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IN THIS ISSUE
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Rev. Katie's Animas View
This fall, we'll continue opportunities for adult faith formation at UUFD, with an overview history class (Faith Like a River, Oct. 23, 5-7 pm), and a series of theology classes (What Moves Us? Sept. 25, Oct. 2, Nov. 6, and Nov. 13 5:30-7 pm).
From the title you might be able to tell that the theology class is not meant as a simple intellectual exercise, but
as a process of meaning-making that equips us for living in the world as Unitarian Universalist people of faith.
We'll delve into four Unitarians and Universalists, historical and contemporary, to begin to develop a personal theology but also our deep understanding of the threads of our Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist theological heritage.
I hope you'll consider adding these classes to your important commitments. (Please RSVP to
[email protected]
). I believe that this past Summer Series based on Unitarian and Unitarian prophets gave us an invitation to deepening our faith, and I'm excited to continue this ministry together.
In October, I'll be attending our UU History Convocation in Baltimore, celebrating both the 250th anniversary of John Murray's landing in America, and the 200th anniversary of William Ellery Channing's "Unitarian Universalist" sermon. I expect to bring back a new appreciation and eagerness for the connection of our history to today's faith.
I look forward to this liturgical year together. I hope to see you on September 8 for our Ingathering service, the Water Communion. Please bring a bit of water from your summer adventures.
With faith, in love,
Rev. Katie
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Theme: Expectations
Spiritual Practice:
of allowing hope to widen our view
September 1
The Divine Transcendence of Labor Justice
-Peter Tregillus, pulpit guest
How can we enhance the quality of life in La Plata County? Our coalition of workers and employers are endeavoring to make this a county in which living is thriving.
September 8
A Universe of Beauty and Struggle: Water Communion
-Rev. Katie Kandarian-Morris & Sara Sautter
Join us for All Community Worship as we celebrate our annual fall ingathering. Bring water from your summer days as we consider our expectations for the days ahead. The Spirit Movers will contribute to the beauty of the service.
September 15
Grace Without God
-Rev. Katie Kandarian-Morris
Do you need to believe in God to be able to receive the gift of grace? Grace may offer us the gift of meaning, purpose and belonging.
September 22
How to Grow Unitarian Universalists: Lessons Learned in the Field
-Sara Sautter, Interim Director of Faith Formation, pulpit guest
So, you finally found our great fellowship. It means a lot to you. You want to see it prosper and grow. Just how do you grow new Unitarian Universalists and seed the Board of Trustees of UUFD for 2035? Receive ideas from our experienced religious educator.
September 29
Things to Think
-Rev. Katie Kandarian-Morris
As we approach the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we might use this as an opportunity to think about things differently than before. How might we widen our view?
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 President's Message
Tom McCampbell
Dear Friends,
The Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said, 'Change is the only constant in life.' He concluded that permanence is an illusion and that everything lives in a process of constant change.
Well yeah ... just look around. When's the last time you saw a pay phone booth, or went to a drive-in movie, or had your 8-track jam and spew tape all over the floor of your Pontiac GTO?
All gone, but not forgotten.
I think that intellectually we all get this truth about change - we know it happens. Being able to accept and embrace change is another matter. Accepting the reality of change is not rocket science - it much more difficult than that. In fact, change may be the most challenging thing
we face in life.
UUFD has seen many, many changes in our 52-year history. I know most of us would agree that those changes have been good. I also know that many are concerned about the pace and impact of recent changes on UUFD church life. I've heard some of you say that you're having a hard time "wrapping my head around that."
Please know that your Board of Trustees is paying attention to you and your thoughts. Our recently completed Triennial Review of Ministries revealed that we are meeting many of our ministry goals - especially in social justice. The findings also cast a light on things we can do better - like the need to broaden a deeper sense of belonging among our growing and changing membership; the need to ensure a clearer understanding about how our church works - how decisions are made that affect us all. The board is planning a series of gatherings in the coming months to help chart our course for the coming year and beyond. I invite you to join in the
conversation.
As Heraclitus observed, change is certain. I am just as certain that we will find a way to accept the evolution of our beloved UUFD in typical uplifting, UU can-do fashion!
In covenant,
Tom
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What is an Interim Religious Educator?
What does this mean for faith formation at UUFD?
Adapted from writings by Jan Garter, UUA staff
By Sara Sautter, UUFD Interim Religious Educator
Why do we have an interim at UUFD?
When one religious professional leaves a congregation, it can be a fruitful time for reflection, visioning, and change. An interim religious education professional provides specialized skills and tools to help a congregation prepare for robust new leadership.
Interim religious educators are typically hired for 1-2 years. A deliberate transition period has a shape and momentum that sets it apart from time with a settled leader, so a limited-time role helps ensure that the congregation stays focused on its developmental work.
This intentionally temporary status also allows the professional to shine light on uncomfortable work with the congregation to effect difficult changes that may be necessary for future health and success; such efforts would be easily compromised if this staff member were meanwhile "auditioning" for the long-term position.
What skills does an interim bring to our congregation?
- Knowing what questions to ask to facilitate a process.
- Exercising the ability to listen.
- Soliciting and valuing multiple perspectives about past, present, and future in regards to events, circumstances, and hopes.
- Gathering and analyzing feedback.
- Applying a congregational systems lens to programmatic work.
- Being visible within and beyond the religious education arena.
- Offering vision.
- Clarifying scope of work and priorities.
- Modeling good self-care and clear boundaries.
- Demonstrating comfort in navigating change by providing a stable, non-anxious presence.
What are the tasks involved in the interim period?
1. Coming to Terms with History
- Helping the congregation's leaders to get a perspective on its RE history and culture.
- Helping the congregation claim, honor and appreciate its past and work toward health and healing.
- Gathering information and viewpoints about past events and circumstances.
- Helping congregation and RE leaders to process the transition of the predecessor.
2. Evolving a Unique Religious Education Program Identity
- Helping the congregation to gain a new understanding of itself as a lifelong learning community.
- Helping the congregation's religious education community to gain self-awareness of its wholeness: emotional, spiritual, and sociological status.
- Illuminating the congregation's unique RE program identity: its strengths, its needs, its challenges.
- Helping to make connections with other committees and groups in the congregation in its shared ministry to children, youth, and adults.
- Evaluating the RE program and its safe congregations policies and procedures.
3. Facilitating Leadership Changes During the Interim Period
- Helping to identify the changes needed in RE program structure and staffing.
- Clarifying the multiple dimensions of leadership and aiding in navigating the shifts in leadership that accompany times of transition.
- Advocating for strong lay RE leadership development.
- Helping to empower the congregation and RE leadership through positive attitude.
- Modeling new approaches, practices and procedures.
- Nurturing collegial relationships with other staff.
4. Renewing Associational Linkages
- Raising awareness among the RE Program leaders and congregation about the importance of Unitarian Universalist Association and your local UUA district and region.
- Renewing connections with available resources and services within the district, region, and the UUA
5. Facilitating a Commitment to Future Program Vitality
- Enabling the congregation to renew its vision, strengthen its stewardship, prepare for new professional leadership, and engage its future with anticipation and zest.
- Helping the congregation focus their energies on the future in a positive way.
- Planning closure and an effective leave-taking strategy.
- Serving as a resource to the congregation's religious educator search process.
- Implementing change while leaving the system open to future changes.
- Developing and implementing a transition strategy for transferring information to next religious educator.
Our interim time here at UUFD will kick off this fall when UUA staff come to Durango to host a workshop dedicated to beginning the process of visioning for the future of faith formation at UUFD. You will be invited to participate in this Start Up workshop, currently planned for the weekend of October 5.
We hope to see you there!
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Choir begins rehearsals - new singers welcome!
The UUFD choir, "The Diversitones," will begin rehearsals on Wednesday, September 4, from 7 to 8:30 pm. We will rehearse in Bowman Hall while the chancel is under construction. All are invited to join - no auditions! We promise to make you feel welcome, no matter your level of experience.
Contact Elizabeth
for more information.
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Social Responsibility and Justice special feature
 From a news summary about the most recent United Nations climate report: "With warning after warning, it's become clear the world needs to come together to avoid the catastrophic effects of climate change that might otherwise alter life as we know it."
An important awareness in social justice work is the concept of intersectionality, meaning that social justice issues are typically not isolated, but are entwined or connected to each other. Climate change is a good example of this concept. Everyone is, or will be, affected by the impacts of climate change in one way or another, but the intensity of those impacts is not equally distributed. Marginalized 'front line' communities are often impacted hardest and have the fewest resources to deal with those impacts. Our UU seventh principle affirms respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.
Clearly, no one individual can overcome the challenges of climate change. But every person acting is necessary if we are to change the current trajectory of climate change and heal the earth, our home. A new UUFD Environmental Justice Team has formed with the purpose of providing support and leadership in our fellowship for doing our part. Our fellowship has a long history of appreciation, connection, and concern for nature and its protection. We align our actions with our values when we conserve, recycle, go solar, and eat ethically. Through the work of our new Environmental Justice Team, we intend to learn more about how our choices can damage or enhance our environment so that we can individually, and as a congregation, make the difference we seek. To learn more, you can contact EJ Team leaders Laurie Dickson and Linda Gumper.
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Renewing our Welcome
Save the date for
Trans 101 on Sept. 25 at 7 pm
A key part of our identity as a fellowship is being a Welcoming Congregation - meaning we intentionally work to make sure lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people are full members of our faith community. The UUA has adopted a new process for UU congregations to become designated a Welcoming Congregation, and added a process to renew certification as a Welcoming Congregation. UUFD received its designation as a Welcoming Congregation in July 2012. Our LGBTQ Social Justice Team has been working for over a year with the new renewal process and is nearing completion of the requirements.
 The final requirement is hosting a learning module for our fellowship in an area of LGBTQ priority. The team identified learning more about transgender individuals, their lives, and issues as the priority for our fellowship and our community, believing that this is an area of less knowledge and awareness. We are fortunate to be able to bring Adrien Lawyer, co-founder of the New Mexico Transgender Resource Center, to UUFD to present Trans 101, an introduction to transgender people and their lives. Several of the team members have participated in previous Trans 101 presentations and have found them to be most engaging and enlightening. Adrien is friendly and accessible, presenting basic information and providing an open dialogue where your questions can be answered directly. The UUFD-sponsored Trans 101 is free and open to the public and will be held in our Sanctuary on September 25 at 7:00 pm. Please plan to join us for this important evening.
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Recital Series 2019-20
Mark your calendar now!
 The thirteenth season of the Recital Series will get off to a great start on Friday, Oct. 4, at 7:00 pm with Drea Pressley, mezzo-soprano, and her husband Andreas Tischhauser, flutist. I will be accompanying them on the piano. The vocal works will include one aria, the Habanera from Carmenby Bizet, and songs by Copland, Falla, Schubert and Brahms. There will be works for flute and piano by Chaminade, Casella and Rimsky-Korsakov, and one piece for voice, flute and piano by Ravel.
The Mangold Duo with Bonnie Mangold, cello, and Marilyn Garst, piano, will present the second recital on Friday, Nov. 22. The program will open with a solo piano sonata by Beethoven. The remaining program will include works for cello and piano by Hovhannes, Papandopulo, Bruch, Schumann and Piazzolla.
On March 13, 2020, John O'Neal will present a percussion recital featuring the marimba and various drums. He will be assisted by Joe Nibley, trumpet, and Marilyn Garst, piano. The program is still being developed.
The season will close on April 24, 2020 with a recital by the Montage Music Society from Santa Fe. The artists include Clara Byom, clarinet, Ruxandra Marquardt, violin, Sally Guenther, cello, and Debra Ayers, piano. The program will feature contemporary works inspired by visual art.
For information about the artists and tickets, a brochure is in the works, and there will be a forthcoming article on the UUFD website.
Marilyn Garst, Artistic Director
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How welcoming are we?
Let your light shine! A message from the Membership Team
Summer is coming to an end, kids are back in school, and historically, attendance at UUFD will begin to climb again as members, friends and guests alike return to Sunday morning fellowship. As we plan for the next few months, here are some of the thoughts and plans of the Membership Team.
Do you know we have a mission statement? We do and here it is: The Membership Team is committed to promoting a safe community for all and is a welcoming presence that promotes acceptance and connection.
That's great, you might be thinking, but what does it mean and how do we embody these values of safety, acceptance and connection? Well, we are all part of that, every Sunday and in every interaction with have with guests, friends and members. As Team members, we meet monthly to give thoughtfulness to these values and plan for activities and ways of being that convey our true welcoming spirit. This mission statement is part of why the Circle Supper "tradition" of this fellowship is evolving to include connecting families in new ways, thus creating a new "tradition" that promotes greater inclusion.
This mission statement is also at the center of conversations about how we acknowledge guests during our worship service and why we've moved away from another "tradition" - inviting guests to stand and be recognized during the service. Researching current UU and other sources on the question of asking guests to stand and introduce themselves, there is a wealth of information and there are multiple viewpoints, but overwhelmingly most agree that this is great way to make guests feel uncomfortable - the opposite of what we might be intending. When we think about it, it is well known that the fear of public speaking is real for many people. We also know that many people come to our fellowship at a time of need and vulnerability, so why would we ask them to be uncomfortable, feel singled out and separate?
Making someone stand up is more about the congregation catching a glimpse of the new people rather than truly making guests feel safe and accepted. Instead of putting a perhaps-unwelcome spotlight on a guest, the Membership Team invites all of us to welcome guests as we would in our own home - and this is our spiritual home isn't it? - with a friendly introduction and invitation to meet others. It's easy to do:
- as we are gathering for worship, introduce yourself and invite a guest to sit with you;
- genuinely greet our guests during the offering of peace and welcome;
- after the service, personally invite guests to join you for fellowship and;
- make room in your circle of Sunday morning conversational catch-up for someone new.
Team members have other tips, too, for meaningful and inclusive conversational starters; we're happy to help with other ideas or answer your questions and concerns.
We also hope you'll join us in November for
New UU
, a workshop hosted by the Team with help from church leaders, designed to introduce new members and guests to Unitarian Universalism and UUFD, building comfort through understanding. Look for an upcoming announcement in the bulletin and newsletters.
Thank you for letting your light shine and promoting a safe community for all and for being a welcoming presence that promotes acceptance and connection.
In the spirit of oneness,
Laurie Meininger, Membership Team Lead
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Basic Needs: birth and death
The UUFD Basic Needs Committee recently partnered with the Grief Center serving Southwest Colorado to host a Children's Grief Day Camp for three days in August. Eight children ages 7-12 participated. Judy Austin, Director of the Grief Center, sends her thanks for sharing the wonderful space in Columbine house for this healing event. Basic Needs also hosts a weekly baby meetup in Columbine for non walkers and parents, led by the Durango Cafe au Play.
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Fall Art Exhibit
Beautiful handwork designed and created by the Improvisational Quilters will grace the walls of Bowman Hall during the fall months. UU Members Barbara Hawn and Aline Schwob are both active members of this group of creative quilters. Any sales inquiries should be made directly to the artist. Enjoy!
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