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May 3, 2018 | Vol. 5 No. 18
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| Deeper Alignment with Our Values & Theology |
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Rev. Jen Crow |
I've been thinking a lot lately about our theology as Unitarian Universalists. In a number of conversations with people of color and indigenous folks (POCI) who are members and leaders in UU congregations, I've heard again and again that POCI are drawn to our churches because of our theology.
What's attractive is this: our belief that no one is outside the circle of love; our commitment to the inherent worth and dignity of all beings; and our claim that we are a part of an interconnected web of all existence. The theology draws people in, and then when they get here, our actions don't always match up to our values or our theology.
On the one hand, this is not surprising. After all, the goal of a spiritual life is the continual and progressive alignment of our actions with our values. It's a life-long journey, and none of us gets it right 100% of the time. And on the other hand, this truth - that
we often fall short when it comes to welcoming and serving the spiritual needs of people of color and indigenous folks in our congregations - deeply disturbs me. What I keep hearing when I listen to POCI in our congregations is that while folks in our congregations have a great
intellectual understanding of what it means to draw the circle ever wider, when it comes to how we
act, we are not there yet. We have yet to fully embody our Universalist theology in practice in our congregations, and this presents an opportunity for us all.
Last year, your Board adopted new visionary goals to guide the work of the church. These goals express our highest aspirations and challenge us to live into being the community and the people we say we want to be. They are:
- First Universalist is a faith community committed to a transformational spiritual path guided by Unitarian Universalism's theology and Seven Principles. Our worship, spiritual practices, and rituals unify us, challenge our assumptions, provide comfort, and connect us to the holy.
- First Universalist is a multi-generational congregation where we connect to ageless wisdom, our ever-evolving religious tradition, listen for the call of love, and build meaningful relationships and community.
- First Universalist is a multi-racial, multi-cultural, and intergenerational faith community of mutual caring and support where people bring all of who they are and welcome each other with joy. Our sense of who we are as a community of faith is ever expanding.
- First Universalist is a faith community that acts with humility, bravery, and compassion to create a racially just and sustainable world.
Personally, I've found these goals to be inspiring, and I'm happy to say that these communal hopes and values are embedded in our proposed operating budget for 2018-19. In particular, our proposed 2018-19 operating budget makes real our commitment to visionary goal #3, as we strive to become a multi-racial, multi-cultural, and intergenerational faith community where our sense of who we are is ever expanding. To this end, we plan to hire a part-time Minister of Color to join our team in the new church year. We are also excited to be offering more support to our religious professionals of color in the new church year by funding their attendance at the annual Finding Your Way Home conference for Unitarian Universalist religious professionals of color. It is my commitment, and your Board's, that our budget is a tool that moves us into deeper alignment with our values, as we continue to become the people and the community our Unitarian Universalist theology calls us to be.
In faith,
Jen
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| SUNDAY WORSHIP AT FIRST UNIVERSALIST CHURCH |
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| May Worship Theme: Creativity |
Worship this Sunday
Sunday, May 6, 9:30 & 11:15 a.m.
Sharing Sunday
Rev. Elaine Aron Tenbrink
Caitlin Breedlove writes, "If we're always looking in mirrors - made of glass or social media - and looking outward, we should not be surprised when truly new things don't want to come through us to be born."
How do we ground ourselves so that we can be receptive to that which is asking to be born into our lives and into the world? What does it look like to welcome in the creativity that generates beauty, justice, and the deep human connections that we yearn for?
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Sunday, May 13, 9:30 & 11:15 a.m.
Child Dedication, Coming of Age Recognition
Rev. Jen Crow
Recent Sermon Podcasts
April 29, 2018
"Invocation and Dance"
Rev. Ruth MacKenzie
April 8, 2018
"Your Soul is Intact"
Rev. Karen Hutt, Rev. Justin Schroeder
April 1, 2018
"Resurrecting A Community"
Rev. Justin Schroeder
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| May Worship Theme: Creativity |
Creation creates. This is the nature of being alive and a part of this world. To be human is to be a creator. To be an artist, you get conscious about creativity. An artist understands that everything is creating all the time. Artists purposefully stare at the blank page, stand before the empty canvas, or enter the quiet before a note is sounded. They consciously enter the flow of creation hoping something new, or inspiring, or healing will transpire. Artists consciously shape creation creating. To be a person of faith is to get conscious about creativity as well. We sit with open hearts, listening to where love is calling us next. We consciously enter the creating world, creating justice, creating community, creating islands of sanity in an insane world. The religious life is an artistic life. In this time when everything is in bud, when so much is becoming, we explore the nature of creativity and what it is to be alive.
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"Mental Health and Addiction"
Sunday, May 6, 1 p.m., Cummins Room
May is National Mental Health month, and members of the Pastoral Visitors team invite you to join us for an informal talk and discussion about Mental Health and Addiction. This conversation will be led by Dede Armstrong, Coordinator of Non-Residential services and Facilitator of the 55-plus non-residential program at the Retreat, a 12-Step-based residential recovery program. As a daughter, mother and individual, she has experienced mental health and addiction issues and has come to believe that "living the solution to addiction is far more important than defining the problem." Please come with your questions, thoughts and curiosity. You will also find an information table in the social hall with resources available through Mental Health Connect.
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Open Labyrinth Walk
Thursday, May 10, 6:30-8 p.m., Social Hall
Next Thursday is the last Open Labyrinth Walk of the church year! Each month from September through May, we offer an Open Labyrinth Walk on the second Thursday of the month. You are welcome to arrive any time between 6:30 and 8 p.m., depending on how long you wish to be on the Labyrinth. Walk at your own pace, and stay as long or short as you like. Allow at least 15 minutes minimum for a full fast walk. A member of the Labyrinth Circle will be available to answer questions and offer guidance. For more information, contact: Ann Hobbs, 763-546-3337 or g.annhobbs@gmail.com.
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Pathway to Membership Class
Thursdays, May 17 and 24, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
If First Universalist is feeling like your spiritual home, then we hope you'll take part in the
Pathway to Membership! This new member class is a great chance to build community, explore Unitarian Universalism and our church's unique history, and learn how to get involved.
This class is offered as a two-part series on
Thursdays, May 17 & 24, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Sign up by emailing Sandy at
sandy@firstuniv.org
or calling 612-825-1701.
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Daytime Connections: Celebrate Spring!
Thursday, May 17, 11 a.m.
Join Daytime Connections for a fun and relaxing celebration of spring to cap the program year! Enjoy tips from a master gardener plus energizing, spirited movement to promote insight with Interplay leaders, Barbra Wiener and Hannah Mitchell. Includes a picnic style lunch!
Register by May 13 with Sandy at 612-825-1701 or
sandy@firstuniv.org
. $5-10 suggested lunch donation (lunch follows the program at 1 p.m.).
Through Daytime Connections, older adults at First Universalist empower each other to live intentional, joyful, purposeful, and spiritually fulfilled lives.
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Refugees & U.S. Asylum Seekers: Uncertain Shelter in the Age of Trump
Sunday, May 20, 1-2:30 p.m.
Every day, policies of President Trump, coupled with an atmosphere of unchecked xenophobia, are making life harder for refugees and asylum seekers, many of whom are also survivors of torture (as many as 44%).
Join us for a presentation by Curt Goering, Executive Director of the Center for Victims of Torture, including a briefing about what life is like for the survivors they work with and a discussion on the current political policies impacting them. Learn what you can do to support torture survivors, refugees and asylees in our community.
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Artist's Reception with Bri Moses
Sunday, May 20, 10:30 a.m.-1 p.m.
Photographer Bri Moses will be in the Social Hall after both services on Sunday, May 20 to talk about her work and to offer additional photographs for sale. A selection of her photographs are currently on display in the social hall in an exhibit called "Macro Nature," through June 24. Bri's images reflect the process and patterns of nature, in addition to how it is changing. By examining the subjects from a different point of view, she gains a deeper understanding of the relationship we share with our ecosystem and the delicate balance we rely on.
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Summer Circle Registration Open Through May 20
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Martha Postlewaite writes:
"Do not try to save
the whole world
or do anything grandiose.
Instead, create
a clearing
in the dense forest
of your life
and wait there
patiently,
until the song
that is your life
falls into your own cupped hands
and you recognize and greet it.
Only then will you know
how to give yourself
to this world so worthy
of rescue."
Sometimes, it's hard to know how to begin.
You know that you're in deep need of arriving at a clearing in the dense forest of your life.
You're desperate for that kind of stillness that is life-giving.
You're ready to give of yourself, but not sure where to begin.
This summer, consider beginning by joining a Soul Matters Circle.
In these small groups of 8-10 people, we create a clearing where we slow down, listen deeply to each other and our own inner wisdom, and we invite the spirit to grow. These six-session circles will delve into our summer worship theme: Emergence. Our topics for the six sessions are:
1. Emergence 2. Intention 3. Courage 4. Risk 5. Awakening 6. Emergence, revisited
Registration for summer circles is open now through May 20. Sign up online here or in the social hall on Sundays, May 6, 13, or 20.
Blessings for the Journey,
Rev. Elaine
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| "I L-o-o-o-ve My Phone App!" |
Submitted by Ray Dillon
I've got our free Church Life phone app, and boy, is it ever handy! My phone remembers my password, so as soon as I hit the app button, I'm in. Then I type in a first name or a last name, and that member's phone number and email info pops up. For about a fourth of the members, their photos also show up, which helps my challenged memory as I'm encountering new people.
Being connected to our fellow church members not only gives us that "feel good" sense of belonging to a community, it also facilitates all the mutual support and justice work our church community can make happen in the world.
This Sunday, May 6, is Phone App Sunday. If you can't download the Church Life app yourself, we'll have our techie members standing by in the Social Hall after each service, ready to help you. You're going to l-o-o-o-v-e your Church Life phone app!
P.S. Reading this on your smartphone? Download the app for iPhone here and Android here. Need a login/account? Instructions are available here.
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Annual Giving Update: 70% IN and Counting
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This year, our goal is to achieve
100% participation/response
- All In! -
in our Annual Giving Campaign. Annual giving funds more than 80% of our work, and it's important that we hear from everyone so that we can budget and plan for the coming year!
As of May 2, we've heard from 70% of the congregation about their plans for giving during the 2018-19 fiscal year. Thank you so much to those who are "in" thus far!
If we haven't heard from you yet, please help us by letting us know your plans as soon as possible.
- give us a call at 612-825-1701,
- email Andrea at andrea@firstuniv.org,
- set up your giving online (you must have a MyFirstU account set up),
- or mail in/bring in/fill out a giving card in church!
Thank you for your support and for being
All In!
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Spotlight on EMERGE this Sunday
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EMERGE, one of our six Faithful Action community partners, is a Minneapolis-based workforce development organization with service centers in North Minneapolis and Cedar-Riverside, and social enterprise businesses in NE and SE Minneapolis. EMERGE's mission is to reveal the potential in people and communities through skill building, employment, and economic opportunity. This reflects both a commitment to facilitate life change for individuals facing significant obstacles, and a commitment to create broader, systemic change at the community level. EMERGE works in neighborhoods where unemployment is 2-3 times the state average and poverty is 39-57%, compared to 23% metro-wide. They offer adult and youth workforce services, transitional employment and career training opportunities. Their social enterprise businesses create and support more than 350 jobs annually and generate more than $1 million in wages for low-income communities. EMERGE serves 3,000 people per year. About one-third of participants are overcoming a criminal background; 26% have no high school diploma/GED; 21% speak a primary language other than English, and 13% are immigrants or refugees.
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| Sunday, May 13 Child Dedication: Sign Up by May 6 |
 Unitarian Universalists believe every child brings new light and new hope into the world.
During the Child Dedication ritual, the congregation pledges itself to partner with and support parents and families in the religious upbringing of the child. Child Dedications take place during Sunday worship services twice a year.
Learn more and sign your family up to participate in the May 13 Child Dedication
here.
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| Sanctuary & Resistance Planning Rummage Sale |
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Abdulkadir Sharif Abdi Mohamed, known to his family and friends as Abdi, is a native citizen of Somalia. He came to the United States in 1996. He faced adversities and struggled to adjust to his new life as a 17 year old refugee in a strange country. Regardless of his traumatic past and new challenges, he learned from his behaviors and experiences, and has evolved into a stand-up human being.
At this time, Abdi is being detained and threatened with deportation. Sending him back to Somalia would endanger his life. It would also tear apart a loving marriage to a U.S. citizen, and so much more!
The First Universalist Sanctuary and Resistance team is partnering with Abdi's wife Rhoda, as well as his friends and family to put on a rummage sale
June 1-2 in order to raise funds for Abdi's legal fees. We'll begin collecting all kinds of (gently-used) items beginning on
May 15! This is a great way to finish some spring cleaning and raise money for an important cause at the same time. More details will be available next week. For any questions, please contact Gordon Loery at
gloery945@gmail.com.
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| ART for Action: Create Fabric and Fiber Landscapes |
Have fun while raising funds for the First Universalist Sanctuary and Resistance Immigrant Fund! On Saturday, June 9 from 1-5 p.m., c
ome create a painted-looking landscape with unique printed and textured fabrics and fibers in the Chalice Room at First Universalist. Learn new techniques and art making approaches with Rev. Laurie Bushbaum and Denise Konen in an absorbing afternoon of art making.
Suggested donation: $50.
Funds raised will support immigrant families facing detention and deportation. Space is limited. Register with Denise Konen at
denise@netgains.net
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| Call for 2018-19 Worship Associate Applications |
Worship Associates open our worship services every Sunday with stories that move us. Each associate seats the worship theme in the particular of their own life, grounding each service in the reality of lived experience. Our worship services are rich with stories: a cowardly lion finding courage in community, a truth left unsaid, a mother who hears the most tender words from her adult son from his hospital bed.
Do you love worship? Do you have a flair for writing? Does your heart open when you're telling a story about your own spiritual journey? Please consider applying to be a Worship Associate this year.
Worship Associates speak 2 or 3 times during the church year in our worship services, September through May. Associates and Rev. Ruth MacKenzie gather during the year to discuss themes for upcoming months, talk about writing for oration, review how to layout a manuscript and practice public speaking.
If this interests you, please apply:
We will hold a Worship Retreat on
Sunday, Aug. 26 from 11:30-3:30 p.m.
Then the group will decide on a monthly meeting date to form a Soul Matters group for our Worship Associates. We will discuss upcoming worship themes, spiritual deepening, and support one another.
You must be able to attend the Worship Retreat on August 26 in order to be considered.
The Worship Team will be choosing applicants that represent the multi-generational, multi-cultural, multi-racial congregation we are becoming.
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| Seeking Delegates to UUA General Assembly 2018 |
General Assembly
(GA) is the annual meeting of our Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA).
Part liberal religious meet-up, part UUA business meeting, GA is a jam-packed few days with amazing people, seminars, worship services, Robert's Rules, and even a dance or two.
Attendees worship, witness, learn, connect, and make policy for the Association through democratic process.
This year's conference is
Wednesday, June 20 to Sunday, June 24, in Kansas City, Mo
. Registration info and more is available here.
Anyone may attend GA. To attend as one of First Universalist Church's official 20 delegates, please talk to someone on the Nominating Committee or email
(
nomination@firstuniv.org
)
before June 1st.
You must be an active member. Delegates need to be officially approved by the congregation at our annual meeting.
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Support Simpson Housing Services at Art4Shelter
Wednesday, May 9, 6-9 p.m., Minneapolis Institute of Art
The 8th annual Art4Shelter fundraiser will be held on Wednesday, May 9. Proceeds from this event benefit Simpson Housing Services, one of our church's Faithful Action Partners.
This fun, high profile, high energy event at the
Minneapolis Institute of Art will bring together hundreds of artists and collectors for a special evening of music, wine, conversation, and art buying!
Art4Shelter is a free event with refreshments and appetizers. The art preview time is 6-7 p.m., with the sale from 7-9 p.m. All the 5" x 7" artworks sell for $35 apiece. All proceeds go to Simpson Housing Services.
More information is available at
art4shelter.org.
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| RESOURCES & CONTACT INFORMATION |
Building & Renovations
In 2017, we raised more than $5.5 million in our Capital Campaign, Not for Ourselves Alone: Building an Inclusive Future
, for renovations and new construction that will improve our church's accessibility, hospitality, and welcoming presence, add much-needed space for education and meetings, allow us to address deferred maintenance, and improve the worship experience through enhancements to the sanctuary.
Our architectural team from Miller Dunwiddie presented
Schematic Design
(preliminary) drawings to the congregation in a meeting on March 25, 2018. You can read more, get the latest updates, and view the schematic design drawings on our website.
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Congregational Care: Caring Corner
Write a note to a congregant who could use support! There are cards available in the library, which is located off of the Social Hall. You are welcome to stop by and write a card at any time. Just leave it in the basket and the church will mail it for you. Learn more about congregational care on our website.
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Planned Giving & the Heritage Circle
Please let us know
when you designate First Universalist Church as a beneficiary in your will or estate plan so we can thank you for your generous commitment and welcome you to the Heritage Circle. The church office and the Planned Giving Committee can help you. Learn more on our website.
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Cycle of Life and Pastoral Care
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Let Us Keep You in Our Thoughts and Prayers
If you are experiencing a crisis or transition, or celebrating a joy, please let us know. To be included in our Cycle of Life each Sunday in worship, contact Sandy DiNanni at
sandy@firstuniv.org or 612-825-1701. If you would like support, call the office at 612-825-1701 or contact any member of our
Pastoral Visitors Team.
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Join Our Mailing List
Subscribe to
The Weekly Liberal
here.
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here.
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Church Office Hours
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Sundays
8 a.m.-1 p.m.
Mondays-Thursdays
8:30 a.m.-8 p.m.
Closed Fridays and Saturdays
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Weekly Liberal Submissions
We encourage you to submit news!
Do you have an announcement that you'd like published in
The Weekly Liberal? Fill out our
online submission form. Edits for length and/or content may occur.
The Weekly Liberal
is compiled and edited by Communications Manager Jenn Stromberg. Past issues, deadlines, and policies can be found on our
website
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Contact Us
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First Universalist Church of Minneapolis
3400 Dupont Ave. S.
Minneapolis, MN 55408
612-825-1701
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First Universalist Church of Minneapolis
3400 Dupont Avenue S.
Minneapolis, MN 55408
612-825-1701
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