Help Us Find Our Next Membership Administrator: The UUMA is seeking a collaborative administrator or membership professional to join our Administrative Team. If someone in your professional network comes to mind, we hope you’ll share this opportunity with them. Visit the Opportunities Tab on our Staff page to learn more, review our hiring practices, and access the position description and application information.
2026 Berry Street Essay Discussion Groups: There are two opportunities to gather with colleagues to discuss this year’s Berry Street Essay. You can register by clicking the dates below. Need a refresher or missed experiencing the essay? For those of you who registered for Ministry Days you can login to the Zoom Events portal and watch it there or it was streamed publicly on YouTube. Both are unedited versions. If you hold a marginalized identity and would like to watch in community please reach out to Julica.
There’s Still Time to Honor Melissa’s Ministry: As Melissa concluded ten years of service as Co-Executive, she chose to spend some of her last days in the role doing what she has always done so well—investing in others. She spent intentional time with Barb Greve and Janette Lallier sharing the relationships, history, and associational wisdom that cannot simply be written down, helping prepare the new Executive Team for the work ahead.
That spirit of investing in the future is what the UUMA Endowment is all about.
If you’ve been meaning to make a gift in celebration of Melissa’s ministry, there is still time. Your contribution to the UUMA Endowment helps strengthen the association she has served so faithfully and ensures that ministers will continue to benefit from its ministry for years to come.
The Melissa Celebration Endowment Campaign concludes July 31. Thank you for celebrating Melissa’s ministry by investing in the future of the UUMA. Because we need one another.
Something for the Journey
Julica Hermann de la Fuente & Michelle Favreault, UUMA Program Managers
As educators committed to liberation (and program managers at the UUMA!) we share a commitment to religious growth and learning as a relational practice. And while we like to use words like pedagogy, praxis and edification, what we strive to create in our UUMA work is a collegial culture where, more simply put, we all are changed by and through the ways we live our faith. Truly embodying the practice of Lifelong Learning, we recognize that all of us are constantly improving our understanding and renewing our commitment to our callings. Aspirants coming into ministry bring rich life and work experiences from a variety of backgrounds, and already have so much to teach us with critique and curiosity about how we do what we do. Likewise, the lived experience of our retired colleagues who have been transformed through the vocation of ministry guides our ethic and responsibility for stewardship of tradition. And in between, as we are juggling it all and honoring hard-won wisdom, we are reminded again and again that we have so much to share with each other!
The UUMA has worked for many years to bring both mentorship and coaching to you, and we are glad to announce a new iteration in the way we name and describe how we are always mentoring AND being mentored at the same time! Not because the MFC requires it to get to full fellowship, but because we are dedicated to the practice of liberation and need one another in this work. In this new model, we are offering mentoring for everyone seeking support, no matter what stage of ministry you’re in. Coaching, meanwhile, is reserved for specific needs: anti-racism, support while being held in care by the UUA Review Team, or for colleagues who are newly discovering they are serving in an after-pastor context. If you’d like to learn more about the way we are differentiating mentorship from coaching and how this transition came about, please join us in early September for an informal conversation and Q&A session.
While we work on our new mentoring/coaching webpage, here is a link to a form to request formal support with a mentor or coach. We welcome feedback about whether this form is clear and how it can be improved. We appreciate your engagement and support to help us make our programs accessible and relentlessly useful. Onward in the work, together.
~ Julica and Michelle
P.S. As part of this rollout, later in the fall we will also be re-releasing the Find a Minister tool which will help us give and receive collegial support. Which is to say, stay tuned for more opportunities to serve (and be trained!) as a coach or mentor as well!
Something for Learning
Mentor Training: If you’re starting out as a Preliminary Fellowship Mentor, Vocational Advisor or Internship Supervisor, this is a great time of year to check out the online UUA/UUMA mentor training program. This training provides the skills and resources colleagues need to serve in a mentoring role and each of the 5 modules include includes a video presentation by the facilitators Kimberly Quinn Johnson and Larry Peers.
“This training is so well done. Thank you for all the insights, practices and models you offered. It was also a treat to see beloved colleagues ‘in action’ continuing our dynamic ministry, as ever, in our shared faith.”
A reminder that this training is required for folks who are mentoring individuals in Preliminary Fellowship as per the MFC rules. Internship Supervisors and Vocational advisors working with aspirants and candidates will also find the handouts, resources and discussion prompts to offer valuable tools for companioning folks in formation.
Here is a video that explains how to access the training and use the code.
“I’m thrilled to have finished the mentor training—and delighted to have the insights and strategies of the wise presenters. It really is a fabulous training. I’m glad to have taken it.”
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.
practice. And while we like to use words like pedagogy, praxis and edification, what we strive to create in our UUMA work is a collegial culture where, more simply put, we all are changed by and through the ways we live our faith. Truly embodying the practice of Lifelong Learning, we recognize that all of us are constantly improving our understanding and renewing our commitment to our callings. Aspirants coming into ministry bring rich life and work experiences from a variety of backgrounds, and already have so much to teach us with critique and curiosity about how we do what we do. Likewise, the lived experience of our retired colleagues who have been transformed through the vocation of ministry guides our ethic and responsibility for stewardship of tradition. And in between, as we are juggling it all and honoring hard-won wisdom, we are reminded again and again that we have so much to share with each other!
