Transitional Ministry Seminar - April 24th - 28th, 2023
An online continuing education and collegial sharing experience for members of the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association engaged in or interested in interim, developmental, and other transitional forms of congregational ministry.
WELCOME
The Transition Ministry Seminar is an annual Unitarian Universalist clergy professional development event designed to increase the effectiveness of transitional ministries such as interim and developmental ministries; to provide space for mentoring and strategic reflection for UUMA members practicing transitional ministry; to nurture collegial connection and support; and to help move the practice and practitioners of transitional ministry forward in anti-racism, anti-oppression, diversity, equity, and inclusion goals. The annual meeting of the Transition Ministers Chapter of the UUMA takes place during the week of the seminar, as does an information session led by UUA staff for ministers in search for interim and developmental ministries.
The Transitional Ministry Seminar is a collaborative project of the Transition Ministers Chapter of the UUMA and the Transition Team staff of the UUA.
Our Theme This Year is:
Moving Towards an Ethic of Collective Care
As transition ministers, we want to help congregations and our movement to adapt and grow into who our movement could be for the future. We see firsthand the impact on congregations as the old world and the old ways cease to bring vitality, spiritual nourishment, and congregational health. Transition ministers know that adaptation is a hallmark of abundant life.
The faith communities of the future are called to an ethic of collective care. Only by embracing our interdependence with each other and all life, slowing down to the speed of right relationship, and the practice of love and justice will we be able to keep faith with the best of our living tradition and grow into being the people we are called to be.
As transition ministers, we know that times of great change are also times of opportunity and spiritual growth. Change is beautiful, messy, frustrating, surprising, and profoundly hopeful. It is part of our work as transition ministers to be among the voices singing a new song, imagining into being communities of mutuality, inclusion, care, balance, and fierce love.
Registration
Please follow THIS LINK to register for the seminar.
Please fill out the below survey following your registration
The DEI team (Terasa Cooley, Patrice Curtis, Cynthia Snavely, Roger Bertschausen, Michelle Collins & Elaine Peresluha) are trying to gain a sense of what people have been experiencing in our chapter related to inclusion and identity. Please fill out this brief survey to help with this process.
Our Draft Schedule
Monday, April 24th
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Time: Fifteen minutes beforehand
Event: Informal social and gathering time on Zoom,
Description: Anyone who wants to arrive early is welcome to come chat
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Time: 7pm EDT/6pm CDT/5pm MDT/4pm PDT
Title: Brief Introduction
Presented By: Chapter Exec
Description: Overview for week, essential information
Time: 7:30pm EDT/6:30pm CDT/5:30pm MDT/4:30pm PDT
Title: Vespers
Description: Worship. Honor Interims who have died, those who have retired, and new colleagues. Letting go and acceptance are part of the ethic of collective care.
Time: 8:30pm EDT/7:30pm CDT/6:30pm MDT/5:30pm PDT:
Title: Social Groups
Tuesday, April 25th
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Time: Fifteen minutes beforehand
Description: Informal social and gathering time on Zoom, Anyone who wants to arrive early is welcome to come chat
Time: 11am ET/10am CT/9am MT/8am PT
Title: Opening Worship/Deep Check-in
Presented By: Exec
Description: Daily Opening worship followed by small groups for deep check-in
Time: 2pm ET/1pm CT/12pm MT/11am PT
Presented By: Bill Sinkford
Title: Octavia Butler was Right
Description: Despite the yearning to return to an idealized past for some of those we serve, regathering has highlighted change that has occurred and that needs to occur in the two congregations I have served during this period. Transitional ministers are supposed to know something about helping congregations prepare live into change. But the stakes feel high and the yearning for solid ground intense. Is the promise of constant struggle and uncertain progress toward Beloved Community answer enough for our yearning hearts?
Time: 3pm ET/ 2pm CT/ 1pm MT/ 12pm PT
Title: Self-Reflective Learning Circles
Description: As is described in our chapter charter, time to reflect strategically in small groups about incidents, challenges, and discoveries we have encountered in our transitional ministries this year
Time: 6:30pm ET/5:30pm CT/4:30pm MT/3:30pm PT
Title: Conversation with Hope For Us (45 minutes), Hope for Us (confirmed),
Presented By: Connie and Jacquis
Description: Presentation about this new team and what it could mean for congregations in transition
Time: 7:30pm ET/6:30pm CT/5:30pm MT/4:30pm PT (90 min)
Title: Opportunities for Transitional Ministry
Presented By: Keith Kron/Christine Purcell/Patrice Curtis,
Description: Open to all chapter members; others by request (separate registration will be required)
Wednesday, April 26th
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Time: Fifteen minutes beforehand
Description: Come early to chat
Time: 11am ET/ 10am CT/ 9am MT/ 8am PT
Title: Morning Centering
Presented By: Patrice Curtis
Time: 11:30am ET/10:30am CT/ 9:30am MT/ 8:30am PT
Title: Conversation, Research, Process for DEI in the community of UU Transition Ministry
Presented By: ARAOMC/DEI Team (& Patrice)
Time: 2pm ET/1pm CT/12pm MT/11am PT
Title: Preemptive Radical Inclusion as Community Care: Choosing to privilege intention over reaction.
Presented By: CB Beal
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Time: 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT
Chapter Business Meeting
Chapter Exec
All are welcome to attend, chapter members are eligible to vote
Thursday, April 27th
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Time: 11am ET/10am CT/ 9am, MT/8am PT
Title: Within, Among, & Beyond: Building Congregational Health to Help Heal the World
Presented By: Ashley Horan
Description: Morning worship and workshop
Time: 2pm ET/1pm CT/12pm MT/11am PT
Title: Small Groups (Interim credentialing, communications, being welcoming, social)
Presented By: Keith Kron, Joe Cherry, Lyn Cox, Beverly Waring, Kathleen Rolenz
Description: Time with colleagues or a chance to further reflect on topics of consequence to the chapter. One exec member in each of the first three groups.
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Time: 3:15pm ET/2:15pm CT/1:15pm MT/12:15pm PT
Title: Conversation with Sofia Bentancourt
Presented By: Sofia Betancourt
Description: Conversation with the candidate for UUA president
Time: 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT
Title: Odyssey
Presented By: Anita Farber-Robertson (Verbal confirmation from Anita)
Description: The return of the annual event where we share and celebrate the ministry of one of our own
Friday, April 28th
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Time: 11am ET/10am CT/9am MT/8am PT
Title: Closing worship
Presented By: Keith Kron
After - Informal conversation time on Zoom
Thanks for a wonderful week!
Our Speakers
The Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt is a minister, educator, scholar, vocalist, poet, fiber artist, and change-maker. Her work in the world and her practice of Unitarian Universalism are informed by the belief that building mutual, accountable relationships with one another allows us to live our values more fully every day. As the child of immigrants from Panamá and Chile, and grandchild of a seventh-generation Unitarian, she knows the strength that comes from building lasting community at the meeting point of difference. She has served as a religious educator, a parish minister, a seminary professor, interim co-president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, and countless volunteer roles within the Association, giving her a wide-ranging experience of our dynamic community. She is an unabashed Universalist. The teachings of unearned grace, an all-embracing love, relational accountability, and dignity that surpasses all violent forms of oppression lie at the core of her understanding of life, living, and service in faithful community. She currently lives in the Washington DC area.
Rev. Dr. Anita Farber-Robertson has been serving in interim and transitional roles since 1999. For the nineteen years prior, she served as a settled minister, eleven of those at the First Parish UU in Canton, MA where she is now the Minister Emerita. As a longtime Accredited Interim Minister, Anita has been a mentor and teacher to many. As the adjunct Professor of Communication, she taught at Andover-Newton Theological School and has a consulting practice for congregations. Anita is the author of Learning While Leading: Increasing Your Effectiveness in Ministry and is the co-author with Dorothy May Emerson of Called to Community: New Directions in Unitarian Universalist Ministry. Chairing the UUA’s Racial and Cultural Diversity Task Force (1992-97) with Leon Spencer, Anita has been at the forefront of anti-racism and anti-oppression work, both in the larger movement of the UUA and among UU transitional ministers. The chapter is very grateful that she agreed to offer this year's Odyssey.
Rev. William G. Sinkford was born in San Francisco and spent his childhood in Cincinnati, becoming a Unitarian Universalist when he was 14 years old. He left in the 1970s believing that the Universalists had retreated from engagement with racial justice. He attended Harvard University, where he was among those vocal in their opposition to the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. He graduated cum laude in 1968, then spent a year in Greece as a Michael Clark Rockefeller Fellow. Between 1970 and 1980 Sinkford held management positions in marketing; he later founded his own business. He returned to Unitarian Universalism to find a religious home for his two children. Sinkford "turned to ministry" in 1993. He received his M.Div. from Starr King School for the Ministry and was ordained in 1995. In 2001 he became the seventh president of the UUA. His installation as president made him the first African American to hold the presidency in the UUA, or any traditionally white religious denomination in the United States. In 2002, Tufts University awarded Sinkford the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa. He was asked by the UUA Board to return as interim co-president in 2017. Sinkford shared the interim co-presidency with Rev. Sofía Betancourt and Dr. Leon Spencer. Sinkford's interim co-presidency ended with the election of Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray in 2017. Following his retirement from First Unitarian Church in Portland, OR he began serving at All Souls DC.
CB Beal (they/them) is a fat, white, queer and non-binary UU speaker, teacher. consultant, and storyteller. They make their home in Western Massachusetts.
Ashley Horan
PODS
Please let the contact person know soon if you are interested in being part of one of these pods so that a retreat center or rental house of the appropriate size can be secured. Costs for each pod will be unique, and are separate from registration for the online seminar.
Nashville, TN
Diane Dowgiert has booked a rental house in Nashville that can accommodate six people with some sharing of rooms. The Nashville pod already has three people signed up, so check with Diane ASAP if you would like to join. The house is a multi-level townhouse near many shops, restaurants, and grocery stores, some within walking distance. Each person will cook their own meals while in the house, and there will likely be group outings to restaurants. Housing will cost about $95/night. The house is a 15-minute drive from the airport. Contact ddowgiert@gmail.com for more information.
Santa Rosa, CA
Dave Clements has reserved rooms at the Santa Rosa UU Church for the seminar program and has researched local housing options. Interested colleagues should reply to Dave ASAP to learn about options for hotels and rental houses. Local attractions include a wine tour, the Charles Schulz Museum, and the redwoods at Armstrong Grove. If interested in being part of the pod in Santa Rosa, CA, please contact Dave Clements at dscvisionjd@gmail.com or 216-333-8055.
Morristown, NJ
Madelyn Campbell (madelyncampbell@gmail.com) is organizing colleagues for an East Coast pod based at the Morristown Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. She is currently researching hotels where she can reserve a block of rooms, and welcomes your inquiries so that she can plan for the size of the room block. Morristown is an adorable city, rich with history, and featuring a lively, walkable downtown area. It is convenient for travel by highway or train
If you have any questions, please email Transitions@uua.org