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These summaries describe the six UU University tracks at the 2009 General Assembly. The tracks are available on DVDs. If you would like to borrow the DVDs to view the entire contents of one or more tracks, please contact the Webmaster at webmaster@uuchurchlc.org.
Stewardship: Finding Our Common Wealth
Stewardship as Transformational Ministry
Rev. Cecillia Kingman, Rev. Jeanne Pupke
Stewardship can be a transformative ministry
- What resources do we have together to nurture our faith communities?
- How do we preserve our churches and reach out in bold new ways?
- How might we feel more secure in our personal and communal lives?
- What might our faith tell us about the meaning of true security?
- In what do we place our trust?
We believe that stewardship can be a transformative ministry to people’s daily lives and that stewardship education is a ministry to the whole person. Churches that minister to the entirety of people’s financial lives experience an authentic generosity among their members. These churches assist people in navigating a materialist culture and are then able to leave behind cajoling and coaxing people into giving.
Multigenerational: A Family Under One Sky
Ministry Across the Generations
Rev. Parisa Parsa, Robin Barraza
- How might we build the beloved community by living into the fullness of our common humanity through authentic relationship across the generations?
Our congregations are meant to be places where we find spiritual nourishment and challenge to live lives of meaning and purpose in the world. The multigenerational church is a vehicle through which we learn to practice our values. Intentional multigenerational ministry involves learning to meet the ‘other’ with curiosity and good will; embracing the richness and texture that diversity brings to a community; and questioning dominant assumptions about generalized groups of people and coming to know one another as we wish to be known. Witnessing the ways that the sacred speaks through each of us uniquely and listening for the sacred voice in one another’s experiences makes our whole community more in touch with the call of the divine.
Multicultural: Soul Work
Creating Welcoming Multicultural UU Communities
Rev. Alicia Forde
- How does our dream of Beloved Community shape our practice of Multiracial, Multicultural community?
- How can we become the “prophetic church,” dismantling systems of privilege and oppression to co-create a multicultural community of Love and Justice?
“Prophetic church, the future waits your liberating ministry…” We are that prophetic church; a covenantal faith moving toward Beloved Multiracial/Multicultural Community. Our second principle invites us to covenant to affirm and promote: justice, equity and compassion in human relations. Fulfilling this affirmation, this promise, requires that we attend carefully to systems of injustice in our midst and the hurts those systems cause. It requires that we be prophets, daring to work in this life for a Now that gets us closer to fulfilling the promise of our sixth principle: the goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all. Dismantling systems of privilege and oppression within our community faith allows us to co-create the Beloved Community of Love and Justice that we aspire to.
Governance: Lighting the Leadership Chalice
Rev. Rob Eller-Isaacs
The governance track of UU University helped us to explore the possibilities that excellent governance, closely tied to our values, mission and vision, can open up for our congregations and our future.
Questions asked and discussed:
- Would you like to see your congregation’s creativity and energy liberated to transform souls and bless the world?
- Have you been thinking there’s more your congregation is capable of achieving if only “the system” could better align and support its ministries?
- Are you eager to explore the possibilities for congregational governance with other open-minded, dedicated leaders?
We often think of governance as separate from a congregation’s mission and vision, as separate from the difference a congregation exists to make in the world. But what if we unite the way we do our congregation’s business with our deepest sense of mission and vision? What might that enable us to do?
Theology
Theology for a Secular Age
Rev. Dr. Galen Guengerich
- What distinguishes Unitarian Universalism from other faith traditions?
- What is the relationship between your personal faith and your religious community?
- As a person of faith, how do you balance religious wisdom and scientific insight?
Theology is the process of talking about faith in a thoughtful and organized way—how faith arises, what sustains it, why it falters, and where it can make a difference in our lives and world.
Today, theology stands at a crossroad. For centuries, theology has described how divine revelation accounts for our experience and dictates our actions. What happens to religion when reason, rather than revelation, becomes our most reliable source of knowledge?
In a secular age, people who believe in science can be genuinely religious—if theology itself is transformed.
Social Justice: A People So Bold
Justice and Congregational Mission
Rev. Meg Riley, Rev. Louise Green
- How does our faith ground us in social justice, theologically, historically, with spiritual practices?
- How does our faith hold brokenness, injustice, suffering?
- How do we develop prophetic voice?
- How do we create prophetic congregations?
- How do we mend a broken world?
Congregations which thrive focus not only on serving their members, but understand that serving the larger world is central to their mission. The Justice Track provided tools so that justice work is focused, effective and relevant to the whole congregation and the wider community.
