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
