InterConnections Tipsheet

The UUA Congregational Life Facebook page currently features links to articles on the following topics, written by staff and lay leaders of various UUA districts:

• Communication: Keeping it Real—Taking steps to ensure that information is shared openly and as widely as possible. Using transparency to defeat rumors, gossip, secrets, and third-party complaints.

• Another Bridge to Nowhere?—A call to action to make the transition from youth to young adulthood within Unitarian Universalism feel like a bridge to somewhere by coming up with innovative ways to keep young adults interested and involved.

• Why is Everyone Talking About Mission?—Helping leaders define a congregation’s purpose and mission. The article notes that many people now no longer join congregations just for warm and friendly relationships, but rather they want to know that the congregation has a purpose and a mission in the larger community and that it can help them find meaning in their lives. Congregational leaders need to be able to define that meaning and purpose.

Check in with the UUA Congregational Life Facebook page frequently for articles about deep discussions taking place in UUA districts about a variety of topics important to congregational leaders.

To InterConnections:

This is in reference to your article, Things to Consider When Naming a Congregation.

Here in the Conch Republic (that’s the Keys section of Florida), we have been the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Key West since our founding in 1988.

Beginning in 2005, the Fellowship began a process of discernment about its identity. The first questions in that process focused on professional leadership. By 2009, with 2 years of full-time ministry informing the process, the Fellowship turned to its public identity: its name.

The first round of consideration was simply, “Do we want to explore the possibility of changing our name?” Long confused with the Unity congregation in town or not understood at all with the theological nomenclature of “Unitarian Universalist,” the members voted overwhelmingly to pursue a possible name change. In a subsequent Fellowship retreat, a name change was included in the top three priorities for focusing our energies.

By 2011, the members were ready to appoint a “Name Change Task Force,” charged with developing the process by which a name change would be proposed. Through a series of open membership meetings, a five-phase process was identified:

• decision on the entity we would be (e.g. congregation, fellowship, church, etc.)

• solicitation of suggested names

• winnowing of potential names to six

• further winnowing to three finalists

• finally a decision on one name

All decisions were by formal votes of members in open membership meetings. In late 2010, it was decided that whatever else would follow, we would change from Fellowship to Congregation. By mid-2011, it was determined that we would have a main name with a tag line to indicate our associational connection. Finally, at our January 2012 Annual Meeting, a clear choice among three options was selected. That choice was then affirmed by a unanimous vote of the members.

We became One Island Family, with the tag line being “The Southernmost Unitarian Universalist Congregation.” The other two names in competition were “One Human Community” and “Keys Kaleidoscope.”

This new identity incorporates a variation on the official philosophy of the City of Key West—”One Human Family”—and includes the locally familiar term of “Southernmost” which is short-hand for “southernmost city in the continental United States.”

Fortunately for us in Florida, we can use this new identity as a registered name without having to alter all the legal documents and other things (such as bank accounts) from the pre-existing name. This has made the transition much less cumbersome and expensive.

So, now we offer the community our new identity. Already there is a buzz on the streets about this identity, and we expect in the long term it will be a clearer presentation about who we are than a reference to ancient theological debates.

The Rev. Dr. Randolph W.B. Becker
One Island Family
Key West, Fla.

From February’s InterConnections feature story, now online at UUA.org:

When a Unitarian Universalist group began to form in 2009 in suburban Cincinnati it wasn’t long before its members decided it needed a name. They thought about naming the new congregation for the town where they met, but then they opted for something different. “We noticed all these contemporary nondenominational Christian churches, which all had names like Wellspring and Crossroads,” says Lindsey Sodano, one of the organizers of the new group.

“Interestingly,” she says, “these congregations are our main competition when many liberal people look for a church. They go there mistakenly thinking the modern music and laid-back minister will translate to beliefs and values similar to theirs. After attending and listening to the anti-LGBT messages these visitors end up with us.”

Sodano’s group picked the name Harmony, a Unitarian Universalist Church. “We wanted to get on the radar of church shoppers, so we went with a modern one-word name,” she says. Other names considered were “Discovery” and “Beacon.”

Go to the full article.

Blue Boat, the blog of Youth and Young Adult Ministries within the Unitarian Universalist Association,  is highlighting a collection of videos and other materials that will be useful to individuals and groups working on personal and social transformation. The collection, God Bless the Whole World, is a free online collection of videos, audio files, articles, and courses on social justice, spiritual activism, and environmentalism, which are useful in starting discussions not only among youth and young adult groups, but in other groups as well.

Blue Boat also has other resources for youth and young adult groups, including articles and videos on youth leadership, campus ministry, and social justice.

The Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Earth has created a five-session environmental justice curriculum. Called “Our Place in the Web of Life,” the curriculum was developed to help congregations meet the environmental justice requirement of the Green Sanctuary program. It provides an introduction to environmental justice concepts and a process to identify community needs so that a congregation can develop a local justice project.

The curriculum also emphasizes racial and ethnic relationships in doing environmental justice work. It is available as a free download from the UUMFE website. The curriculum was designed by Dr. Mark Hicks of the Meadville Lombard Theological School and Pamela Starr, environmental justice consultant.

UUMFE, an independent affiliate of the UUA, supports congregations in environmental justice work, including Earth Day activities and providing environmental resources for religious education and worship.

The UUA Office of Growth Strategies has created a blog, Growing Unitarian Universalism, which it will use to share ideas and strategies for growing congregations. The blog will share research, resources, articulate strategies, identify good practices, present guest commentaries, and invite comments from congregational leaders.

The office was established in 2011 “to help restore the Unitarian Universalist Association to a position of active evangelism,” writes the Rev. Stefan Jonasson, director of the office. He notes that he and Tandi Rogers, growth strategies specialist and a credentialed religious educator, have surveyed UUA growth initiatives past and present, identified resources from inside and outside the UUA, and  consulted with individuals and groups “who care about the health and vitality of Unitarian Universalism.”

One early conclusion: “Along the way, we’ve discerned that the best programs and initiatives seem to have a ‘shelf life,’ after which they need to be retired since they begin to produce diminishing returns, however effective they may have been at their peak,” says Jonasson. “We’ve realized that our institutions reward caution much more than responsible risk-taking. We’ve seen how technology is outpacing our imagination for its effective use.”

He adds that the Office of Growth Strategies can’t single-handedly increase the number of UUs, nor is it focused simply on numerical growth. Rather, growth is the work of all UUs and it includes changing hearts and transforming lives, in addition to increasing numbers of UUs. “Our office’s role is to inform, equip, and inspire Unitarian Universalists in this work,” he says.