• Milestones invitation: Every year at our annual Ministry Days, we have a Milestones Service in which we honor the milestones in our community. We want to celebrate our new members and those of us who are retiring from active ministry or otherwise moving into elder-hood. We will also dedicate new children of UUMA members. If you would like to have your family participate in the child dedication please reach out to our Collegial Care Assistant, Jan Taddeo by June 1. New members and transitioning elders will be receiving an email invitation with a request to send a photo we can display during the liturgy (please email Jan if you do you do not receive this).

• UUMA Nominations: In March, the UUMA Nominating Committee submitted a list of nominees for the UUMA Board and the Nominating Committee. (see March 23rd ENews) The notice included the process to nominate by petition. Petitions may be submitted to board@uuma.org and are due to the Board of Trustees by April 22, 2023, which is 45 days before the annual meeting (as required by the bylaws).

Something for the Journey

From Melissa Carvill Ziemer, Director of Operations

Thank you. That is it in a nutshell. I’m writing to thank you for your ministries – especially the parts that people don’t normally notice or appreciate: all the ways you tend your own spirit so you can keep your heart open to the call of the Holy, the ways you cultivate your capacity to really listen deeply, the care you take to build relationships because you know ministry is not a solo endeavor. Thank you for the work you do to plan and prepare, for the energy and care you bring to managing your own anxiety so you can bring your non-anxious presence to others, for the hard work of conflict transformation and the skill development it takes to regularly work with conflict. Thank you for doing the ongoing discernment it takes to prioritize what matters most; this work requires as much followership as it does leadership. Thank you for following the demands of love and justice expressed in the voices too often unheard. Thank you for leading within your sphere, especially when you have to work up your courage to do a hard thing. I am so grateful for all the ways you live our Unitarian Universalist values in the world. Your ministries move and inspire me. Your ministries make a difference. Thank you for continuing to answer your call. I am praying for you today, colleagues. May you know yourselves held in Love, guided by Love, saved and sustained by Love.

Something Extra

Multigenerational Collegial Conversation: In March, nearly 40 ministers in diverse life stages and ministry settings came together to discuss our grief and losses. Even though many of us were meeting for the first time, participants let us know it was a touching, tender and open-hearted conversation. We also heard that there wasn’t enough time and that it would have been good to have more than one session arranged. Still experimenting, we’d like to come together again, this time for a multigenerational conversation on the deep satisfaction and great joy of our ministries. 

Co-sponsored by the UUMA and UURMaPA (the UU Retired Ministers and Partners Association), this multigenerational Zoom gathering of UU ministers will be about us, about our joy in this vocation we have chosen. Once again we will gather in small multigenerational group breakouts. The groups will be lightly facilitated and will include an opportunity to consider a few words about your small group sharing that you might share back with the larger group at the end of our time. Through connecting meaningfully and deeply with one another across our generations of ministry, we hope to strengthen our collegial community. Click the date below to register and to receive the Zoom link..

• Wednesday May 10, 2023 at 2-3:30pm ET/ 1-2:30pm CT/ 12-1:30pm MT/ 11am-12:30pm PT

WebUpdate: As we continue to learn about our new website we have realized that, for general security and to ensure appropriate member-only access, we need to remove the Zoom links from public calendar pages. If you’d like to attend an event please register to receive the Zoom link. Our new system will send out reminder emails, with the zoom link, on the day of the event to all people who have registered.