Friday, June 16, 2023

Something For the Moment

Dues Prepay and Auto Renewal: During our transition to our new platform we were not able to save any payment information which, while we understand may be frustrating, is for your security. If you were using autopay feature prior to the transition you need to enter your payment information again. Visit the Member Center at uuma.org and then click Auto Dues Renewal, click “Auto-Pay Disabled” it should turn from red to green and give you the option to input your credit card. The Auto Dues Renewal System will charge your card on file on July 1, 2023. If you are hoping to prepay your dues, please reach out to UUMA Administrator, Hannah Franco-Isaacs. Dues prepay will be available on a case by case basis starting Saturday, June 17th.

Ministry Days Registration: There are currently 595 people registered to join us for Ministry Days 2023. If you are registered please make sure you are watching your email for updates. We sent this email to virtual attendees and this one to onsite attendees yesterday. If you haven’t registered yet but meant to, you can still register here. Onsite note – you may not be able to eat lunch on Wednesday because we have already submitted catering numbers, there may also be a slight delay in receiving a name tag.

Help the UUMA Be Generous: This year there was an increase in scholarship requests. We were able to grant partial or full scholarships to almost everyone who asked but this has greatly diminished our scholarship fund. We never want finances to be a barrier to membership or UUMA programming, but we need those with a little extra to give to do just that. You can give to our scholarship fund here and view all our funds here.

Something for the Journey

from Darrick Jackson, Director of Ministries for Lifelong Learning

This summer, I am taking a course in Black and Womanist theologies. Our reading so far has me thinking about the narratives that ground us and how we sometimes outgrow those narratives. They no longer represent who we are or want to be. And we need to draw on new narratives to reflect this new understanding of ourselves. Delores Williams does this in her book Sisters in the Wilderness by moving away from the Exodus narrative that grounded many Black theologies and instead centering on the story of Hagar.

What narratives do we Unitarian Universalists need to change? What might keep us stuck in the past and not pivoting toward the future? I know that I don’t always ask why we do things or where this tradition came from. But it is important to question our faith if we want to be relevant for future generations. And we need to consider our personal grounding narratives and whether they hinder us from growth. And if so, What narrative might you choose?

Something Extra

Annual Meeting: The recordings, podcasts, and election results are available here.

Next Week’s News: There won’t be a Weekly News next week since the UUMA staff will be just a little busy with Ministry Days. We invite you to look through our Latest News posts if you have a little time to catch up on past issues.

50 Years in Ministry Full Panel Screening: Please join us for a screening of the complete reflections from our colleagues celebrating 50 years in ministry. A montage of their reflections will be shared during the Celebration of 25 and 50 Years in Ministry at Ministry Days 2023. During this session we will share their reflections in full along with a conversation among them and an opportunity for you to respond. Join us on Friday, September 29, 2023 at 3-5pm ET/ 2-4pm CT/ 1-3pm MT/ 12-2pm PT. Click the date to register and get a reminder.

Upcoming Events and Our Podcast

You can view our calendar events here. Please make sure you are logged into uuma.org to see our full calendar as some events are available for members only. Below times are in EDT.