February 26, 2026

Something For the Moment 

Board Dialogue Session TODAY: The Board of Trustees wants to meet with you for a conversation on topics vital to our shared profession. We will share brief updates on current issues for your feedback and also understand these sessions as an opportunity for you to bring your concerns and questions. Join us later TODAY, Thursday, February 26 from from 7:30-8:45PM ET / 6:30-7:45PM CT / 5:30-6:45PM MT / 4:30-5:45PM PT.

NourishNook: Community Ministers Retreat Information Session: All community ministers welcome! Join us on Wednesday, March 4, 8pm ET/ 7pm CT/6pm MT/ 5pm PT for NourishNook – a one hour panel discussion to guide you on how the Community Ministers Retreat works, featuring ways to connect you to your deeper ministry and your larger community of Unitarian Universalist Community Ministers.

Something for the Journey
Rev. Dr. Robin Tanner, President Board of Trustees
 

“History is not the past. It is the stories we tell about the past. How we tell these stories – triumphantly or self-critically, metaphysically or dialectally – has a lot to do with whether we cut short or advance our evolution as human beings.”
― Grace Lee Boggs, The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century

Any one of my five children knows that under stress I clean and organize. 2025 being what it was, and 2026 not looking much better, for the first time in my life I ran out of things to re-order at home. So, I decided to move offices at the church, which meant I cleaned up my files as well as some of my predecessors. Two spaces to organize! Huzzah!

Although I expected relief from this generally socially acceptable form of neurosis, I didn’t expect the history I would uncover– notes of appreciation to ministers before me. My own ordination planning file, as well as poems and thank yous. I began to remember history that my mind knew, but my heart had forgotten. And, I failed beautifully at getting rid of many files. Some things resisted being ordered: was this a poem I would use in worship or a thank you from a beloved congregant? Did this sermon go to the archives or should it be right on top of desk as a how to be a UU in the midst of heart-tightening and mind-numbing fascism? Did this small stone of a friendship now gone belong to my altar or should it be returned to the earth?

With each item and decision, I found myself remembering who I was, uncovering who my congregation was, and revealing the long ago woven threads of our living faith. The layers of these stories brought strength and joy, and a tenderness to my singed soul. Remembering who we were allows us to inhabit a space of retelling who we are and who we will be. Stories in other times thought of as completed history– like the origin of our chalice– now are rekindled for contemporary callings into courage and moral clarity. People who went before us in this ministry are understood in new dimensions when we tell the story a generation later. 

And in the flurry of this fascism, it is easy to lose sense of how our daily ministries matter. Yet, this longer arc grounds me.

We have an board dialogue session later today, February 26 at 7:30 PM ET/6:30pm CT/5:30pm MT/4:30pm PT. Yes, we will review our strategic work, board priorities, and receive your suggestions and questions. I am hoping we might have time for a little storytelling too. As Grace Lee Boggs aptly reminds us, “history is not the past. It is the stories we tell about the past.” And in this living faith and river of ministry we inhabit, that means as much as we are called toward the future and the new, we must do so informed by the stories of the past and the ways in which we tell and inhabit those stories now.

Beloved, I am not promising that cleaning out your file drawer will offer an epiphany, but I do believe that revisiting our history, retelling the stories, and remembering who we were is vital in who we may yet become. I am grateful for who you are, humbled by much of who we were, and committed to who we are becoming. 

Something for Justice

Fundamentals of Immigrant Justice: Contexts and Histories: This 4-series workshop, co-hosted by the UUMA and UURise will provide UU ministers with the fundamentals needed to engage immigration justice work with confidence. These workshops are a primer to understand how we got to the immigration system we currently have and how and why it works the way it does. With this foundation of knowledge, faith leaders will be able to engage in immigrant justice more mindfully; this series lays the groundwork for effective community work. Register here once to attend all 4 sessions. 

• Session 1: A Myth of “A Nation of Immigrants” (March 11) 
• Session 2: History of Immigration Laws (March 25)
• Session 3: Immigration in the 21st Century (April 8)
• Session 4: Current Immigration Laws, Policies & Practices (April 22)

Meet the Moment: Strategic Risk Assessment and Engagement for Ministers: Ministers are serving in a time when threats to our people, our communities, and our values are constant and evolving. This spring cohort will offer a supportive and grounded space for religious leaders to better understand the risks present in their specific contexts and to develop thoughtful, values-aligned strategies for responding. Rev. Melissa Carvill Ziemer and Rev. Lucas Hergert, Facilitators. Click on the dates below to register.

Wednesdays: March 11 and April 8: 12pm to 2pm ET, 11am to 1pm CT/ 10am to 12pm MT/ 9am to 11am PT