Like Essex before it, Threshold Conversations seeks to lift up and promote the essential work of religious education as the learning process through which we grow in faith; ideally as a lifelong endeavor, for all UUs. Now, Threshold Conversations seeks to expand that vision of religious education.

Learn how Sociocracy can use the wisdom of the circle to help our congregations thrive by decentering unhelpful power structures.

Our faith calls us to resist the temptation to weaponize words. This story shows how hard that can be.

Disability advocates remind us that multiplatform worship in real time, with the chance for some interaction, creates a meaningful experience for those participating online.

When you are depending on volunteers to care for your congregation, you will want to keep your ministry manageable, and provide relevant training for those providing the programming.

Right Relations Teams are lay leaders entrusted to help the congregation practice faithful communication and creative conflict based on values of mutuality and consent.

The following (from the Northlake UU Church in Kirkland, WA) is an example of a chater (or charge) for a Right Relationship Team (aka Healthy Congregation Team): Purposes: To facilitate the well-being of the _________ Community by fostering harmonious relations and mediating conflicts within the...

Choose members who are well respected and trusted based on their spiritual maturity and deep listening skills. Conflict transformation requires vulnerability, which requires trust.

Support and accountability for different aspects of right relationship lie within different parts of the congregation. 

We're undertaking the first significant revisiting of the methodology behind our Salary Recommendations since the UUA Compensation Program was introduced in 1995.

Any time someone enters online or in-person congregational space, there are several opportunities for multiple connection points from which a long-term relationship can continue and grow.

A polarity is an interdependent pair of needs, values, or goals. Although the two poles seem to be in tension with each other, both are good and true, and they depend on each other over time. Neither can exist alone. Use Polarity Thinking to reframe competing needs as complementary.

Our covenants articulate our intention, but how do we live into the practice? Right Relations Teams are lay leaders entrusted to help the congregation practice faithful communication and creative conflict based on values of mutuality and consent. 

UUA staff presentation to support religious professionals in orienting youth ministry volunteers that includes group discussions following videos. Youth adult partnerships, roles and relationships, covenant, community building and safety are covered

BIPoC Leaders rooted in the Unitarian Universalist congregations are invited to take part in Taproot: A National BIPoC Space. This is a monthly, virtual gathering where participants will engage in rest and renewal, analysis building, and leadership development.

Our mandate as Unitarian Universalists is to build Beloved Community in our congregations, and learning to draw our circles of welcome wider and wider is a growth opportunity for our churches.

The need for our congregations to effectively engage with people online has never been greater! In this free five-session series, Peter Bowden shares video-based strategies to support online visitors, increase engagement with weekly worship themes, and amplify advocacy and witness efforts.

When handling sensititve information, leaders need to understand what they can share and what they need to keep confidential.

Congregations, like all organizational systems, need feedback loops.  Regular assessment of the ministry is essential to group self-awareness and growth.

Maybe you’ve heard the inspirational story about the starfish. It’s often told as a celebration of a young child’s hope triumphing over a curmudgeonly elder’s resignation to the inevitability of encroaching doom. But taking those signifiers out of the story, and it goes something like this:...

Links to EqUUal Access resources to help make your congregation accessible to people with disabilities.

Congregational traditions, governance structures, needs, and resources vary greatly among the approximately 1,100 UUA congregations. The model documents published here are intended to assist leaders in drafting agreements that meet the needs of congregations and their employees.

There are lots of things in congregational life that can cause big feelings. In a recent webinar, we asked participants to name some of these things, and they did!...

The Compensation and Staffing Survey results.

A guide for group conversations around practices that help congregations live into their commitments to dismantling systems of oppression in themselves and their communities.

Are you a small congregation looking for fresh ideas? Here are presentations and other resources from the UUA conference in March of 2022.

5 Questions You Should Always Ask Veterans, 1 Question You Should Never Ask Veterans, and 15 Facts that promote greater understanding of our Veterans.

This video presents a general understanding of the problem of suicide, in particular how to identify a veteran who may be at risk and what to do to help.

Honoring a retired minister or religious educator with emerit/a/us status requires a congregational vote.

The title Minister Emeritus / Emerita is granted to honor a minister's long and meritorious service to a particular congregation.

We live in such a "more is better" culture. Perhaps this is a time to be countercultural - to assess what's most important, and to determine what is in a congregation's capacity to do well with the resources (including human resources) they have.

The UUA and the UUMA jointly present a series on neurodivergence for religious professionals, drawing on the experience of neurodivergent folx to foster a conversation on how we might transform our communities to be fully inclusive.

While I was growing up, a strange thing happened. When I was very young, I naturally explored all sorts of interests, from ancient history to art to writing poetry. I’m grateful that I came up through a well-funded school district with robust extracurricular programs that enabled me to play...

Online moments of radical inclusion, connection, and creativity shared as a litany.

As religious leaders, part of our work is to help our communities hold the tensions between different needs in the congregation, especially around worship.

As congregations return to in-person ministry there are creative ways to honor religious professionals' need to reduce their own risk. Such approaches avoid forcing religious professionals to serve in person when doing so would put their health or their household's health at significant risk.

A combination of strategies can offer layers of precaution that increase safety and inclusion for all members of a community.

A letter explaining the UUA's shift toward presenting COVID-19 risk mitigation strategies rather than specific metric-based guidance.

What is a covenant? For most of my time as a leader in Unitarian Universalism, I have understood covenant to be the words we use to describe the agreements we make to each other. What I have learned over time is that the words are more like a map. They help us understand the covenant....

​​​​​​​Because our UU faith is grounded in values that call us to care about one another, we want to consider the vulnerable among us when making decisions.

Here is guidance from the UUA about around gathering in person as new variant emerge.

What are the pros and cons of using a calendar year vs. a July 1 - June 30 fiscal year?

The Faith Lab Toolbox series contains videos, songs, activities and quotes on a variety of themes for you to draw from for consistent faith engagement with young UUs. This page is dedicated to the Covenanting Toolbox on building, sustaining and repairing covenants.

Guidance and questions to consider for congregations considering asking for or track COVID-19 vaccination status for volunteers, members, or all participants.

Resources to help you make sound decisions and ensure that you are treating your employees fairly and legally.

We know that congregants are eager to be able to sing together and to enjoy the singing of their choir and soloists, but we need to exercise caution.

Resources to give you frameworks, starting points, tips and tools to help your congregation serve its mission in today's environment of virtual and in-person connection. 

When an organization uses a photograph on their website in violation of the copyright of the image, they run the risk of fines and lawsuits. This is true for congregations too.

Are you already livestreaming and want to do more to integrate the online and in person participation? Here are some practical tips!

Rev. Jim Keat gives his Top 10 Tips for Hybrid Worship. As the Digital Minister of Riverside Church he has important wisdom to share for our new world. Most ministers and lay leaders are not trained in simultaneous in person and online presentation, but doing this well is vital for full inclusion.