UUFD Newsletter, June 2021

June 2021

Minister’s Report to the Congregation

May 2021

Each of us is meant to have a character all our own, to be what no other can exactly be, and do what no other can exactly do.

-William Ellery Channing, “apostle of Unitarianism”

Dear Beloveds,

Looking back on last year’s annual report I was reminded how we handled contagious illness over a century ago. The newspaper clipping from 1918 in Lowell, Massachusetts read, “With the desire to do everything to eradicate this epidemic from this city, Grace Universalist Church will remain closed another Sunday.” They were still doing ministry in keeping people safe. Sadly, they didn’t have Zoom to allow them to feel connected. This year, we have ministered through any number of challenges to keep our community safe and linked. We have continued and improved our online-based ministry throughout the entirety of this church year. We’ve welcomed new visitors who’ve joined us via Zoom, and continued to add to our worship some folx who live miles away and for whom our online platform has brought them closer. Our next big challenge will be to make the shift to coming back together, integrating some of the technology discovered during this time. Church consultant Susan Beaumont calls this “liminal time,” and we will learn our way through it. I think we can!

So much of this year’s ministry happened invisibly. Once again, I am grateful for our wonderful staff, consisting of our Office Administrator, Jeanne MacKenzie, Finance Clerk, Tricia Bayless, our Interim Director of Faith Formation, Sara Sautter (as we say goodbye!) as well as our professional teaching staff. I am grateful for our music professionals that include Elizabeth Crawford, Choir Director/Music Coordinator, José Duran, Choir Accompanist, Marilyn Garst, Classical Pianist and Dir. Of Recital Series, and Lawrence Nass, Contemporary Pianist. Our Connections Coordinator, Shannon Beaver, has picked up tech duties, and Caesar Sanchez, Sexton, has kept the building clean and safe. We’ve also added new staff in James Mirabal, Tech Director, and Naomi Moon, our website administrator. Please join me in thanking these marvelous individuals who add so much to our community.

I have deep gratitude for the ministry teams that have been active even while we’ve been mostly at home. Thank you to team leaders Mary Ocken, Worship Arts, Bonnie Miller, Social Justice, Susan Koonce, Caring Team, Laurie Meininger, Membership and Faith Formation Search Team, Becca Trefry and Anna Royer. Arts and Aesthetics, led by Ann Smith, has created an online library for use during worship. Social Justice sub-team leaders include Barry Devine, Kathy Devine, Richard Butler, Tom Miller, Emily Thompson, Marianna Valdez and Bonnie Miller. Lay leader John Schiffel created a wonderful tech system for worship and website through December 2020. We’ll be recruiting new team leaders for Hospitality Team as Ilona Hruska and Kathy Devine have completed their service. Thank you all for your incredible ministry.

In our shared ministry model, the minister is an ex-officio member of the Board of Trustees. The board has worked extra hard this year, as the pandemic has made everything trickier. I thank our president, K Redford, vice-president Terri Reherman, secretary Teresa Jordan, treasurer Rachel Lasiewicz, and member at large John Redemske. Their deep care for the congregation has been a gift of love during this extraordinary year.

We have welcomed new members. With all the pandemic loss this year, of our UUFD members, only one of our dear ones, Sue Loweree, has died. We miss her creative spirit.

In faith, with love for all of you,

Katie

June Services (all services held online)

To join a Zoom worship, look for the link on the UUFD website. Need help learning to use Zoom? Try this video tutorial or this FAQ.

JUNE THEME: Play

June 6

The Kaleidoscopic Beauty of the Divine

-LGBTQIA+ Social Justice Team

What is the meaning behind including our pronouns when we introduce ourselves? How can understanding expansive gender identities help all of us live with and welcome more authenticity?

June 13

Flower Communion: Messengers of Fellowship and Love

–Rev. Katie Kandarian-Morris

We’ll gather at the UUFD parking lot, so bring a camp chair, (leaving our cars at Needham Elementary) for an all-community, joyful meeting of community and fellowship. Bring a flower for the bouquets we’ll create.

June 20

Gratitude: The Divine Emotion

–Rev. Katie Kandarian-Morris and Sara Sautter

As we ready to say goodbye to our Interim Director of Faith Formation, we also thank all of those who contributed to leading our fellowship in this unique year.

June 27

General Assembly Worship

-First Universalist Church, Minneapolis

UUA President Rev. Dr. Susan Frederick Gray selected the First Universalist Church of Minneapolis to serve as worship leaders for this year's GA Sunday Morning Service. Music will be offered through collaboration with 2021 GA Choir Director Susan Mashiyama, the GA virtual choir, and musicians from First Universalist.

End of Pandemic Can be a Restart for Your Life

Message from K Redford, UUFD Board President

In an article for The New York Times (5/11/21) Tara Parker-Pope wrote:

“Studies show that moments of disruption offer an opportunity to set and achieve new goals. Times of disruption and trauma also create new opportunities for growth and change. And for many of us, there’s never been a bigger life disruption than the pandemic, which changed how we work, eat, sleep, and exercise and even how we connect with friends and family." Katy Milkman, Wharton School Professor, was quoted saying, "We have this Opportunity with this blank slate to change our health habits and be very conscientious about our day. Everything is on the table to start fresh.”

I am definitely ready for a fresh start -- so many ideas, things to do, people to see!

I think others join me in excitement and enthusiasm for the future, and I can only imagine the synergy as we come back together as a congregation!

A joint meeting of the current and incoming board members was held on May 25, and plans for reopening our campus are underway. Under our new leadership, UUFD definitely has the opportunity to set and achieve new goals for growth and change. Congratulations to John, Terri, Carolyn, Rachel, Jill, and Steve!.

Welcome new members of the UUFD Board of Trustees

Term beginning July 1, 2021

John Redemske, President

Terri Reherman, Vice President

Carolyn Miller, Secretary

Rachel Lasiewicz, Treasurer

Jill Bystydzienski, Member-at-Large

Steve Govreau, Member-at-Large

Healthy Congregations Committee formed

Group will propose processes for addressing conflict

The long-awaited Healthy Congregations Committee (HCC) has been formed and is in the nascent stages of developing its work in service to our beloved community. The committee, chaired by Sherrod Beall, is made up of UUFD members Kathleen Adams, Jim Brooke, Mary Hockett and Laurie Meininger.

The HCC was created out of recognition within the congregation that conflict can occur within any group, and that when we learn to speak with each other directly and honestly from a position of respect, kindness and love, there are opportunities for growth. We also know that there may be times when we need to seek counsel from our community – hence the formation of the Healthy Congregations Committee.

Members have recently completed training with regional UUA leaders and are in the process of drafting a plan and processes for addressing conflict to present to the congregation. Look for more information on this important work in upcoming newsletters and announcements.

“We need not think alike to love alike” ~ Francis David

UUs can make a difference

Environmental Justice Team encourages voting in LPEA election

As Unitarians, we are committed to protect and respect life on Earth. This applies in particular to the 6th and the 7th principles, which state “Peace, liberty and justice for all” and “Respect the interdependent web of all existence of which we are part.”

Based on these principles, the Environmental Justice Team (EJT) encourages us to apply the slogan “Think globally, act locally.” We understand the science that tells us that climate change is an immediate and existential threat to life on our planet. We acknowledge the interdependence of the web of life and the need for climate justice. Unless many changes are made soon, we face dire consequences forcing our children and grandchildren to face drastically impoverished ecosystems. We asked ourselves, what immediate actions can we undertake to affect the reduction of fossil fuel-based greenhouse gases, the major cause of climate change? Fortunately, the new energy economy based on renewably generated electricity provides an incredible opportunity not only to provide clean power, but also at much lower rates than any fossil fuel-based energy can compete with.

There are few actions that have a greater impact on the reduction of greenhouse gases than the local generation of renewable energy. Because of La Plata Electric Association's (LPEA) contract with Tri-State ending in 2050, our member owned co-op is presently limited to generating only 5% of our power from local sources (not coal), which we maxed out a long time ago. Tri-State has not acted on LPEA’s request to allow us to increase the amount of locally generated renewable energy, nor has it responded to our request for a partial or total buy-out dollar amount.

Only by electing progressive board directors can we free ourselves from Tri-State’s supply monopoly, something two other Tri-State co-ops have been able to do recently. Locally generated and/or renewable energy purchased at market prices are both considerably less expensive than the mostly coal fired power we currently pay Tri-State to deliver, producing a net benefit to our local economy as well as environmental benefits.

Our 5th Principle encourages us to fully participate in the democratic process. You should already have your ballot. Please vote and make a difference! Since only 25% of LPEA members traditionally vote, our votes based on these principles can make a difference in a close election. Your vote matters!

San Juan Citizens Alliance has organized the election of energy progressive board candidates consistent with these principles. Additional information can be found on their website.

Easing the suffering of others

How the Disaster Relief and Development Fund was used in the past year

While we cannot resolve all the pains in the world, our support helps to ease the suffering of others. This last year, the fellowship’s financial support through the Disaster Relief and Development Fund has helped with these crisis situations:

Durango area food insecurity – as part of increased food insecurity related to Covid impacts, our local soup kitchen (and more) Manna recognized the need for extra food support to families during the summer when children were at home. UUFD contributed $1200, which provided a full week of food backpacks to all families needing them.

Fire response relief – the Rogue Valley UU Fellowship was in the heart of the area where many homes burned down during the devastating fires in Oregon. We donated $2000 to help them help families recovering from their losses.

Texas hurricane relief – people living with disabilities, people of color, and immigrants are often inadequately served by FEMA in the wake of severe storms and hurricanes. We donated to the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee Texas Disaster Relief to help them with assistance to these underserved communities in the wake of late summer hurricanes.

Grief counseling and support – The Grief Center of Southwest Colorado experienced a significant increase, double the number of clients, in need for grief support services due to the number of deaths related to Covid, deaths of despair (substance-abuse related and deaths by suicide), as well as higher levels of grief from homicide and trauma-related deaths. We donated $1000 to provide them support.

Healthcare crisis – the healthcare system in India is nearly at collapse in their ability to meet the care needs of those sick in the latest surge of Covid. We contributed $1300 to “Oxygen for India-British Asian Trust” which is sending oxygen concentrators to areas where oxygen supplies are at a crisis of unavailability.

Our total donations for this fiscal year amount to $8000. Our generosity of heart and resources uplifts the spirits, as well as the capacity, of those doing good work in the world. Much gratitude.

Environmental Justice Team survey says...

Social Responsibility and Justice (SRJ) Special Feature

The EJT would like to thank the 88 members who completed the individual Environmental Survey earlier this Spring. That’s about half the congregation and a really good response for a survey of any kind. Yay!

The main headline from your collective responses is that, not surprisingly, our fellowship members have a very high degree of awareness of and participation in activities that are environmentally protective.

Some further highlights:

70%+ of respondents rated all of the Energy Use items as critically or moderately important and are acting accordingly.
Almost all respondents are water wise, limiting their use of water to essentials.
More than 80% appreciate and/or are employing xeriscaping.
We emphasize playing outside rather than on screens.
Almost all are active in recycling efforts.
Nearly ¾ have taken actions monitoring and/or improving HVAC systems, window efficiency and insulation
Almost everyone is thinks buying locally grown food is important and is doing so at least partly; most are limiting their meat consumption
Almost all are using reusable shopping bags, recycled paper for home use, and looking for environmental impact when buying consumer goods
About half of respondents are driving the most fuel-efficient car they can, and almost 40% plan to do so in the future
Travel mugs are in wide use
We have a very high awareness of and level of participation in educating ourselves and advocating for environmental and wildlife organizations

There were many interesting and useful additional comments made at the end of the survey. The main ones that stood out for the Team can be readily summarized:

Sure, individual actions are important, and we need to keep doing them, but even in aggregate they won’t really make up the large, rapid difference we need to limit the worst effects of climate change. We need to be doing what we can to influence the larger corporate systems and governments (local, state, national, international).

The EJT agrees, and will definitely address this (note the article in this newsletter on the LPEA vote) as we move forward. And let’s continue to increase our environmental sensitivity and keep making those personal adjustments that limit our environmental impact. The EJT would be glad to hear from you with more ideas.

Note from the Board of Trustees

Members and friends are always invited to keep up with board activities by attending a board meeting (currently via Zoom) or reviewing agendas and minutes here. Our next meeting is on June 22 at 4 pm.