September 12. 2025

Something For the Moment 

We live in a world of information overload.  A reminder that the first block of the UUMA News starts with events and opportunities happening right now.  Already on your radar – please read on! 

• MFN: Timelines and Tips (aspirant focus) Mon, Sept 15, 2025: 3-4:30pm ET/2-3:30pm CT/1-2:30pm MT/12-1:30pm PT  REGISTER NOW
• Second Institute Scholarship Deadline is Mon, Sept 15: Apply here (notifications will be sent to those who applied between July 15 and Sept 15 by Oct 1 so you may register before rates increase on the 15th.)
• Chaplain Support Groups are beginning Mon, Sept 15!  read more
• Upcoming Training: Are you interested in a noncompliance and mass non-cooperation training later this fall? Please raise your hand here!
• Support Groups for Immigrant Ministers are forming this Month – learn how you can be included

Something for the Journey
Rev. Melissa Carvill Ziemer, Director of Ministries and Programs 

My first day of seminary was September 11, 2001.  Every year since, one of our colleagues sends those of us who began together that day a note on this anniversary, remembering the collective trauma and honoring all the ways people have found to keep on living after so much devastating loss.  One of my very first Sundays leading worship in my very first call was planned to be a Water Communion service, just as the catastrophic consequences of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were becoming clear.  My cohort, and I daresay every cohort since, experienced formation in the midst of crisis and calamity.  We have been trained to offer our ministries in the context of a time in history with its own acronym for the world stage: VUCA – volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.  

In this context of polycrisis and fear when trust in leaders in general and institutions in particular is regularly being eroded, we cultivate deeply valuable skills: 

• listening, companioning and witnessing, 
• ritual crafting, story telling and meaning making, 
• de-escalation, conflict resolution and restorative practices, 
• relationship building, coalition building and organizing,
• teaching, facilitating and public speaking,
• writing, remembering and advocating,
• strategizing, managing, leading and so many more. 

The headlines rarely shout about all the many and diverse ways people are out there blessing the world.  That is just one reason why we need to remember one another.  It can feel lonely sometimes when we are struggling to know what to do or say next, so we have to remember that none of us are alone in our efforts.  All of us, each in our own spheres, we are following this path of religious leadership together.  I find hope in the sure knowledge that you are out there finding your own way to live our values.  It is comforting to me to know that you are inviting people to join us on the pathways of love and liberation.  When it feels lonely, it helps me to remember that there are nearly 2,000 of us members of the UUMA and that all of us are answering the call of the Holy, each in our own way.  Thank you colleague for your particular ministry.  We on the UUMA staff are grateful for you as individuals and as the collective body of the Unitarian Universalist ministry in our time. It is our honor to tend to institutional structures that ensure you can access meaningful connections to give and receive for more sustainable and impactful ministries.  Thank you for being part of the UUMA and for helping us create a collegial culture which lifts us all.  

Something for Learning

• Learning Together returns the last week of the month! Join us Tues Sept 23 at 4:30pm eastern and Thurs Sept 25 at 8:30pm eastern for two different conversations about our racial justice education journey in Unitarian Universalism. Colleagues who have had leadership roles in this work will join Julica for conversations that help us frame where we’ve been; then, collectively, we will do some dreaming about what could be next.
   
• Our colleagues at DRUUMM are sponsoring an “Introduction to Allyship: Open to All” on September 30.  This 3-hr interactive zoom session serves as an optional gateway to a comprehensive four-session intersectional antiracism “Aiming for Allyship” training series, occurring on four Tuesdays in November and December. Facilitated by Justice Movement, this workshop is open to all and includes opportunities for caucusing.

Something Extra

This portion of the newsletter looks further along on the Calendar and holds up opportunities from our partners:

U/U Spiritual Innovators Sponsorship Opportunity 

• Are you a spiritual innovator—a religious professional or a lay leader—who wants to start a new community but you don’t know where to begin?
• Did you just launch a project and feel like you need colleagues who understand your joys and frustrations?
• Do you feel a yearning to build a local community but get overwhelmed by the idea of raising money and budgeting?
• Are you committed to seeking spiritual growth, liberation, and healing for communities in your midst?

• you identify as a religious professional or lay leader 
• you are creating an innovative space of sacred belonging 
• your community/project is somewhere between pre-development (ready to launch within 1 year) and 3 years post-launch
• your innovative community meets the spiritual needs of people from cultures and life-stages that have been, and are, historically underserved
• you identify as a member of an underserved group

Interested participants can learn more and apply here: UUA Application Link
Participating in this experience allows you to join a small cohort of UUA innovators upon completion. Got questions? Feel free to email Alicia at AForde@uua.org