UUFD Newsletter, March 2021

March 2021

The Living Springs

Rev. Katie's Animas View

Why shall the people assemble, and for what purpose shall they be gathered together?

They shall come seeking in their united worship that which none can find in solitude.

They shall be as those who in darkness seek the light, and as those who thirst, looking for the living springs.

Because of their deep and continuous need for one another shall the people worship.

- Clinton Lee Scott

March 15 marks the anniversary of the first time when the pandemic pushed us home, when we were not all together for worship in the sanctuary. The week before, our choir had sung inspirational music, there was a happy, effusive coffee hour, yet there were subtle rumblings from prescient folx who were finding that we might be needing to step away in order to keep each other safe. Little did we know that one year later, we would be weary and worn from our many efforts, yet stronger because of them.

I hadn’t yet heard of “Zoom fatigue” or yet transformed my home office into a worship studio, meeting room, and library. We hadn’t run an efficient Congregational Meeting online, or yet welcomed in congregational friends from other parts of the country, been able to include our members even when they were visiting family, hosted a memorial service online, or had pulpit guests live from Boston, California or Boulder, Colorado.

Soon we’ll be working on how we may see each other again in person, in the sanctuary and parking lot that many love so well. It’ll be wonderful, if not exactly the same. We’ll need to learn new rules of engagement, new ways to keep our chalice flame bright for those who cannot meet in person. We’ll shift our focus from gathering to connecting. We’ll be thinking differently about how to use our space, how we do ministry with each other during the week, and what changes will need to be made for Sundays.

2020 has been a year of experimentation, and as we grow into 2021 our experimenting will continue. I’ve heard you say that one of the qualities you appreciate about UUFD is our ability to be fearless, flexible and responsive. YOU are those things, “the living springs,” as you live out the mission of love in action. Thank you for all you bring to this vibrant fellowship.

Always in the love,

Rev. Katie

March 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.

MARCH THEME: Commitment

March 7

Keeping Faith

Rev. Katie Kandarian-Morris

The verse sings out, “We shall be known by the company we keep.” We keep faith with the source of life, the community of resistance. We are a community of covenant even (especially?) in times of struggle. The choir sings today.

March 14*

Buck it!

Rev. Denise Cawley, pulpit guest

*Don't forget to SPRING FORWARD

It’s Women’s History Month. Rev. Dr. Florence Buck advocated for education from her early days as a schoolteacher, high school principal, minister, and director of religious education for the American Unitarian Association. One of the first women ministers in America, Flo Buck’s accomplishments would be impressive for any person.

March 21

Being Loved Through Loving

Rev. Katie Kandarian-Morris

We mark a year since online worship began. As we celebrate generosity and our relationship to making this a flourishing congregation, let’s feel the joy this spiritual community can bring. After worship, all are invited to participate in Celebration Sunday’s "Dazzle Drive Through" at the UUFD parking lot.

March 28

Keep on Moving Forward

Rev. Katie Kandarian-Morris

Our mental health and spiritual endurance has been tested. It might be that all you can do right now is to keep on keepin’ on, despite all that is coming at you. On this Palm Sunday, how might the ancient stories translate to what we need?

Healthy Congregations

Message from K Redford, UUFD Board President

A Healthy Congregation Committee Charter (HCC) was approved by the Board of UUFD in September 2019. The preliminary work to establish the committee was done but, for a variety of reasons, Committee members were not selected at that time.

There is renewed interest in reviving this project and making a Healthy Congregation Committee part of what UUFD can offer to its members. Quoting from the HCC Charter:

“The purpose of the committee is to help our congregation better understand the nature of conflict...When we recognize that conflict can occur within any group, we learn to speak with each other directly and honestly from a position of respect, kindness and love, recognizing that in order to do so, there will be times we need to seek counsel from our community. The members of HCC will be representatives from our community.”

Unlike other standing committees, all members (not just the chair) must be appointed by the board president and approved by the board.

The Unitarian Universalist Association has been involved with developing resources, and provides support for congregations establishing healthy congregation committees and teams. Our Pacific Western Region provides a wide range of services and resources to help us in this important effort to view conflict as a faith formation opportunity and normal part of religious community and the human journey.

UUFD’s Healthy Congregation Committee will soon begin a review of some of the available UUA resources and complete a training session with PWR consultants. Once training is completed, the committee will reach out to share their learning, to develop a congregational behavioral covenant and to raise awareness of the services HCC can offer to help resolve conflicts.

“We need not think alike to love alike.” -Francis Dávid

An opportunity for wholehearted giving

2021 Pledge Campaign

This year’s beautiful pledge campaign brochure, Keep Our Chalice Burning Brightly, was developed and designed by members of our own beloved UUFD community. It is a work of art, a reflection of who we are and want to continue to be. The thought, the detail, the care and creativity come from an intention to inspire us to move toward the light, to dance with the flame and kindle our love and hope for our congregation’s future. What values of yours are reflected in the chalice? What do you have to give and how can you do so wholeheartedly?

For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it, if only we’re brave enough to be it

-Amanda Gorman, 2021

If you have not received a pledge campaign brochure, please let us know! The fun Dazzle Drive-Through to drop off your pledge card is Sunday, March 21, after the service, between 1 and 3 PM. If you are not able to participate, please mail your pledge card to the church AFTER MARCH 21. (Mail to UUFD, 435 San Juan Drive, Durango CO 81301.)

Questions? Contact Kathleen Adams (kadams@mcw.edu) or Sherrod Beall (sherrodb@gmail.com).

BLACK LIVES MATTER:

A Talk Show By Kids

Join us for opening night

Saturday, March 27 at 6:30

Click here for tickets!

Join us for a special presentation by our UUFD elementary kids for a talk-show about anti-racism.

Starring…

Owen Sykes and Grace Frazer as Hosts

Nate Trefry as Science

Piper Sykes as Courage

Wilder Valdez as Empathy

Sophia Valdez as Wealth Gap

Iris Foster as Action

Cara Elizabeth, Musical Guest

Social Responsibility and Justice (SRJ) Special Feature:

“Your mission, should you choose to accept it…” Remember those beginning words from the TV series Mission Impossible, which were attached to a dangerous and high-risk assignment to in some way save the world? We always trusted things would somehow work out in the end, but there were lots of tension-producing events and near disasters along the way.

Our UUFD social justice mission is to work toward a community with peace, liberty and justice for all. At first glance, this may not seem like a "high risk" activity, but working for justice is not a risk-free endeavor, nor one guaranteed of immediate success. You might shake up the status quo and have some people angry and hostile toward you. You might give it your best and find there is still so much work to be done, and no easy answers. You might campaign hard for legislation to create more fairness only to see it defeated. Some people have been arrested, or injured, while advocating for justice. The list of challenges could go on and on and start us to thinking about the impossibility of our social justice mission.

But is it impossible? We have lots of evidence to say that isn’t so, that we are among the hands joined together that are pushing the arc toward justice. In the last year, despite the extra challenges created by Covid-19, UUFD efforts and contributions have helped make the following possible in our community:

1) Our donations through Share the Plate helped Durango Food Bank provide for the 66% increase in clients needing food boxes, and Manna with the 72% increase in meals they provided to the hungry. We sent $3,000 to the MakerLab Covid-19 Response Team so they could quickly make and deliver personal protection equipment to healthcare providers in the Four Corners area. In partnership with Summit Church we collected $8,713 for the Navajo and Hopi Families Relief Fund to help them cope with the heavy impact of the virus, and conducted the largest food supply drive to benefit the Navajo Nation in our community. We sent over $2,000 to the Community Emergency Relief Fund to aid their grant process for struggling nonprofits. Over $3,000 went to Compañeros to help them support immigrants caught in the bind of lost income and no government support. We currently have designated Durango Food Bank, Manna, and Fort Lewis College Grub Hub for Share the Plate donations through September and have collected over $3,500 so far.

2) UUFD volunteers stepped up to help Durango Food Bank deliver food to at-risk individuals who need to stay home to avoid virus exposure. In partnership with NINA (Neighbors In Need Alliance) our social justice budget is supporting $100 a month of fresh food, purchased by a UUFD volunteer, for delivery to the unhoused at Purple Cliffs who needed more resources. Another volunteer personally purchases and delivers additional fresh food. In addition, volunteers purchased fire extinguishers and refilled propane tanks for Purple Cliffs. We donated $1,000 to Manna to purchase pantry items not available through their bulk discount purchases.

3) Members of the Healing Racism Team continued anti-racism work by moving to zoom discussions of the book White Fragility, and participating in weekly vigils of the Southwest Movement for Black Lives. Members helped in the founding of a local chapter of SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice). We are also providing support to a newly organizing Black Student Union/Alliance (students are still deciding on the name) at Durango High School by funding costs of pizza for their weekly lunch meetings.

4) Through the efforts of our Immigration Team, in collaboration with the Community Coalition in Support of Asylees, we made it possible for an asylee family to come to Durango and are providing them no-cost housing at our Columbine House. The asylee family is making progress in their transition to a safer life in the U.S. and becoming self-sufficient.

5) The Environmental Justice Team’s commitment to environmentally sustainable practices, and the generosity of UUFD donors, have made possible the installation of solar panels on our Sanctuary building, energy improvements to all our buildings, and electric vehicle charging stations in our parking lot.

6) While many LGBTQ community events such as Pride Festival were canceled or significantly modified due to the virus, our LGBTQIA+ Team partnered with local organizations to continue important support events online, including the community Transgender Day of Remembrance service. We also donated funds to enable the Rainbow Youth Center to send care boxes to LGBTQ youth while the center is closed due to the virus.

7) Other partnerships we’ve continued include Needham Elementary, sending them just over $1,000 to be able to quickly help individual students and families with basic needs; the Durango chapter of Days for Girls, continuing to make menstrual care kits for local unhoused individuals and for women living in remote villages around the world, as well as making masks for our community; our local 4 The Children organization, helping provide gifts for children at Christmas; our annual donation of $1,000 to the Durango Adult Education Scholarship Fund to help nontraditional students continue their learning.

8) Through our Disaster Relief and Development Fund, we helped Manna provide a week of backpack food for families during the summer, helped the Rogue Valley UU Fellowship devastated by the fire in Oregon, and donated to the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee’s disaster relief work in Texas, helping the most vulnerable populations impacted by the weather disaster. A total of $5,700 has been donated so far.

Our mission, which we choose to accept, is alive and well and making a difference in the lives of others. We are creating a community of greater peace, liberty and justice for all – and love abounds. MISSION POSSIBLE!

Days for Girls small project work: Can you help?

Sewing and non-sewing work available

Days for Girls Durango is participating in the Chad Humanitarian Response Project to provide menstrual kits to young women in 13 refugee camps in Chad. This is a request from an Ohio-based NGO called Watoto Read, whose mission is to provide education to girls in refugee camps to increase their opportunities. Watoto Read was started by Claudine Leary, who was a Rwandan refugee and is now living in the U.S. "I can't tell you how much of a difference a DFG menstrual kit would have made in my life as a young refugee," said Claudine.

There will be sewing and non-sewing tasks available. All work is done at home. If interested, please contact:

Robbin (419) 230-7796

Susan (970) 769-4006

Sally (970) 769-6133