UU Faith Works: Promising Practices for Lifespan Learning Communities

UU Faith Works Winter/Spring 2005
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Dear UU Faith Works Readers,

Here we are digging out of a real Nor’easter – the Boston blizzard of 2005 – and yet we know that spring follows winter just as sure as summer follows spring. And that brings me to my bittersweet task – a farewell letter from me to you, dear religious educators and UU leaders. My announced retirement date – 1 July – will take me from the center of our “network of mutuality” to an elder in the background hoping the best for my UU children and grandchildren.

I have experienced what Martin Luther King, Jr., called an “inescapable network of mutuality” during these past 30 years with you. As a part-time religious educator I remember receiving my first REACH packet full of ideas and inspiration from folks who took our RE work seriously. These last 12 years as UUA staff (and three years as UU Faith Works co-editor) I enjoyed collecting your best practices and sending them to you via different media. It’s hard to let go of something so embedded in my heart and mind, but change is just as sure as summer following spring. You will have LFD program director Dr. Tracey Hurd as your new editor, and will have each other in our ever-evolving “network of mutuality!”

One area of mutual concern and learning over the past years is the needed attention to issues of child abuse and interpersonal violence in our congregations. And we have come a long way in keeping our congregations safer and sounder. Check out these helpful new resources: Responsible Staffing: Guidelines on Screening Practices for Use by UUA Organizations When Adding Clergy, Professional Leaders, Staff, and Volunteers online at www.uua.org/mpl, Balancing Acts: Keeping Children Safe in Congregations online at www.uua.org/cde/ethics, and Safe Congregations Handbook: Nurturing Healthy Boundaries in Our Faith Communities available from the UUA Bookstore in June.

Your editors are delighted to send you this packet of resources to inspire and inform your winter/spring responsibilities. Take time to read The Amazing Story of John Murray by Frank Robertson for it truly will give you a fuller picture of our famous Universalist ancestor. To address the injustice and violence of our times, browse the many resources, programs and leadership development pages in this packet. And don’t forget to check out the wonderful contributions from your colleagues in our Community Building and Worship sections.

UUA 2005 General Assembly in Fort Worth, TX will bring celebrations and opportunities to all of us. The GA theme is Ministering to Families in Today’s World and we will celebrate the five-year anniversary of Our Whole Lives. We need YOU to be there … because who knows more about UU family values and comprehensive sexuality education than you?! And I’d love to express in person my affection and appreciation to you as I say farewell and auf weidersehen! We have been good companions in our UU faith work and I treasure our “network of mutuality.” My last words to you are MLK, Jr’s advice: “We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means. We shall hew out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.”

Shalom,

Pat Hoertdoerfer, co-editor
February, 2005