Archives of Central East Region News and Blog

For 40 years a group of dedicated volunteers, leaders and staff have created Summer Institute, an intentional intergenerational community.

What kind of leaders do[es] our faith and our planet need in a future that is as close as tomorrow? What does sustainable leadership look like when burnout and overwhelm are so prevalent?

It's time to get prepared for General Assembly 2019!

Summer is bringing some staffing changes to Central East Region.

I’ve been reflecting on the many ways that our churches would do well to describe the ways they aren’t attached to the habits and practices of this world. We UUs are not only called to make this world better. We are often called to do so by subverting the dominant paradigm, by...

The Melanie Pescan Memorial scholarship fund was started in order to bring people with financial hardships to Summer Institute. The scholarship pays for at least part of their attendance fee.

Last March, I began a journey to learn the history of the Movement (the Civil Rights Movement) in Alabama. Growing up in the 70’s and 80’s I had been taught about Rosa Parks in Montgomery; the March from Selma to Montgomery; and the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in...

Find out what's happening in the Central East Region! This month - GA Prep Webinars, River Rising, RE Week, and CER Staffing Changes

Find out what's happening in the Central East Region! This month - Cluster Programs Offered by Staff, RE Trainings this Summer and Seaway Gathering

Each one of our congregations have a ministry context – the neighborhood and community where our church is located. If we knew more about our neighbors, we could be intentional about offering programming that meets the real needs of the community.

Children’s artwork from Hiroshima 1945 (on loan from the collection at All Souls UU in D.C.) is featured in the exhibition “Shadows and Ashes: The Peril of Nuclear Weapons,” on view at Montgomery College’s Cultural Arts Center

Many congregations are in the waning days of their annual stewardship campaign. Are you thinking, “whew, glad that’s done until next year?” Well…not so fast!

This weeks' blog post is by guest writer, Brian Hagemann at First UU Columbus. ...

Find out what's happening in the Central East Region! This month - UUA Jobs Board, Safety Conference, Seaway Gathering, Summer Camps

“Walls and Windows” by Judy Small and Pat Humphries is one of my favorite songs. It is described as “an anti-war song written from a woman’s perspective. The song asks that we recognize ourselves in the people, who are on the other side of the fence”

A Message from Dr. Dennis Wellnitz, Joseph Priestley District on dissolving the district.

"Trans people have a wide range of gender identities and a wide range of ways of adapting, and being unable or unwilling to adapt, to a world that doesn’t often accept us. We come in the full range of human differences which impact how others respond to our transness."

Summer Institute is an intentional intergenerational community that gets created and re-created each summer as we come together to live fully as Unitarian Universalists.

Find out what's happening in the Central East Region! This month - General Assembly, River Rising, Summer Camps

The Central East Region is excited to announce the creation of a new week-long youth leadership experience happening this summer in 2019. Rising River will include several aspects of the previous Goldmine Leadership School but with lots of new exciting changes.

You are invited to join us for General Assembly June 19-23, 2019 in Spokane, WA for The Power of We

Yet we've learned that conflicts can present great opportunities for building community by examining together what we value the most and clarifying our purpose and mission as a community.

Music at Summer Institute: A Symphony of Shared Experience. “There’s a lot of opportunities for music at SI. I think you’d really love it.”

Introducing Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Cleveland - a new faith community in Greater Cleveland.

Video from the New Day Rising Conference

Find out what's happening in the Central East Region! This month - Relief for Furloughed Federal Workers, Youth Ministry Revival, UU Leadership Institute Spring courses.

Innovative Ways to Collect Donations from First UU Church of Niagara, Niagara Falls, NY.

The Fourth Universalist Society awarded prestigious $500,000 historic preservation grant from New York State

The Unitarian Universalist Church in Reston (UUCR) has an opening for a part-time bookkeeper.

Join us for Youth Ministry Revival March 1-3, 2019 in Bethesda, MD!

CERSI Highlight - A Young Adult’s Reflection on the Youth Program

Are You Prepared for Winter's Wrath?

Holiday Greetings from the CER Staff

Opportunities to Be a Part of Summer Institute

Creative Darkness, closest friend, you whisper in the night;...

This blog is by guest Tyler Coles....

With Thanksgiving past and the holiday season approaching, this marks the beginning of the season of thankfulness and gratitude. And so we want to take this opportunity to say Thank You....

This past summer, I was pondering. Many of my congregational interactions went something like this: “We want to play a role in furthering racial justice work in our congregation, and figure out ways we might be contributing to white supremacy culture. We just can’t decide what...

I have just returned from the annual Fall Conference of the Liberal Religious Educators Association in Houston TX. The theme was “Changing the Narrative” and issues of white supremacy culture within our denomination and the urgency of empowering and sustaining leaders of color...

Dr. Ysaye Barnwell will be the theme speaker for Summer Institute 2019, July 7-13 at Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH.

There are many opportunities for all of us to learn more about various social justice issues in our homes, congregations or at trainings and events around the region. Here is a sampler of what is available. If you know of others, please recommend them in the comments!...

Find out what's happening in the Central East Region! This month - UUA Certification, New Day Rising Conference, Winter Institute

Find out what's happening in the Central East Region! This month - Faithify, New Day Rising Conference, Spring Courses for UU Leadership Institute

Find out what's happening in the Central East Region! This month - UUA Common Read, Election Opportunities, Summer Institute Theme Speaker.

Ohio Issue 1, if passed, will dismantle much of the mass incarceration system in Ohio by reducing felony drug possession convictions to misdemeanors retroactively. This aligns with our UU commitments to resist white supremacy, embody solidarity with those harmed by the prison...

Two years ago, UU Church of Amherst, NY member Maria Ceraulo read a story online about a “Little Free Food Pantry” and thought, “Huh, we should do this,” and began floating the idea to her congregation. The congregation applied for and received a very generous grant from the...

The communities where we live and work and go to school are constantly changing. The nation and the wider world is constantly changing.

THE RESULTS ARE IN! Summer Institute finally has a new name, chosen by an overwhelming majority vote of members of the SI community, and that new name is… Central East Region Summer Institute! Our new name is practical and descriptive, it echoes our old name (switching OMD to...

Find out what's happening in the Central East Region! This month - Discussion Guide for Ware Lecture, Breakthough Congregations program and Summer Institute changes its name!

I love tennis. I play it whenever I can (rather badly) and I am an avid fan. If there is tennis on TV, that’s what is showing at my house. I follow a number of the athletes, I’m on top of the news from the sport, I know exactly where the tour is going next, I have every...