ISSUE 72

JUNE 2022

In June, we are celebrating blessings. That theme dovetails with life in the late spring and early summer. Between graduations and weddings, there seem to be numerous opportunities for any of us to gather and celebrate. As a church community, we name things as blessings and celebrate those blessings together.

We will celebrate our new members in June. Of course, it is an amazing blessing that people visited during the pandemic and claimed us as their spiritual home. We are reconstituted each time someone joins. So, as we extend welcome, we also celebrate the blessing of belonging and the potential we have as a community.

We will celebrate our Guatemala project and our partnership with ADIVIMA. This enduring part of our justice ministry has blessed many by providing scholarships to students and offering rich opportunities for friendship and learning to members of our congregation.

We will also celebrate the blessing of having Eric Banner on our ministry team. We will offer thanks and well wishes as he leaves us to lead First Universalist Church of Denver. It is always hard to say goodbye, but how proud we can be that we grew a new minister into someone ready to take the helm at another church.

There have been and will be blessings celebrated outside the month of June, of course. My 10 + 1 years with JUC were celebrated in May. I have not yet recovered fully from the bounty of that gift. Every week I say, it is my honor and privilege to serve with and among you as the Senior Minister of this church. By that I mean, it is a great blessing. Thank you to each and all who played a role in that celebration.

Also, in July, we return to celebrating the blessing that is our congregation through our summer worship series. Again this year, most of our worship services throughout July and August will feature a reflection from a member of our congregation. Specifically, each week, a different member will name a song and a story that has sustained throughout the challenges of the pandemic. The minister will then share the larger Unitarian Universalist context of that message.

So many reasons to be glad to be at JUC. So many blessings to celebrate. I can hardly wait to do just that.

This month I write to you for the last time as one of your ministers. As you know, I was invited to be the candidate to be the next senior minister at the First Universalist Church of Denver, and by a vote of 186-1-2, I have been so called. My last day serving JUC will be Sunday, June 19, and I will begin my new settlement on Monday, August 1. I will miss you all dearly, and have appreciated the many blessings we have shared together these past eight years.

When I came, I was a relatively new minister, having finished my internship a year earlier, and spent a year as the half-time minister to our small congregation in Greeley. I did not know then, nor could I, what the coming years would bring, but I knew that I was blessed to be invited to serve and grow and learn alongside a congregation that is a flagship in our association, and in our region. With the support of Rev. Wendy, and the partnership of our members, so much has happened, personally, professionally, and in our commitment to grow together, in faith, in love, in justice.

After two years as an assistant minister, in the fall of 2016, you voted to call me as your associate minister, and around the same time I was accepted into full fellowship as a minister in our association. Together we’ve supervised intern ministers who are now out and doing wonderful things in the world, we’ve partnered to learn more about what it means to be people who all have a racial identity, we’ve engaged our members in work for the world we dream about, within and beyond our walls, we’ve had a lot of fun (I’ll never forget the day we built a whole service with the music and style of The Blues Brothers, nor inviting in guest musicians to bring the music of Hamilton to talk about democracy), and yes, we’ve weathered a global pandemic, unlike anything we’ve experienced in our lives, together.

In the meantime, I’ve watched Rev. Wendy up close, leading services, celebrating the lives of those we’ve loved and lost, guiding staff, and the work of bringing together the resources that make possible the power of the local church, a place that “has a spiritual center and a civic circumference,” that “always lets us in and never lets us off,” that is a place “we come to grow our hearts.” I’ve marveled at Rev. Keith, who brings clarity and insight, and music, to everything we do, so that we not only think about what matters most, but that we feel it in our very beings. I’ve seen Carol guide and direct our resources, our building and bank accounts, to make sure that we have what we need for what we are called to do, and that we do it, always, in line with our values. I’ve seen Darcy take our story and put it into the world in ways that invite conversation and connection. I’ve seen our faith exploration program staff offer all of our children, including mine, a place to be and grow, and the support to our volunteers to keep on connecting across the generations. I’ve journeyed with our pastoral care teams, as they seek to care in ways that “enable us to live fully through the cycles of life, give and receive care, and to grow our capacity to face life’s challenges together.” I’ve been blessed to partner with the teams that “facilitate and lead programs that empower every member of our church community to work for justice inside our church, in our community and in the world at large,” from as close up as Family Promise in our building, to as far away as Guatemala, where so many youth stay in school that otherwise wouldn’t be able to.

So, as I say my goodbyes, know how deeply blessed I feel to have been part of your lives, and part of our shared ministries, these last eight years. I hope that whoever comes behind me will feel as blessed as I have, and have as many chances to grow and serve, in faith, in love, in partnership for all that is yet to come.

Transitions

A gathering to honor the life of Dave Petiya will be held Sunday, June 5 in the family home. Please contact Nancy Petiya if you would like to attend.

A memorial service for Shellie Baker will be held Saturday, June 11 at 2 pm.

Intern Minister Melinda McGucken decided to leave her pursuit of ministry and left JUC in April.

Board of Trustees Report

The Board approved an updated Section 125 Premium only plan, allowing for pre-taxed medical benefit coverage for church employees.

The Spring congregational vote is now active. Please visit the 2022 Spring Congregational Vote page on the JUC website for details. The deadline for voting is Sunday, June 12.

The Board will work over the summer on a timeline for the rollout of the new JUC Values, Ends and Mission Statement, with the intent of sharing them with the congregation in the Fall.

Nurturing Beauty and Planned Giving

Beauty is everywhere: in nature, in you and in me. Our job is to bring it forth and share it with others. Our JUC is a beautiful community that shares its beauty in action, voice and spirit. Sharing our wealth through a legacy gift will help keep the JUC community radiating beauty for generations to come. Please include JUC as a beneficiary in your will, trust, retirement accounts, insurance policy or pension plan.

Contact our Planned Giving team: Bud & B.J. Meadows, Mike Kramer or Carol Wilsey

Thank You!

Team JUC is grateful for your financial support of our efforts to raise money for NAMI Colorado. Through this year’s NAMI Walk we raised over $4,000. Thank you for your generosity!

You have helped The National Alliance on Mental Illness in Colorado work to combat the stigma of mental illness. NAMI Colorado provides education, support and advocacy for persons who have a mental illness and their families. Your donations make possible numerous free programs and resources throughout the Denver Metropolitan area and Colorado.

If you or someone you know could benefit from NAMI’s good work, please check out their website. Help us make possible Mental Wellness for All.

How to Give a Blessing

How to give a blessing

Companion someone's sorrow.

Share a gratitude.

Tell a deeper truth.

Be present at the end.

Let a blessing in

Listen to an animal.

Receive the sun and rain.

Accept another’s kindness.

Open to the stillness.

Spread blessing in the world

Amplify a song.

Take away a barrier.

Value common futures.

Help to teach a child.

Blessing not apparent

Find one thing and linger.

Watch a candle burning.

Start to write a poem.

Reach out to one you love.

Presence.

Always.

Stay here.

Give away.

Amen.

Chris Sealy, Trustee

A few years back, I painted a big sign on our garden shed: We cannot control the wind, but we can adjust our sails. And boy, did we do some sail adjusting at JUC this last year. Back at church. Back at home. Back at church again. Staff changes. Zoom, zoom, zoom. But we didn’t sail off course. We moved ahead. Inspiring worship. Our talented choir and a knock-it-out-of-the-park worship band. Justice work. A second successful virtual auction. Kids in RE classes, Coming of Age, Our Whole Lives. Circles of Connection. Dream groups, Reflections on Race, poetry groups, quilters, Science and Spirit. Wow. And you probably know why we made headway: an indefatigable staff crew and a faithful, spirited congregation.

During this last year, your Board has worked and listened and cheered as our church life has grown more vibrant. A good deal of our board work revolved around the effort called Following Our Spirit Of Love. Many of you spent precious hours talking about our values at JUC and our dreams for the future. And big, inspiring, bold dreams we have! We’ll share what we’ve found when we’re all back in full force in September. Sail on, JUC.

Why Are We Having a Guatemalan Fiesta June 12?

Gretchen May, UUSC Task Froce and Guatemala Partners

Since 2007 the members of Jefferson Unitarian Church along with our partners in the UU Church of Arlington, Virginia and DIGNO, have supported a scholarship program in the Mayan community of Rabinal, Guatemala. The program is administered by local human rights organization, ADIVIMA. In that time the program has provided otherwise inaccessible opportunities to the 182 MS and HS scholarship recipients of whom 126 have been girls. This past November seven students graduated from secondary school and therefore from the scholarship program. Not only have JUC donors given strong financial support to the program, but through our cultural exchange trips we have built relationship between our two communities.

For many years we have celebrated the Guatemala Scholarship program and our relationship with the Mayan community of Rabinal with a Fiesta. This year’s Fiesta will have something for everyone including food, a small silent auction, Guatemalan music, the opportunity to find out about the program, the students and their community, cultural exchange trips and a special book release and signing. We are especially honored to offer items donated by former committee member Nancy White that she purchased in Guatemala when she traveled there. Nancy was a strong supporter of our scholarship program, providing ideas, preparing food and decorating for fiestas, helping raise funds and traveling to Rabinal on one of the cultural exchange trips. She donated these very beautiful items to raise money for the scholarship. There will be a few other items from Rabinal available through the silent auction format including a traditional hammock.

This year we have a very special opportunity to expand understanding of our scholarship students and their community. We will be featuring the Release of the English translation of Estamos Vivos (We Are Alive) by Rev. Eric Banner. This book recounts the recent troubled history of the Mayans in Baja Verapaz which underlies the impoverished circumstances of our scholarship students and their lack of opportunity. The original was written under the auspices of the Community History Museum in Rabinal for ADIVIMA and for the Mayan community. This translation by Rev. Eric makes this disturbing history accessible to the broader JUC community and to friends beyond our walls and allows us to understand more clearly the strength and resilience of our partners in the Mayan community in the face of tragic and horrifying events.

We welcome donations in any form, but particularly encourage automatic monthly donations that help sustain the program and support continuity. We will be giving copies of the book to current monthly donors, and to anyone who signs up to begin making monthly donations through the JUC office by ACH. Copies of the book will also be available for a small donation.

We invite you to join us Sunday, June 12 at 11:30 after the service to celebrate our partnership with this amazing community and their students.

Please sign up here or at the Guatemala Fiesta table in the south commons after the service on June 5th.

Introducing Kym Ray, Together Colorado Organizer

Please meet Kym Ray, our new Together Colorado organizer. JUC is a member of Together Colorado, which is a nonpartisan, multi-racial and multi-faith community organization working to place human dignity at the center of public life in Colorado. Kym has been working with our JUC CAN (Community Action Network) group for the past 8 months on legislative advocacy, social justice, equity, systemic change, and engaging with mobile home communities.

Let's learn about Kym!

Kym is a Community Organizer for Together Colorado. Currently she is the organizer for not only JUC, but Shorter Community AME Social Justice Ministry, Cure d’ Ars Catholic Parish, both in the Denver Area, Transforming Justice, and the Metro Faith Leader Caucus. Kym is a lifelong resident of Denver, only leaving to attend Morris Brown College in Atlanta, GA.

Outside of work Kym currently serves as the Secretary for the NAACP CO MT WY State Conference and has served as the Co-Chair of the NAACP State Criminal Justice Committee. Here in Denver, she is proud to be able to represent the NAACP as a member of the Amendment A Coalition, which removed the language of slavery from the State Constitution, and equally proud to have worked as the NAACP lead organizer for Proposition 111, which capped the amount of interest predatory lenders could charge on payday loans. She recently worked with Mothers Out Front on transportation equity and environmental justice in Denver.

When not working for all things in social justice and equity, she is the mother to Jahi and Leila.

Colorado Legislature - 2022 Highlights

Kathy Smith, JUC CAN

Kym Ray, Together Colorado

First, please SAVE THE DATE for the evening of Tuesday, July 19! JUC is excited to have a screening of the award-winning documentary A Decent Home, a film by Sara Terry. Watch the trailer.

Now to the main topic…The 2022 Colorado legislative session ended on Wednesday, May 11 after introducing 657 bills. Our 2022 Colorado State Legislature webpage has summaries for some of the bills that concerned mobile home parks, affordable housing, homelessness, behavioral health, and criminal justice.

JUC CAN’s (Community Action Network) main bill for support was HB22-1287 (Protections for Mobile Home Park Residents). The good news is that the bill passed and was sent to the Governor to be signed, with an effective date of October 1, 2022. The bad news is that the most important part of the bill, limiting excessive lot rent increases, was stripped from the bill due to a veto threat from Gov. Polis. As you might recall from previous articles, mobile home parks are the largest source of unsubsidized affordable housing. Most mobile home park residents own their home but rent the land underneath their home. This leaves home owners vulnerable to unpredictable increases in lot rents, and many cannot afford the increased costs and are threatened with displacement. Read more… There are still some important protections in HB22-1287 that involve strengthened enforcement of the laws, relocation assistance when a park closes, and modifications and expanded timelines for the resident “opportunity to purchase” their park. There was another bill that passed, SB22-160, that creates a $35 million revolving, below-market loan fund and grants to support mobile home owners in purchasing their mobile home parks and creating resident-owned communities.

Last year the legislature allocated $400 million of federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars for affordable housing. The Affordable Housing Task Force interim committee met last summer and fall to provide recommendations to spend these funds. There were five bills passed this session to provide funding based on the recommendations of the Task Force. (Affordable Housing Transformational Task Force Recommendation Report). Included are a $178 million statewide grant program for local governments and nonprofits, a $150 million self-perpetuating revolving loan fund, $40 million to incentivize innovative housing, $25 million to supplement housing for middle-income renters, and the $35 million fund for mobile home owners mentioned above. The legislature invested $200 million to address homelessness. Included are a statewide $105 million grant program for local governments and nonprofits, funding to create a Regional Navigation Campus to holistically respond to and prevent homelessness in the Denver-metro area, and funding to provide a statewide supportive residential community for people experiencing homelessness.

In the area of behavioral health, the legislature finalized the statewide Behavioral Health Administration and invested much needed funding in behavioral health. This is especially important because Mental Health America’s 2022 State of Mental Health in America report ranked Colorado in last place overall for adult mental health. Last year the legislature allocated $450 million of federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars for behavioral health. The Behavioral Health Task Force interim committee met last summer and fall to provide recommendations to spend these funds. Several bills resulted from their recommendations to expand access to services statewide, create more residential treatment beds, and bolster the behavioral health workforce (Behavioral Health Transformational Task Force Recommendation Report).

This year’s legislative session was busy for Criminal Justice, and Together Colorado supported several transforming justice bills. We supported HB22-1067 (48 Hour Municipal Bond Hearings), which ensures that everyone has the right to a bond hearing within 48 hours of being arrested. Juvenile bills were a high priority this year as well. We worked to raise the age of juvenile delinquency from the age of 10 years to 13 (HB22-1131). We created a task force to create a plan to provide essential services to 10–12-year-olds to keep them out of the legal system. The final bill was SB22-023 (End Deceptive Tactics During Juvenile Custodial Interrogation). This bill would have prohibited law enforcement from using deceptive and manipulative tactics during interrogations with minors to obtain confessions. Unfortunately, this bill did not cross the finish line.

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.