Webinars

Webinars offer a convenient way to engage in online collaborative learning. 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 on what matters. Webinars are just $20 per connection and can be watched by one person at home or with a group from your church.

Note: We've had to reschedule two webinars, Just a Few Kids: Creative Strategies for Congregational Engagement which has been rescheduled for Feb. 16th and SpiritJam: Fun, Engaging Faith Formation which hasn't found a new date yet. Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause and we'll be sure to include the revised date when we know it.

Inclusive Youth Group Dynamics

Eric Bliss, Natalie Briscoe, and youth TBA
Feb. 14, 10-11am PT & Feb. 15, 5-6pm PT

How do we create space for real diversity in our youth groups? For believers? For introverts? For those who are differently abled? For our growing trans-youth population? This hour long webinar will examine the issues of growing complexity around an inclusive youth ministry program and provide real tools for creating safe, open spaces for our gloriously varied and multi-faceted youth participants, including a new methodology for fashioning the complicated, and sometimes tedious, youth group covenant.

Register for Inclusive Youth Group Dynamics

NEW DATE!

Just a Few Kids: Creative Strategies for Congregational Engagement

Rev. Sarah Gibb Millspaugh & Rev. Sarah Schurr
Feb. 16, 2017 - 7-8pm PT

How do you create a meaningful congregational experience when you've got a small number of kids in your congregation, few of whom are the same age? What will engage them, minister to their needs, and build a strong UU identity? You'll walk away with creative "out of the box" ideas for nurturing connections, fun, and faith across the ages and generations.

Register for Just a Few Kids: Creative Strategies for Congregational Engagement

Reaching Out to Millennials & Young Families

Rev. Annie Gonzalez Milliken & Rev. Sarah Gibb Millspaugh
Feb. 18, 2017 - 9-10am PT

This webinar is designed for UU congregations who know their community has something to offer young adults and families with young children and want to intentionally reach out to those groups. We'll explore characteristics of successful outreach efforts and help you identify concrete ways your congregation can build meaningful connections with members of these groups.

Register for Inclusive Youth Group Dynamics

More UU Webinars Offered by the UU Service Committee Solidarity and Sanctuary Wondering what your options might be for effective congregational action in a heightened time of hostility and violence and possible deportations? This webinar will review a range of strategies appropriate for congregations of many sizes and political contexts. Hear inspiring examples of what some UU congregations are already doing and what resources the UUA, UUSC, the UU College of Social Justice and other UU groups have to offer! Know that often your most effective step will not be to offer physical sanctuary. Content will cover a range of supportive, organizing and policy advocacy options and preview additional upcoming webinars. Learn more about UUSC's webinar series on sanctuary. Register for Jan. 22, 12:30 pm PT Offered by the UUA's Faith Development Office Black Lives of UUism Three members of the Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism collective (BLUU)—Kenny Wiley, Dr. Takiyah Amin, and Elandria Williams—will talk with religious educators, other religious professionals, and lay leaders in faith development about BLUU's objectives and plans, history and formation, and the March 2017 BLUU Convening for Black UUs in New Orleans. Come talk with BLUU and learn how our work in UU faith development and religious education can explore and support today's national and UU-specific movements for black lives. Register for Jan. 24, 10am PT Register for Jan. 25, 6pm PT Supporting Gender-nonconforming Children and Their Families What are some ways to support and welcome gender-creative and transgender children and their families in our congregations? What practices and resources can enrich faith development for children of all genders? Join us and bring your questions! With Melissa James, Alex Kapitan, Lisa Rubin, UUA Our Whole Lives Program Associate Melanie Davis, and webinar host Gail Forsyth-Vail. Register for Feb. 14, 10am PT Register for Feb. 15, 6pm PT

Events and Trainings

A Very Fond Farewell

Saying Goodbye to Chuck Rosene

It has been more than seventeen years that the Pacific Central District's phones and emails have been answered by the inimitable Charles (Chuck) Rosene. Chuck started as the District Administrator from his home in Northern California in 1999 and has seen a full generation go through the congregations in his area.

The Pacific Western Region staff are delighted to celebrate with Chuck his new position as Church Business Administrator at the Mt. Diablo UU Church in Walnut Creek California, where he'll be supervising staff and managing volunteers, while working on finance, events and leadership support. As Chuck says, "Now I get to see if the 'good advice' that I've been giving to church administrators for the last 17 years holds any water!"

We wish Chuck all the best in his new position and on this new adventure!

If you have a question or concern that you're used to calling Chuck about, please contact Pacific Western Region Administrator Diane Brinson at 206-384-9718 or dbrinson@uua.org. For the time being, it is fine to continue to send U.S. mail to the same address for PCD dues payments.

The G.B White Memorial Scholarship 2017

The White Fund was established with a $10,000 gift in the 1920s from a Mr. White of Pasadena, for the purpose of helping UU seminarians.

And the tradition continues: anyone preparing for our ministry who has attained Candidate status is eligible for this one-time award, with preference given to those with ties to the Pacific South West District (PSWD).

Applications for the 2017 scholarship are due by Feb 28th, 2017.

More information can be found on PSWD's White Memorial Scholarship page where applications can be submitted online.

The winner of the 2017 scholarship will be announced at the PSWD Assembly in Southern Arizona on April 1st, and be given a check for $1000 to use to defray costs of their schooling.

If you have any questions regarding the scholarship or the application, please contact pswdwhitememorial@gmail.com.

PWR Congregations in the News

U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján speaks at Unitarian Universalist Santa Fe
"America needs you," he told a packed house of some 400 people during a town hall on Republican efforts to kill President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, which provides health insurance for some 20 million Americans. He joined faith and community leaders in the two-hour meeting at the Unitarian Universalist Santa Fe church on West Barcelona Road. The event was one of dozens of rallies Democrats staged across the country to highlight opposition to the GOP effort to repeal the health care law.

Read more in the Santa Fe New Mexican

Peaceful MLK Day March Draws Hundreds
Lynne Haeseler, music director with Granite Peak Universalist Unitarian Congregation, said she marched "to remind people of the core values of our humanity that Martin Luther King, Jr., demonstrated, fought for and died. As Frederick Douglass said, 'It's really important to get out and use your legs as prayer,'" Haeseler said.

Read more in the Daily Courier

Sexuality Education Offered for Teens
Sky Island Unitarian Universalist Church is offering a sexuality education program to students from 10th through 12th grades. Rev. Linda Lawrence said the course, called Our Whole Lives, or OWL, was developed by the Unitarian Universalist Association and United Church of Christ that "offers honest, accurate information presented in an educational, fun, and developmentally appropriate format."

Read more in the Sierra Vista Herald

Women's March Planned for Saturday in Yakima
"Women are encouraged to walk together to celebrate women and demonstrate support for their human rights. Partners, brothers, sons, fathers, friends and families who are in sympathy with women and their concerns are invited to march in solidarity, organizers said in a news release. Afterward, a networking opportunity that's open to participants and the public will take place at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Yakima"

Read more in the Yakima Herald

Getting More Out of the March: Mobilizing for Resistance Pre-March Webinar

From Standing on the Side of Love: "Excited and informed by the political, theological and tactical grounding provided by Lena K. Gardner, Ashley Horan and other folks in Minneapolis in preparation for the Women's March, we offered two webinars to folks across the country! We were joined by Lena K. Gardner, Rev. Ashley Horan and Caitlin Elly Breedlove."

Watch the recorded webinar

Calling All Friends of Faith and Conscience: Invitation from the UUA President and UUSC President and CEO

Sign your name to the Declaration of Conscience to commit to putting Unitarian Universalist values into action to resist hate, fear and bigotry. Get regular email updates, opportunities and stories from this joint initiative of the Unitarian Universalist Association and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee.

Learn more and sign the Declaration