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We believe the purpose of Congregational Life is to equip everyone in the congregation to live into their Spiritual Leadership. Here we share reflections to inspire and support Unitarian Universalists tending to Spiritual Leadership in themselves and their community.
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[This post is a follow up to "When We Wonder Together" (Practice Makes Possible - March 7, 2023)] In March, the theme for the bi-monthly gathering for our community of practice Spiritual Leadership for Culture Change (SL4CC) was "Discernment for Faithful Risking." We distinguished discernment fro...
By Meck Groot, Joe Sullivan | June 21, 2023 | From Faithful Risking -
Among the things that has kept regional staff busy lately is conducting transition interviews. When a settled ministry ends, we meet with the departing minister to get their responses to a set of questions designed by the Transitions Office. We also meet with the board and ask them the same...
By Meck Groot | May 31, 2023 | From Tending to Tradition -
“Have you been to the bathroom yet?” It’s not the typical pre-workshop conversation my colleagues and I share as we set up projectors, easels, and workbooks for participants. My answer was no, so my colleague proceeded to describe what she found there. There was a beautiful painting in an...
By Wren Bellavance-Grace | March 7, 2023 | From CovenantingTagged as: Covenant -
In our experience, most Unitarian Universalist congregations are not culturally predisposed to using discernment as a way to determine direction, focus or action. Our congregations generally use "the democratic process" in which group decisions are made by majority vote....
By Meck Groot, Joe Sullivan | March 7, 2023 | From Faithful Risking -
Each Sunday I step into the pulpit and call to worship the congregation sitting in the sanctuary of our 1842 New England Meetinghouse. The sanctuary is simple and elegant. Tall windows line each side, reaching up two stories to the high ceiling, with four chandeliers. The clear panes bring...
By Ellen Spero | February 22, 2023 | From CovenantingTagged as: Covenant -
Leadership in our dominant culture tends to evoke images of politicians inspiring crowds with fiery speeches, or breathless heroes leading the charge. But church leadership isn’t a political campaign or an action movie. Many of us engage in church life through meetings — of boards, committees,...
By Wren Bellavance-Grace | January 24, 2023 | From Doing Our Inner Work -
It’s the waning days of 2022 as I write this; it will hit your inbox in early 2023. The turning of the Gregorian year begins with January, named for the Roman god Janus, the god of two faces - one looking ever backward, one looking ever ahead. God of transitions. Of liminal spaces. Of moving out...
By Wren Bellavance-Grace | December 14, 2022 | From Tending to Tradition -
In 2020 General Assembly delegates voted to begin a review of Article II of the UUA Bylaws. Article II is the covenant between and among UU congregations. It currently contains our seven Principles and six Sources. It also has language about inclusion and freedom of belief....
By Erica Baron, Meck Groot, Joe Sullivan | November 21, 2022 | From Practice Makes Possible Blog -
In a recent post titled Imagine New Patterns, Rev. Erica Baron invited leaders to envisage ways of doing church that are deeply enriching, fun, fulfilling; that reflect and advance core values and mission, unconstrained by long-standing habits, as if you were starting anew. “What would we create...
By Joe Sullivan | November 16, 2022 | From Practice Makes Possible Blog -
The point of a community of practice is for people who want to get better at something to learn from each other through regular interaction. Even people new to a field can help the group learn. Their observations and questions can identify unrecognized practices and raise awareness of which...
By Meck Groot, Joe Sullivan | October 20, 2022 | From Practice Makes Possible Blog