Certification Report Due By Feb. 1 to the UUA
Your congregation’s Annual Certification Report and Directory Update is due at the UUA before February 1. You are encouraged to file this report electronically, if possible. Go to www.uua.org/congregation and log in to your account, or if you don’t have one, create one. The number of delegates a congregation can send to General Assembly is based on this report as is its Annual Program Fund Fair Share contribution to the UUA and to the districts for the next fiscal year. It is also important to update your directory information at the same time.

If it is not possible to file a report electronically, you can get a paper form by contacting Peg Sullivan at 617-948-4641.

UU World Available On Audiotape
A recorded version of UU World is available at no charge to people who cannot read the printed magazine because of vision impairment.

For more information, contact Devorah Greenstein, 25 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02108; 617-948-6451, dgreenstein@uua.org.

Large Churches Have A Program
Annapolis has grown 12 per cent a year for the past three years. Before that we would have 50 people join and 50 people leave. Through a long-range strategic growth plan, we intentionally put certain elements in place that would improve our programs and infrastructure.

One of the first things we did was to add covenant groups. We now have 12 to 13. We also have many lay-led spiritual practice groups.

All of these things did not happen at once. Each year we were focused and intentional in particular areas.
Nancy Proctor
UU Church of Annapolis, Md. (600)

Church on Loan Helps Small Churches
The Church on Loan Program of the UUA’s Church of the Larger Fellowship provides many services to small and emerging congregations. In addition to making available more than 80 full worship services and a lending library, it offers the following religious education resources:

• Religious Education Connections, Resources for Families: www.uua.org/clf/connections.

• Between Sundays: Answering Kids’ Questions, with resources listed by age and category: www.uua.org/clf/betweensundays.

• Religious Education Curriculum for those aged 3 to 18: www.uua.org/clf/recurriculum.

• Parenting and Family, a new resource providing activities and reflections for worship and RE: www.uua.org/clf/connections/parenting.

For more information visit CLF’s Church on Loan Web site: www.uua.org/clf/church-on-loan.html or contact Lorraine Dennis, CLF Administrator, at ldennis@uua.org.

Durall Book Invites Self-Examination Of Our UU Movement
Unitarian Universalism is a movement in decline, and it desperately needs to find a greater purpose, says Michael Durall, a longtime UU and private consultant to UU and non-UU congregations on issues of growth and vitality.

In his book, The Almost Church: Redefining Unitarian Universalism for a New Era, published in 2004 by the Jenkin Lloyd Jones Press at All Souls Unitarian Church, Tulsa, Okla., Durall says Unitarian Universalism suffers from the following problems:

• Our congregations are stuck in the past, with worship services whose format has been unchanged for decades and which are especially uninviting to young people.

• Few congregations spend much on outreach, instead focusing on “institutional maintenance,” creating places of comfort and entertainment for those who are already there.

• We are a low expectation faith, asking little of new members. We’re also not very good at welcoming visitors. Our fear of offending any of our members often keeps us from moving forward. Two-thirds of our congregational members are observers rather than participants.

Durall believes we need to develop a vision of a way of life that is worth living, and to show our members and visitors that Unitarian Universalism can change lives. Other recommendations: Ministers should be empowered to lead, not follow. People with good ideas should be allowed to implement them without being bogged down in church bureaucracy. We need to look at money as a useful tool, not a necessary evil.

Says the Rev. Marlin Lavanhar, senior minister at All Souls in Tulsa, “This book offers thoughtful insight that clergy and lay leaders within Unitarian Universalism need to read, ponder, and act upon. Durall has taken the sugarcoating off the accustomed self-assessments that UUs are used to hearing, and in this book he does it extremely well.”

The Almost Church is available for $13.95 from www.allsoulschurch.org or by calling 918-743-2363. It is also available from the UUA Bookstore. Item #6188, 800-215-9076, www.uua.org/bookstore.

Pre-Service Hymns Sung at Colo. Church
Many members of Jefferson Unitarian Church, Golden, Colo., start each Sunday with 10 minutes of Morningsong—a hymn sing just before the official start of the service. The practice started with one or two hymns and now is up to three.

Minister of Music Keith Arnold says Morningsong is used to teach new hymns, sing rounds, and to “gather energy” for the service. Requests are also taken.

Arnold said, “We have found that many folks show up faithfully ten minutes before the service because they love to sing. A scant number (maybe two) of our members faithfully wait outside the sanctuary until Morningsong is over since they wish we didn’t sing so much!”

The song period also serves to get people into the sanctuary so that the service that follows can start on time. “We did find that it took nearly a year for folks to understand the idea of Morningsong, so it’s probably a good idea not to give up if folks don’t seem to attend at first,” said Arnold. The hymn sing is listed in the order of service as “Morningsong, an informal gathering for hymn singing.”

Book Explores Why Lifelong UUs Stay
While most congregations ask “Why do people leave?” Kate Erslev, director of religious education at the UU Fellowship of Boulder, Colo., explores the question, “Why do they stay?” Erslev interviewed 82 lifelong UUs to find out what kept them committed to the faith they were raised in. The book she created from those interviews, Full Circle: Fifteen Ways to Grow Lifelong UUs, is an empowering collage showing how UUs maintain strong ties to the denomination as well as ways of keeping the younger generations involved. UUA Bookstore, Item 3821, $14, 800-215-9076, www.uua.org/bookstore.

Children’s Books Help With Storytime, History
The moment in the Sunday service when children are called forward to hear a story just got easier with the publication of Everyone a Butterfly: 40 Sermons for Children, by Randy Hammer, a minister in the United Church of Christ.

The stories are just long enough to fit that part of the service and have titles such as “We All Have the Power to Change,” and “Do the Right Thing.” At the end of each story is a description of any needed props and follow-up activities. Item 7170, $10.

Another book, A Lamp in Every Corner, by Janeen K. Grohsmeyer, a religious education teacher at the UU Fellowship of Southern Maryland, con- tains 21 original children’s stories that bring UU history to life. There are “Who We Are” stories about UU heroes, “What We Believe” stories about our Seven Principles, and “How We Came to Be” stories about milestones in our history. Item 8040, $15.

Another new history-related book for children and adults is This Day in Unitarian Universalist History, by Frank Schulman, telling what events happened on what days. Item 6021, $20.

All of the above are available through the UUA Bookstore, 800-215-9076, www.uua.org/bookstore.

Inspiring Words to Say When Passing the Plate
Offerings: Remarks on Passing the Plate (Skinner, 2004), by Robert Thayer, a retired UU minister, is a collection of motivational articles, offertory words, and one song for use by worship leaders in congregations when taking the offering. Thayer said that some of the pieces grew out of his experiences in visiting black churches where leaders spend five minutes or so “bringing people out of worldly selfishness” and inspiring them to make larger contributions.

Available at the UUA Bookstore, Item 7193, $8, 800-215-9076, www.uua.org/bookstore.

Possessive Language Can Foil Welcome
Watch out for possessive language in church communications, especially when addressing visitors, says the Rev. Frederick Gonnerman, author of a newly published book about all aspects of church communications, Getting the Word Out: The Alban Guide to Church Communications.

If you say, “Welcome to our visitors. We’re glad you’re here . . . Please sign our guest book . . .” the language is exclusive, says Gonnerman. A better approach is the following: “Welcome to worship at First Presbyterian. Visitors and members are invited to become better acquainted over a cup of coffee in Fellowship Hall between services. Visitors are asked to sign the guest book.”

Gonnerman is a writer, editor, photographer, and Lutheran (ELCA) pastor. The book explores all aspects of church communications, from determining your audience, preparing orders of service, creating a newsletter, to writing newspaper notices.

The book is available from the UUA Bookstore, Item 7172, $20, 800-215-9076, www.uua.org/bookstore.

Large Church Meeting In Boston In February
“Congregations in Good Company” is the theme of the 2005 National Conference for Large Congregations held by the UUA. This triennial conference includes keynote speakers, workshops, and opportunities for team learning. Individuals and teams from congregations of 550 or more members, or approaching that, are invited.

More information is at www.uua.org/cde/largechurch2005/. Deadline for online registration is January 10.