Pacific Western Region (PWR) Blog
Big Faith • No Borders
Pacific Western Region News
Pacific Western Region (PWR) Blog
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What is Shifting in You? From "Shame" to "Compassion"
“We are not walking this path alone, building spiritual muscles, climbing the ladder to become more perfect. Rather, we are discovering the truth of our relatedness through belonging to these bodies and emotions, to each other, and to this whole natural world. As we realize our...By Eric Bliss | 4/9/2020 -
Report from the West Coast Epicenter
I am the field staff for the Unitarian Universalist Association covering the congregations at the West Coast epicenter of COVID-19, and this is my report. ...By Tandi Rogers | 4/1/2020 -
What is Shifting in You? From "Defensiveness" to "Curiosity"
I have a middle school son who is very into Dungeons and Dragons. Last Saturday he invited me into this world. We created a character. I’m a wood elf named Lulu. When he asked what I wanted my super power to be I told him that I wanted the sound of my laughter to cause the...By Tandi Rogers | 3/10/2020 -
California's new "AB 5" Law: What it Means for Congregations
The UUA Office of Church Staff Finances applauds progressive employment laws aimed at preventing workers from being exploited. At the same time, we recognize that new legislation can be challenging to interpret and places additional burdens on congregational leaders. Here we...By UUA Ministries and Faith Development: Office of Church Staff Finances | 2/13/2020 -
What is Shifting in You? From "Either/Or" to "Both/And"
I was raised in a fundamentalist Christian church where I was taught early on that you are either ‘with us’ or ‘against us.’ A sheep or a goat, saved or damned to hell for eternity. It wasn’t a far leap from being either a conservative or a liberal, male or female, straight or...By Jonipher Kūpono Kwong | 2/12/2020 -
What is Shifting in You? From "Perfectionism" to "Wholeheartedness"
I grew up in a fault-finding family. It was one way my father’s upper-class WASP culture and my mother’s working-class Jewish culture came together: analyzing what was wrong. We’d go to a phenomenal movie, but spend the car ride home talking about the not-so-good acting of one...By Sarah Gibb Millspaugh | 1/8/2020 -
What is Shifting in You? From "Despair" to "Hope"
The first of the candles in the Advent Wreath is the candle of Hope. In the Lutheran tradition of my childhood, we always lit Advent candles this time of year. Winter is often a time when we look for hope. We look with hope for the return of the sun in the months to come. We...By Sarah Movius Schurr | 12/4/2019 -
What is Shifting in You? From "Fear" to "Faith"
What would Unitarian Universalism be like if we lived from our faith more than we lived from our fears? And when I say “we,” I mean each of us, and each of our UU institutions. What would we be like if our minds, our hearts, our spirits shifted from fear to faith? ...By Sarah Gibb Millspaugh | 11/14/2019 -
New Staff Specialties in the Pacific Western Region
We've recently said goodbye to some staff people on the Pacific Western Regional team. We've said hello to others, and one position remains open. In the interim, we'd like to share with you our areas of specialty. ...10/24/2019 -
What is Shifting in You? From "I" to "We"
Each month a member of your regional staff team will highlight one of the “shifts” that guides our work with congregations. These seven shifts describe where we, as UUA staff in partnership with congregations in the West, are leading Unitarian Universalism. Each shift is an...By Tandi Rogers | 10/9/2019 -
What is Shifting in You?
This is the season of shifts—some of you have new staff, new board members, and a new church year upon us. We are all shifting gears of sorts.10/9/2019 -
Small Numbers, Infinite Possibilities
We know that small congregations are sharing the Love and Grace of Unitarian Universalism with their people and their communities every day. We also know that small churches can be faced with big challenges. Together we can help small congregations reach toward their greatest...By UUA Congregational Life Staff Group | 8/26/2019 -
Giving to Chalice Lighters Now More Convenient
Regional staff, in consultation with the four district boards, have recently made changes to the Chalice Lighter programs in all four of our districts to make giving generously more convenient.7/30/2019 -
Leadership Experience
PWR Staff are happy to announce Leadership Experience 2020 – expanding training and community for congregational leaders from all sized congregations. Space is limited register now.7/29/2019 -
Covenant: The Work of Owning - PWR Healthy Congregations Team
One of the most difficult aspects of breaking covenant is recognizing our own part or what we have done by our actions to contribute to the brokenness. It is a humble and vulnerable place to own our part. It forces us to acknowledge our imperfections.1/30/2019 -
Covenant: Committing to the Work - PWR Healthy Congregations Team
Since we realized as a congregation it was inevitable we will break our covenant with each other, we made sure to put in the following phrase: When we fall out of covenant, we recognize, reflect, and re-engage.1/30/2019 -
Covenant: Easily Broken - PWR Healthy Congregations Team
Covenant is a fancy word to mean promise. We make promises all the time in our lives & can be deeply hurt when they are broken. I wonder if the hurt could be tempered if we viewed covenants in a different light. What if instead of insisting a promise is made as an absolute,...1/30/2019 -
Calm in the Face of Confusion
Chris George, a member of the Pacific Western Region's Healthy Congregations Team, offers some of the ways in which we can respond when conflict, uncertainty and anxiety arise in congregational life.By Chris George | 10/24/2018 -
Leadership is More Important Than Anything Else
What’s the most important factor in your congregation’s future success? More important than anything else, it is the quality of your leadership. Regional Lead Rev. Dr. James Kubal-Komoto on the need for leadership in congregations and the new PWR Leadership Experience 2019.By James Kubal-Komoto | 9/13/2018 -
Launching PWR’s Healthy Congregations Team
The PWR Healthy Congregations Team's purpose is to provide training, consultation and assessment for congregations who wish to embrace healthy communications and proactively engage conflict.By Tandi Rogers | 9/13/2018
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