Apr 8, 2021 | Weekly Message
In last month’s blog, I tried to share an informative overview of the interim search process we are currently involved in and provide updates and a timeline so that congregants would know what we had done so far and what we needed to do next in order to locate and secure an interim minister to work with us for the 2 year interim between Rev. Mark’s retirement and the hiring of our next official called minister. I will continue to try and keep people updated with this process but for this blog, I felt that rather than focus on the “how do we get an interim?” aspect of the process that I would instead shift to talk a little about “what do we do once we have one?”
The Bridge
The UU Reverend Margaret Keip who has served as both a long-time called minister as well as a 6-time interim minister has described the interim period as a “bridge connecting what was to what will be.” So whose job will it be to build our bridge? Who will design it? Who will determine which spot we start from on this side of the divide and where we will aim to land on the other side? Who helps ensure that the bridge being designed is safe to cross? With so much attention being directed towards the bridge building, who is going to keep an eye out for the equally important non-bridge-related work? I swear, couldn’t we just call in The Judds?!
The Role of the Interim
So the first thing we want to be clear on is knowing the actual role of the interim. Though there may be a lot of things we “want” them to do or to focus on, their work is actually quite specific. In fact, you can find the job description laid out pretty clearly in the pages of the Janus Workbook, UUA’s guidebook to the Interim Ministry. In simple bullet form, it lays out the 5 major areas in which the interim will focus their energy. These are:
- Helping the congregations claim and honor its past while also helping heal its griefs and conflicts.
- Illuminating the congregation’s unique identity, its strengths, its needs, and its challenges.
- Clarifying the multiple dimensions of leadership, both ordained and lay, and navigating the shifts in leadership that accompany times of transition.
- Renewing connections with available resources within and beyond the UUA.
- Enabling the congregation to renew its vision, strengthen its stewardship, prepare for new professional leadership, and engage its future with anticipation and zest.
This doesn’t exactly mean that the interim can’t do anything else ever but I do think it is important that we step into this interim period with the understanding that their primary work is contained within those 5 bullets and does not automatically include them taking on the work we may have come to appreciate from Mark or expecting them to assume or initiate the outward work we might want to see in our future called minister. For example, Mark has served in the role of a community leader regarding issues from Marriage Equality to Sanctuary. Furthermore, we can all pretty much say that leadership in social justice and social action will be a quality that we will be looking for in our future called minister. Though these are great things to value in our past, present, and our hopeful future ministry, it is not the work of the interim minister. In fact, the interim minister’s role specifically requires that they focus inward on the congregation rather than looking outward to the community at large. On the flip side, we may place a high value on our ministerial leadership’s investment in pastoral care and we will want to see that focus in the future. But again, though the interim will likely be connected to the continuation of pastoral care, it is not part of the job’s primary responsibilities. Being clear and explicit about what is and isn’t the work of the interim will help prevent the potential hurt feelings, disappointment, and conflicts that can come from false expectations. Judith Walker-Riggs describes the work of the interim and the shifting of congregational responsibilities this way:
“The interim minister’s attention will be fully engaged in having the congregation address interim tasks such as coming to terms with its history and being able to articulate its present identity. In addition, the interim minister will help the congregation prepare for change, decide what direction to take for the future, work together in a common purpose, and heal and develop trust if necessary. The interim time also provides an invitation to the congregation to decide how the members themselves will do the work of the church in the world.” In a way, this leaves me thinking of the interim minister as the bridge-building consultant; the one who knows a lot about different types of bridges, the one who knows how to help us figure out which 2 points we want to connect, the one that can help us locate and identify the bridge builders within so that the work of UUCA can continue while the bridge gets built.
The Role of Us
So if the interim is the consultant possessing a lot of bridge-building facts and formulas, then it kind of looks like the actual people who will be building the bridge will be…..us! That sure leaves us with a lot of work to do in order for a safe and strong bridge to get built, right? How will we do it? Well, don’t worry. Most of us here at UUCA has been building bridges in some way or another for quite some time now. And one of the easiest ways to begin preparing for the construction process ahead of us is by simply and informally asking ourselves some questions. Questions like:
- What kind of church are we?
- What do we want to change and what do we want to stay the same?
- What do we want to look like in the foreseeable future?
- What kind of activities have we engaged in, and what do we wish to do in the future?
- What has our structure been, and do we want to change it?
- What do we want to prioritize during the interim in regards to programs, care, and connection?
- How might we, individually as well as in groups, step up our involvement so that the things that matter to us continue to move forward both during the interim as well as beyond?
Fortunately, as a congregation, there are also a number of actions and initiatives that we have recently undertaken that will align well with the bridge-building work of the interim. For example, the Racial Justice Advisory Council is working to help us evaluate our present practice with the goal of helping us establish future plans and actions for moving us towards becoming a more anti-racist congregation. Elsewhere, an amazing team of congregants has recently completed an assessment of current and future maintenance needs for our various campus properties. This assessment ultimately provides us with important information that will be crucial to our interim conversation about our future, not just in regards to what we “do” and “how we do it” but even “where we do it.” And recently Reverend Claudia has begun pushing us to look more deeply at what we value in regards to the work of Community and how we might participate in it. Heck, even the recent sharing of Teresa Honey Youngblood’s blessing on Becoming seems to practically have been written for the interim moment before us.
“What is becoming of us, beloved? We ask this again and again, with care and curiosity: what is becoming of us?
As we change–inevitably, sometimes uncomfortably–may we choose dynamism over stubbornness, transformation over safe sameness, possibility over status-quo.
May we flow instead of calcify, remembering there are paths away from mistakes, and we can always make more room for those joining the current.
May we reach toward one another and toward interdependence. May we seek and make contact and community as if our lives depend on it, which of course, they do.”
The Bridge We Build
I recently saw a picture of a bridge built over a canal in Venice. I smiled at its beauty and then of course, quickly forgot all about it. However, as I reflected on the bridge building work of the interim period before us and about Youngblood’s instruction that we reach toward one another, the image of the bridge returned to my mind. The hands reaching out and connecting two sides. Our past and our present reaching out to connect to our future. The bridge we will build will be a strong one. Just like The Judds said it would.
Apr 5, 2021 | Family Ministry
When I first realized last week that the theme for April was Becoming, my mind went wild with all the ways that we could make that connection with this particular time we are in. Not only is it April, the month in which we here in the mountains begin to fully emerge from the grip of winter, it’s also this very strange liminal time that we are in where people are being vaccinated and we are all preparing to emerge from this time of pandemic. That doesn’t mean that things are changing rapidly, or that we can immediately go back to our old way of life before the Covid, but that we are all goo right now. Like a butterfly, we have been in the process of dissolving the way that things used to be and looking toward a new way of being. In particular, staff here at UUCA has been working to plan for what our emergence from the pandemic will look like. There is one thing I can tell you, and it’s that things will be different. We are all different now than we were last spring. I invite you to spend this month thinking about how you are becoming and what you might look like after things are back to “normal.” Let us also acknowledge the work we are doing as a congregation to become anti-racist. It’s hard, uncomfortable, necessary work – and will hopefully lead us to become a more welcoming, diverse, and inclusive community.
-Kim Collins, LREC
Here are some ways to explore the theme from this month’s Soulful Home materials.
At the Table Discussion Questions
- Whose example helped you know who you want to become, or maybe what kind of person you wanted to be?
- When do we stop becoming?
- If you stopped growing right at this minute, what would you be happiest to keep exactly as it is? What would you regret not being able to become?
- Some people believe that when they die, they become another living thing (reincarnation). What would you most want to become?
- Sometimes, change and becoming happen suddenly and in an instant. Is there a big “before” and “after” moment in your life, when you felt like you became someone new? Or were suddenly placed on a new path? (Examples might be getting glasses, moving to a new neighborhood, experiencing a grandparent’s death, or getting a puppy.)
- Who has helped you become the best version of yourself?
- Sometimes becoming requires us to let go of things. What is one thing you’ve had to let go of to become something new? (For example, in order to become a speaker of a second or third language, we have to let go of fear of sounding silly as we learn. In order to become a trumpet player, we have to let go of a few afternoons of free time each week to practice.)
- Last year, we all became families who had gone through Covid together, a unique circumstance in all of human history. How has that experience changed you?
Around the Neighborhood – Treasure Hunt for Becoming
This month, we are acknowledging the part we all play in the becoming of the world around us. We are powerful agents of change! Let’s look together for examples of how we, as a community, are noticing transformation and the becoming happening all around us..
- An empty lot or abandoned building becoming something new
- A community center, an RV or large truck, a parking lot, or other space that has become a Covid vaccination space
- A piece of land becoming a garden
- A favorite view changing, because of a tree growing tall or a new building going up, etc.
- A piece of nature transforming into something new, like a tree growing leaves or a sprout pushing through the ground.
- A puppy or kitten becoming a dog or cat (pets have a tween phase, too!)
- A small weather event becoming a big one (depending on where you live, this might be a thunderstorm, snowstorm, drought, and so one)
- Someone growing a mustache or a beard
- Someone who is pregnant
- Someone learning to ride a bike, either by seeing them learn with the help of their parents or by noticing them riding with training wheels
Extra Credit – A Butterfly’s Becoming, Under Our Care
Butterflies might be the most enduring symbols of transformation and becoming, partly because of how dramatic their change is. For this month’s Extra Mile, we’re going to take on the tried-and-true scientific–and spiritual!–task of raising butterflies.
You may have done this project in the past, or it may have been on your wish list for some time now. Consider this your invitation to try it, or try it again, this month!
This site has a good beginner’s section for butterfly-raisers: http://www.raisingbutterflies.org/getting_started/
There could be no start-up cost at all, if you find butterfly eggs in the wild and use repurposed materials. Or the cost could be $20-30 for a basic kit.
As you enjoy this process, let different facets of “becoming” emerge. Here are some questions that you might consider over the weeks of your attention:
- Are the caterpillar and the butterfly the same “person”? One becomes the other, and yet, they have two different sets of DNA. So, what makes us uniquely us?
- Butterflies are becoming threatened by human-induced climate change. What are our hopes for the future of these insects?
- Why do we think of butterflies as beautiful, but caterpillars…meh. What makes something becoming–as in, beautiful and attractive–to us?
Apr 4, 2021 | Sermons
Sunday, April 4, 2021 Easter
Rev. Mark Ward, Lead Minister
Our service will center on ee cummings’ poem that celebrates the beauty and wonder of simply being and will include a performance by Rev. Ward’s brother Terry of a song based on that poem that was written by his brother Scott.
Apr 1, 2021 | Weekly Message
After enduring a year of hunkering down to avoid COVID 19, we are finally nearing a moment when we can begin planning for how we will be back together again. But there is one big if that will guide how soon we get there: if we all make every effort to get ourselves vaccinated.
Governor Roy Cooper announced last week that North Carolina has accelerated the timeline guiding who can be vaccinated when to the point that as of April 7, next Wednesday, all state residents who are at least 16 years old will qualify for a COVID-19 vaccine.
That is such good news. But it means that now the onus for ending the pandemic shifts from the state to its residents. So, I urge every one of you, if you have not yet been vaccinated, please make that appointment now.
If you’ve been hesitating, here are some important things to know:
- The three most widely used vaccines, made by Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson, are 90% or more effective not only in preventing you from being infected with the virus, but also, scientists have recently learned, at preventing you from carrying the virus undetected. That means that your vaccination prevents you from being infected with the virus and from transmitting it to anyone else. Vaccines stop it short.
- Vanishingly small numbers of people experience side effects from receiving the vaccine.
- Vaccines can reduce long-term side-effects among those who tested positive for the virus. So, even if you were infected, you should get the vaccine.
Even if you are young or in some other demographic group considered to be at low risk, don’t presume that you are protected. In various spots around the country, there are signs of a fourth wave of COVID infections taking shape, and the greatest number of people affected are those in their 30s and 40s. We can halt another wave of illness, hospitalizations, and death if all of us are diligent about getting vaccinated.
Perhaps the greatest risk we face is the emergence of new variants of the virus. COVID-19 is one of a group of viruses whose genetic make-up is extremely unstable and can change quickly. We are already seeing this happening.
Luckily, so far the vaccines in circulation still work well against the variants, but it’s possible that a variant could appear that is unaffected by the vaccine. As long as strains of the virus are in the general population, even they aren’t actively causing disease, they can continue to evolve variants. Only vaccines can shut down this process and provide the protections we need.
So, friends, it’s time: time to act so that we protect ourselves and each other. It’s the way forward to defeating this menace. For all of our sakes, I urge you: do it now!
Rev. Mark Ward, Lead Minister
Apr 1, 2021 | Faith Development
This month we are invited to consider that our spiritual journeys are not just about revealing, healing and sustaining ourselves but about considering our collective journey, in community toward becoming a people of Beloved Community. This quote from theologian Howard Thurman alludes to the inner and outer journeys of becoming:
“Do not ask what the world needs.
Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it.
Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
What makes you come alive?
How does your coming alive contribute to Beloved Community?
Here are a few more questions to consider this month:
Many of us mark the first day of our becoming as the time when we discovered one of our core passions. When did you discover your first passion? How has it grown and morphed over the years? How are you being called to rekindle it anew?
What are you doing to ensure that you don’t become a person who has regrets?
What if you finally allowed yourself to say out loud, “I am an artist!” or “”I am a leader!” or “I am beautiful!” or “I am smart!” or “I am…”?
What inhibits our becoming?
These are a few questions being discussed in our covenant groups using Soul Matters packets. if you are interested in being part of a covenant group contact Rev. Claudia faithdev@uuasheville.org.
