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October 26, 2023

Something For the Moment

Sharing Sad News: It is with deep sadness that we share the news of the unexpected death of the Rev. Carolyn Owen-Towle. Carolyn was the first woman to serve as UUMA President from 1989 to 1991. Her life and legacy is a gift to us all. We will share more information as it becomes available.

Shared Study Leave Symposium Update: Thank you to all the members who completed our survey inquiring about the possibility of hosting an in person Shared Study Leave Symposium this March. Unfortunately, your responses made clear that there simply isn’t enough lead time to plan the kind of event we have in mind. We will continue with our plans to have the Future of Ministry as our focus for our Virtual Ministry Days this year and are thinking about ways we can shape our Ministry Days programming with ample room for participatory experiences and conversations.

Collegial Care Spaces: As the people of Israel and Gaza suffer the traumas and terrors of war, many of our beloved colleagues are experiencing the impacts of secondary and multigenerational trauma. In this extraordinarily painful time, we know you need support so that you can be sustained in your ministries. We are grateful to be partnering with UUA staff in creating trauma informed spaces for collegial care. Our intent is to offer collegial care circles for Muslim and/or Arab colleagues, circles for Jewish colleagues as well as circles for colleagues who hold other identities. We are working on the details now and will have more to share soon.

Something for the Journey

From Connie Simon, UUMA Board of Trustees Secretary

There are only 168 hours in a week. I Connie Simon often have to remind myself of that. It seems like a lot of time. I feel like I should be able to do so much with 168 hours and yet it always feels like there’s just not enough time to do all the things.

At our UUMA Board meeting each month, we talk about the newsletter article that will be contributed by a board member for that particular month. We try to choose topics that are relevant to the membership, topics that will help you fulfill your call and serve your specific community. We aim to keep our meetings at two hours or less, but somehow, this month, we came to the end of the two hours and hadn’t selected a topic. As we each hurried off (most of us to yet another Zoom meeting), we agreed to connect online to select a topic. It didn’t happen. And that’s OK.

These are hard times for us all in so many ways. The demands on religious professionals seem to keep expanding – more meetings, more problems to solve, more members of our community in need of care. Our children, parents, friends, and family need our attention. We are also called to care for those who continue to struggle under the yoke of oppression and for our global siblings enduring the horrors of war in Gaza, Israel, Ukraine, and Sudan.

My message to you this week, dear colleagues, is simple. There is so much demanding our time and attention, and still only 168 hours in the week. Somewhere we must find time to rest, refresh, and recharge ourselves. You can’t serve from an empty vessel.

Thinking of 168 hours might seem trivial in light of everything happening in the world right now. I get that. Even so, I ask you to take just one minute of one of those hours to breathe. Be still. Feel life and love and the energy of the universe move through you. Be renewed in your soul. Know that you are loved.

Something Extra

Multigenerational Conversations: Building Good Relationships Between Active and Retired Ministers: This gathering is another offering in our ongoing effort to create spaces and topics specifically for Multigenerational Collegial Conversation. We will have colleagues who have created these types of relationships share about their experience, there will be time for you to talk about your experiences, and we will share resources that might be helpful to you as well. Join us on Monday, November 27, 2023 at 3-4:30pm ET/ 2-3:30pm CT/ 1-2:30pm MT/ 12-1:30pm PT.

Zoom Accounts: Exciting announcement for those who have purchased your Zoom accounts through the UUMA – we have signed a contract for Zoom One. Zoom One will upgrade all our accounts starting in November and include expanded meeting settings, more event capacity, white board capabilities, a slack-like chat feature, and more. Zoom is phasing out the current version so all our accounts will be upgraded. We will be providing training and resources for our users. Stay tuned for more information on pricing levels and renewal information!

Chapter Leader Calls: If you are a chapter leader, you should have received an email inviting you to participate in one of our Chapter Leader calls in November. If you did not receive the mailing, please contact our Collegial Care Assistant, Jan Taddeo, so we can update our records. Click on the date you’d like to attend to register for a Chapter Leader Call:

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.