Regional Assembly is for the Whole Family!

The PWR Regional Assembly in Portland, Oregon (April 27-29) has something for people of every age. In addition to the main programs for adults, we’ll have a UU Kids Camp for ages 5-14, a Youth Assembly for ages 14-18, and high-quality childcare for infants to age 4. Families can spend time together, too, sharing the experiences of the opening ceremony, the Sunday morning worship, mealtimes, and more. Because of our commitment to including children and youth, we’re covering much of the cost of the programs for young people. The registration fee is just a portion of what it costs for these engaging, inclusive, and faith-building programs.

Regional Assembly promises to be an experience that deepens UU identity and fosters hope and resilience in people of all ages. Register now and join us in Portland this spring!

District Business Meetings

The District Annual Business Meetings will convene at 4:00 Saturday afternoon, April 28, during the 2018 Pacific Western Regional Assembly. If your congregation wishes to have delegate representation at your district’s annual meeting, please have a minister, board officer or their designee submit the Delegate Certification Form by April 20.

As materials for your district’s meeting become available, they will be posted at the District Business Meetings site.

Facebook Group for Regional Assembly Attendees

One of the common questions that folks ask after submitting their registration for Regional Assembly is, "How do I find someone who might like to rideshare or be my roommate?"

We've set up a Facebook group for Regional Assembly participants who want to share information or try to arrange ride/room sharing. We'll also be posting updates about the programs there as we have them.

PWR Webinars

Webinars offer a convenient way to engage in online collaborative learning across the Pacific Western Region (PWR). Participating as a learning community in your congregation gives your team a starting point to gain insight, discuss with religious leaders, and focus your congregation’s learning community on what matters.

This year, the PWR staff provide a variety of exciting offerings with individual webinars at $20 per connection. A connection is one link that is viewed by as many as desired from one place, such as your congregation.

View the PWR Webinar Archive

Questions about PWR Webinars: Contact PWR Congregational Life Staff, Rev. Dr. Jonipher Kwong at jkwong@uua.org.

Policy-Based Governance Tune-up

Feb. 27, 2018 at 7:00pm Pacific - Rev. Helen Carroll

The successful transition to Policy-Style Governance is a multi-year process, marked by change, reflection, adjustment, and assessment. In this webinar, we'll address some of the common experiences of congregations in the first 3 years of that transition and explore strategies that help smooth the way toward governance with confidence.

Register for Policy-Based Governance Tune-up

Multicultural Religious Education for Children

Apr. 18, 2018 at 10:00am Pacific - Rev. Dr. Sherri Prud'homme and Laila Ibrahim

You want to create a more inclusive, more multicultural children's program in your congregation, but there's no roadmap. Join educators Rev. Dr. Sheri Prud'homme and Laila Ibrahim for this webinar that helps us know where to start, exploring essential questions like: How do we create culturally-inclusive spaces? How do we bring in cultures other than our own without committing cultural misappropriation? How do we help children develop intercultural competency as they grow up in our faith?

Register for Multicultural Religious Education for Children

UU Leadership Institute - Online Learning for Committed Lay Leaders and Religious Professionals

Healthy boundaries, communication, conflict navigation, covenant, mission, stewardship, building trust, adapting to change… are these concepts that you would like to bring more intentionally into your daily practice of Unitarian Universalism?

The UU Leadership Institute offers a way there, with online courses designed for Lay Leaders and Religious Professionals to learn and grow in faith together. Team up with a few friends, board members, or colleagues for the learning to have the most impact.

We offer four Core Courses in Leadership Development:

• Centered Leadership (Part 1)
• Centered Leadership (Part 2)
• Strategic Leadership
• Adaptive Leadership

Each course has 8 lessons. Complete the lessons at your convenience and hold conversations with your teammates as you advance through the course. This semester we’re also offering five courses in specialized topics in compassionate communication, faith formation, safer congregations, and spiritual companioning.

Register now!

Board Development Days

A day for congregational teams (board members and clergy) to explore and learn together. Note: This day may supplement your traditional Board Retreat, serve as part of it, or provide the foundation for it.

• March 3 at Olympic UU Fellowship (Port Angeles, WA)
• March 3 at UU Fellowship of Redwood City (Redwood City, CA)
• March 17 at University Unitarian Church (Seattle, WA)
• March 18 at Two Rivers UU (Carbondale, CO)
• April 7 at South Valley UU Society (Salt Lake City, UT)
• April 14 at UU Fellowship of Bozeman (Bozeman, MT)

There are still opportunities to bring a Board Development Day to your area. If you are interested in hosting a Board Development Day in the coming year, let your PWR Primary Contact know.

PWR Congregations in the News

Memorial honors homeless who have died in Ventura County - VC Star
"People are dying on the streets, and too often we don't notice," said Rev. Dana Worsnop of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ventura, which organized the 12th annual Homeless Persons’ Memorial Service. "We want to stand here and say: Pay attention. Pay attention. These are our neighbors."

Tribune Editorial: I was a stranger, and ye took me in - Salt Lake Tribune
While the great and powerful were fruitlessly arguing past each other over immigration policy Tuesday evening in Washington, the members of a small church in Salt Lake City looked the matter right in the eye. And did the right thing. The First Unitarian Church kept its long-standing promise to take in someone who was facing deportation when it welcomed Vicky Chavez and her two young daughters.

Interfaith Rotating Winter Shelter to be held in Davis - The California Aggie
The Interfaith Rotating Winter Shelter (IRWS) was held at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Davis from Jan. 25 to 31. According to the 2017 Yolo County Homeless count, 146 people on a given winter night are in shelters or living on the streets, with as many as 40 percent of those people sleeping outside. Winter nights in Davis can see the temperature drop to 38 degrees in December and January.

MDUUC to Provide Sanctuary and Bear Public Witness That Black Lives Matter - Half Moon Bay Review
On Jan. 30, 2018, members of Mt. Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church (MDUUC) voted unanimously to authorize its board of trustees to consider and act on requests for physical sanctuary for undocumented immigrants under threat of deportation. The congregation also voted to authorize MDUUC to bear public witness in support of the national Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU) movements. Both questions were called by the faith community's board of trustees and strongly endorsed by Lead Minister Reverend Leslie Takahashi, who chairs the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA)'s Commission on Institutional Change.

Group explores spirit - Fledgling religious group takes root on coast - Half Moon Bay Review
Business aside, the Unitarian Universalist Coastside Community thrived in 2017, offering its congregation thought-provoking talks such as those on the "Theme of Covenant," by Rabbi Jane Litman, "Current Needs of Coastside Latino Community," by Coastside Immigration Action Group’s Jean Knight, and "Undoing Global Terrorism: Why Bans and Bombs Don’t Work," by Iftekhar Hai, president of the United Muslims of America Interfaith Alliance.

Monthly Annual Program Fund (APF) Webinar

Every UU congregation in our Association is asked to contribute a specific sum of money annually to the Annual Program Fund to support all of the congregations in our Association. The Annual Program Fund makes up the single largest source of funding for the work of the Unitarian Universalist Association. In turn, the UUA utilizes these funds to provide resources, programming and support to all of the congregations across the Association. Our Unitarian Universalist principles and purposes close with this promise: "As free congregations we enter into…covenant, promising to one another our mutual trust and support." The Annual Program Fund makes that covenantal promise real.

Do you want to know more about how APF works? Please bring your questions to our monthly APF Webinar, when you’ll get to meet with staff from our Congregational Giving Team and ministers, treasurers and congregational leaders from around the country. Our APF webinars will take place on the second Tuesday of every month.

Dates:

• Tuesday, March 13 at 2-3 Pacific, 3-4 Mountain, 4-5 Central, 5-6 Eastern
• Tuesday, April 10 at 2-3 Pacific, 3-4 Mountain, 4-5 Central, 5-6 Eastern
• Tuesday, May 8 at 2-3 Pacific, 3-4 Mountain, 4-5 Central, 5-6 Eastern
• Tuesday, June 12 at 2-3 Pacific, 3-4 Mountain, 4-5 Central, 5-6 Eastern

The meeting will take place on the online platform Zoom. Zoom allows us to meet and see one another on our screens. If you haven’t used Zoom before, please download it prior to the time of the webinar. You won’t find anyone present to meet with you until the time of our scheduled meeting.

At the meeting time, join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://zoom.us/j/6179486514

Contact us with questions you may have at apf@uua.org – and on behalf of all of the congregations that benefit from your support of your Region and the Annual Program Fund, thank you! You can visit uua.org/amplify anytime for further information and resources about APF.

PWR Job Postings

• Acting Faith Development Educator - UU Congregation of Las Vegas, NV
  Applications open until the position is filled.
• Full Charge Bookkeeper - East Shore Unitarian Church in Bellevue, WA
  Applications open until the position is filled.
• Congregational Administrator - All Souls UU Church in Colorado Springs, CO
  Applications open until the position is filled.
• Director of Religious Exploration - Evergreen UU Fellowship in Marysville, WA
  Applications open until the position is filled.
• Director of Religious Education - Pacific UU Church in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
  Applications open until the position is filled.
• Membership Coordinator - UU Fellowship of San Dieguito, CA
  Applications open until the position is filled.
• Part-time Pastor - UU Church of Greeley, CO
  Applications must be received by Feb. 15, 2018.
• Interim DRE - First Unitarian Portland
  Applications accepted through March 15, 2018.
• Director of Religious Education - UU Congregation of Santa Rosa, CA
  Applications accepted through March 8, 2018.
• Interim Director of Religious Education - First Unitarian Church of San José, CA
  Applications open until the position is filled.

In Memoriam - Rev. Sarah Barber-Braun

The Rev. Sarah Barber-Braun died on December 17, 2017 at the age of 92.

Rev. Barber-Braun was ordained on February 17, 1985 by the First Unitarian Church of Oakland, CA. She first served as an extension minister at the UU Congregation of Erie, PA from 1986 to 1989. Rev. Barber-Braun then served for a year as interim minister at Des Moines, WA’s Saltwater UU Church, before ministering to the First Universalist Society in New Haven, CT 1994 to 1996. Sarah then carried out another interim ministry at the Mattatuck UU Society in Woodbury, CT until 1997. In that year she began serving the First Universalist Church of Southold, NY, ministering there until her retirement in 2002.

Rev. Barber-Braun dedicated much service to her denomination, including serving on the board of the UUA’s Pacific Central District (now part of the Pacific Western Region) from 1979 to 1983. Sarah was also an active member of the UU Ministers’ Association, and she served as President of the Ohio-Meadville Chapter in 1989. Rev. Barber-Braun was also a founding member of the UU Women’s Heritage Society and served as Chair of its Continental Council. Sarah further served as Chair of UU Collegium’s Feminisms Section. And she was a regular presenter on women’s history at UU General Assembly.

Read more on the UUMA site.

WhaleCoast Alaska 2018

Have you ever dreamed of visiting Alaska? If so, WhaleCoast Alaska 2018 is for you! Four Alaska UU fellowships invite you to experience our eco-cultural and spiritual program this summer. See Alaska through the eyes of local UUs, with friendly homestays and unique tour activities. See wildlife, including moose, bears, caribou, whales, bald eagles, seals, and otters. Visit Denali National Park. Experience Native Alaskan culture. Find out today about this Alaskan trip of a lifetime. For complete information visit WhaleCoastAK.org, email dfrey@whalecoastak.org or call 907-322-4966. We would love to share our Alaska with you!

PCD Chalice Lighters

The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Northern Nevada (UUFNN) will be the recipient of your generous donations to the Winter 2018 Pacific Central District Chalice Lighter call to provide a new sound system.

The sound system in their Great Room has outlived its usefulness. The congregation wants and needs to better serve all who would hear their messages and music as well as better serve the hearing impaired. A new sound system would also raise the level of professionalism of their worship, capitalize on the current growth opportunity, and demonstrate the high value they place on inclusiveness.

You can read the full call letter on the PCD website and make your contribution online at the donation page through March 26. Or mail your check, payable to PCD Chalice Lighters to: PCD Chalice Lighters, 7511 Greenwood Avenue North, #414, Seattle, WA 98103-4627. Please write PCD CL on both the memo line of your check and on the payment envelope.

Thank you for your donation!

Regional Assembly Funding Support from the PCD Board

All PCD congregations are encouraged to come to Regional Assembly in Portland, Oregon, April 27-29, 2018. To facilitate attendance, the PCD Board voted to provide all PCD congregations attending Regional Assembly a $500 grant to offset the costs of attendance. There are no strings attached. If your PCD congregation needs a grant to attend, send an email to Diane Brinson (dbrinson@uua.org). Diane will arrange for a check to be sent to your congregation.

Each congregation can use the money as best suits their needs. Send youth; send staff; or use the money to rent a bus and take a busload to RA. Each congregation should determine which approach best fits with their mission.

Please plan on attending. The PWR staff has prepared an excellent program including UUA President Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray, Rev. Vanessa Southern, and Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal. Presenters at Friday's Professional Development Day include Rev. Erika Hewitt and Dr. Glen Thomas Rideout. Visit the PWR website for more details about RA.

Charles Du Mond, PhD
PCD President

News from PCD Chalice Lighters

Now is the time to consider how a Chalice Lighter grant might help YOUR congregation make an improvement to make your space more welcoming, help fund a new position or to offer outreach to the community. Think creatively. Pass your ideas by me. Whatever your idea, let’s talk about it. Please get your application in to me no later than March 1. The application can be found on the PCD website.

Chalice Lighter Ambassadors are needed from each congregation to help promote the program. I have flyers and sign ups and hope to have a new brochure soon. Will you be the ambassador from your UU church? I can also let you know who is already signed up to donate a minimum of $20 per call.

Send me an email at pcdchalicelighters@pwruua.org. I am happy to answer your questions. Light the flame!

Karen Urbano,
PCD Chalice Lighter Coordinator

PCD Women's Retreat March 8-11

The annual PCD Women's Retreat is coming up on March 8-11, 2018. All self-identified women are welcome to join us for a calming respite from our busy lives. To learn more about the PCD Women and Religion organization and to register, please visit the website.

PSWD Chalice Lighters

The Unitarian Universalists of the Santa Clarita Valley (UU of SCV) has matured well since our founding in 2000, but we need to better communicate to the local community our values as Unitarian Universalists and all that we offer.

That’s where your support comes in. We envision hiring a contracted Outreach Consultant who will lead us in planning and launching a comprehensive plan to market and promote UU of SCV to the outside world. Engaging this consultant, even for a limited period, will increase our visitations and enhance our growth. Funding this Chalice Lighters call will greatly help us expand our reach throughout the Santa Clarita Valley, spreading the UU message while building our congregation.

You can read the full call letter on the PSWD website. You can submit your donation online. You may also write a check and mail it to PSWD Chalice Lighters, 7511 Greenwood Avenue North, #414, Seattle, WA 98103-4627. If you send a check, please write PSWD CL in the memo line of your check and on the payment envelope.

Contributions for this call will be accepted through March 12, 2018. Thank you for your generosity!

Living Our Mission and Thanking Our Partners

When the UU Church of Boulder decided to live into their mission and open their doors as a sanctuary for a local immigrant facing deportation, they knew there would be challenges. But with a sudden need to raise $60,000 to cover the lease termination loss from their primary renter (a preschool) and renovations, they weren't sure where to go.

Thankfully the congregation found generosity at every turn. They raised $20,000 from their own members, more than $11,000 from other local UU congregations, $7500 from the UU Crowdfunding platform Faithify, an MDD Chalice Lighter grant of more than $5000, and from many other community partners. Clearly their mission and their action inspired those around them.

The congregation now has hundreds of trained volunteers helping, as their sanctuary guest, Ingrid Encalada LaTorre arrived on December 16, 2017 along with her two young sons Bryant (9) and Anibal (2). Bryant was enrolled in the school directly behind the church and was able to start as the second semester began. Each day people from UUCB, Boulder County Sanctuary Coalition, the UUCB neighborhood and other organizations join in the beautiful work of enacting justice and building the Beloved Community.

UU Church of Boulder is saying "thank you" to everyone who has participated in this effort so far, saying, "We are better together. Courageous love transforms the world."

Read the full story of how UUCB became a sanctuary congregation, how they mustered support, and watch their deeply moving video.

MDD Chalice Lighters

The MDD Winter 2017-18 Chalice Lighter call is open through February 26. The winter call goes toward helping the UU Fellowship of Sheridan contract with its first minister, Rev. Kali Hayslett. The Sheridan Fellowship has been experiencing an increase in visitors and membership in recent months, perhaps due to Kali’s presence. Thus, there is hope that the Fellowship will grow with a minister’s continuing presence. They are planning to renew Kali's contract and would like to be able to increase the minister's salary to a more equitable $1300/month. This Chalice Lighter call will allow the congregation time to adjust to the additional cost of a minister as it takes this leap of faith.

You can read the full call letter on the MDD website. You can submit your donation online. You may also write a check and mail it to MDD Chalice Lighters, 7511 Greenwood Avenue North, #414, Seattle, WA 98103-4627. If you send a check, please write MDD CL in the memo line of your check and on the payment envelope.

Thank you for your generosity!

Youth at Regional Assembly!

Regional Assembly (RA) has a Youth Assembly: three days of faith, frivolity, and fun for Unitarian Universalists in grades 9-12 from all over the western United States.

To make this experience affordable, the cost is only $90 per youth. That's $30 off the regular registration price!

The program runs from Friday, April 27 at 5:00 pm until Sunday, April 29 at noon.

Youth are invited to participate in the RA programs with the rest of our community when the Youth Assembly isn't gathered.

PWR RA Youth Assembly's focus is on Making CoUUrageous Connections! Icebreakers, games, community building activities, workshops, identity caucusing, small group ministry (touch groups), and worship will all be featured as youth from across the Pacific Western Region—Kari Gottfried, Elliot Ferrell-Carretey, Byrne Crandell, Zoe Johnston, Tanner Linden, Harriet Wright, and many more—will lead transformative youth ministry experiences in the context of the broader Assembly.

Workshops will be led by members of the YaYA office, the PWR Multicultural Team, PCD MUUG's (middle school) ministry, and others!

Learn more and register!

PCD Spring Youth Retreat - Santa Rosa, CA

Apr. 13-15, 2018 • UU Congregation of Santa Rosa

It's always tough to make a sequel as good as the first, right?

Well, the PCD Spring Youth Retreat is going to bring it! Worship. Touch Groups. Playshops. Caucusing. Spiritual Practices. Everything that makes youth community feel so much like Beloved Community.

Registration includes: transformative programming, lodging at the church, snacks all weekend, and meals provided all day Saturday and Sunday for breakfast.

Registration Fee: $40. Registration open through April 1st.

Learn more and register!

PSWD Youth Spring Con

The PSWD Youth Board will be holding Spring Con at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ventura, California, March 2-4, 2018. We are committed to making Spring Con radically inclusive, spiritually deep, and religiously contagious. Most importantly, we are committed to making Con a physically and emotionally safe space for all youth. We will be following all district and regional event health and safety policies/guidelines.

Our events help youth develop skills in leadership, community building, event coordination, and public speaking while accepting them into a loving community of their peers. Youth who have been to our events leave the community with the skills and peer support necessary to succeed and grow going forward in their lives and in their faith.

For more information, visit spring-con.com or watch the promo video.

PNWD Youth ProUUd Con

This Spring's Pacific Northwest Youth Con theme is ProUUd. Over the course of the weekend we will be exploring ways to strengthen our own personalized connection to Unitarian Universalism, going deeper on what being a Unitarian Universalist really means, celebrating our pride in our faith and con community and looking at ways to take the empowerment we find here out into our wider communities.

March 23-25, 2018 - Camp Cispus, Randle WA

Find more information and register

Upcoming Youth Events

Conferences

• MDD Colorado/Wyoming Cluster Middle School Con - UU To The Core
  February 23-24, 2018
  UU Church of Boulder, CO
• PSWD Youth Spring Con
  March 2-4, 2018
  UU Church of Ventura, CA
• PNWD Spring Youth Con
  March 23-25, 2018
  Camp Cispus in Randle, WA
• MDD Bridging Con
  April 6-8, 2018
  Los Alamos UU Church in Los Alamos, NM

Trainings

• MDD Youth Chaplain Training
  March 9-11, 2018
  Columbine UU Church, Littleton, CO
• PSWD Youth Advisor Training
  March 24, 2018 - 8:00-5:00pm
  Valley Unitarian Universalist Congregation, Chandler, AZ
• PWR Goldmine Youth Leadership School 2018
  July 7-12, 2018 - San Diego, CA
  Registration for staff and students opens soon.
• Roots, Reflections, Relationships - A UU Justice Journey - Pasadena, CA
  July 14-22, 2018
  Throop UU Congregation in Pasadena, CA
  Only 15 youth slots available
• Thrive West (For Youth and Young Adults of Color)
  July - Aug TBA
• Summer Seminary
  Late July - Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago, IL