Internship Salary Grants: Are you considering having an intern starting next fiscal year? Would financial assistance help you support an internship? The UUA has an Internship Salary Grant program that can support up to half of an internship salary. As they are late in advertising this program, they are extending the deadline to January 10, 2025. However, please let the UUA know by December 15, 2024, if you plan to apply for a grant by contacting Darrick Jackson.
5+ UUA staff dedicated to supporting the credentialing initiatives
9 clergy colleagues serving on the MFC
13 candidates visiting with the MFC this week
24 volunteers offering to serve as MFC collegial chaplains
Many dozen collegial mentors, faculty advisors, instructors and intern supervisors
400 hours in one unit of CPE
1000 or more hours of internship per candidate
2000+ pages in the packets being read by MFC members
~1 gajillion: classes attended, supervision sessions, books read, webinars hosted, heart-felt conversations, bedside prayers, exams finished, hours of therapy, late night doubts, early morning sermon rewrites, discernment conversations and “growth experiences.”
It takes a lot to make a minister, to become a minister.
Once upon a time the conversation with the MFC resulted in a number 1 – 5 that affirmed or complicated one’s ministry. This week, as the committee gathers, there are discernments about entry into preliminary fellowship, continuation in candidacy or discontinuation in candidacy. Here at the UUMA we offer our care for the many conversations and questions that arise each season as our ministry grows and changes.
Candidates: let us know if there is a change in your status, a contingency that needs some support or a discernment conversation to be had. Remembering always: we need one another.
With gratitude to this community of colleagues: Holding so much more these recent months, Tending our credentialing process Inspiring greater commitment to keeping our AR/AO commitments Leading the faith into the future…
And for all the work that goes into the making of a minister: For the moments that go too quickly and the hours that fly by, and For the support we will continue to offer to one another in this vocation.
May we count our blessings and measure these days in love.
Something for Learning
Thank you to those who have already applied to serve on the Institute Planning Team! We will continue to receive applications through the end of business Monday, Dec. 9, and will be communicating our decisions by the end of next week. If you’ve been considering applying, this is your sign! Apply now and bring your passion for learning, worship and collegiality to our colleagues.
Something Extra
Ministerial Search Webinar for 2025:Friday, December 13, 2024, 12-1:30pm ET/ 11am-12:30pm CT/10am-11:30am MT/ 9am-10:30am PT If you are considering entering into search this year for any kind of settled, contract, transitional, or developmental ministry, you are warmly invited to join us for a webinar to help you with your preparations. Melissa Carvill Ziemer will host Congregational Transitions Direction Christine Purcell and Transformational Interim Ministries Director PK Curtis who will offer reflections about changes and dynamics in this year’s search cycle. Colleagues who searched in the last cycle will share some of their learnings and there will be time for your questions.
Thriving as a Highly Sensitive Clergyperson: From “Too Sensitive” to Embracing Your Insight and Empathy: Thursday, January 9 at 2-3:30pm ET/ 1-3:30pm CT/ 12-1:30pm MT/ 11am-12:30pm PT/ 9:00-10:30am HT
If you’re highly sensitive, your gifts of empathy, intuition, and creativity are incredibly powerful tools for ministry. But ministry can also take a real toll on you, with its constant, varied demands, conflicts, and emergencies. And because of your high sensitivity, a lot of the standard training and advice about ministry may not work for you. In this 90-minute webinar led by Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig, Spiritual Director and Life Coach, you’ll gain clarity on the gifts and challenges of being a highly sensitive clergyperson, plus ideas and resources for how to make changes in your habitual practices of ministry so you can thrive more fully.
Healthy Boundaries 101 (2 day program):Friday, January 24, 6-9pm ET/ 5-8pm CT/ 4-7pm MT/ 3-6pm PT/ 1-4pm HT and Saturday, January 25, 1-4pm ET/ 12-3pm CT/ 11am-2pm MT/ 10am-1pm PT/ 8-11am HT To serve in the role of spiritual leader is a sacred trust. Sometimes, without intending to, we exploit and hurt those we want to teach and nurture by inappropriately crossing boundaries. In this workshop, we will look at what every spiritual leader needs to know about relational boundaries, what boundaries are NOT, and how can we keep from violating boundaries inappropriately.
Upcoming Events
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.
