InterConnections Tipsheet

The Rev. Debra Haffner has created an online guide to help determine—and increase—the sexual health of Unitarian Universalist congregations. Haffner, a Unitarian Universalist minister, is the executive director of the Religious Institute, a multifaith organization dedicated to advocating for sexual health, education, and justice in faith communities and society. The guide, available on UUA.org, is called “Assessing Sexual Health: An Online Guide for UUA Congregations.”

She hopes the guide—a series of checklists exploring how congregations can incorporate sexuality awareness into congregational policies, worship, pastoral care, welcoming, social justice, and other areas—will inspire leaders to go beyond the limited ways they may be addressing sexuality issues currently.

“Ultimately, a commitment to developing a sexually healthy faith community needs to permeate every aspect of a community,” says Haffner. “It is not enough to offer Our Whole Lives sexuality education to our middle school students and go through a Welcoming Congregation program once. Instead, UU ministers, religious educators, board members, key committee members, youth, and parents must share a commitment to sexual and spiritual wholeness. This online guide will assist in that process.”

One of Haffner’s goals is to encourage all congregations to adopt a “safe congregations” policy, to protect children and adults from sexual misconduct. She notes, “Seven in ten UU congregations do not have safe congregations committees and a third do not have any written policies in this area.”

The guide helps leaders think about ways their congregations can address sexuality issues in a comprehensive manner. Questions raised in the guide include whether congregational guidelines address gender identity and family diversity, whether LGBT issues are raised respectfully, whether the congregation is active in community groups working on sexuality justice issues, and whether leaders know what local and state laws require in terms of reporting sexual misconduct.

Unitarian Universalist Association congregations are required to submit their annual Certification of Membership reports by February 1 at 5 p.m. PST. Congregations can log in to their Data Services Account to complete the Certification report and access a printer-friendly Certification worksheet in order to review the questionnaire.

Please see a list of Frequently Asked Questions about Certification of Membership for more information.

Starting this month, congregations and individual Unitarian Universalists are being asked to contribute information about the future direction of the Unitarian Universalist Association. The information is being collected through Gathered Here, a denomination-wide listening campaign begun by the UUA’s Board of Trustees and administration.

Gathered Here invites congregations and individual UUs to share hopes for the faith through “Community Conversations” and one-on-one interviews during the next eight months. The board and administration will use that information to help determine the UUA’s future. A longer article about Gathered Here is at uuworld.org. The program also has a website, which includes all the forms needed to conduct Gathered Here interviews.

Amanda Trosten-Bloom, with Corporation for Positive Change, has been retained by the UUA to serve as the project consultant for Gathered Here. She said that all UU congregations and non-congregational communities are being encouraged to participate in Gathered Here, starting this month and continuing through the end of August.

“All those who participate will be inspired and renewed,” she said. “People will form strong new relationships that will give life to their faith and their UU communities.”

As part of a UUA-wide effort to make it possible for more youth and young adults to attend the “Justice” General Assembly this June in Phoenix, the UUA’s Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministries and the General Assembly Planning Committee have launched the “GA Accessibility Project.”

Congregations interested in learning how to bring more youth and young adults to GA this year can find information on the Youth and Young Adult Ministries blog, Blue Boat. That information includes GA program listings, how the GA youth and young adult caucuses operate, available scholarships and grants, as well as information on affordable housing and transportation.

Later this winter the accessibility resources will include information on fundraising and youth safety.

Eboo Patel, in his book Acts of Faith, describes a conversation he had with a Protestant man after Patel, founder of an interfaith youth movement, made a presentation about the importance of youth programs in religious communities. The man told Patel that he and his wife really enjoyed their church, but their teenage daughter hated it because there was no real youth program. Patel told him, “Change churches. . . Either that or make sure that the church starts a youth program that interests your daughter.”

“In my mind,” Patel writes, “it was a question of priorities. Was he more interested in his daughter liking church or himself liking it?” Most people choose themselves over their kids, he says.

It is an entirely understandable choice, but we should not be blind to the consequences. It means we will continue to fail our religious youth. I cannot help but think of the number of teenagers I know who say that they are bored in their congregations, that their church or synagogue or mosque or temple has little going on for them. The youth minister they liked was let go because of budget cuts. The Habitat for Humanity trip they were planning got canceled because the adult supervisor couldn’t make it at the last minute. The pastor or imam or rabbi can never remember their names.

Too many adults secretly consider the absence of young people in mainstream religious communities the natural course of events, viewing the kids as too self-absorbed, materialistic, and anti-authoritarian to be interested in religion. The result is that adults pay lip service to the importance of involving youth in faith communities, but let themselves off the hook when it comes to actually building strong, long-lasting youth programs. Youth activities are typically the top item in a congregation’s newsletter, but the last line in the budget. Youth programs are the most likely to be funded by short-term grants, and youth ministers are the first to be fired when a religious community has financial problems.

Acts of Faith, published by Beacon Press, is the 2011-2012 Common Read for Unitarian Universalists. Look for a longer excerpt from Acts of Faith in the Spring 2012 issue of UU World.

Q. At our congregation we are working at establishing a minimum annual financial commitment policy for a voting member. I am wondering what other UU congregations have been doing in that regard?

A. Asking friends and members for just a minimum contribution is not a good idea, says Dr. Wayne Clark, the UUA’s Director of Congregational Stewardship Services. “Having a minimum financial commitment tends to lower the bar for congregants who might be able and willing to make larger commitments. It can lead them to expect that their congregation won’t ask much of them in any area. If you ask little of people, that’s usually what they will give. It’s often much less than what they would give if they’d been asked differently.”

Clark recommends giving people the UUA’s Suggested Fair Share Giving Guide as soon as they join or become involved on a regular basis. “That lets them create their own definition of a fair share gift by placing themselves on the guide,” he said. “Then it’s the congregant who defines fair share, not the minister or other leader.”

The Rev. Dr. Terasa Cooley, the UUA’s director of Congregational Life, writes on her blog “Learn Out Loud” about changing perceptions of membership in our congregations. Using the example of a young adult friend who is very involved and considers herself UU, but has not “signed the book,” Cooley asks, “What do we have to learn from her story? Perhaps the future of Unitarian Universalism does not depend upon more people ‘signing the book.’ Perhaps it depends upon us adjusting our understanding of what connection and commitment are.”

Cooley also writes about encouraging congregations to focus outwardly rather than simply being satisfied with creating communities of like-minded people. “What if we move from the (perhaps arrogant) statement of being ‘like-minded’ to seeing ourselves as ‘like-hearted’—coming together to offer our gifts to the world?”

InterConnections is not the only source of useful information for lay leaders. Check out uuworld.org for articles about UUA changes and congregational activities. Here are some recent ones:

• Congregants at the UU Church of Berkeley, Calif., created a “Tree of Life” mosaic using broken jewelry, pottery, keys and other items that had meaning to them. The artwork was an exercise in community and creativity. (10.24.11)

• First Unitarian Church of Rochester, N.Y., created a rap video for its fall homecoming weekend using the talents of members. The video not only captivated the congregation, but went viral, showing up in many other places online. (10.10.11)

• The GA 2012 Planning Committee and others met in September and began to firm up plans for the “Justice GA” in Phoenix next June. (9.26.11)

• An article on campus ministries describes how many campus-based UU communities are connecting with spiritual seekers. (9.19.11)

• Some UU congregations are creating time banks to build community and save money. (5.23.11)

• Congregations participating in the UUA’s Leap of Faith program learn from each other. (5.16.11)

• First Unitarian Church of Providence, R.I., spreads its message using cable TV, and bus shelter and magazine ads. (5.9.11)

A children’s religious education curriculum on immigration justice will be available by February 1 from the UUA’s Ministries and Faith Development staff group. Gail Forsyth-Vail, Adult Programs director for the UUA, says the curriculum is tentatively titled With Justice for All. Information could be available as soon as mid-January on Forsyth-Vail’s blog, Cooking Together, Recipes for Immigration Justice Work.

The curriculum is a part of the resources the UUA is developing for the 2012 Justice General Assembly in Phoenix in June. The sessions, to be available online, will be suitable for Sunday morning RE as well as retreats and multigenerational gatherings. There will be four sessions for children in grades 1-3 and four related sessions for those in grades 4-6, all by Mandy Neff, director of religious education at First Parish of Cambridge, Mass. They will emphasize compassion and fairness and are grounded in the Buddhist practice of loving-kindness meditation.

The sessions will give children an opportunity to explore their own family traditions and stories of migration and dislocation, reflect on fair and unfair rules, and examine the concept of human rights. The program engages parents and families, culminating in a family event where children share what they have learned.

For more information email Forsyth-Vail.

Anna Belle Leiserson, a professional web designer and a member of First Unitarian Universalist Church in Nashville, Tenn., is making it easier for congregations to have attractive websites. She has created two versions of a website format and is making them available free to congregations. Both are WordPress themes. A theme is a template applied to a WordPress site to give it a particular look, feel, and structure. WordPress is the most popular web content management system used today.

Leiserson says she was inspired to create her website formats, which she calls UU 2011 and Faith 2012, after seeing many congregational websites that didn’t seem welcoming. “It’s so easy for me to picture a new person in town looking for a congregation, seeing one of these sites, and within about five seconds literally dismissing the possibility of visiting.”

She said the new themes allow each user to insert his or her own photos. She recommends UU 2011 for UU congregations and Faith 2012 for other congregations, including synagogues and mosques. She adds, “Most WordPress themes are for businesses, magazines, news, or personal blogging sites. No matter how attractive, they can be an enormous challenge to adapt to a congregation. More information can be found here and here.

Leiserson also has a blog in which she writes about congregational website design.