Integrating Your Sabbatical: After a sabbatical, it’s easy to get swept back up in the work of ministry, and our sabbatical experiences can seem like a distant memory. Whether you are coming to the end of a sabbatical, or returned from your sabbatical months ago, you are invited to take a brief time out to remember and integrate the fruits, challenges and unanswered questions from your sabbatical with Darcey Laine, UUMA member. Darcey is currently working with UUMA Staff on updating the Sabbatical Handbook.
Community Ministers Retreat Tending to the Landscape of Your Ministry: Seeding, Cultivating, Harvesting: Register Now For 2026 Community Minister Retreat Events! Cosponsored by the UUA and the UUMA this flexible retreat takes place where you are and how you need it to be and will bring together fellowshipped Community Ministers from all paths of community ministry. Two pre-retreats included in registration – the first one is April 19th so register today!
Something for the Journey
Michelle Favreault, MFN Program Manager
The way I remember it, it was Easter Sunday and the minister placed a pink stole over my shoulders. Minutes later we processed from the narthex to the chancel to Hymn #7, the Leaf Unfurling, sung to the tune Sine Nomine (with Alleluia). At First Parish in Lexington, MA in the 1990’s I did not know that wearing a stole would ever be a long discussed Facebook subject among colleagues. This was, after all, before seminary, before ordination, and merely WEEKS into my job as religious educator. And more than a decade before “The Facebook” was a thing. Who could have imagined?
That Easter, the grey hymnal was still “new.” I wore pantyhose on Sundays. A year or so later, I took a UU Theology class at Andover Newton with the Rev. Dr. Paul Rasor as professor and a couple dozen, maybe 30 or more folk who, like me, were bright eyed and bushy tailed, preparing for vocations in UU ministry. I remember those classmates: A duo who introduced their project on Queer theology with snaps; The brilliant colleague who made a zine about feminist theologians; Those who became friends. Those who never arrived in ministry. Those who departed ministry in joy, or in sorrow.
As candidate colleagues meet with the MFC this week, I wonder what songs, what religious philosophers, what abiding relationships will help to sustain them for the long haul of ministry. I wonder who I will see at Ministry Days in the virtual spaces in which we will gather. I wonder what will be remembered, and forgotten as the 25 and 50 year colleagues share inspiration for the next generations. I wonder how we will hold one another in the midst of disagreements and disappointments. I wonder what will rise from our plantings and show us that there are constant, common miracles that we share.
Something for Learning
How are you engaging the CSAI on abolition with your congregations, parish colleagues? The CLF has an amazing page of resources on the topic, and they just hosted a conversation especially for religious professionals this week. Recordings for this conversation and past ones can be found on their website, linked above. If you’re interested in a community of practice to continue the conversation about the educational scaffolding needed to bring the topic of abolition to your people, please email Julica.
Something Extra
UUA State of the Association: Join UUA President the Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt, the Rev. Nancy McDonald Ladd and Carey McDonald for a special online event “UUA State of the Association” on Monday, March 30 at 3pm EDT/2pm CDT/12pm PDT. This event, accessibile in multiple formats as listed below, will be a great preview (pre-reading) to our time with President Sofía and the UUA Leadership Team during Ministry Days. Registration is not required
March 30 Morning: The full text will be presented at UUWorld.org as a letter to the faith
Healthy Boundaries 101 is back at the UUMA! Save the date for the next training May 18 from 1-6pm ET/ 12-5pm CT/ 11am-4pm MT/10am-3pm PT and May 19th from 4-6:30pm ET/3-5:30pm CT/2-4:30pm MT/1-3:30pm PT. Registration information will be available soon.
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.
placed a pink stole over my shoulders. Minutes later we processed from the narthex to the chancel to Hymn #7, the Leaf Unfurling, sung to the tune Sine Nomine (with Alleluia). At First Parish in Lexington, MA in the 1990’s I did not know that wearing a stole would ever be a long discussed Facebook subject among colleagues. This was, after all, before seminary, before ordination, and merely WEEKS into my job as religious educator. And more than a decade before “The Facebook” was a thing. Who could have imagined?