UUFD Newsletter, June 2022

June 2022

On My Mind

Message from Rev. Gary Kowalski, UUFD Targeted Minister

Thank you good people of Durango for welcoming me and Munro into your circles of leadership and friendship over these last six months. Thank you for the beautiful apartment you created at Columbine House for our brief stays in your midst. Thank you for the dinner invitations and many walks around the neighborhood and along the Animas River. Thank you for trusting us to contribute to your thought process during this time of transition.

Congratulations on selecting Barbara Coeyman as your incoming Interim Minister. You are fortunate to have a skilled and experienced leader to accompany you in this next chapter. By the time she arrives, you will also very likely have fresh talent coordinating your Faith Formation programs and a new Office Administrator as you say goodbye to Leah Ongiri and Jeanne MacKenzie, who are to be thanked for helping to keep the boat afloat during this rather stormy passage.

As staff come and go, remember that the vitality and strength of the congregation lies in the creativity and commitment that each of you brings to this Fellowship. Unitarian Universalism is (or should be) a democratic faith, a people’s faith, one that draws its energy from the grassroots. Our history is in the left-wing of that religious Reformation of long ago that proclaimed the “priesthood of all believers.” The chalice we light each Sunday derives from the figure of Jan Hus, the fifteenth century Czech reformer who offered the cup of communion to the non-ordained (who at the time were excluded from full participation in the rite of the Eucharist), and who was burned for his efforts.

Many others have sacrificed and suffered along the way for this heritage of a free and prophetic faith. Tend and pass on that flame as you move forward. The world needs your light.

It is customary for temporary shepherds like me and Munro to maintain a healthy distance from their former flocks when their pastoral duties come to an end. This is wise.

Please get in touch if you would like to connect the weekend of June 19 when Dori and I make our last visit to Durango. It has been a pleasure to get acquainted.

Gary

June Services

We are now meeting in person as well as online! We continue to use established protocols on masking, distancing and vaccination. To join a Zoom worship, look for the link on the UUFD website.

June 5

Flower Communion

-Rev. Munro Sickafoose

One of our most cherished Unitarian Universalist rituals, Flower Communion celebrates beauty, human uniqueness, diversity, and community. Please join us in this celebration of life!

June 12

Love and Rockets

-Rev. Munro Sickafoose

Our humanist roots are sourced deep in the Enlightenment. What did happiness, reverence, hope, and reason mean to those who lived and thought in that time? How do they inform Unitarian Universalists today?

June 19

Aloha and Adios

-Rev. Gary Kowalski

In this time of comings and goings, greetings and farewells, Rev. Kowalski ruminates on impermanence and on the four essential phrases that human beings must master in any language to cope with a universe of change.

June 26, 10:30 am

UUA General Assembly (GA)

Click here to join live stream

As in previous years, we encourage you to virtually join the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) for the largest annual gathering of UUs joining in worship. This powerful, communal worship experience will stream on Sunday, June 26 at 10:30 our time. More information here.

If you wish to join others in watching the broadcast, the UUFD Sanctuary will be open in time for the 10:30 am live stream.

Message from John Redemske, UUFD Board President

Hello fellow UUFD members and friends,

Our congregation is extremely fortunate to be able to welcome our new Interim Minister, Barbara Coeyman! I would like to thank our Transitional Minister Search Task Force, Tom Miller (lead), Carrol Greoger, Jill Bystydzienski and Steve Foster for their excellent work in identifying and recommending both our Targeted Ministers and now our new Interim Minister! Barbara will start with us August 16 and will use the apartment in the front of the Columbine House until she can find other housing arrangements. I would encourage you to search the internet for Barbara Coeyman to read more about her. She will bring to us a wealth of organizational and other skills that we will find very helpful as we travel through the Interim Ministry process towards the identification and selection of our next Settled Minister.

The Faith Formation Team, led by Bonnie Miller, has been very active and is well on its way to identifying a UU inspired leader and staff for our FF program. The goal is to have a Faith Formation leader in place by July 1.

Our Office Administrator (OA) for the last 5 years, Jeanne MacKenzie, has decided to move on to other endeavors effective June 3. We appreciate the service that she has given to UUFD. An OA Transition/Search Team has been rapidly formed to take care of the many details in the transition to a new OA and to assure that church operations can continue smoothly.

The Board is pleased to announce the start of a new series of “Town Hall” meetings to be held after the Sunday service on the Sunday following each monthly Board meeting. This will generally be the last Sunday of the month. There will be a review of the previous Board meeting activity and a time for discussion of any subject or questions that the congregation would like to talk about. This will be an opportunity to speak with the Board and to discuss things on your mind with other members.

As always, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions about Board activity, please email me or give me a call at 603-345-2244. I really want to hear from you!

With gratitude to all of my fellow UU members and friends,

John Redemske

FAMILY MINISTRY AND FAITH FORMATION NEWS

Summer Faith Formation

A message from Bonnie Miller, Faith Formation Coordinating Team

Summer promises more outdoor recreation and hopefully more free time to enjoy it! We hope all of you do, but also that you still find time to join us on Sundays for worshipping and connecting together.

We’ve made some plans for our children and youth this summer, in great part in response to our youth (rising middle and high schoolers) saying they need some time with their peer group on Sundays. So we plan to deliver! This summer children and youth will start in the Sanctuary for intergenerational worship. Once the Story for All Ages is over, they will go to Columbine House for Children’s Chapel where they will light their own chalice, share Joys and Sorrows, and engage in discussion and activities on the message of the day about caring for our planet. At 11:00 the younger children will go to supervised play on the playground, and youth will have a Youth Huddle with the Sunday Learning Coordinator to talk about topics of interest to them. We find both children and youth think food is vital to the day, so we will provide snacks!

Watch for information to come about special time for people of all ages at our annual Pinesong Retreat July 8-10 on the beautiful property of Ken and Lois Carpenter along the Pine River.

For more Faith Formation questions or more information, contact Bonnie Miller yjmiller2@gmail.com.

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We have an Interim Minister!

Rev. Dr. Barbara Coeyman signs one-year, renewable contract

The Transitional Minister Search Task Force (TMSTF) successfully completed seven months of work with the announcement at our recent Annual Meeting of the hire of Rev. Dr. Barbara Coeyman as our new Interim Minister. Her one-year, renewable contract begins August 16. We expect to begin the search for a settled minister in the Spring of 2024.

Rev. Coeyman is a trained, credentialed, experienced interim minister, having worked with and built valuable perspective from her interim work in eight other congregations, from the east coast to Littleton here in Colorado since 2005. In addition to her ministerial degree, she has three degrees in music, including a Ph.D. in musicology (hence the Dr.) as well as a Master’s in public management. She is a hiker and a biker, contra- and Scottish dancer, writer, UU historian, and volunteer musician in a wide range of UU events. You can see her extensive and wonderfully revealing website at your leisure. You will be impressed.

Rev. Barbara’s main task is to facilitate our transition to our next settled minister. In brief, she will help us engage with each other on five main points of Interim Ministry as she describes on her website:

Heritage: Reviewing how the Congregation has been shaped and formed
Leadership: Reviewing the membership needs and its ways of organizing and developing new and effective leadership
Mission: Defining and redefining a sense of purpose and direction
Connections: Discovering and revitalizing all the relationships a faith community builds outside of itself; re-assessing old links and considering new ones
Future: Developing congregational and pastoral profiles that position the congregation for its next ministry

The TMSTF (Jill Bystydzienski, Carroll Groeger, Steve Foster, Tom Miller) is grateful for the support of the Board and congregation throughout this search process. Rev. Barbara was our first choice among several good options. That she ranked us as her first choice is a testament to the strength and vitality of the UUFD community. It is notable that there are still about two dozen UU congregations who did not make a match and remain in search, so we are pleased that not only do we have a match, we have a really good one.

We expect that Rev. Barbara will enjoy the many virtues of Durango. We will certainly profit from her experienced guidance over the next couple years. Please help to make her feel welcome when she arrives in August.

Summer Series theme announced: Climate Justice

Environmental Justice Team to coordinate topics, speakers

The Environmental Justice Team (EJT) is coordinating this year’s Sunday Summer Series under the theme of Climate Justice: Moving towards Equity, Resilience, and Sustainability. The series will kick off the seven-week series on July 3 (Interdependence Day) with Tom Miller, EJT Lead, providing an introduction and overview. An interesting and diverse group of speakers from UUFD and the community will challenge us to think about the climate crisis, our impact and the issues involved in coping with climate change and making a more just and sustainable planet. Speakers include Heidi Steltzer, coordinator of the Environmental Science degree at Ft. Lewis; Dick White, former mayor and environmental action trainer and writer; Darcy Hitchcock, environmental activist and blogger; and our own Stephen Guy and Mary Ocken. The program at Pinesong will also be part of the Series and include interactive workshops Saturday with Heidi Steltzer and Rev. Munro Sickafoose, who will also conduct the vespers and Sunday services. Stay tuned for more information about each of these Sundays.

Pine Song retreat quickly approaching

The 4 Corners Retreat at Pine Song is a weekend of fun and fellowship at Ken and Lois Carpenters' gorgeous riverside property. This year it will be held July 8-10, with activities being held from Friday afternoon through Sunday worship.

A Vespers service and Sunday's worship will be led by Rev. Munro Sickafoose. A special interactive workshop touching on our summer series theme of climate change will feature Heidi Seltzer, coordinator of the Environmental Science degree at Fort Lewis. Heidi has designed a stimulating program that will help to enhance our response to the reality of climate change.

You can register now for Pine Song here.

(Please remember that due to the uncertainty caused by COVID and health precautions, this year we have made the difficult decision to limit attendance to UUFD Members, guests of Members, and Friends only. We look forward to welcoming back visitors from outside congregations in 2023.)

Join us for Potluck for All June 12

Mark your calendar now!

June 12 Potluck for All

Food, Friends, Fellowship!

Right after Sunday service

Sign up to bring food and/or help out after worship on June 5, if you haven't already
Games available for the young and young-at-heart
Lemonade provided by the Membership team
Bring lawn chairs if you have them
Please bring your own re-usable/non-disposable dishes and eating utensils. We are following our ecological principles and being kind to our already-stressed Earth.

Automatic pledge payments

Set up a new account, or update last year's pledge

Do you want to make your pledge payments easily and automatically online? Please set or revise your account before July 1!

Our auto pay system, called Vanco, is available online here. You can use it to set up automatic payments from your credit card or checking account.

If you have never used the system before, please set up your account by clicking this link.

If you have previously set up an account, you must REVISE it for the coming fiscal year. Log in to your account and revise it with the updated payment amount, frequency and fiscal year.

This fiscal year is July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023.

If help is needed, contact Kathleen Adams at kadams@mcw.edu or 970-676-1022.

UU Caring Team: Here for you!

How can we help?

The Caring Team stands ready to respond to our members' health and well-being needs. We can refer you to appropriate community resources, as well as help with meals, rides, or simply walk your dog! We send cards, and if appropriate will call you on the phone or come visit you. To assist us in these efforts, we draw upon all of you who have signed up to help us. Some of our most important work is to build connections within the fellowship, so that all of us are participating in caring for our UU Community.

Currently there are eight members of this team: Susan Koonce (Team leader), Rollie Butler, Lynn Griffith, Connie Jacobs, Terry McLaughlin, Graham Smith, and Liza Tregillus. You will see us at Sunday services wearing our Caring Team buttons. Please feel free to approach any of us with questions or concerns. Confidentiality is serious business with this team; your concerns will never go beyond us without your permission. If you want to volunteer or if you need help, you can always contact us via our email: caringteam@durangouu.org.

It is such a pleasure for us to be part of building and maintaining our UU Caring Community! Let us know how we might help!