ISSUE 74

AUGUST 2022

After the whirlwind of challenges and re-imaginings of worship, faith formation and congregational life since March of 2020, not to mention the deaths of both of my parents last fall and the staff departures this spring, I am grateful to our congregation for the blessing of a sabbatical. After church on July 31, I will be away from the church in all its physical and electronic forms until December 1.

I love this church and I love serving with and among you as Senior Minister who gets to partner with an incredible heart-centered and dedicated staff. As true as that is, it is equally true that I need time away to rest, reflect and renew myself to make space for new learning and energy to bring back to our beloved JUC.

In my absence, things will continue at the energetic pace at which this congregation operates. Our staff team has been reassembled. We have had an opportunity to form a new team thanks to a two day retreat with outside facilitation. Rev. Sue Redfern-Campbell, our sabbatical minister, joined our retreat which will aid her immeasurably as she leads us from mid-August through mid-November.

Much of my sabbatical will be away from the area. In the first week, Betsy and I will be going on a silent retreat. We will lock our phones in the car and stay in separate rooms. No voices. No screen time. No music. For three days, we will pause and be.

Thereafter, we will take a couple of months at a rented home on a lake. We will take our two dogs and cat. Some portion of us will be out in canoe daily. It is a time to rest and recalibrate; to realign and redefine. The anticipated unscheduled remoteness of it fills me with joy.

As I anticipate time away, though, I am thinking of what you all will be doing, thinking about and going through each month. Our themes this year are offered as pathways. Each theme will lift up a particular spiritual path crucial to helping us birth a new normal worthy of our hopes. Each will ask: What paths must we lean into and relearn as we travel together into our complex, challenging and hoped for future?

To make these themes more real, I will be offering a “Sparkler” each month. That is, a short piece in the newsletter which will highlight the theme, offer a quote, pose a question or two (or three), and suggest an activity to further engage the theme or pathway.

I’ve written these “Sparklers” through the end of the year, as I truly plan to be off-duty while on sabbatical. Please know though that while I am away, I will be exploring the same paths in the same months. It will be another version of being together even while apart.

Blessings on all of each of you in the months ahead. I look forward to seeing you again in December. I love you.

Story, Song and Planned Giving

Estate planning can be an important part of the last chapter of the story of your life. In addition to your standard legal plans, you can make your vision known about what stories and what songs best express the meaning of your life. You can jot down these ideas as a gift to you, your family and friends. They can even represent your life goals and be added to your memorial service. This is important, even though there is no obvious reason to expect that the end is near. Accidents and the unknown do happen.

As always, we invite you to include JUC as a beneficiary in your estate plan. Your legacy gift is a way to play your generosity forward to keep JUC a meaningful and supportive community for future generations. Contact our Planned Giving team: Bud & B.J. Meadows, Mike Kramer or Carol Wilsey

Greetings from Albuquerque, where I’ve returned after a whirlwind visit to JUC. It was a joy to attend your July 17 Sunday service, and to meet many of you. Thanks for your warm welcome!

I’m excited about my upcoming three months as JUC’s Sabbatical Minister. I count it a great privilege to work with you, and to make it possible for Rev. Wendy to take her long-awaited and well-deserved sabbatical. As I’m sure you know, Wendy is highly respected in our denomination, and I’m thrilled to be able to assist her in this way.

Thanks to Zoom, I’ve already met most of JUC’s very talented staff. I was grateful for the invitation to join the recent staff retreat; I think it got us off to a good start in getting to know one another.

A bit about me: I grew up in northern New Jersey, not far from New York City. From there, my travels took me to the University of Michigan, and then to Boston. I discovered Unitarian Universalism through my first post-college work, a secretarial job with the UU Service Committee. It was 1968, a turbulent time in our nation and our denomination – not unlike the times we’re in now.

In 1968, I had no idea I would become a minister. It took ten years before I felt the first stirrings of a call to ministry, and several years beyond that before divinity school and subsequent ordination. Considerable wrestling and resistance preceded my entry on the path, but once I gave in to the insistent inner voice that I’ve come to understand as call, I’ve rarely looked back.

All in all, it’s been a grand adventure, leading to ministries in British Columbia, California, Utah, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Missouri, and New Mexico. Although I formally retired in 2018, I’ve “flunked retirement” several times since. My time with you will be my third ministry through the UUA’s “targeted ministry” program, which enlists retired ministers to fill specific needs in congregations.

I’m looking forward to arriving in Golden on August 15th. See you then!

Hello everyone! I want to thank you for the enthusiastic welcome (back) that I have received during my first weeks as the Director of Faith Exploration. It feels wonderful to be back on staff at JUC - I have truly missed it! For those who don’t know me, prior to taking this position, I worked part time at JUC for 14 years as the Director of Music for Children and Youth. During most of these years I also worked as a music educator, most recently as the K-5 music teacher at Stanley British Primary School. I am the mom of three kids, Hannah (21), Luke (19) and Ozzie (16), all of whom went through the Religious Education programs here at church and who were involved in choir throughout their years. I am married to Rob, who works as the Colorado River Coordinator for the National Park Service and who has been an Our Whole Lives facilitator for many years. I have bachelor’s degrees in Music Education and Spanish Language and Literature from the University of Maryland and a Master’s in Early Childhood Education from CU Denver. In addition to teaching I have served in many volunteer roles for various disability organizations, including a stint as VP of the board of Peak Parent Center. I also have been very active in the Association of Unitarian Universalist Music Ministries, presenting at many of the conferences and serving on the conference planning committee. In my free time I am a voracious reader and love to hike and love spending time with my family and friends playing board games, comparing self-help book notes, seeing movies at movie theaters (really because I like the popcorn) and going out to hear live music. I am not very into sports but if someone were to start a Skee-Ball league I would be the first to join!

I love that JUC has a strong focus on social justice and diversity, equity and inclusion. My parenting journey and particular attributes of my children have inspired me to work toward justice for queer folk, people with mental health needs and people with intellectual disabilities. I am also strongly committed to racial justice work. I also am excited about re-energizing our Faith Exploration programs post-covid, hoping to not only help our children and youth explore their UU faith but also to infuse church with joy, laughter, music and fun!

My intention with this monthly column is to not only share some reflections and thoughts but more importantly to highlight some of the many wonderful things happening in our Faith Exploration community. I have been so impressed by the work that Katie Edwards and Denard Thomas are doing - they are both extremely thoughtful, knowledgeable, enthusiastic, visionary people. I am so very excited to continue my collaboration with Keith Arnold, Laura Lizut and Adam Revell. I am hoping in my new role to be able to integrate music even more deeply into our Faith Exploration programs and it is truly an honor to get to work with Wendy in a newer and deeper way. I love getting to work more closely with Carol Wilsey who knows basically everything about the church and I can already tell that collaborating more closely with Darcy Stanton is going to be awesome (did you know she has a blackbelt in taekwondo?).

I am excited about the year to come. We are in the process of finalizing our plans for fall Faith Exploration and will have a complete line-up of classes out very soon. We are planning to have in-person offerings for all kids from birth through high school. Watch your email for information about registration. If you are interested in teaching this fall please let Denard or me know! We would love to have you! In the meantime we have been having a great time in our summer Children's Chapel exploring the theme of heroes - we would love to see your beautiful children in chapel this summer!

Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions and I look forward to getting reacquainted with you all this year!

We Call to Mind

On this day we call to mind those close at hand who could use some love, attention, remembering. In just a moment, I’ll invite all those who wish, to speak out loud the name or names of those on our heart today. You are invited to call to mind someone or some people who you are holding close. Let us say those names aloud at this time.

This was how our prayer began on Sunday, July 17, an invitation to bring to the center those who were close at hand, loved ones and friends who were in our thoughts, who we were concerned about. After I said these words, many names were quietly spoken into the room. Jefferson Unitarian Church is a place where the community helps one another, where we care for each other and give support to those who need it. This practice draws into the room those loved by us.

On this day we call to mind those far away, those unknown to us personally, but who could nevertheless use love, attention, remembering. You are invited to call to mind individuals, groups of people, nations; places and people where fear and suffering exist, people we have never met, yet those who we wish to remember. Let us name these people aloud at this time.

The prayer continued with people who, although we might not know them, are part of a shared humanity. I heard many words in the space here: Ukraine, refugees, homeless. This practice is part of Jefferson Unitarian Church’s work of engaging with needs outside our walls, of keeping hearts open to the countless stories. As the song “Wake, now, my senses,” says: “Voices of suffering fill the wide sky. Take as your neighbor both stranger and friend, praying and striving their hardship to end."

On this day we call to mind, our very selves, each of us who hears these words, knowing that each journey is different, each life is filled with joy and with sorrow, that each of us is related to one another and that only together do we create a beloved world. You are invited to say, whisper, speak, mouth your own name, your beautiful name, your sacred name which is related to all other names. Let us say our names at this time.

Ah, our own names. In a society where we are encouraged to ignore our own needs and health and prioritize work, productivity, and busyness, this practice honors the central humanity of each person. It was a holy moment to hear those gathered in the sanctuary last Sunday breathe out their own names as worthy of care and attention.

I write this newsletter article while in the middle of attending a conference: the Colorado chapter of the American Choral Director Association. This afternoon, that organization had the privilege of being led in song by Melanie DeMore. Melanie DeMore has written many songs that we have sung at JUC, most notably, “I’m gonna put one foot in front of the other and lead with love,” written the day after the 2016 presidential election, and “We are sending you light, to heal you, to hold you, we are sending you light to hold you in love.”

In an hour-long session today hosted at Bethany Lutheran Church, Melanie, who was in-person, unlike a couple of previous Zoom appearances at UU gatherings during the recent shutdowns, taught and then asked us to sing that song, “Sending you light.” In it, we were invited to picture those who we knew could use some love and light, whether folks who we had lost due to COVID, people we knew struggling with mental illness, or people just having a rough time. And then she invited us to send ourselves that very light.

"No matter where you go,

No matter where you’ve been,

You’ll never walk alone,

I feel you deep within.

For I am sending you light

To heal you, to hold you,

I am sending you light

To hold you in love.”

In this coming month, I invite you to keep in mind those whom you love, those who are strangers, and your very self.

Elizabeth Duhegraham, trustee

I’ve had a hard time letting go of this fantasy that one day there will be a huge collective breath and celebration—all of us coming out of hibernation together, elated. The restarting of in-person church did not mean there was a single day where everyone returned. It is a slow, ramping up of in-person activities with fits and starts. Maybe the church picnic yesterday was your reunion with our in-person church community or maybe you experienced that long ago or maybe you aren’t there yet.

We all have our ideas about what the “new normal” is. It seems to ebb and flow, allowing for people to fluctuate between attending church online, masked in person, or not masked in person, based on ever-changing circumstances. Covid began as such a collective experience and has evolved into each person being at a different place in terms of exposure, risk, and loss. Our compassion and empathy are now the catalyst for community rather than just sharing the experience of a pandemic.

As you probably know, the congregation participated in the Following Our Spirit of Love workshops which the Board interpreted into Values, Mission, and Ends. As we welcome all the changes emerging at this time, the Values, Mission, and Ends will serve as context and guiding lights. There are upcoming opportunities to learn more. I hope you will be inspired to be present with JUC and to lend your heart to these next steps of JUC’s journey.

A Great Night for Social Justice - A DECENT HOME

The JUC CAN Team

On Tuesday July 19, JUC’s Community Action Network (CAN) along with our partners, including Together Colorado and 9to5 Colorado, hosted a screening of the movie “A DECENT HOME” — an award-winning film by Sara Terry. It is the first feature-length documentary ever made about mobile home parks and tells the story of the struggles of mobile home park residents for stable housing. We would like to thank Rev. Wendy Williams for her opening Welcome speech, Rep. Andrew Boesenecker (via video) for his rundown of statewide legislation, and the A DECENT HOME film director, producers, team, and sponsors for giving us the opportunity to screen their film. Over 120 people attended the reception and film screening, including Sara Terry, the film’s director, Golden’s Mayor, City Manager, and City Council members, Jefferson County Commissioner Tracy Kraft-Tharp, JUC members, and members of the community including many residents of mobile home parks in Jefferson County. We were also privileged to be joined by one of the stars of the film, who lived in the former Denver Meadows Mobile Home Park in Aurora.

This event was a watershed moment, as JUC CAN has spent much of the last two years of our affordable housing social justice work to specifically to engage the nearly 1,800 households in Jefferson County who live in our 19 mobile home parks. Mobile home communities are the largest source of unsubsidized, naturally occurring affordable housing, and they are experiencing rapidly rising lot rents and risks of sale or redevelopment.

It was also an opportunity for JUC CAN to thank the funding entities who made our work possible: Community First Foundation and the JUC Endowment and Memorial Gift Trust (EMGT). We are grateful to our main partners (Together Colorado, 9to5 Colorado, and the Colorado Coalition of Manufactured Home Owners, aka CoCoMHO), the partners we found along the way (Colorado Poverty Law Project, Golden United, City of Golden, and Thistle ROC), the many wonderful residents of mobile home communities who we’ve had the pleasure to meet, the JUC staff, and YOU – the many members of JUC and our community who helped not only with last night’s event but also with our numerous outreach efforts to these communities. Please join us in taking a brief, well-deserved moment of rest and reflection, after which we hope to continue this important work with you on affordable housing in Jefferson County, throughout the housing continuum.

If you would like to be added to the JUC CAN Action Alert list to receive occasional important alerts and updates about housing issues and legislation, please send an email to communityaction@jeffersonunitarian.org.

Habitat for Humanity Update

Andy Melick

Build Days

JUCers joined volunteers from our faith coalition partners and other groups on FridayJune 24 to help build houses with Habitat Metro Denver. Many thanks to Bruce and Cathy Martin and Jason Rist for showing up at Aria Homes in northwest Denver and putting in a full day’s work, framing and painting. (See photos.)

Our next build day will be Saturday, August 13, also at Aria Homes. Details and signup online. We will share 7 volunteer slots with folks from two other congregations in Jeffco Interfaith Partners (JIP), the coalition of churches which JUC founded over 20 years ago to partner with Habitat for Humanity. Since space is limited, please register asap.

New Projects for Habitat Metro Denver

Habitat Metro Denver is building two new homes in historic Curtis Park using a new construction technique. Insulating Concrete Forms Systems (ICFS) employ concrete slabs in lieu of wooden frames for the house’s walls and floors. The process reduces noise transfer and improves the house’s safety and energy efficiency. Visitors are welcome to stop by the site currently under construction (3401 Stout St, Denver CO 80204) to learn more about how it works. The second home will be located at 3054 Champa Street, Denver, CO 80204.

Many JUCers have volunteered at H4H Restores, where new and used furniture and building supplies are sold to the public. Habitat Metro Denver is opening a new West Side Restore at Ridge Road and Rob Street. Stay tuned for the precise timeline.