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.”