March 2023 Welcome

By David Pyle

One of the transitions that we have made in the last few years within the UUA, and specifically in the Congregational Life Staff and the MidAmerica Region, has been to highlight and encourage Unitarian Universalists in our Region to participate in programming being offered in other Regions and by the wider Unitarian Universalist Community. As a small staff team, there is a limited amount of direct programming, leadership training, and connection events that the MidAmerica Regional Staff can ourselves create… but there are always opportunities for Unitarian Universalists to gather together beyond our congregations.

One example of that is coming up soon, and will be hosted in the MidAmerica Region by the UU Office at the United Nations, the UU College of Social Justice, the UU Service Committee, and Side with Love together. The Intergenerational Spring Seminar will be in-person and online at the First Unitarian Church of Minneapolis, MN April 1-3, with the program titled “Demilitarization and Abolition: Resist Policing and Empire”. The keynote speaker will be Andrea Ritchie, co-author of No More Police. You can attend this transformative intentionally intergenerational event either in-person or online. You can learn more about the program and register on the Intergenerational Spring Seminar page.

Another shift we have made is to allow congregations and congregational leaders to participate in programming offered by the different Regions regardless of the Region your congregation is in. From OWL facilitator trainings, to youth and young adult connection events, to training for Right Relationship Teams and so much more, you can find all of the programming on the Upcoming Events page. If you have a question about whether a training or programming event would be helpful to your congregation, please feel free to reach out to your congregation’s Primary Contact on the MidAmerica Regional Staff, which you can find on our Who to Call page.

And remember that the UUA LeaderLab Learning Center and the UU Institute are available to your congregation all of the time, with wonderful articles and training courses to grow as both congregational leaders and as religious human beings.

While Regions help us to organize and provide connection and support to congregations, they should not become barriers to the trainings and opportunities that are available to congregations and congregational leaders. We will continue to highlight opportunities through the Messenger newsletter and other ways the MidAmerica Region communicates, and we hope that you will become more and more connected to all of the opportunities that are available to grow and connect with other Unitarian Universalists, no matter the congregation or Region that they are in.

About the Author

David Pyle

The Rev. David Pyle is the Regional Lead and a Congregational Life Consultant with the MidAmerica Regional Staff. Rev. Pyle holds a Masters of Divinity from the Meadville Lombard Theological School and a Bachelors of Arts in History and Political Science from East Tennessee State University. He...

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