WELCOME AND GENERAL INFORMATION
Our Spring 2026 spring conference ran from Monday through Wednesday April 27-29. We have organized eight sessions: three on Monday, three on Tuesday and closed the conference with two on Wednesday. As in recent years, the conference was transmitted via Zoom, an online video conferencing platform available via computer, laptop, tablet, smartphone or (audio-only) a telephone.

Barbro Hansson, who has guided numerous conferences for the Board, said, “I have loved every minute of this ministry, which helps our members connect with one another and explore what really matters, like how to keep our focus in these challenging times.”

We enjoyed hosting everyone at our spring conference. In the meantime, know that every one of us has a part to play in our struggles for inclusivity and justice. If you live in the USA, you might be a little closer to the heat, but if you are not, you are still here, you are more than a witness, and we’re all in this together.

THEME DESCRIPTION
We were lucky to have Dr. Glen Thomas Rideout to present the theme. He is a writer, worship artist, and longtime leader in UUcommunities, where his work has centered on how people remain human, responsive, and connected during seasons of profound change.

Drawing on music, ritual, and close pastoral attention, he has accompanied communities across generations—especially elders—through moments when familiar forms no longer steady life in the same way. He understands Unitarian Universalism at its best as a tradition that turns anxiety about the unknown into a relationship with it, inviting each life into deeper rapport with mystery rather than retreat from it. His writing and teaching attend to thresholds rather than answers, and to the practices that help people move with time rather than withdraw from it. Glen lives in Minnesota. His ministry is alive wherever love and the people call him.

Dr. Rideout believes there are seasons of life when time stops behaving like a straight line and begins calling to itself from multiple directions at once. He said, “For the elder, this widening is often felt immediately—when the forms we trust most no longer hold us in the familiar old ways: memory answering memory, body and story renegotiating their terms.”

When asked how our members might adapt to the challenge of our theme, he replied, “The work, then, is not to retire into withdrawal but to remain—to know when to recline and when to rise, to relax in order to revive, to return transformed—bearing a posture of openness that teaches us what is still possible, even where we least expect it to last, when the songs need to be sung.”

Also the last session on Tuesday featured Dr. Rideout in a concert of music that underscores the theme and inspires us to live into our role in keeping it together in challenging times.

Our theme will be presented by Karen Hering, author of the book, Trusting Change: Finding Our Way through Personal and Global Transformation. Karen is our colleague and an author. She led a literary ministry for 15 years and has also served as a congregational minister, a chaplain and a threshold guide to people and communities on the cusp of change. She is the author of Writing to Wake the Soul: Opening the Sacred Conversation Within, and both of her books have been honored by the Silver Nautilus Award. She is the creator of Threshold Times, a community on Substack found at karenhering.substack.com.Our conference opens Monday, April 21, 2025, and concludes Wednesday afternoon. She will present our theme at the fourth session on Tuesday morning. No advance reading or preparation needed, but UURMaPA members who wish to purchase Karen Hering’s book, Trusting Change, will enjoy a discount when using the code HERING. Go to inSpirit, [uuabookstore.org] to buy the book.Karen is looking forward to joining us and she encourages us to embrace change by making good connections. She said, “Whether in personal transitions or on the shifting terrain of our shared world, we are all called to participate in change by connecting more deeply—to one another, to our bodies and the wisdom they carry, and to the world around us. With poetry and powerful questions, personal reflection, embodied practices and conversation, in this year’s theme session, we’ll consider the dynamics of change and how it becomes more trustworthy when we engage it more fully.”

PROGRAM SCHEDULE

Final Program Schedule Download

GUIDE TO USING ZOOM FOR THE CONFERENCE

Zoom Guide for UURMaPA Conference Participants 2026 Download

ODYSSEYS

The conference featured a minister’s odyssey with the Rev. Diane Miller, and a partner’s odyssey with Barry Finkelstein. Diane said, “As an elder, I find myself looking back at decades of ministry and asking, ‘What was that all about?’ I hope that sharing my Odyssey will provide some insights.” Barry reminded us that sharing our life journeys is a wonderful way of connecting with one another and embracing our common humanity, and so important in these dark times. Barry shared his story with us on the opening day of the conference, Monday, April 27, and Diane visited with us on the 29th.

Barry says that “Writing brings clarity to my thoughts; it’s a kind of alchemy. I am inspired by Adrienne Rich who said that ‘you must write and read as if your life depended on it.’ “And so far, my Odyssey is having the same effect. I’m drawn to inflection points that helped shape me and yield insights. While the memories evoked are not new to me, their importance is. The odyssey-writing process is pulling important events into a life. I love storytelling, and engaging with people, gives me new insights about myself and my place in the world. I grew up in a family of talkers—loud talkers—and things become more real when spoken about. I’m hopeful that my story will be valued by others. I feel good about my life, my choices, my good luck, and the help I’ve received. I look forward to sharing my story.”

Diane has lived a full life, so much so that she doesn’t have room for all her memories. She said, “Some people have Proustian memories, and some people have kept diaries and journals. I’m startled at how much of my life is hazy and forgotten, and that I needed to look up things to confirm the facts. I expected to be the expert about my own life, but I feel more like an unreliable witness. Writing my Odyssey was an exercise in putting the pieces together. Being asked to present my Odyssey brings trepidation, anxiety about technology, and deep appreciation for colleagues who are inviting me to tell my story.” Like many others, Diane has thought about the culture of Odysseys in our tradition. “I wonder when the practice of Odyssey presentations began in our ministry, and how it evolved.” Diane thought that someone has probably looked into that, but we are glad the tradition has come to us, and we welcomed Barry and Diane to our conference.

WORSHIP

The opening worship service was produced by Wayne Arnason and Kathleen Rolenz. As always, our memorial service honored those colleagues and partners who have left us. Tom Schade gathered several people to produce the memorial service and a closing worship.

A service of remembrance closed out the first day of our spring conference. We honored the memory and service of 15 colleagues during the first session of the conference on Monday, April 27. Tom Schade led a group of members who produced the service.

Jan Carlsson-Bull researched the lives of the deceased and wrote the remembrance narratives. She said that the process was like “opening a door to a house of many mansions.” She reflected on her own ministry, “When I led celebrations of life during my ministry, I often asked myself: ‘How many lives did …. live? Surely many more than the years of their life.’ So it is for the lives I am honored to distill for the remembrance service.”

Jan’s process was mindful. “Upon first reading the notice I receive of the passing, I begin. I follow clues such as an obituary posted by a funeral home. If I can find family members, I follow up with them, expressing how our hearts opened with their loss, and asking them to edit and enliven what I write. I am often given a photo that reveals the vitality of their loved one. Incorporating a spoken narrative into a remembrance service seems as fleeting as life itself, but no less precious.

“It is such an honor to open each and every door and step inside.”

In the service we honored and remembered:

Rev. Penelope Witte Allderdice
Rev. Dr. F. Everett Morris
Rev. Sandra L. Ingham
Rev. Linda DeSantis
Dorothy Meek
Rev. Dr. John Fordon
Maria Chenoweth Sinkford
Rev. James R. Covington
Rev. Dr. Walter Frederick Wieder
Rev. Patricia Trudeau
Rev. Harry C. Green III
Rev. Margaret (“Meg”) Barnhouse
Rev. Michael Douglas O’Kelly
Rev. Christopher G. Raible
Rev. Donald Hoover Wheat
Rev. Lynda Joyce Sutherland

CONNECTIONS AND PODS

There were connecting rooms again, where we can interacted with others on a deeper level, are planned for three sessions. One session followed the theme presentation and was guided by what we learn from Dr. Rideout and our own experiences and hopes for the preservation of democracy.

Regional pods and local watch parties offered a way to experience our virtual conference in community. They were for people who long to worship, reflect, and learn alongside others, and to share meals and conversation while participating fully in conference programming. Pods offer in-person connection, care, and the joy of being together rather than watching alone.
See more information about these pods HERE.
Find a one-page PDF of the Pod Financial Aid Request Form HERE.