Author: Jaco ten Hove

RESCHEDULED TO NOVEMBER 21

On Thursday November 21 at 1 PM Eastern (12 Central, 11 Mountain and 10 Pacific Standard Time), UURMaPA is offering our members an hour together with UUA staff who support our financial needs related to retirements funds and investments, insurance programs, and compensation. 

We will be joined for a live Zoom by Richard Nugent, Anna Gehres, and Jan Gartner on video. They will offer brief presentations. The bulk of the hour, however, will be responding to your questions and concerns. Pre-registration is required to receive the Zoom link. There is no charge involved.  USE THIS LINK TO PRE-REGISTER.

You might want to attend this session if you have a general curiosity about various aspects of clergy financial support and planning: for example, how and why insurance premiums go up, how your retirement funds are invested and by whom, the continuing transition from TIAA to Empower, Medicare supplements, or Benefits Transitions from and out of employment. You might have a specific question arising from your own situation or a story to tell that you think might be helpful for others to hear.

The session will be recorded and made available on UURMaPA’s website. Direct any further inquiries about this session to Wayne Arnason at warnason@gmail.com.

The UURMaPA conference in October was available via Zoom or at one of three locations where folks attended the sessions with colleagues and friends. This allowed some face-to-face discussion time as well as opportunities to socialize and exercise tourist muscles. We spoke with the pod organizers at each location to better understand the amenities and attractions of each site.

Seabeck, WA
Jaco and Barbara ten Hove hosted the third consecutive Fall pod at the Seabeck Conference Center, about an hour west of Seattle. They said, “The Seabeck Conference Center on the Hood Canal has incredible views of the Olympic Mountains, an excellent campus with modern comforts, and nine delicious meals (and we don’t have to cook or clean up after ourselves). For three nights over four days, 30 retired colleagues and partners got to share meaningful face-to-face discussions, take walks and laugh together, and participate in the virtual conference on a large screen.”

Two photos of the assembled group at Seabeck are HERE (annotated with names) and HERE (a “crazy picture”).

Call Jaco ten Hove for more information, 206/200-5403, or send a message to jbthishere@gmail.com .

Wilmington, Delaware
Another pod was to be in Wilmington, Delaware, but had to be cancelled. Richard Speck, the organizer, is justifiably proud of Wilmington. He writes “The world famous Longwood Gardens bring people from all over the world. We also have Winterthur, a large museum dedicated to the American arts of furniture and collections of fascinating objects. The Brandywine River Museum of Art, the Delaware Art Museum, the Delaware Museum of Nature and Science are all nearby and easily accessible. There is much colonial-era history to explore, including Valley Forge and the Brandywine Battlefield.” 

The First Unitarian Church of Wilmington, Delaware will host for both large presentations and small breakout groups. You might consider bringing a laptop or tablet for use during the breakout sessions. The church has a strong wi-fi signal throughout the building. 

The church is about twenty miles south of the Philadelphia airport. Hotels are located 1-2 miles from the church. Some shared meals will be at the church with opportunities to go to area restaurants. Where possible, we will offer transportation from either location and from the church to the hotels.

For more information, write Richard Speck, rgspeck@comcast.net or call him at 302/239-6286.

Kingston, Massachusetts
If you live in eastern Massachusetts or Rhode Island, you might have made a short Drive to Kingston, MA, where another pod was organized by Judy Campbell. Why go to Kingston? Judy says, “First is to see and hug one another in person after several years of online conferences. Secondly, there are major attractions within an easy drive of the church. Coastal Massachusetts, Kingston and Plymouth, have any number of historic, and cultural attractions, not to mention some wicked good restaurants. The views of the harbor and ocean are stunning. Here is just a short list of attractions to tempt you to come:”

Go to www.Seeplymouth.com The official tourism site of Plymouth County

The Pilgrim Hall Museum offers outstanding early colonial history and a Wampanoag history and culture collection. Go to www.pilgrimhall.org

The Plymouth Guild for the Arts is a museum of local artists and features an elegant gift shop. Go to www.artsplymouth.org

Plimoth Patuxet is the oldest town in New England and their living history museum is fascinating. Go to www.plimoth.org

We met just a few miles north of Plymouth center at the First Parish Church in Kingston. More information is available by visiting www.kingstonuu.org The website has everything you need to know about the location and has a map, directions to the church, and pictures of the buildings. 

Contact the organizer, Judy Campbell, at 781/422-6519 or 508/939-1391, or send a message to revdocmom@comcast.net

Waverly, Ohio
Nestled on 133 acres in the scenic hills near Waverly, Ohio, Bristol Village was the site of our 2024 Fall UURMaPA Retreat. We invited folks to join us for a laid-back retreat with no nearby 5-star restaurants, theaters, night clubs or loud music to entice you to leave the Bristol Village Campus.

We stayed in cottages with bedrooms, private and shared bathrooms, full kitchens, dining rooms and comfortable living rooms. There was a restaurant where you may have had breakfast and lunch, a swimming pool, walking paths and lots of private space.

The cottage where we met has two comfortable meeting rooms, a full kitchen, dining area, a pool table, and a large television screen for easy conference viewing. 

For more information, give Sylvia Howe a call at 978-317-0013 or send a message to her: sylhowe42@gmail.com

A Message from Fred Wooden — September, 2024

Colleagues,
*****Most of us are familiar with the custom of inviting comrades to share their personal ministerial journey in what has been called an Odyssey. For many of us this is the highlight of our meetings. But owing to limits of time only a very few are able to share their stories aloud.
*****All of us have a story to tell, though.
*****After inquiring of the folks at Meadville Theological School, of which I am an alum, and due to improvements in information technology, they have agreed to accept and store all our ‘odysseys’ to serve as first person histories of the work we have done.
*****Tell your story, just as you would in person, in a document. To make it easier to index and catalog, it must be sent in PDF form and ideally be no more than 5000 words. You must fill out a form permitting ML to hold and share it, linked HERE,  which will serve as a record of your contribution. Needless to say, our ethical obligations apply to what we write.
*****No course or book can equal the insight and value of how we faced ethical, institutional, and spiritual challenges. We are also each a witness to history in the making. These deserve to be recorded and remembered.
*****To take part, download and fill out the form, then submit it with your PDF Odyssey to the email address on the form. Your story matters more than you know. Please take part.

Our UURMaPA Fall Conference theme for 2024, “Generative Eldering and Democracy’s Future” is responsive to the present critical moment in the story of American democracy. We are guided by the reflections of Dr. Sharon Welch in two of our three theme panels, along with reading together her book After The Protests Are Heard. 

We are pleased to announce that our third theme panel on Tuesday October 22 (4:30 Eastern, 3:30 Central, 2:30 Mountain, 1:30 Pacific) will feature three UU clergy who are community organizers deeply involved in our faith-based efforts to reclaim and redeem what Dr Welch calls “the soul of democracy.”

Rev. Lisa Garcia-Sampson serves as the Executive Director of UU Justice NC, the UU Justice Ministry of North Carolina. In her ministry, she has the pleasure of organizing UU congregations across the state to powerfully contribute to the movement for justice through spiritual grounding, joy, imagination and partnership. Her work spans racial, economic, immigrant, environmental, LGBTQ, and electoral justice, and more. She is an affiliated community minister of the Community Church of Chapel Hill NC

Rev. Cathy Rion Starr is a queer & gender queer white minister, organizer, and parent of two amazing kiddos. Cathy coordinates Leadership Development on the Side With Love staff team at the UUA (formerly the office of Advocacy & Witness) and is married to Rev. Heather Rion Starr, the settled minister of the UUs of Southern Delaware. Cathy serves on their Small Town & Sidewalks committee and the Delaware Working Families Party State Committee. Cathy brings a passion for relationship-building, strives to hold complexity and contradictions honestly, and seeks more spiritually grounded justice work.

Rev. Joseph Santos-Lyons has been an organizer with and President of DRUUMM, a People of Color ministry in Unitarian Universalism. He has previously served as Executive Director of APANO, Oregon’s oldest and largest Asian Pacific Islander advocacy group. His most recent and exciting project is the $20 Million Mixed Use Affordable Housing and Cultural Center in East Portland. He currently shares time between the Pacific Northwest and the Philippines with his family. He works remotely on campaigns and special projects and directly in the Asia-Pacific region with civil society organizations.

The panel will discuss their experiences with the gifts and challenges involved in elder activists engaging with catalytic social change. Rev. Wayne Arnason will act as moderator for their conversation. Go HERE to register for the full UURMaPA Fall Conference October 21-23.