January 21, 2022
Congregational Letter: Two Major Initiatives
As we continue to protect ourselves through the Covid pandemic, our Tripod leadership team has been busy over the past months considering important initiatives for RVUUF’s future. Our Tripod includes the Board, our Minister and the Covenant Committee (formerly known as the Committee on Fellowship Ministry (CFM)). We held two Congregational Conversations, in December and March, to differentiate each Tripod role and then, just as importantly, to elicit the roles of the Congregation in governance (these roles will be reprised in the final paragraph).
Our Purpose, our Mission and Vision — interconnected in the diagram above — inspire our planning and activities. We drafted specific “Learning Goals” which make this planning more concrete and measurable. We drafted “Ends Statements” which envision a day-in-the-life: what would it be like at RVUUF in 5 years? Then, we focused more.
How can we live our Mission: “Empower Connection” with each other and with the larger community, especially if meeting in person continues to be difficult?
How do we achieve one of our Learning Goals: “Collaborate with/support SOUUP —Southern Oregon UU Partnership (i.e., Grants Pass and Klamath Falls)”?
How can make one our End Statements more real: “RVUUF’s influence extends throughout the Rogue Valley and beyond through its many programs and venues that together support its ministry of serving all humanity and the human spirit”?
The Tripod has discussed how to address these questions and approved two major initiatives that invest in RVUUF’s future:
- live-streaming of Sunday worship
- becoming a teaching congregation.
Live streaming from the sanctuary can provide a more engaging, inclusive worship experience than pre-recorded services on YouTube or live services on Zoom. As our re-opening policy permits, initial live services might consist solely of the Minister and a small number of congregants from the Worship and Music teams. The next stage might help a small number of congregants to take turns attending in person, while others participate from home. Even after RVUUF fully reopens, those who are busy, ill or traveling could still feel included. Live streaming helps RVUUF adapt to an ever-evolving communication and cultural environment and will widen our outreach to families and younger members. It gives us the flexibility to provide high quality services to our congregation and visitors —both real-time over the internet, and recorded for later viewing. It supports our mission by connecting us more often to Grants Pass and Klamath Falls. RVUUF would become more resilient, being able to quickly pivot to fully online services in the event of another pandemic, emergency like snow closures, or disaster like another wildfire.
Walter Ensign and the Technology Committee, in collaboration with Worship, Music and an outside consultant, prepared a detailed proposal to add video cameras in the sanctuary, to upgrade lighting, internet connection and sound system and to train more volunteer operators. The Board approved the proposal.
Teaching Congregation. Given our successful experience with Alison Sutherland who served this past year as a Ministerial Intern for Grants Pass, Klamath Falls and RVUUF, Rev. Sean and the Intern Committee urged that we become a Teaching Congregation. This UUA program benefits both the intern and the congregations involved. It would help Rev. Sean become a better minister, by expanding the program activities that could be offered and diversifying ministerial voices. By sharing an intern, we strengthen our SOUUP congregations and connections. By becoming a teaching congregation, we deepen the pool of future UU ministers to support the broader UU community.
Krynn and Alex Lukacs volunteered to lead the process and to submit the formal application for RVUUF to become a Teaching Congregation to the UUA. They discussed the program with the Grants Pass and Klamath Falls congregation and briefed the Tripod. The UUA would provide partial funding to offset the interns’ salaries and expenses for the first two years that RVUUF hosted ministerial interns, 50% for the first year, and 25% for the second. Rev. Sean committed to mentoring the interns, and an Intern Committee would be appointed to assist. After further discussion, the Board approved the submission of the application for an Internship beginning late Summer/early Fall 2022. The application was submitted on October 27th and was approved by the UUA in December. RVUUF is now considered an ongoing “Teaching Congregation” and has been qualified to offer teaching internships through the UUA ministerial internship program to interested ministerial interns in the future. Rev. Sean is currently soliciting applications for the first internship position (to begin mid-August of this year) and will decide among the interested candidates and complete the hire by March 1st.”
We deemed news about these two initiatives to be important enough to deserve a separate congregational letter, since many of you don’t have time to regularly read the Tripod minutes and we didn’t want to defer this exciting news until the next congregational meeting — thereby assisting your 1st congregational role of “awareness.” Both of these initiatives support, synergistically, our Mission, and the Learning Goal and End Statement that we’ve deemed crucial to RVUUF’s future — better “connection”– which is also the 2nd congregational role. Finally, these initiatives entail significant financial and time commitments and we will be asking for your support — your 3rd congregational role of “involvement.”
In Faith,
Julie Gillis —on behalf of the Tripod
Board:
Donna Barrett, President-elect
Jean Crawford
Julie Gillis, President
Roger Howe, Treasurer
Alex Lukacs
Vida Taylor
Steve Weyer, Secretary
Covenant Committee:
Suzanne Andersen, Chair
Aleyda Mark
Marika Mooyman
Jeff Platt
Minister: Rev Sean Parker Dennison