The Welcome Table Church, free universalist christian missional community. Throw yourself like seed. UUA Growth Resource Picks.
Planting Congregations. Growing Grassroots Religious Movements. Last night the Unitarian Universalist Association President Peter Morales addressed the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association, meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina. Over and over, President Morales repeated the importance of deep and true spiritual life, the necessity of crossing borders, and of growing grassroots religious movements. Living in southeast Florida, where turf grasses require outrageous maintenance – the opposite of what growing grassroots means to other peoples – allow me to rephrase: we need to be growing religious movements as part of strengthening and growing healthy local communities. Here in south Florida, we might prefer the metaphor of growing mangrove religious movements – thick, resilient, multi-branched and trunked, storm-protective, coastally healthy, and indigenous to where we live.
But what does that mean? We need to appreciate the unique gifts of the peoples here and the strengths of existing religious communities. Crossing Borders. Tuesday evening this week Unitarian Universalist President Peter Morales also spoke to the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association (UUMA) about the need to cross borders. The UUMA is working on a new educational program and leadership training in intercultural competencies with the amazing Beth Zemsky & One Ummah Consulting. There are programs and signs that the Unitarian Universalist Association in seeking to equip local communities in crossing outside their known and comfy borders and be with and of the larger world community, making a way for merciful justice and for love to flourish.
That’s good news, and strengthening the capacity of individuals and congregations to cross borders when many of those individuals only rarely have to do so is going to be the challenge. Fearfulness is one of the greatest imprisonment tools because it deprives people of freedom in our own minds, hearts, and spirits. Living A Bigger Story. The second full day of Unitarian Universalist General Assembly in Charlotte, North Carolina was a big, long full day. I want to cheer and convey my joy and blessings to all my new colleagues who met their new stages of credentialing and to those who retired from active service this year.
You bless this world every day with the gifts you bring – and we can all be grateful to you! If you, like me, couldn't be there in person, here's the Service of the Living Tradition Video Link. The workshops I was able to attend on the second day turned out to have a consistent theme: living into a bigger story. I agree. Connexion. Michael Durall | Common Wealth Consulting Group. UUPlanet.org | Peter Bowdn's UU Projects. Leading Congregations | Congregational Life, Leadership and Change in the Digital Age. UU Growth Blog | Peter Bowden. The UU Growth Lab.