PWR Newsletter - August 2024

by Rev. Summer Albayati, PWR Congregational Life Staff

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

--James Baldwin

Just days after national news has broken that changes this electoral cycle, I sit here wondering how you all are feeling. It has been quite a few months, and so many have expressed anxiety over this election year, and now perhaps some feel more anxious. For some, change is good and welcome and, for others, it creates fear, angst and feelings of despair. Unitarian Universalists hold many beliefs in terms of politics and I have witnessed some of these beliefs discussed in online spaces. Dialogue is good. Facing change is good. As James Baldwin reminds us, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

So holding onto those sacred words, I ask myself, what do our beloved Unitarian Universalist congregations need to hear from their Pacific Western Region staff at this moment? I keep coming back to this: We are here for you, and we are committed to our collective liberation. Let me say that again. We are here for you. No matter what happens in the next few months leading up to the election, and no matter your political views, your Unitarian Universalist Association is continually developing programs and opportunities to engage you based on our shared Unitarian Universalist values.

Values. That is what we hold onto amidst the inevitable changes. Shared values that reflect our desire for collective liberation. And we witness those values engaged and made real from our programs focused on voter rights, LGBTQIA+, gender and reproductive justice with UU the Vote and UPLIFT Action to supporting campaigns such as the UU Climate Justice Revival and Love Resists. Your Unitarian Universalist Association is hard at work providing you with opportunities to embody the values that mean the most to you. Now is the time to reflect on those values and how you can lean into them as your steady anchor or unfaltering tree.

Just as an olive tree’s roots ground it within a storm, and just as an anchor keeps the ship from drifting away, holding onto our values means we can weather what comes next – no matter what. Love is always at the center and, as long as we hold onto values that state that everyone is worthy of that love, we will remain rooted and strong, unwavering and resolute.

We recognize that some of you may not have the bandwidth to engage at the moment. That is okay. Gather yourself, take a moment, and do what you need to do to get yourself ready for what may come because our collective liberation is still on the agenda, no matter what the national landscape reflects back to us.

So let us weather the storm together, let us face the change together, and let us know that love is always at the center of all that we do. Remember: We are here for you, and we are committed to our collective liberation. Let us build a better world together.

Blessings and love,

Rev. Summer Albayati (she/her)

A follow-up to the popular course: Covenant Calls Us In: The Why of Behavioral Covenant (class 109 in UU Institute), this course can be used for both reviewing existing covenants, policies and procedures or the initial creation of those documents. This is an on-demand course.

The course is available on demand, can be taken by a team, working on your own, or you can reach out to your Region’s Safe Congregations Team member to see if there are any plans for group sessions where you can work alongside other congregations doing similar work. The cost of the course is $30 per person. You can add comments to the modules as you go through them, and we will respond as we can--and you may also encounter questions and comments from other UU congregations as they move to make their behavioral covenants work best for them.

This fall, join Religious Education (RE) teams from other congregations and let UUA Congregational Life Regional Staff help you kick off your RE year! Gather your team (professional Religious Education staff (if any) and RE lay leaders) for two live, online facilitated gatherings to get aligned and set intentions for the purpose, goals, and activities of your RE program in a changing, unpredictable world. Congregations and RE programs of any size, lay-led or professionally-led, are warmly welcome to participate. REGISTRATION OPENS 8/20/24
Choose between Thursday or Sunday sessions:

Thursday, October 10 & Thursday, October 24, 5-7PM MT / 4-6PM PT
Sunday, October 6 & Sunday, October 13, 2-4PM MT / 1-3PM PT

Mosaic is a hub of connection, resources, and support for Unitarian Universalists dismantling racism and oppression. The National Fall Conference is a dynamic, multi-platform gathering for congregational teams and individuals engaged in the work of building multicultural communities with love at their center. Over two and a half days, participants will share in collaborative conversations, cutting-edge workshops, and gain invaluable insights from community leaders within Unitarian Universalism and beyond. Participants will depart from the convening with renewed hearts and spirits, with new Mosaic tools in hand, ready to support and inspire others to foster belonging and liberation. Details and registration at the UUA website.

Since March 2023, the UUA Virtual Hymnal Task Force has been immersed in research for this unprecedented project. We now have a prototype app—loaded with 50 of survey participants' favorite hymns—ready to be beta tested this fall.

On August 19th, our consulting manager Camille Hatton will open beta testing applications. We ask that interested congregations appoint one person to serve as the liaison to distribute logins to as many congregation members as you wish; maintain communication with our UUA Task Force; and submit collective feedback by the end of November 2024. We highly recommend that (if applicable) ministers and/or music directors are offered the liaison responsibility, or have a role in appointing the congregation's liaison.

For more information, and to be alerted when the application process opens, please make sure you've subscribed to the WorshipWeb newsletter.

September 28-29, 2024
UUs are coming together to inspire, reawaken, and transform our churches through climate justice. Bring your justice teams, problem solvers, and dreamers. The planning team will provide everything needed: facilitation toolkits, training, music, projects, coordinated justice action, and more. No matter your congregation’s size or resources, you can join and together we will enter a new era of climate action. Let's go—appoint two volunteer facilitators who will be trained to participate. Register Here

The leadership body for this group is called NEAT - The National Emerging Adult Taskforce and we are always looking for new team members. Highlights of our work this year include nationalizing our pastoral care network, partnering with YARN (Young Adult Revival Network) on newsletters, worship, and small group ministry, as well as sharing resources directly supporting EAs (18-24 years old), and fashioning a forthcoming GA workshop. If you think you know an emerging adult leader who might want to join this spectacular group from all over the nation, please have them submit a quick, easy application here.

Love at the Center: Unitarian Universalist Theologies. Available as an e-book now!

Unitarian Universalists as a progressive religious community hold a humbling expectation to periodically re-evaluate the freely chosen covenant that holds us together. While this work impacts the bylaws that define our governance structures, it also gives life to the values we express in common cause. We do this work to live into the Unitarian Universalism of the future.

In response to the Article II Study Commission and the more than 10,000 Unitarian Universalists who answered complex questions about the values that guide their faithful living, it is clear that the value most describe as central to their faith, to their living, and to the mission of their congregations is love itself. We are a people guided by, and centered in, our engagement with all that love requires.

Our pressing task now is to ask ourselves and each other how this understanding calls us forward, individually and collectively. We may agree that love is central, but what
does that mean to us and what does it require of us? It is in that spirit that we asked more than two dozen leaders in our movement the question of what it means to put
love at the center of our faith.

In these pages, you’ll find personal testimony to love’s power, reminders of the centrality of love throughout the long histories of Universalism and Unitarianism, and theologies of love drawn from many different expressions of Unitarian Universalism—from the natural world to the justice rally, to a loved one’s deathbed, to the quiet moment before a worship service begins. May Love at the Center serve as an invitation to deepen your own understanding and practices of love.

Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt is the tenth president of the Unitarian Universalist Association. She was elected in June 2023. Rev. Dr. Betancourt’s twenty-year ministry has included serving as a parish minister, seminary professor, scholar and environmental ethicist, and public theologian.

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Pacific Western Region - UUA
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Brighton, CO 80601
United States