Category: Uncategorized

The Board of the Unitarian Universalist Retired Ministers and Partners Association names the Reverend Phyllis L. Hubbell the 2021 Unsung UURMaPAn in recognition of her visionary launching, guiding and following through with a Rainbow History project for UURMaPA timed on the 50^th Anniversary of the Stonewall resistance.

Phyllis conceived of the idea of honoring and celebrating our Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans and Queer UU leaders, and our institutional struggles for justice.

She took on fundraising and Conference planning that yielded two outstanding conferences in 2019. Ambitious to preserve this history as more than conference conversations, Phyllis pressed on patiently and enthusiastically to transcribe and edit recorded talks, and to ensure that they are archived at Andover-Harvard Library. A website was made, where materials were contributed by many and made available. A book has been launched from this Rainbow History project, which is being edited by Diana McLean and will come from Skinner House. Phyllis worked with the late Dorothy Emerson, and with the late Judy Welles, and many volunteers to move the work forward.

With patience and good humor, Phyllis continues to work on the project, which has had a very long aftermath of collecting and editing and securing permissions for use of recorded materials. In addition, Phyllis served on the Board as Vice President, and showed her resilience when she had to pivot last June to create our first entirely online GA Annual gathering. Phyllis has been a stalwart participant in UURMaPA programs since her retirement from Full Time ministry. She and John Manwell continue to provide part-time congregational ministry as clergy partners, while they live in Gaithersburg Maryland.

Awarded on April 28, 2021 

Our Fall 2020 Conference was held virtually in six separate sessions on October 12-14. The Rev. Fred Small was our theme presenter on the topic Breakdown/Breakthrough that inspired actions to heal the world. There’s more on his presentation in our newsletter, Elderberries (“Climate Activism,” pgs. 8-9). Sessions included a welcome and virtual gathering and opening worship, a memorial service led by the Revs. Tom and Carolyn Owen Towle, an odyssey delivered by the Revs. Rose Edington and Mel Hoover, and a business session as well as the theme presentation and a variety of thematic workshop sessions.

Over 140 people participated in the virtual conference, reaching more than our typical in-person gatherings. This very successful event was organized by a planning team led by the Rev. Barbro Hansson with the Rev. Charles Stephens and Allison Stephens assisting. The music and worship provided much healing in these very challenging times and the workshops were insightful and enriching.

UURMaPA invites all recently retired ministers and their partners and existing UURMaPA members to a pre-General Assembly gathering on Zoom on June 18, 2020, from 1:00 to 2:00 pm EDT. Preregistration is required (see below).

There will be time for introductions to your colleagues, conversation and an overview of UURMaPA.  Special guests will speak briefly about resources available to retirees from the UUA Department of Ministries and Faith Development and the Office of Church Staff Finances.

In a typical year, this would be a luncheon during GA. A highlight each year at this meeting is the presentation of the Creative Sageing Award to a retiree in recognition of outstanding service and creativity in pursuing new ventures after retirement.  For the first time this year, we have two unrelated recipients, former Director of the Department of Ministry and current President of the Board of the Society for Ministerial Relief, the Rev. David Pohl and renowned former chemist and Deputy General Counsel of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection Esther Hopkins who continues to be active in her church and community.

To preregister and obtain the Zoom link, contact Phyllis Hubbell, Vice President, by Friday, June 10. Please include your name and email. There is no charge. Phyllis will respond with additonal information and the Zoom link.

The Rev. Peter and Eleanor Richardson retired young in 2002  — he was 62 and she was 55. He had been given an old family house on the coast of Maine, where he built a library that doubled its size, while Eleanor, a retired organ builder, removed and restored all the windows in the 18th century barn. They later replaced the barn roof and installed solar panels.

By 2010, Peter published his fourth book, Sunday Meditations: for Liberal Religious Worship, and Eleanor published her third, Mechanic Street: Uncovering the History of a Maine Neighborhood. They used the UU Sage-ing honorarium for a research trip to Portland, ME.

Eleanor served on the UURMaPA Board as Elderberries editor for 4 years, on the local church Board, and on the Board of the Rockland Historical Society. She ran for UUA Trustee in 2005. In 2008 she purchased and ran a small rental house in Rockland.

Peter presented the Minns Lectures in 2005. He was secretary of the US IARF Chapter and President of Maine Association for Psychological Type. IARF took him to India twice, South Korea and China. Together Peter and Eleanor attended a partner church conference in the Czech Republic in 2001 (Eleanor learned some Czech for the occasion). They chaired the UURMaPA Pan South conference in Fort Myers, FL, for about 5 years. Eleanor played the piano for chapel services at many UURMAPA conferences.

Meanwhile, they were blessed with 13 grandchildren, which kept them busy mailing off birthday presents and hosting family gatherings in the old barn. Peter observes, “Also, my face is wrinkled and misshapen enough to maybe look sage-like.”

Written by Eleanor and Peter Richardson, August 2019.

UURMaPA is seeking proposals for preparation of a book telling stories of the past 50 years of LGBTQ+ history in Unitarian Universalism. Proposals are due Sept. 1, 2019. Click here to view the Request for Proposals

Tentative – subject to change

Celebrating the Rainbow — The UU Journey Toward LGBTQIA* Rights
Wisdom House Retreat Center
Litchfield, Connecticut
October 7-10, 2019

MONDAY, October 7, 2019
3:00 p.m. Registration & Settling into Rooms
4:30 Social Hour
5:30 Dinner
6:30 Welcome, Introductions, and check in
7:50 Break
8:00 In Memoriam Worship Service
9:00 Social Hour

TUESDAY, October 8, 2019
(Single day attended by commuters)
8:00 am Breakfast
9:00 Keynote Address – Keith Kron
10:30 Break
10:40 Keynote (cont.) with reflection by Meg Riley
12:00 n Lunch
1:00 pm Panel #1– LGBTQIA Ministers and Partners
2:30 Break
2:40 Remembering LGBTQIA Pioneers No Longer with Us
Facilitated by UURMaPA Board Members
4:30 Free time
5:00 Social Hour
6:00 Dinner
7:15 Odyssey – Mark Belletini
8:45 Social Hour

WEDNESDAY, October 9, 2019
8:00 am Breakfast
9:00 Worship Service
9:30 Panel #2– LGBTQIA Ministers and Partners
11:00 Break
11:15 Conversation with Michael Crumpler, LGBTQ & Intercultural
Programs Manager
12:00 n Lunch
1:00 pm Choose one:
Workshops (TBD)
Videotaping of Personal Stories
Free time when not otherwise occupied
2:15 Videotaping of Personal Stories (cont.) or
Free time
5:00 Social Hour
6:00 Dinner
7:15 Wide Variety Show
8:45 Social Hour

THURSDAY, October 10, 2019
8:00 am Breakfast
9:00 UURMaPA Conversations (Activity Updates and Discussion)
11:00 Closing Worship Service – Meg Riley
12:00 n Lunch
1:00 pm Farewells (Please leave name tags and filled out evaluations.)

*A recent acronym, which can translate as: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (or questioning), intersex, and asexual (or allies)

Ashville

It was a great conference!  Thirty-seven people came together from 13 states at the UU Congregation of Asheville on March 28-30, 2012.

The keynote program, “In Search of the Human Jesus of Nazareth,” with Dr. R. Earle Rabb, was very interesting and informative.  A memorable odyssey was delivered by Barbara Prairie. It was great fellowship with old friends, stirring worship, and good programs

 

 

Portland

Star Island

Our August 18-25, 2012 gathering was at the Star Island Conference Center, Isles of Shoals in Rye, NH.

Kathleen Hunter and Alan Deale planned the wonderful retreat. The theme speaker was Stefano Carta, Jungian scholar.

2014 at Seabeck

Fourteen of us gathered for our spring conference at the Seabeck Conference Center on Hood Canal in Washington State on May 13-15, 2014. The weather was amazing, with crystal-clear views of the Olympic Mountains just across the sparkling blue waters of Hood Canal. (Moving the conference from April to May really paid off in the much better weather. Think warm and sunny.) Bald eagles and crows put on a show that distracted us from the program.

Speaking of the program, the focus was on how we experience beauty in our lives. With a brief introduction, we met in a small group ministry format and spoke from our own experiences, which demonstrated a vast range of experiences of beauty that touches all the senses. In the arts-and-crafts time, we made collages illustrating beauty.

Shirley Ranck presented her odyssey and reflections on her work in Women’s Spirituality and as a very active interim minister, extolling the virtues of interim ministry. Part of her story is in her book, The Grandmother Galaxy. And we experienced worship together, including a wonderful homily that Sylvia Falconer prepared for the memorial service honoring retired ministers and partners who have died in the past year.

Of course the setting is spectacular, the food healthy and plentiful, and the company terrific. We were especially pleased that Ray and Gretchen Manker came from Arizona, escorted by their daughter and son-in-law, Kathy Manker and Bruce Gardner.

Previously at Seabeck