May 16, 2025

Something For the Moment 

Something for the Journey

Julica Hermann de la Fuente, Lifelong Learning Manager

In my family, we have a running joke when we’ve had a difficult day (week? month? presidential administration?). We declare loudly: “What you need is a cookie!” This comes from the children’s book Boo-Hoo Bird, where Bird’s friends are trying to cheer up Bird, who is having a most difficult day.

In these impossible times, we at the UUMA are very comfortable declaring that for most of your ministerial challenges, “What you need is a colleague!” But how do you know what kind of help to request? Here is a primer we hope will help:

• You need a vocational advisor when you are an aspirant or candidate for ministry, as part of your participation in the Ministerial Formation Network.
• You need a mentor if you are in preliminary fellowship, when you want to improve a particular skill, or whenever you are starting a new chapter in your ministerial career. And actually, our long-term goal is to normalize mentoring and being mentored at all stages and ages of ministry. Research shows that mentoring is one of the most effective ways to prevent misconduct, a goal that we all share.
• You need a coach if you are being held in care by the UUA review team after a conflicted ending in a parish setting, or if you are looking to improve your anti-racism skills. (These coaching offerings begin in the fall! Coming soon to a ministerial association near you!)
• You need a Good Offices person when you are in tension with another colleague, with the institution you serve, or with the UUA. In the past few years, we have grown the Good Offices program and now offer specialized support including contract and call negotiation, care team, right relations, chapter good offices, and dedicated good offices for marginalized identities.
• You need collegial connection in a monthly small group gathering, or a cluster, or a chapter retreat, or a conversation at Ministry Days or Institute – always! It’s so helpful to remember you are not alone, right? And it’s essential for maintaining wellness.

When you visit our UUMA website and look under the collegiality menu, you will find links to all of these possibilities. If that is too overwhelming, you can also email the UUMA Staff and ask for what you need, and we will help you get there. 

Thank goodness we have colleagues when we need them!

Something for Action

On Monday of this week, Julica attended The Gathering, the UUA Side With Love’s monthly virtual offering to fight fascism and learn smart collective action. We talked about how to utilize a theory of change (by clarifying what you are trying to shift and what are the assumptions you are using to leverage your power) and then heard directly from Siembra NC, an organization in North Carolina that is actively fighting ICE and deportations. Julica made the commitment to share this opportunity with all of you to join her and sign a pledge to stop Avelo, the first commercial airline to sign a contract with ICE to deport our friends and neighbors. 

What a relief to have our colleagues at Side With Love do all the heavy lifting of finding the partners whose work we want to support and amplify! Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could all just say yes and bring hundreds of people in our communities and congregations along in this collective effort? Let’s give it a try! Sign the pledge and share with other lay leaders and religious professionals, colleagues. Please and thank you.

Something Extra