and be part of a regular chapter leaders’ training program. I will be working with our Communications portfolio holder, James Kubal-Kumato, and our Administrator, Janette Lallier, on improving the ways the UUMA communicates with, and among, our membership. I will be meeting with our partners throughout the UU movement including UUA staff, LREDA, UUMN, UUSCM, UURMaPA, theological schools, identity ministry groups and, hopefully, with leaders in other faith traditions as well. I will be working on fund development to help build the UUMA’s capacity to make continuing education and chapter connections more available to more of our members. And I will be working closely with you, visiting your chapters and gatherings, to make sure everyone of our 1600 members’ ministries and lives are better because of their association with the UUMA. My to do list is long and our vision is large. That is one rhythm of life that has not changed. For me and for you. Be- cause that is the life of a Unitarian Universalist minister. I am honored to serve and lead you, my beloved colleagues, in the hope that our professional association helps make the list a little easier and the vision more real. I am excited about the work ahead and I hope you are too. Blessings, Don Southworth, Acting Executive Director [email protected] Page 2 UUMA NEWS “Whose Are We:” Spiritual Discernment and Theological Reflection Your UUMA Executive Committee has some exciting news to share! At its fall meeting, the Fund for Unitarian Uni- versalism made a grant of $18,000 to support a new initiative of the UUMA supporting spiritual discernment and theo- logical reflection in our chapters. Specifically, the grant will enable us to train two facilitators from each of our twenty chapters to convene meetings and retreats centered on theology and spiritual depth, and to help convene small groups for continuing spiritual discernment. The training will take place prior to General Assembly in Minneapolis, and we hope that chapter discussions will be scheduled for the fall of 2010. In her sermon during the June 2008 Service of the Living Tradition, Victoria Safford quoted the Quaker teacher Douglas Steere: Douglas Steere, a Quaker teacher, says that the ancient question, “What am I?” inevitably leads to a deeper one, “Whose am I?” – because there is no identity outside of relationships. You can’t be a per- son by yourself. To ask “Whose Am I?” is to extend the questions far beyond the little self-absorbed self, and wonder: Who needs you? Who loves you? To whom are you accountable? To whom do you answer? Whose life is altered by your choices? With whose life, whose lives, is your own all bound up, inextricably, in obvious or invisible ways? Similarly, as a collective body, we Unitarian Universalists have expended a great deal of energy talking about the endur- ing core of our identity.