Getting Comfortable with Conflict

May 9, 2025

Something For the Month of June

Annual Meeting: Our Annual Meeting Packet was sent out earlier this week. Make sure you take some time to review it with special attention to a couple of proposed bylaw revisions. Please be sure to attend our Annual Meeting where we will receive important guidance about our legal standing in these times from senior UUA Leadership. Register for the meeting here to get reminders and let us know you plan to be there.

Ministry Days: We have over 400 people registered for Ministry Days! We are getting our spaces, both onsite at the Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor and virtually through Zoom Events, ready to welcome you. Please take a moment and register if you haven’t already. Remember we are all On this Path of Love together – we need one another!

Board Dialogue Session: Join your UUMA Board of Trustees on Friday, May 23 at 3pm ET/2pm CT/1pm MT/12pm PT for a lively dialogue session prior to the Annual Meeting. This is a great place to bring your questions about the Annual Meeting.

Something for the Journey

Melissa Carvill Ziemer, Director of Ministries & Programs

I’ve been working on my conflict avoidance for many years now. Thanks to all my training and practice of ministry, I’ve made a lot of progress. Yay! And, also, I still have lots of room to grow. My recent CPE unit made that extra clear, thank you very much CPE. I’m doing my inner work and trying to integrate that with all the resources I’ve gotten from workshops and other skill building opportunities. It is good, hard, important work. If you also have some room to grow in your capacity to work well with conflict, I encourage you to consider multiple dimensions of that work. CPE, therapy, spiritual practices – these are all excellent resources for the inner work.

When it comes to building knowledge and skills, the UUMA has lots of resources you might consider. We have curated a strong collection of tools on conflict in our Good Offices Handbook. I particularly appreciate the Questions to Analyze a Conflict from Spring Up and some of the framing and tools suggested in Turning Towards Each Other: A Conflict Workbook by Jovida Ross and Weyam Ghadbian. For excellent, accessible guidance grounded in wisdom from transformative justice, I value the work of Mariame Kaba and Shira Hassan in Fumbling Towards Repair. For basics of conflict styles and skills, I can recommend the Conflict Resolution with Power and Privilege in Mind workshop by CompassPoint and I’ve also benefited from materials from LeaderWise that they offer in their Confidence in Conflict workshop. Click on the titles to learn about any of these resources or take a look at the conflict section of the Good Offices Handbook for even more that might assist you in your development or for training others in your settings.

In these times when there is so very much conflict in the world around us, it is very possible we may be experiencing more conflict in our ministry settings. If that is true for you, I hope some of these wise teachers, your own inner work and support from the UUMA through Good Offices, coaching, mentoring or formal learning opportunities can help you work with conflict in ways that foster growth.

Something for Formation

MFN Formation Conversation: Chaplaincy Innovation Lab Meet and Greet

Monday, June 2, 2025 7-8:30pm ET/6-7:30pm CT/5-6:30pm MT/4-5:30 PT

The MFN will host a time of connection and conversation with Michael Skaggs, Director of Programs at The Chaplaincy Innovation Lab. If you are considering a vocation in community ministry, chaplaincy or in the parish this is a great chance to learn about trends, resources and networks to support your growth and learning. We’ll round out the session with time for collegial check in and fellowship.

MFN Formation Conversation: Discernment as Spiritual Practice (at all ages and stages of ministry)

Wednesday, July 16 & 30, August 13, 2025 at 12-1:00pm ET/11-12pm CT/10-11:00am MT/9-10:00am PT

Graduating? Wrapping up an internship? Preparing for retirement? Thinking about how to make the most of study leave or a sabbatical? Join in a discernment conversation to connect who you are today with your calling for your next chapter. The MFN will hold 3 sessions for UUMA members who are early in the process of preparing for a yet undefined vocation or folks thinking about making a big change after a long time. With playful questions and prayerful tools, this is a chance to listen, listen, listen to your heart song.

Something Extra

Community Ministers Chapter Gathering: From time to time we will be lifting up our non-geographic chapter gatherings. The next Community Ministers Chapter gathering will be May 18th at 3-4:30pm ET/ 2-2:30pm CT/ 1-2:30pm MT/ 12-1:30pm PT. Chapter members will be joined by Rev Melissa Carvill-Ziemer to hold space to talk about trends and dynamics in the employment landscape for community ministries. Perhaps we might consider whether there is interest in gathering a working group of this chapter to explore the possibility of organizing for greater advocacy. There will also be time for collegial connection and requesting/offering resources.

UUA Side with Love: The Gathering
Monday, May 12, 2025 8:00 PM – 9:15 PM ET (Please note the Time Zone!)
The Gathering is a new monthly virtual event from Side With Love, designed to offer:

Spiritual Grounding – Strengthen your heart and spirit for the work ahead.
Political Analysis – Understand the threats to democracy and justice.
Collective Action – Organize with others to block anti-democratic forces and build a just and loving world

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.