Cluster Development: Forward, Together

Adapted by Carrie Stewart, Southwestern Conference, Southern Region Communications Task Force Member from a presentation created by Southern Region Staff.

“Although churches be distinct, and therefore may not be confounded one with another, and equal, and therefore have not dominion one over another, yet all the churches ought to preserve church communion one with another...” 

- Cambridge Platform, Chapter XV, Of the Communion of Churches One with Another, Section 1.

Cluster development is a key part of the work underway as the Districts in the Southern Region continue our work to establish a system to build and nurture dynamic congregations in strong relationships with each other. This work draws from the writings of the Cambridge Platform, which states that churches should cooperate in the following ways:

1. Mutual care and support for the good of the congregation and the advancement of the Faith.

2. Consulting with one another in regard to a church's experience, process, or practice.

3. Admonishing one another.

4. Sharing Elders and professional staff

5. Giving recommendations to members who wish to move to another congregation.

6. Giving financial support to churches in need.

7. Sending Elders to the neighboring churches to introduce themselves. 

8. Sending Elders to plant new churches.

Examples of what this cooperation might look like includes collaboration on and examples of practices, processes, policies, and procedures, having a greater social justice presence in a community, having joint leadership trainings, board retreats, teacher trainings, and other events, starting and supporting satellite congregations, sending elders who are experts in different areas between congregations, and supporting youth and young adult programming where critical mass may not exist.

What is a cluster? A cluster is a group of Unitarian Universalists working together in a deep, mutually covenantal relationship that gives individuals and congregations an opportunity to practice our shared Faith.  Clusters are intended to be logical, reasonable, and mutually beneficial.

A cluster is NOT a structure simply for the sake of structure, a bureaucracy, or mutually exclusive (a person, group, or church may belong to more than one cluster organization). It is not comprised of coerced relationships (You must “opt-in”), and they do not exist as the “New Districts”.

Geographic clusters are groups or congregations who are located in some proximity to each other.

Networks are groups or congregations who have particular characteristics or needs in common.

It requires time and intentionality to develop a cluster. The continuum of Cluster Development includes: 

No affiliation - Congregations and Unitarian Universalists have no affiliation with one another whatsoever. Congregations or Individuals may not be aware there are other churches or groups with whom they may affiliate. Congregations at this phase may or may not participate in the larger Association. 

Regional Staff can assist to

• Bring resources to the congregation from the UUA
• Help the congregation understand their relationship with the UUA
• Invite the leaders of the congregations to leadership experiences
• Introduce the leaders in the congregation to other leaders of nearby congregations to begin relationships

Beginning Affiliation - Groups of professionals, generally Ministers and/or Religious Educators, gather on a regular basis to offer collegial support to one another. No other groups or individuals are gathering at this time. If a congregation does not have any religious professionals, they are not present at these gatherings. Congregational leaders are aware that their professional staff are meeting in this manner and are thus aware that there are other congregations in proximity.  

Regional Staff can assist to:

• Introduce area professionals to the group and connect professionals to one another. 
• Introduce other groups together and provide ideas for reasons to meet. 
• Speak at professional retreats about faith development or associational affairs.
• Invite leaders to Leadership Experiences. 
• Encourage collaboration between professionals which have benefits outside of their own professional group.

Moderate Affiliation - Religious Professionals gather for more than collegial support. Coordinated efforts exist to provide programming and ministry to congregations. Groups of Lay Leaders meet around common goals or projects (e.g.  Social Justice chairs organizing joint public witness opportunities, Presidents gathering for study and leadership training.)Coordinated efforts take the form of events hosted by one congregation but put on jointly by all participating congregations. Successful practices and programs are shared between congregations through Elders.

Regional Staff can assist to:

• Help with budgeting for events and ministries
• Handle registration for events
• Assist with publicity for events
• Aid in communicating with the UUA
• Act as “talent” or assist in locating talent for events
• Encourage Elders to find opportunities to deepen their ministry together
• Invite leaders to Leadership Experiences.
• Provide resources for formalizing the cluster's structure and procedures.

Formal Affiliation - The cluster is a formal entity unto itself. The cluster has obtained 501C-3 status and may collect dues from its member congregations. The cluster is run by a board and may have several teams or task forces that provide programming. The cluster is active in the broader community.

Regional Staff can assist to:

• Connect the cluster with those in the UUA who can assist with legal issues.
• Assist with events in the manner prescribed previously. 
• Partner with clusters to provide large-scale programming and events.
• Partner with the cluster's Elders to provide health to the system and high-quality collaboration and communication between congregations.

Elders are necessary to the process of building Clusters as they typically gather for the sake of mutual support and furthering Unitarian Universalism. Elders move between and among congregations or groups, spreading wisdom and maturity through the system and tend to be in relationship to more than one congregation or group and thereby enhance and deepen the relationships between those congregations or groups. Elders, along with regional staff, ministers, religious educators and congregational leaders, together have an opportunity to live into our shared ministry values through cluster development work.

Southern Region Roundtable: Leaders freed up to change the world

By Margie Manning, Southern Region Communications Task Force

As you have read in this space over the last year, the Boards of Trustees of the four Districts in the UUA Southern Region, working in shared ministry with our Congregational Life and administrative staff, have been focused on preparing the Region for the important votes we will take at our April 17-19, 2015 Annual Assemblies.

Driving this work is the conviction we share that we can become a more effective association and a more vibrant faith movement by dissolving district governance and formally establishing a system to build and nurture dynamic congregations in strong relationships with each other.

When the presidents of the four boards gathered in Boston in early November for the District Presidents Association, we set aside some time to talk about why the changes we are making feel relevant to our faith and how it is moving forward. Here’s a transcript of our roundtable discussion.

Question: What's wrong with district governance?

Mark Anderson, The Southwestern Unitarian Universalist Conference, a District of the UUA: Four years ago we met in Orlando and developed the Orlando Platform. We gave up co-employment of staff. We suspended our ends in favor of the UUA ends. In the Southwest, in August we permanently did both of those. They had been trials and we felt the need to go ahead and formalize that we weren't going back. We no longer set a vision for our district, and having 20 visions for where the UUA was going, was not the right answer. Having a single vision feels like the right answer to me…so having a district governance body no longer makes sense. We've spent the last three years trying to figure out what we're doing and what we figured out is the right answer is we are getting rid of ourselves.
DeAnn Peterson, Mid-South District: I think the question is a little bit wrong, in that it's not broken. What is becoming more evident and more clear is that [consolidation of regional operations, finances and staff] does a much better job of supporting congregations in a more financially responsible way, in economies of scale. You can build the faith because it's more ministry-based than government-based.
Margie Manning, Florida District: We have people who are passionate about Unitarian Universalism, who we've got sitting on boards, not making decisions, because there's very little to decide, but spending a lot of time on not making decisions, when their talents could be out there serving our congregations. That's where I believe a lot of their passions call them to be.

Question: Who will run things if we don't have districts? Who's in charge?

Denise Rimes, Southeast District: We have a very dedicated and very bright board of trustees for the UUA. In terms of helping oversee and monitor the use of our assets, the UUA board is well equipped to do that. In terms of setting global ends and keeping us focused on those global ends, the board of trustees of the UUA is very well equipped to do that. By and large, our staff has done the vast majority of programming for the past several years; even though some of us are still program boards, the staff has certainly done yeoman's work on programming and they're very well equipped to do that. So in some ways, our district boards were pretending to be adding value to work that's being done extremely well by others. Here are all these amazing resources, people sitting on district boards, whose gifts and talents could be much better utilized, We can redeploy those resources because we have a very well-equipped UUA board and a very well-equipped staff to take care of all those things that district boards once did.

Question: Why not establish a regional board?

Mark: That was an idea the four boards discussed, but we saw boards as an idea that outlived their usefulness. We'd been stuck, and creating a new board that would start out stuck was a bad idea. MidAmerica [the region comprised of the former Central Midwest, Heartland and Prairie Star Districts] has a single board that is doing linkage work with the staff. We set up a different structure for that linkage work, but I expect that linkage work to happen.

Question: What are Elders going to do that is a function not being served right now?

DeAnn: There's an opportunity here for lay leaders to support the staff and support the congregations and support the faith in the way that boards often did on the side when they weren't doing governance, because they served as that middle leadership. The staff would ask for help - "What do you think about doing this?" - and it was often the boards that would be the place to go. There's still that role of advisement, spots for leaders to go when they want to seek leadership positions outside their congregational walls, and to promote connections between congregations, to build the faith. That is too big and too precious for the staff under current financial conditions to be able to do all of it. There's a huge role for volunteers and lay leaders to help that process.
Margie: Many of our congregations have done a very good job of growing leaders, but once a leader has gotten to the point that they have done just about everything there is to do in a congregation, it's time for fresh leadership to move in. But you don't want to lose those skills that have been cultivated. And there's an opportunity to build those connections between congregations by sharing this valuable, talented, educated, well-trained leader, and in turn helping other congregations grow leaders, grow the power of Unitarian Universalism in their own congregations. That's where I see the real value of Elders.Denise: And they enhance the connections to the broader faith, beyond congregational walls, as we create these opportunities for Elderhood and Elder leadership.
Mark: There's plenty of work to go around. The boards as boards - at least in the Southwest - we have not had time to do the work. We have seven Congregational Life consultants in the Southern Region; they don't have the time to do all the work there is to be done. Hopefully, the Elders will be able to step up, fill those holes and do the work that needs to be done in support of the vision of the UUA board and of the staff. The place I see it is in Central Texas. Natalie Briscoe is the staff person in charge of helping midwife the formation of a Central Texas Cluster and before I became president of the district that was an interest of mine. We have Elders in Central Texas that are stepping up to do that work and Natalie or I will be support for them and provide advice, but the Elders will be the ones actually doing the work. In young adult work, it's very hard for non-young adults to start a young adult group, because they are not young adults. At 42, I have no idea what would get a group of 20-somethings together and bond them but I could advise a group on how to structure themselves to do that. As someone in Central Texas, I have no idea what the Arkansas Cluster needs. The Elders in Arkansas are the ones who understand best what Arkansas needs in terms of a Cluster. So a lot of my answer goes back to Cluster development and enhancement work.

Question: What will be different about Clusters as we move into our new relationships?

Mark: I think we're going to have more active Clusters with both meanings of the word “more.” There will be numerically more Clusters that are active. And, the Clusters that are active will become even more active. I'm hoping throughout the region, throughout the country, we'll see churches working together to support each other more in the ways that they need it.
Denise: Clusters will be the way that our leaders - the people who would have been on boards - can get as involved and truly make a difference by virtue of having closer contact, more intimate contact with congregations nearby or with similar affinities.
DeAnn: And to do work outside specific congregational walls, to do the work that needs to be done in the world.

Question: What about the 5th Principle, which speaks to the democratic process?  How is the congregational voice going to be heard?

DeAnn: This is going to require some commitment from the congregations and specifically on the delegates from the congregations to be more informed active participants in the General Assembly. Before, we were in a fictional democratic process, but we were not good at informing and making sure that delegates were good representatives of our congregations and that needs to be built. There's a huge opportunity for us to toss aside the fiction and build the reality of sending good, strong, well-informed delegates that bring it back to the congregations to do the work that's accomplished at General Assembly. Those are words I haven't had a chance to say before - to build a better delegate.
Margie: Democracy has rights and responsibilities. It's not all just, I have the right to vote, but I don't have any responsibility to educate myself about what I'm voting for. You have that responsibility in greater society and you have that in your dealings in Unitarian Universalism.
Denise: I think the concept of Elders and particularly of Clusters is so much more grassroots and there's power in numbers. That's a way to aggregate that power, and to think about and talk about and learn about the issues and make the change that you want to see in your community and the world.
Mark: For congregations and Clusters that are really interested in continuing that democratic process, Clusters are a good way to do it. It will vary from Cluster to Cluster. I think there will be Clusters run by people with passion. There are others - North Texas is one of them - North Texas Cluster's board is a representative board, people on that board are elected out of the congregations and represent the congregations on that board. There's room for representative democracy within the Clusters if that's what the Clusters value.

Question: How are all these changes going to serve our faith and help us make a difference in the world?

Mark: The leaders we've been sending up to do governance work are now going to be freed up to lead us in changing the world.
Denise: Governance work is inwardly focused: How are we going to spend our money, manage the staff, or whatever it is we did as boards. This will free us up from a lot of that inward naval gazing. What will be left is all the work that's out there to do.
DeAnn: I can think of specific examples. One of the things we've been doing in the Mid-South is making sure congregational presidents know each other and can talk to each other. When you strengthen a congregational president and they know how to handle stewardship or how to help difficult people, you strengthen the lives of those who come into the congregation. We've got UUA consultants who are all about abundance and we could have lots of those kinds of facilitated conversations across lots of congregations, to work on abundance. Getting youth together across a region - not just a district but a region - to work on things. Social justice groups - so it's not just North Carolina during Moral Mondays, but all of Atlanta goes to Raleigh to help out with Moral Mondays. The Mississippi congregations – with not one minister there - helping that group to have fantastic Sunday services when they are all lay led because they Skype into Jake Morrill's congregation on a Sunday morning. So much work, so many specifics.
Margie: I’m thinking about my personal venture into Elderhood with the Florida youth group. It's so much more powerful to go and sit with a group and talk, rather than invite them to a board meeting and have them be an agenda item.... The one-on-one or several-on-several interactions that will come out of this through Elder connections or Cluster connections, the idea that we're putting our passions to work  - the natural consequence will fuel excitement for Unitarian Universalism.
Denise: I think we're at least for now unstuck. I think we were stuck, we were doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results, and you know what that defines: insanity. So I'm hoping this will work, we have every intention it will work, but at least, at the very minimum, we're unstuck, and even if we have to make some major adjustments, if we get more people to pay attention and get more input, we will have accomplished something I think.


The Southern Region Communications Task Force includes Margie Manning (Florida District), Carrie Stewart (SWUUC), Kirk Bogue (MidSouth), and Chris Reid (Florida), working in shared ministry with Kathy McGowan (Congregational Life Staff member), and Christine Purcell (Communications/IT Specialist).

UUA’s Southern Region Has a Plan – Elders in Action

By Kirk Bogue, Southern Region Communications Task Force

The Elder Model is part of The Work of growing Unitarian Universalism that the UUA’s Southern Region began earnestly in December 2010. UUA Southern Region district boards, working with UUA Trustees, UUA Administration, and professional staff deemed then that there needed to be a more effective way to serve member congregations and covenanted communities, the larger UU faith, and the world around us than the current district structure. It was then that they aligned and committed to The Work they would undertake to implement more effective and impactful ways of being together. The Elder Model is one component of The Work envisioned to be implemented with formal support from congregations at District Annual Assemblies across the Southern Region in April 2015. 

Imagine that your congregation begins formally recognizing Elders in your congregation and that it supports some of them to serve beyond your congregation’s walls as Regional Elders.  The Congregational Elders you support could be youth, young adults, or people of any other age. Elders are trusted and influential members of your congregation, who are able to articulate and teach the UU faith, have demonstrated that they understand and embody the shared covenant of the UU faith, and are able to call people back to covenant. Regional Elders are Congregational Elders sponsored by their congregation to serve the larger UUA more broadly - they stay in right relations with their home congregation, live UU values daily, and have a good relationship with other UU congregations or covenanted UU communities their congregation collaborates with. Their role is to serve the faith in a regional capacity, to represent the larger UUA at events to include building dedications, ordinations, installations, anniversaries, or other events that could occur. Additionally, they’d join one strong body of Regional Elders of all ministry types, such as ministers, professional staff and lay leaders.  It’s expected that Elders would both understand and appreciate the honor and responsibility conveyed to them. 

If there were a sermon just prior to a ceremony in which a congregation formalized its support of particular members as Elders, it would likely discuss the spiritual and practical responsibilities a UU congregation has to develop and recognize leaders within its own walls and to sponsor some of them to serve their faith beyond the boundaries of the congregation.  The message about this sacred responsibility would be simple. “It’s not enough that a congregation’s only involvement with other congregations is with The UUA when a vote is held at its annual General Assembly. The world will have more love, peace and justice when congregations work collaboratively with each other on selected causes where the combined force of their effort can make a colossal difference.”

If the application of the Unitarian Universalism is essential to lifting up and solving complex issues society faces, doesn’t our faith call us individually and collectively to bring that kind of leadership and organization to bear? 

The Southern Region Communications Task Force includes Margie Manning (Florida District), Carrie Stewart (SWUUC), Kirk Bogue (MidSouth), and Chris Reid (Florida), working in shared ministry with Kathy McGowan (Congregational Life Staff member), and Christine Purcell (Communications/IT Specialist).

Maggie Lovins on Covenant and Shared Ministry

by Margie Manning, Southern Region Communications Task Force

There is beauty in living in covenant. That’s a key message shared by Maggie Lovins, UUA Southern Region Congregational Life staff member.

Congregations are never alone and are always better together, Lovins tells those she works with. Living that concept plays a role in creating beloved community.

“I would like for everyone to have some kind of experience of transcendence – it could be personal, it could be communal, for instance participation in a Pride March – where the work of our human hands becomes more important than we are,” she said.

Deep conversations around covenant have been among the most exciting things Lovins said have occurred since she joined the Southern Region staff on Aug. 1, 2013. Prior to that, she served as an active lay leader, including working as a Smart Church Consultant and serving on the MidSouth District Board. In her home church in Pensacola, she was administrator for quite a few years, and also Children’s Religious Education Coordinator and Volunteer Coordinator.

Lovins, who has a wide, engaging smile, a frank manner of speaking and boundless energy, said she loves her job, because she gets to live her call. “I believe my ministry is with lay leaders and religious professionals and helping them to be the best UU’s they can be,” said Lovins, who is enrolled in Starr King's Masters of Divinity program.

One of the biggest challenges Lovins deals with is conversation around religious terms, while some people have shied away from for a long time. She believes talking about words such as covenant – what the word meant historically and what it has come to mean – and owning those terms is important and builds relationships among UU’s.

Being part of the Congregational Life staff team is a source of great strength, because her colleagues and her share frequent phone calls or gather at their online “water cooler” to discuss issues. While they are geographically separated, the system works because of their covenant with one another.

“When we struggle and fall down we get back up and lift each other up when that happens,” she said. “We want to see each other succeed because we are all working toward the same thing.”

Working toward the same goal – to heal and soothe hurt people and hurting places – with other staff members and with lay leaders is Lovins’ definition of shared ministry. “Shared ministry to me is we are all part of the whole. Some people have to lead, some people have to follow, but everyone has a piece of the ministry,” she said. “Evangelizing the South for Unitarian Universalism is a 24/7 job and I need all the help I can get in that.”

Southern Region Consolidation Plans Take Shape

By Margie Manning and Kathy McGowan, Southern Region Communications Task Force

Last month, the UUA Southern Region moved closer to consolidation among the four Districts after several days of meetings in Austin, Texas.

Congregations throughout the region will be asked to dissolve District governance at Annual Assemblies, April 17-April 19, 2015. The goal is to grow Unitarian Universalism in the Southern Region, by developing more relationships across geographic lines, allowing UU’s to learn from each other and better collaborate on issues of importance.

Working in covenant at the meeting in Austin, Executive Lead Rev. Kenn Hurto, Congregational Life and administrative staff, and the presidents of the four Districts talked about their visions for regional operations after the April votes. Also present were Rev. Scott Tayler, UUA Director of Congregational Life, and Vail Weller and Norrie Gall, UUA Stewardship & Development.

A multi-district task force is ascertaining the legal and financial issues that must be addressed in order for District governance to be dissolved. During the Austin meeting, Rev. Hurto and Rev. Tayler discussed a proposal to have the Southern Region become a “branch office” or “field ministries office” of Congregational Life, while also protecting regional assets.

Clusters and Elders are key parts of the structures that are emerging as the Region moves toward consolidation.

Congregational Life staff members have begun identifying the services they can provide to clusters of congregations that share a common geography, common interests or are working on common issues.

A multi-district task force is fine-tuning a plan to set up a structure that will ensure there is an active group of Elders (both lay leaders and religious professionals) who, in concert with Congregational Life staff, can serve and grow the faith by working with congregations and clusters.

Our elected leaders feel that regional consolidation is the best way forward, keeping in mind the vision of the Orlando Platform that recognizes duplication in governance, a thirst for more covenantal relationships, and a hunger to grow our faith. We ask you to stay informed about this work through communications on the Southern Region newsletter and website, and discuss it with your congregation and cluster.

The Southern Region Communications Task Force includes Margie Manning (Florida
District), Carrie Stewart (SWUUC), Kirk Bogue (MidSouth), and Chris Reid (Florida),
working in shared ministry with Kathy McGowan
(Congregational Life Staff member), and Christine Purcell (IT Specialist).

GIFT Deepens Congregational Connections

by Margie Manning, Southern Region Communications Task Force

With congregations in the UUA Southern Region moving towards stronger relationships and greater interdependence, we’ve also put in place a funding model that mirrors the covenantal nature of our faith.

GIFT – or Generously Investing For Tomorrow – is in its second year, and increasingly congregations are seeing this program as a way to deepen our connections with each other, with the region and with the UUA.

GIFT takes us out of a transactional relationship between congregations and the UUA, said Bill Clontz, UUA Stewardship Consultant. The Annual Program Fund and former District dues were based on per capita contributions and could feel like a head tax or a poll tax, while GIFT “gets out of the head count business and on a level plane,” Clontz said.

Under GIFT, a full ask is 7 percent of the actual operating expenditures of a congregation. While APF was a set number, based on membership, GIFT takes into account budget changes; if revenue falls, spending is likely to drop as well, and the percentage of that allocated for GIFT would decline.

“GIFT is the financial version of a potluck dinner,” Clontz said. “Everyone brings what they can.”

In the first year of GIFT, for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2014, contributions were $1.75 million, compared to $1.95 million in the prior fiscal year, when collections were based on APF and District dues. Regional and UUA executives had anticipated a drop-off in the initial year of the program, and the UUA provided the Southern Region with a $75,000 subsidy to offset the impact.

In the first year, congregations that contributed a minimum of 5 percent of their actual operating expenditures were considered Honor congregations; that will shift in the current year, with 6 percent contributors receiving the Honor designation but 7 percent remaining the full ask.

One significant outcome from the first year of GIFT – there were more than 500 additional members reported to the UUA from congregations in the Southern Region than in 2013, according to the Stewardship & Development Office.

With the former APF/District dues system, there could be a temptation to fudge the numbers, setting up an oppositional relationship, Clontz said. In contrast, GIFT is covenantal.

“It reminds us that the UUA is us, we support it,” Clontz said. “It’s caused a lot of congregations to ask a fundamental question – what’s the point of being in the UUA, what do we get out of it, what happens to the money.”

To address that question, the UUA has developed an extensive report on what accrues from membership in the association [LINK: http://www.uua.org/giving/apf/stewardship/185486.shtml] . “No one thinks you will need a mediator or have a shooting in your church, but the UUA provides help when you need it,” Clontz said.

And while it’s perfectly acceptable to ask what a congregation gets for its money, that’s only half the question. “There’s lots of things we could not do as individual congregations,” Clontz said. “The UUA and Region work on national and international levels and we give them the resources to do our work.”

Clontz cited the hundreds of people from 30 UU congregations who responded to a call and showed up wearing their yellow ‘Standing on the Side of Love’ T-shirts as the U.S. Supreme Court convened for the session to consider the Marriage Equality Act. “We can be 1,000 individual congregations, little candles in the dark, or we can be a connected grid.”

The Southern Region Communications Task Force includes Margie Manning (Florida
 District), Carrie Stewart (SWUUC), Kirk Bogue (MidSouth), and Chris Reid (Florida),
 working in shared ministry with Kathy McGowan (Congregational Life Staff), and Christine Purcell (IT Specialist).

Kathy McGowan: Together With You and Me, She’ll Build a Land

by Kirk Bogue, SR Communications Ministry

It’s no secret to those who know Kathy McGowan or have a congregation that has benefited from her involvement; she is all about relationship.  Prior to joining the UUA Southern Region Congregational Life Team in January 2013, and certainly since then, Kathy is among those spreading the word, instilling the practice and nurturing the spirit of Interdependence -  the concept that we are better working together than we are when we work alone. That was clear on a mid-August morning as she shared her views of our Unitarian Universalist faith and her role helping lay leaders and congregations strengthen their impact.  Somewhere during a 45 minute conversation with Kathy as she strolls through a North Carolina Farmer’s Market you might just begin to feel you’re at church.  Kathy has a passion and a message that can’t help but inspire you to bring more love and justice to a world that sorely needs more of both.

“Unitarian Universalism has a unique way of changing the world.  Each congregation, through their own Unitarian Universalist lens and their own unique mission, contributes to that”, expressed Kathy.  Along with other Congregational Life staff, Kathy upholds the notion that a congregation is an individual’s place to try to set an example, to be a model for how living together well works.  She adds, “This is where you live through the trials and honesty of how it really is, where you put values before the end product and then take that out into the world.” Then she reflects proudly on her collaboration with the UUA’s Faith Development  Office and a large North Carolina congregation to help it determine where on the continuum of its journey it is and where to go next.  Working with a large group to help them find their unique power is extremely rewarding and satisfying to Kathy. In her eyes, such success is all about the relationship connectedness that enables transformative collaboration to occur.

Such work is what teamwork on the Southern Region Congregational Life Team is all about.  Kathy explains, “We’re always working harder to be a better example for the world, it’s the most important thing our Southern Region staff team does.  We’re focusing on the core of our faith, which is relationship.  Unitarian Universalism as a faith is innovative at doing this. Getting along with people with diverse views is what we all are doing and need to do more of.” Kathy’s mom was a choir director and both parents were involved in Community Theater, so collaboration was part of her life growing up.  Whether it was the director looking out for the big picture, or the actor getting their part just right, or the costume designer focused on how everyone looked, it took the collaboration of all involved to create a successful performance. Bringing that to her adult life and adding in her penchant for humor translates to a natural gift of connecting and teamwork that Kathy brings to those she helps while she has fun doing so. “Getting people to water is harder than getting them to drink”, she says.  “I want them to have that special feeling of being part of something so much bigger.  Connectedness is essential so that.”

Since relationship is all about connectedness, Kathy discussed the role worship and celebration play in strengthening Unitarian Universalists relationships among the Unitarian Universalist faithful.  “Worship should be where we lift up what is most important; aspirational and worthy of our gratitude.  Finding moments that are worthy and then putting them together thoughtfully is important”, she says.  She continues, “Stop at real moments, stop and acknowledge the holy moments, self-reflect on what we did. Let’s stop and breathe and hold each other’s hand to connect.” On the role of celebration, Kathy emphasized her thought that we as Unitarian Universalists need to learn to celebrate better than we do.  “As predominantly middle class white people living in the United States, we are product, task and goal oriented.  We forget that joy is a value, we forget to live adding joy to our life.”   She believes that joyous events help people move forward, though she cautions, “Before we can celebrate, we need to do the hard work of achieving authentic trust.  That is what we are doing and what needs to be built.”  She clarifies, “You don’t want to have false celebrations emanating from obligation; you want the kind founded on true relationship and connectedness.”

Kathy was momentarily quiet when asked if she would share a defining moment or two from her life that has contributed to who she is or what she does to serve Unitarian Universalism. Eventually she shared, “There are spiritual dimensions to defining moments that are personal, that feel like they are yours.  It happens to her when she goes into a large church with a large pipe organ and they are singing one of her songs; taking in “We’ll Build a Land” in such a setting is connectedness to Kathy.  “You can’t exactly take it home, but you can’t leave it behind.  It gives hope and confidence.  It tells me we can become more relevant and important.”

Districts Create Southern Region Leadership Development Fund, September2014

by Margie Manning, Southern Region Communications Ministry

Leaders inspire and guide. While some are born leaders, many others learn leadership skills through purposeful development initiatives. Several studies have shown that leadership development matters and investments made in leadership development pay off in terms of strong organizations.


A fund to support leadership development throughout the UUA Southern Region has been established with the transfer of money in funds previously managed by the Florida and the MidSouth Districts.

The votes by the two District boards are an important step toward full regional consolidation. Our region already operates under one consolidated budget, approved at District Annual Assemblies in April and effective July 1, 2014. We continue to move towards dissolving District governance and building a Region of interconnected congregations and clusters, with Congregational Life staff working region-wide in a shared ministry model with Elders and lay leaders, and with appropriate fiscal oversight. Creating a single fund for leadership development region-wide furthers those goals.

The newly established Southern Region Leadership Development Fund was seeded with approximately $32,600. About $23,932 previously was in the Florida Fund Endowment. The new fund also includes most of the $6,747 that was in the MidSouth UP! Program Fund, and $1,912 that was in the MidSouth’s Rome, Ga. Dissolution Fund.

The Florida Foundation was started several years ago as a way to increase District staff, by building an investment large enough to fund an additional staff member with the interest from the fund, without touching the principal, according to Al Tweedy, treasurer of the Florida District. However, the number of major contributors was small and the amount never came close to its objective.

“The Florida District Board was faced with the necessity of moving these funds somewhere before the District could be dissolved. The current Florida board felt that the funds should be moved where the original intent of the Foundation would continue,” Tweedy said. “Since the ‘serving hands’
of the District will now be the Elders, and the Elders will need to be trained before they can serve, it was felt that providing funds to deserving Elder candidates who could not afford to attend the necessary training was a logical extension of the original purpose of the funds.”

The Florida District Board vote, on July 11, was contingent upon staff contacting those who could be identified as contributors to the Endowment and ascertaining that the move is in keeping with their wishes. That staff effort is underway.

A couple of weeks later, the MidSouth Board voted to merge the Rome, Ga. Dissolution Fund and most of the UP! Program Funds with the Florida funds already transferred to the Southern Region for leadership development. A portion of the UP! Program Funds were set aside for small congregations.

"When the MidSouth Board voted to combine our funds with the Florida funds for Leadership Development, we modified the motion to be sure that small congregations were represented,” said DeAnn Petersen, MidSouth President. “With many small, lay-led congregations in MSD, we felt that assuring that small congregations can send leaders to regional training was in the full spirit of the UP! and Rome funds. We are excited that having a regional fund will really help us build strong leaders throughout the region."

Rev. Kenn Hurto, Southern Region Lead Executive, said it will be up to a Fiduciary Oversight Committee, composed of the treasurers of the four Districts, to develop procedures for disbursement of the funds. We’re excited to raise up our faith in building capacity of our UU leadership  by developing Elders.

The Southern Region Communications Ministry includes Margie Manning (Florida
District), Carrie Stewart (SWUUC), Kirk Bogue (MidSouth), and Chris Reid (Florida),
working in shared ministry with Connie Goodbread and Kathy McGowan
(Congregational Life Staff members), and Christine Purcell (IT Specialist).

World Cafe Exercise from Joint Annual Assemblies, April 2014

World Café serves up UU stew:
A Message from the District Presidents of the Southern Region

Hundreds of UUs in the Southern Region put on their chef hats in late April to fine-tune a recipe for healthy, vibrant Unitarian Universalist congregations. Those who participated in the World Café exercise held at the annual assemblies for the Southern Region Districts determined the basic ingredients are in place to create a tasty UU stew, but it could be further refined with a few additional seasonings, and a bigger portion of covenant to bind the ingredients together.

We started with the assumption that five ingredients are needed to create congregations at which members work together, actively being generous with Unitarian Universalism and positively changing our communities and our world. Those ingredients are:

• a common vision for a better world
• mutual accountability to each other to achieve that common vision
• commitment to active shared ministry in our work
• engaging in productive ideological conversation regarding our goals and the means to achieve them
• covenantal behavior with each other, among our congregations, and across our association that fosters trust and leads to empowering each other

Participants split into groups to discuss the recipe and each group had a chance to suggest ways to add more spice. There were hundreds of comments offered. Here's a summary.

A commitment to a common vision is one ingredient we embody well. The world would miss our voice if it were not there, participants agreed, although there are opportunities to create even greater alignment. A unified voice can create those opportunities. Covenant is another ingredient that's key, because it enables us to commit together and have deep discussions, but we have work to do to define what covenant is and to build stronger covenants as we work through changes.

We need heaping spoonfuls more of several ingredients, including active shared ministry, greater connections, confidence in our theology and covenantal behavior. The ideas offered suggest our members need to be more engaged both in their own congregations and in our communities, share resources and ideas more freely, and take more personal responsibility for growing our faith.

The ingredients we are missing generally focus on how we get our work done. We need better ways to incorporate our diverse visions and resolve conflicts. Instead of congregations working in silos, we need to make resources accessible so they can work together. Let's create processes that raise awareness of opportunities for change and ensure we have all the right people at the table. Our shared spiritual practices could include forming groups that would bring in more people in our communities. Our connections with others must be done in the spirit of covenant, and that applies not only to external connections. There were comments that more trust is needed between the UUA and congregants.

While the concept of covenant threaded through each discussion, participants agreed we need to do a better job of defining it. We're not talking about a disruptive behavior tool or an agreement based on fear, but rather creating trusting bonds that embrace accountability and commitment, that assume good intentions and are focused on shared goals. Covenant in this sense is not a contract but a promise that comes from the heart.

Just as a good stew blends the flavors from each ingredient into a unique concoction, our ingredients can meld to create strong congregations that make a difference in the lives of individuals, our communities and our world. Let's build on our strengths, incorporate new flavors, and get on with the work of cooking up a stronger Unitarian Universalism in the Southern Region.

In faith,

DeAnn Peterson, Mid-South District
Denise Rimes, Southeast District
Margie Manning, Florida District
Mark Anderson, Southwestern Conference

For more information on the outcomes from the World Café exercise, click here.

Regionalization: Join the Journey! February 2014

UUA Southern Region – District Presidents’ Report
District Presidents’ Report – February 25, 2014

Unitarian Universalists in the Southern Region are on an exciting journey – a journey with a goal of ensuring the UU principles and the values we uphold in our liberal religious tradition can make a difference in the world.

We invite you to join us!

The path we are following on our journey has often been referred to as “regionalization” or “regional collaboration,” and what that really means is we are bringing the way we organize ourselves, our relationships and our structures, including our boards and staff, into line with a key part of our theology – our interdependence and the realization that we are stronger together than we are alone.

Starting point: Orlando, Florida
While the impetus for the journey has been years in the making, we stepped onto the road more than three years ago when representatives from the four districts that make up the Southern Region (Florida, Mid-South, Southeast, Southwestern Unitarian Universalist Conference of the UUA) gathered in Orlando in December 2010 to talk about how we serve our congregations and how to make the best use of resources. This gathering was the first step to heal a disconnection that was keeping us from doing our best work. What emerged was the Orlando Platform, an agreement to build working relationships among our district boards and create a sense of religious purpose for our work, while also identifying changes in our governance and shared ministry that could best support congregations and grow the impact of our faith.

Since then, each of our district boards have reduced the number of trustees who serve, with the idea that more volunteer talent might be put to use doing “hands-on” work and evangelizing (that is, spreading the good news) about Unitarian Universalism and its ability to change lives. Districts have ended co-employment of our field staff, who are now employed by the UUA and work in an integrated team, with each Congregational Life staff member able to share their own unique knowledge and strengths across the region. We put aside our own district “ends” or goals, in favor of the UUA ends, which are developed by trustees we all elect at our General Assemblies. We are piloting a new way of sharing our financial resources – the GIFT program, designed to bring fiscal equity across the region.

Mile marker: The Mountain, North Carolina
More recently, in September 2013, our four district boards and Southern Region staff met at The Mountain, a retreat in North Carolina, to evaluate and build on the work done in Orlando.

Also present was Jim Key, our UUA Moderator, who works with our UUA board to develop ends and strategic direction (the governance piece of our structure, which ensures the voices of our congregations are heard through the democratic process, or linkage), and Rev. Scott Tayler, the UUA Director of Congregational Life (DCL), who is responsible for staff management and program development (the operations/management element of our structure in which we “live the faith.”)

Just as our congregations gain strength from collaborations, the Southern Region is strengthened by drawing on and adding to the resources of our UUA. Jim and Scott’s understanding of and contributions to the evolution occurring in our region are vital to our ongoing success. Our work with them has helped us more clearly discern confusion and conflict that was occurring from duplicative roles district boards had with UUA Trustees setting policy, and it helped us clarify the distinction between our board’s governance and management related roles.

One outcome of the meeting at The Mountain was the formation of task forces whose members are made up of representatives of each of the four districts, working to develop ideas about the new ways we could be in relationship with one another.

As we worked through this process, each of our boards has re-affirmed our commitment to the Orlando Platform, including living in covenant with fellow districts in the Southern Region, and our fiscal strategy of a unified budget with regional equity.

We have affirmed our willingness as board members to becoming the initial facilitators, or Elders, who mentor, advise and connect congregations, often in clusters, so that those congregations can be more effective. In those roles, board members will focus on generative thinking – the process of creating new ideas – and away from governance work as much as possible, as that is the role held by our UUA Board of Trustees.

We have affirmed that as we live further into a common regional structure, we will work in collaborative groups made up of both district board members and regional staff, partnering in shared ministry to ensure that congregations develop strong relationships with other congregations, understand the resources that are available to them and have the opportunities to go to a deeper level. We also empower staff to further enhance their role in fiduciary and management activities.

We will continue to communicate what our boards and councils are doing, including planned upcoming reviews of district bylaws in the 2014-2015 fiscal year to assess how they fit with the new structures we have created. That could include dissolution of the district boards. The intention is to eventually get to one legal organization representing the region with appropriate fiduciary responsibilities.

The road ahead
Although district boards have entrusted staff management and program development to the Director of Congregational Life and have acknowledged that there is little for them to govern, we will keep them intact for now. The Chalice Lighter Program will continue at the district level, with districts sharing best practices, while we evolve into new structures.

The task forces on which our board members serve will transition into six multi-district councils:

• UUA Board Linkage Council - designed to strengthen the connection between our congregations and our UUA Board. This is key to our system of governance, to ensure that the voices of our congregations are heard, so each district board would appoint one member to serve on a regional linkage team.
• DCL Advisory Council - made up of district board presidents initially (and eventually a wider group of regional stakeholders) who will work with the UUA Director of Congregational Life as thought partners and advisors in the DCL’s role of staff management and program development. Their common goal is to make programming impactful to local needs. 
• Clusters Council - with the intentional effort to foster development of groups of congregations around a common purpose, allowing them to grow stronger as they develop interdependent relationships. Clusters are a form of small group ministry for congregations and a recognition that we are stronger together than alone.
• Elders Council - will work to identify Elders - wise leaders in our faith, no matter what their chronological age. Using the output from our initial Elderhood Task Force, the Elders Council will create systems for matching Elders with areas in which they can serve, such as cluster development or mentoring.
• Regional Fiduciary Council - provides unified regional budget oversight and asset management with cross-district representation.
• Regional Communication Council - assesses strategies and tactics appropriate to our new structures, including producing media and content that supports our relationships, while also serving an input function, facilitating inclusion and involvement of congregations in linkage to our district leaders and UUA trustees.

The Linkage and Communications council will collaborate to advance recommendations from the Democratic Process task force.

These councils will collaborate with each other as they do their work. While councils initially are being formed with leaders from district boards, other Elders will be tapped to participate as well.

Forward progress
Our journey has taken us a long way from the isolated silos in which we previously lived, to new relationships, crossing arbitrarily-drawn boundaries and into fields that are wide open with possibilities and promise.

Our district boards are excited about the foundations we have put in place and the road we continue to build, a road wide enough to accommodate all the congregations in the Southern Region as we collectively and joyfully journey towards a Unitarian Universalism that can most effectively change individual lives and the broader society in which we live.

Are you ready for what we can do together?

Respectfully submitted,

Ila Klion, President, Florida District
Kirk Bogue, President, Mid-South District
Denise Rimes, President, Southeast District
Kevin Bolton, President, Southwestern Unitarian Universalist Conference of the UUA
-On behalf of our District Boards of Trustees

Now I’ve Gotta Think about Clusters? The story of one. March 2014

From Orlando to The Mountain: Southern Region Collaboration and Transformation
The four UUA districts of the Southern Region met at The Mountain in September, 2013. There they created and announced plans (Mountain Meeting - Sept 2013) to further the goals and aspirations articulated in The Orlando Platform, which the same organizations (along with UUA Trustees, UUA Administration and UUA professional staff) jointly created at a meeting in Orlando, FL, in December, 2010. This is one article in a series that pertains to this transformative work to grow the impact of our faith in our UUA’s Southern Region.


You’ve probably noticed there’s a lot of talk about ‘clusters’. You may not have heard the meaning of the word in our UU context, let alone participated in any activities. Clusters can be thought of as a kind of small group ministry for congregations and can take many forms. Typically, clusters form around a geographical area. Clusters may also be formed through affinity groups, established around common interests.

Forming and developing clusters of neighboring UU congregations in a geographical area is a strategy for increasing the benefits of our polity in aiding congregations other than our own. Now we know, ‘neighboring’ can be a stretch – especially in my district SWUUC, where Amarillo, Midland and Lubbock are working on a cluster several hundred miles long.

And why talk about clusters in the context of regionalization? It may be counter-intuitive, but while our staff and governance resources may be organizing regionally, our use of those resources and others can be increased and leveraged through clusters.

We are fortunate here in Dallas, to be part of North Texas Unitarian Universalist Congregations (“NTUUC”, formerly “NTAUUS”), 13 congregations with over 2500 Unitarian Universalists from Fort Worth to Dallas to Tyler, Texas – about 300 miles wide. For 45 years, our congregations have joined forces to grow Unitarian Universalism, and make a difference in north Texas. Although the beginnings may not be replicable – NTUUC owned an apartment building for HUD subsidized housing which it sold creating a $2m endowment – the functions are.

The endowment produces approximately $160,000 per year. About half of that is awarded to our member congregations in grants of up to $10,000 for projects, staffing, materials and annual teacher training and dinner. The other half is used for programming, guided by a board of delegates from each congregation (including a employing a part time Executive Director) who in turn serve on committees of the board. The programming budget is used to host an annual awards luncheon with keynote speaker where the grants are given and received, an annual leadership conference, and annual Boards training. In addition, there are one-day educational programs on issues such as reproductive justice, media training and social justice.

But this is after 45 years, and only a dozen or so years since the endowment was created. It’s possible to start with small gatherings, self-funded, using the resources of people in the cluster, and calling on our regional Congregational Life Staff. It can start with the congregation Presidents meeting for lunch, then expand to a Boards gathering, or maybe a joint social justice project or choir sing.

Through these programs, members from our congregations learn, worship and socialize with one another, building relationships and sharing best practices as well as burdens of leadership. Imagine if you had the opportunity to develop relationships with Unitarian Universalists in other congregations nearby in similar roles with similar challenges, with perhaps different perspectives. How might that enhance your role in your congregation to the benefit of your congregation? How your congregation and the experience of every member might, be transformed?

Carrie Stewart,
Trustee, SWUUC Board
Member, Communication Task Force on behalf of the Southern Region Leadership

What is “Regionalization?" (in five minutes or less): February, 2014

From Orlando to The Mountain: Southern Region Collaboration and Transformation
The four UUA districts of the Southern Region met at The Mountain in September, 2013. There they created and announced plans (Mountain Meeting - Sept 2013) to further the goals and aspirations articulated in The Orlando Platform, which the same organizations (along with UUA Trustees, UUA Administration and UUA professional staff) jointly created at a meeting in Orlando, FL, in December, 2010. This is one article in a series that pertains to this transformative work to grow the impact of our faith in our UUA’s Southern Region.

The article below is adapted from a presentation by Kirk Bogue, President of the Mid-South District, to the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Montgomery, Montgomery, AL, on February 2, 2014, after they warmly hosted the Mid-South District Board Meeting.

I bring a warm welcome and much gratitude to be here with you. I am like you, our staff and fellow board members in that I carry the light of the flaming chalice in me as I participate in the work of our faith.

My hope is that in a few minutes you will be more aware and comfortable with words like “regionalization,” “elders” and “clusters,” as they are all about creating more light from flaming chalices - here, in other congregations, and in between.

If you could look at earth from high in the sky…imagine that you could see the light from flames in our chalices…you’d would see them around our district and region…a few in Mississippi, some in Arkansas, Florida, South Carolina, in Alabama, one right here in Montgomery. In the past you might see a flame moving from one to another…picture that as our District Executive…visiting congregations, helping with training or a transition. Occasionally you might see light from many places converging in fall or spring for a district event.

Now envision more light moving among and between more places… those might be elders – leaders in our faith, from congregations like yours serving beyond your walls with your blessing, in a shared ministry with staff or consultants, extending the hand of support to more congregations when the need is there, helping there be more service than staff / consultantscan provide alone.

Imagine more connectedness of congregations coming together with each other…we would call those clusters for the moment, to jointly take on challenges or opportunities to bring more effectiveness to themselves and more love to a world that needs more peace and justice. Clusters, a form of small group ministry for congregations, reflect that we are stronger togetherthan alone. And now imagine the lights that don’t move - those of congregations, these become brighter and more prevalent across the landscape because there are new ones and the existing ones have grown stronger through connection and development. If you go back to our perch in the sky, you may now see enough lights that it looks like a web - an interconnected web.

Creating and nurturing and relying on that interdependence is what we mean when we say “Regionalization.”

You should know that I came from a congregation that used to wonder why we paid dues to the UUA or the district. The UUA was known either as Boston, or “them”! It took me awhile as a Unitarian Universalist to understand that we are a covenantal faith and what that can mean. Thinking about others in my association with disdain or lack of trust certainly doesn’t reflect “being in covenant” to me.

I hadn’t thought about work at the district level until I was asked to serve. It was there, working with other districts, our district staff, UUA staff and our UUA trustees that I realized two things: the first was how disconnected things were at times, and the second, how much we all wanted to change that. And so our “regionalization” work began to envision a new way. Over three plus years now the following is happening:

First, it is no longer “them” or “The UUA”, it is “Our UUA”! This is our association and we all (ministers, staff, congregations, UUs) need to claim it, support it and nurture it. We can’t just live our seven principles in our local lives; we need to live them across our faith, including our association.

We don’t believe there should be governance in two places; it isn’t healthy to have district policies conflict with UUA Ends (also known as goals). There is a structure for governing our faith through UUA trustees and we should make that work through shared ministry as it relates to governance. Let’s turn the duplicative effort and confusion that causes into alignment and more feet on the ground making a bigger impact.

Instead of all the checks and balances of power, and the shared management and control of staff silos with the Director of Congregational Life, let’s trust, empower and partner with each other; let there be a single management point for staff for their clarity, for their development and for their effectiveness, and let them become a true team where their talents and strengths can be truly leveraged to support us.

Fiscal inequity in how we make payments to the UUA and how money gets distributed back to districts isn’t equitable; let’s change that, too.

Instead of monitoring staff, let’s spread the impact by ministry alongside them, and instead of being custodians of money, let’s focus more on being custodians of congregational connections. After all, relationships –how we interact and connect – how we interdepend on each other – that’s our most important asset.

During this time that we have worked in covenant with other districts, staff, trustees and UUA administration – which we now include in the word “staff” when we say that, we declared that the UUA goals, those which we already help create through trustees, are our goals, too, and that we will align with them in serving our congregations.

We have formed a strong partnership, one with trust and empowerment, with several in UUA Administration, most notably Scott Tayler, the new Director of Congregational Life. He is excellent at vision and planning and he has truly helped us discern the separation between governance and doing the “operations” or work of our faith. We feel heard, respected and looked out for because he is inclusive and demonstrates accountability.

Staff members from four districts in our region (SED, FLD, SWUUC, and MSD) have formed an integrated team, working together and leveraging strengths, the result of which is a new level of relationship building, training, workshops, leadership development and support.

We’ve implemented a one ask, one unified budget plan for fiscal equity across the region – you should know that as GIFT (Generously Investing for Tomorrow), which started last year in our region as a pilot for the rest of the UUA – just one of the many ways our region is a leader.

We are forming multi-district councils in our region to more efficiently manage money/assets, to partner with the Director of Congregational Life and staff, to put more energy into expanding the impact of lay leadership and connecting congregations.

Though we don’t see there is much for district boards to govern, they are not going to be dissolved at this time. We will use part of that structure to better connect congregations with district and regional leaders as well as trustees.

We are at a point to realize one part of our dreams a few years ago - how do we get lay leaders who spend time on duplicative governance work out on the street growing our faith.

So where do congregations come in? It has been harder than I thought over the past few years to adequately represent congregations I was elected to serve. Part of the reason was the system, and part is your role.

Part of our covenant is that people who represent you be connected with you. It was hard to do that initially, in large part because of the time required on other tasks. Given the work I mentioned above, your district leaders now have the time and we do have the action item to develop connection to each congregation we serve. We developed our plan for that just yesterday.

Where we have tried to be connected with congregations directly, I will share that effort has been challenging. Part of our covenant to each other is that we be accessible. By accessible, I mean that a congregation’s contact information is current at the UUA or on their websites. And part of our covenant is that congregations send leaders to the places where connections and learning can occur. It will always be “we” and “them” until we all show up to connect and make it “us”. So I urge you in your congregations to find a way to make that happen.

From my place in high in the sky, I am seeing the interdependent web of our faith across our region show more movement, be in more places and shine brighter. I’ve never been more excited about our faith. I congratulate you for the work you are doing here, as from where I sit, the light in Montgomery is also growing stronger!

Kirk Bogue

President, Mid-South District

Member, Communication Task Force on behalf of the Southern Region Leadership

What Do Regional Changes Mean for My Congregation & Its Relationships? January 2014

From Orlando to The Mountain: Southern Region Collaboration and Transformation
The four UUA districts of the Southern Region met at The Mountain in September, 2013. There they created and announced plans (Mountain Meeting - Sept 2013) to further the goals and aspirations articulated in The Orlando Platform, which the same organizations (along with UUA Trustees, UUA Administration and UUA professional staff) jointly created at a meeting in Orlando, FL,
in December, 2010. This is one article in a series that pertains to this transformative work to grow the impact of our faith in our UUA’s Southern Region.

What do the changes being contemplated in the UUA Southern Region and its Districts mean for my congregation and my congregation’s relationships with others?


Relationships are at the heart of all we do together. Unitarian Universalism is a covenantal faith. We are individuals and congregations that have made a promise – a covenant – to one another: that we
will walk together in the spirit of love, service and justice. That’s the value in which our relationships are grounded.

As we each continue to grow into our own understanding of Unitarian Universalism, and as our congregations in turn expand in size and maturity, many hunger to be part of something bigger, an organization with the scale and resources to put love and service to use in a way that will bring justice and truly make an impact on our world.

At the same time, we treasure the close ties and friendships we have made with those in our congregation and with other congregations in our cluster, our state, our District. We have established a bond of trust with UUA staff and know just whom to call when we need help or want to get the word out about a project.

It’s understandable to wonder what will happen to those relationships, now that the one or two staffers we have worked with in the past are part of the Southern Regional Staff of seven Congregational Life field consultants and four administrative staff members. It’s challenging to envision a new model that lacks District governance but has more and stronger clusters, a model in which volunteers with a passion for service and a talent for leadership cross congregational lines to foster shared ministry.

Where we are today is the world of “no more” and “not yet.” While we worry about the loss of what we know, we also embrace the exciting possibilities of what is yet to come, which we believe will be deeper relationships that better allow us to serve our faith.

Congregations can learn best practices, collaborate on service projects and provide mutual support in strengthened or newly created clusters, affirming that every organization, no matter its size or resources, has much to offer another, reinforcing the “we” - the interdependence that is at the heart of
healthy relationships.

Those who have sat on District boards as trustees with little to govern – having earlier given up staff supervision and most District budgetary oversight – can instead put their energies, talents and resources to use to identify Elders or bring their own leadership skills to bear in the delivery of service.

Elders - those with wisdom, no matter what their chronological age – can teach specific skills to individuals and congregations or can help develop leaders across the Region who have the vision to take us to new ways to love and serve. These individuals – who are eager for ways to live their passion for Unitarian Universalism – will help forge new bonds within our denomination without
having to leave their own congregations to do so, feeding their own souls and deepening their commitment to our faith.

We will work in collaboration with our expanded Southern Region staff team, led by the Rev Kenn Hurto, a staff each of whom has unique skills and expertise to offer, as well as Unitarian Universalist Association staff and trustees, including UUA Congregational Life Director Rev. Scott Tayler and Jim Key, UUA moderator. We can multiply our resources and our ability to live our covenant,
expanding the base on which our relationships are built and paving the ground for new and deeper relationships.

We have begun to open up, to reach out and connect across previously drawn, arbitrary, artificial lines. We have wonderful communities in our congregations, but maintaining that vitality does not only fall on the shoulders of a handful of, or a dozen leaders. None of us is alone. Others similarly situated carry the flame of Unitarian Universalism. It is a brighter flame when we come together.

Margie Manning
Secretary, Florida District Board of Trustees
Member, Communication Task Force on behalf of the Southern Region Leadership

How Is My Voice Being Heard? December 2013

From Orlando to The Mountain: Southern Region Collaboration and Transformation
The four UUA districts of the Southern Region met at The Mountain in September, 2013. There they created and announced plans (Mountain Meeting - Sept 2013) to further the goals and aspirations articulated in The Orlando Platform, which the same organizations (along with UUA Trustees, UUA Administration and UUA professional staff) jointly created at a meeting in Orlando, FL, in December, 2010. This is one article in a series that pertains to this transformative work to grow the impact of our faith in our UUA’s Southern Region.

I wasn’t in the room when you made decisions at the September 2013 meeting at The Mountain, how is my voice being heard/am I being represented?

One of the many gifts of our Unitarian Universalist faith is the commitment to our Fifth Principle, the use of the democratic process. So often as humans we feel not listened to and unheard. When we bring our whole selves, our most vulnerable selves to our faith community in church, we have a deep desire to be respected and appreciated for our unique selves, and recognized for our contributions. Our adherence to our Fifth Principle sets out a process and a promise that allows us to participate in determining the direction of our congregations and of our religion, where all can contribute and be heard.

The other part of our democratic process includes electing representatives who act on congregants’ behalf. Use of democratic process underlays the way all districts in the Southern Region are proceeding with their work. The process decisions made at the September 2013 meeting at The Mountain will culminate in recommendations all boards would like the congregations in their districts to adopt at upcoming annual meetings each district will hold. The work included commitments to complete due diligence and planning required to ensure recommendations are viable and appropriately shared. It included the creation of four Task Forces to work on separate concerns:
Communication, Democracy, Elders and Fiduciary. Each Task Force is comprised of members from each Board. In January, the four Task Forces will bring recommendations to the four Boards for consideration Annual Assemblies/ District Annual Meetings in April, 2014.

Nominating Committees are charged with seeking out leaders and elders in the faith to serve the interests of their Unitarian Universalist constituents. A new wave of Nominating Committees are transitioning into Leadership Development Committees reflecting a transformation that recognizes the focused investment in growing leaders our districts and region have made over the last several years.

As elected leaders and as elders of our Unitarian Universalist faith, the Trustees of the boards of the Southern Region Districts represent the interests of our 30,000 Unitarian Universalists in 218 congregations. We engage with our constituents at district events and in our own congregations. Further, we are informed by meeting together either in person or virtually across the region, and at General Assembly. Part of our fiduciary responsibility is to ensure vitality and growth of our congregations and of our faith. We have been elected to serve this purpose to our best ability, and
what we have discerned is in the best interests of our faith. What have we been called to do? We have been called, as elders, to help one another. And as you see, the Democratic process is two-way communication.

Additionally, we work in a shared ministry model with the Southern Region Field Staff Congregational Life Consultants. These currently seven faith professionals provide resources and perspectives from their work with congregations, and at district and regional events. Their focus on leadership, faith development, covenant and healthy congregations brings the best elements of our aspirations for growth – organically, maturationally, incarnationally, as well as numerically.

The final recommendations that boards would like their respective district’s congregations to adopt will be finalized and documented in official Annual Meeting Notices that each district must send for items to be voted on at Annual Assembly. Only at Annual Assembly meetings can the recommendations made at The Mountain become decisions. This is where your voice can be heard April 25-27, 2014.

Carrie Stewart
Trustee, Southwest Unitarian Universalist Conference Board
Member, Communication Task Force on behalf of the Southern Region Leadership

Why Remember Why? December 2013

From Orlando to The Mountain: Southern Region Collaboration and Transformation
The four UUA districts of the Southern Region met at The Mountain in September, 2013. There they created and announced plans (Mountain Meeting - Sept 2013) to further the goals and aspirations articulated in The Orlando Platform, which the same organizations (along with UUA Trustees, UUA Administration and UUA professional staff) jointly created at a meeting in Orlando, FL, in December, 2010. This is one article in a series that pertains to this transformative work to grow the impact of our faith in our UUA’s Southern Region.


Nowhere can I find a Unitarian Universalist, let alone a group of us, who believes there is a finite end to our seven principles, that the world is well and good enough the way it is currently, and that we have finished the work of our faith and can move on. In fact three years ago, I found the opposite.

I found Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) Trustees, UUA Administration leaders, along with District Executives and Staff, UU Clergy and District Board Members from the four districts of the Southern Region, who all proclaimed our faith wasn’t working near as well as it should or could be. Since we cared deeply about the purpose of our faith, we decided to make sure that we strengthen our ability to both bring and achieve love, peace and justice in our corner of a wounded world. Inspired by a noble cause and the camaraderie of faithful brothers and sisters, we made the shared commitment to build a more effective and impactful faith.

As Unitarian Universalists, whether we deem ourselves, our congregations, or our leaders co-conspirators of the deeds that yield love, peace and justice or not, all parts are just that. And thus, remembering how our thoughts, our words and our actions are connected to this work can help us be present with what we are about and centered in how we go about doing what we say we need to do:

• Remember, as each of us declares we are Unitarian Universalists that we are embarking on our own spiritual journey, that in doing so we are pledging our support to each other’s spiritual journey, and that we are being called through our faith to spread the good news and do the good work that brings heaven to earth.
• When we as individuals join a Unitarian Universalist affiliated community, remember that we covenant to help that larger local community affirm its support and furtherance of our seven principles, be healthy in accordance with those principles and among each other organizationally, and be welcoming to others who would like to join and further our cause and that we do these things every day of the week.
• When our congregation/fellowship joins the Unitarian Universalist Association, remember that it covenants with all other UUA congregations/fellowships to grow our faith supporting our seven principles and to support each other. Remember that we are stronger together facing the challenges we’ve taken on than we are as congregations/fellowships alone and on our own.
• When we do our work as congregational leaders remember that we are helping our own community be effective and healthy on its own, be a good steward to the UUA and other communities we covenant to support, and that while we do our work we are teaching and learning ourselves.
• When we work as leaders of UUA institutions beyond our congregation’s walls remember that we are to lead by example, modeling the principles and elements of Beloved Community that we seek. Remember that we work for the good of the entire faith – for Unitarian Universalists everywhere – as a member of a faith community that unconditionally stands on the side of love.
• When we pledge and deliver our financial support to the work of our individual congregation or fellowship, remember that we are demonstrating our commitment to the vision and mission of such a Beloved Community’s work as well as our own values.

When our congregation and fellowships pledge financial support to the UUA remember that we are supporting that which binds us all together, that which feeds and fuels our ability to carry out our faith rituals and practices, that which enables us to speak to the world as one voice, and that which demonstrates our support to other congregations and fellowships dedicated to and formally affiliated with our common mission and values.

The group that inspired me three years ago helped me realize that not until we live the faith inside can we make our most significant impact outside. The group I work with today is similarly comprised as that group in terms of entities/organizations represented and includes some of the same people. And it is similarly in accord with supporting the direction we conceived back then and championing the next iteration of the plans we formalized this past September.

So while the journey of our district’s regional transformative and collaborative work will be imperfect, keeping the aforementioned remembrances in mind will keep it focused and attainable. As long as we continue to connect and communicate about our shared values and mission, imparting more love, peace and justice upon our world, upon our region of the world, will always be a noble and worthy endeavor.

Kirk Bogue
President, Mid-South District
Chair, Southern Region Communication Task Force