Good People, 
  On the next two Sundays after church, we are going to have meetings about our long-term and immediate financial sustainability. The meetings are important and related, and I want to give you some overall context for them both.
 
UUCV has been in a Very-Good-News and a Not-So-Hot-News financial situation for several years. The short version is that there are two measures of financial health for institutions. We are Amazing at one of them, and Struggling with the other. The pandemic did us no favors with the struggling part.
 
The Amazing
This congregation has the strongest reserves of any of the churches I have served or belonged to. It has been a long-term practice of the Finance Committee and Board that we keep the equivalent of three month’s expenses in a reserve account, as is recommended by financial planners. We currently have enough to cover 8-month’s expenses. And that does not include our Legacy Funds or the other dedicated funds we hold. This situation has been created by the legacy generosity of several church members and the careful stewardship and management of the funds by several iterations of Finance Committees and Boards.
 
In short, we have a lot of money in the bank(s), and can weather a financial hit or two without great disruption.
 
The Struggles
For a decade or more, the church has operated on deficit budgets. We have found an interesting variety of ways make it through those deficit years without dipping into reserves. Indeed, the Board, Finance Committee, and Generosity Team had nearly gotten us back on sustainable footing in fiscal year 2018-2019. The pandemic hit our budgets hard, though we made up those deficit budgets with grants and PPP loans/grants. 
 
In short, we continue to have a deficit problem.
 
What Next?
As we surface on the other side of the pandemic, we need to pick up the work of regaining our footing and funding sustainable budgets over time. So, the Generosity Team recommended that the Board hire UUA stewardship consultant Kay Crider to help us strategize a 3- to 4- to maybe a even 5-year plan to regain sustainable footing in both measures of institutional financial health – that we have both money in the bank in reserves and legacy funds for new initiatives and we are able to regularly pass balanced budgets that fund our mission, programs, and staff.
 
Kay has been consulting with the Generosity Team and Board all fall. For these last couple of weeks, she has been meeting with a variety of church groups to get to know our community, our mission, our dreams, our gifts, our challenges. 
 
She also has a survey for us to fill out HERE.
 
Two Meetings

• Kay will be sharing her ‘findings’ with everyone after church this Sunday, Jan. 16 at 11:30 on our worship Zoom link.
• The following Sunday, Jan. 23 at 11:30, also on our Zoom link, the Finance Committee with hold our annual Mid-Year Budget Review.  

These two meetings are overlapping though different in focus. On Jan. 16th, we’ll be looking at our long-term goal and a process to get there. On the 23rd, we will be focusing on the details of this year’s budget. 
 
The hymn Woyaya has a line that says, “We will get there. Heaven knows how we will get there, but we know we will.”  Between both of these after church meetings, we will have a much clearer picture of “how we will get there…”
 
I encourage you all to attend both. 
With hope and faith,
Rev. Dana

Dear Ones,

We’ve gotten so good at turning on a dime with the latest news of Covid spread. 
We’ve gotten good enough that sometimes we forget how exhausting it is. 
We forget to check in with ourselves in body, mind, and spirit. 
 
So, this is a reminder to you all to check in with yourself – and with each other. 
And take care of yourself – and of each other.
 
The last two years have been ridiculously trying times. 
For all the times you have risen to the occasion, give yourselves – and each other – a pat on the back.
For all the times you have been impatient, annoyed, angry, sad, lonely, give yourselves – and each other – a hug.
 
I suspect for many, the news of our return to online, Zoom worship feels like a punch in the gut. 
I know many are feeling lonely and isolated, and it just hurts. This seemingly endless pandemic will be behind us eventually. We will cross something like a finish line, though lines are so fuzzy these days, we may not realize it until we’ve past it.
 
Sigh. 
 
And please, please do not suffer in silence. Please reach out to family and friends in the church and beyond.
The staff, church leaders, and Pastoral Associates are all reaching out a lot. Yet we may still miss someone in need; we may still miss you…
 
Another way to reach out is to email the church Warm Line.
It is ‘warm’ as opposed to a ‘hot’ line. The Warm Line was created by the Pastoral Associates* and me for the less-than-emergency, I’m-still-feeling-pretty-low moments when you could use a kind ear. 
 
Just send an email to warmline@uuventura.org. 
The Pastoral Associates monitor the messages, and someone will respond within a day.
You can send a message about yourself or on behalf of someone else in the church. 
Perhaps you’ve noticed someone who seems down, someone in need who is unlikely to ask for themselves.
 
The Pastoral Associates have been quietly working with me, mostly behind the scenes, reaching to our community. We almost always worry that we are missing someone. The Warmline is a way you can help us stay in touch.
 
We will get through this pivot, too.
Remember, none of us is alone. 
We are strongest and most resilient together.
 
With Love,
Rev. Dana
 
*The Pastoral Associates partner with me to attend to pastoral needs in our community. They offer a confidential, compassionate, and listening presence. They are Kent Brinkmeyer, Don Henniger, Kris Langabeer, Darryl Marquez, Madelaine Okano, Yukio Okano, and Rena Pezzuto,

Dear Members and Friends of UUCV,
 
Your Board of Trustees has consulted with the Reopening Team about the surge of the Omicron variant we have all been learning about in the news.  Rev. Dana also consulted with the Worship Team and Fidelity checked with the RE Community.  The latest Covid alert reports that risk in Ventura County has increased from high to severe.  
 
In consideration of the extreme transmissibility of the Omicron virus, the Board has decided to suspend in-person, indoor worship services for the remainder of January.  This also includes suspending in-person RE activities for children.  Services, including RE activities, will continue on Zoom and You Tube.
 
Closing worship services again is a very difficult decision.  We know many of you are extremely disappointed at this news.  We remain hopeful that we will return to in-person, indoor services and RE activities soon.  
 
We will re-evaluate the situation at the end of the month.  I want to add that an outdoor, all generations animal blessing worship service is being planned for January 30^th.  
 
Please contact me if you have any questions.
 
Be well,
Yukio Okano
Board President 

Good People,

  I write to bring you up to date about reopening and risk factors and where we stand.  Scientists have discovered over the course of the last 21 months that Covid-19 spreads most through aerosols, which are even tinier than sneeze droplets.
Remember the days of wiping down our groceries before we bringing them into the house?

People have complained that the advice keeps changing, wondering why our vaunted scientific community doesn’t get it right the first time. Yet that is a misunderstanding of how science works.
Take the Omicron Variant. We don’t know a whole lot about it yet, because the science of detection has gotten so good that it was picked up incredibly early. Poor South Africa gets ‘blamed’ for it because their scientists were the first on it. Scientists are always questioning, theorizing, testing, evaluating, re-evaluating. The more we know, the more things change. (And yes, we have to account for a little human error, too.)
Frustrating, yes, and exactly how it should be.

Here is the best we know right now and how UUCV is responding.
Because Covid is spread mostly by aerosols, ventilation indoors is the most important factor in reducing risk.
So:
** We have tuned up our HVAC, and the ‘old dinosaur’ is working very well.
** Because we can’t install filters on our system, we have place HEPA air purifiers throughout the sanctuary.
** We are also purchasing them for all enclosed meeting spaces.
** We are opening windows and doors, and placing fans around the sanctuary to keep the fresh air circulating.
How can we tell if these measures are working?
** We checked carbon dioxide levels with a CO2 monitor under different conditions, with few people in the sanctuary up to 100.
** The results so far suggest there is very low risk of Covid spread in the sanctuary – even if someone present is unknowingly infected with Covid, the risk that anyone else will catch it is very small.
The risks, as scientists and public health officials tell us, is never zero. It never was and never will be, yet this is the most reassuring news I have heard.
The road ahead?
From the most recent UUA recommendations:
“Guidelines about types of masks to wear, safe distancing, air exchanges per hour, etc. are likely to continue to change. It will be harder and harder to for the UUA to offer specific and/or prescriptive guidance, given the variety of circumstances.”
Some congregations – largely in wintry New England – have decided to cancel indoor Christmas Eve services due to Omicron. Most of the congregations in Southern California are still watching and waiting hopefully.

At UU Ventura, we are still planning two services indoors on Christmas Eve – with an outdoor, masked carol sing for everyone between services. The services, which will be the same, are at 5 and 6:15 pm. Families are welcome at both. The 6:15 service will also be on Zoom and streamed.

The Reopening Team, Board, Staff, and I are all watching and waiting along with you.
Depending on how things develop, we may very well expand the number of people in the sanctuary to 75 by the end of the month.

One last suggestion: Because we are keeping windows and doors open and blowing in as much fresh air as possible, please bundle up in layers when you come to church in person!

They never taught me about ministry in a time of pandemic in seminary.
I’m still grateful that we are doing this together.

With love,
Rev. Dana

Dear Members and Friends,    
 
Recently, I’ve been hearing that some UUCV folks using the building are no longer wearing masks or social distancing consistently in their small group activities.  
 
I think I get it.  The pandemic has been dragging on since March of last year.  We’ve endured 20 months of shutdown rules, partial reopening, closing down again, and now again a glimmer of light from the end of the tunnel.  We have been subjected to various calls to mask, social distance, avoid crowds, and get vaccinated.  We have seen other churches open fully, some not at all, and others such as UUCV open partially.  Masks and vaccines have become politicized.  Even though we may see ourselves as rational beings, there is so much misinformation, disinformation, and mixed messaging going around that we may not be sure what to believe.
 
COVID fatigue is real.  We experience feelings of deprivation by not being able to pursue our usual activities as freely as we did pre-pandemic.  We may be getting used to wearing a mask, but we are also weary of putting them on and being on guard as to whether others around us are doing the same.  We get tired of wondering if we are far enough away from others.  
 
All of this focus on compliance can easily lead us to resentment and complacency.  After a roller coaster period of 20 months, the COVID trends are looking a little better.  Ventura County, as of this writing, has decreased to a “medium risk” level.  We get impatient about UUCV’s pace of reopening and the limits set on what we want to do.  If we haven’t yet gotten sick, maybe the threat isn’t as real as we thought.  Maybe we don’t need to be quite as vigilant about following all the rules.  And with the holidays rapidly approaching, do we again really want to sacrifice our family gatherings that celebrate Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Christmas?
 
The answer is that we do need to continue being careful.  Local public health authorities warn about a possible winter surge.  There are even concerns about a new offshoot of the Delta variant that is considered at least 10% more contagious than Delta. 
 
We have come a long way in keeping our community safe and connected.  It may be frustrating, but we need to heed what is keeping us safe.  If we choose to come to church, we take on the responsibility to act in ways that protect ourselves and others.  As important as vaccinations and social distancing are, when we are together in person, masking is critical to staying safe. 
 
Wearing masks is more for the protection of others than ourselves. There are still many people who cannot be vaccinated or are otherwise vulnerable. Their vulnerability may be obvious or it may be hidden. So wearing masks is a way to protect other people.  COVID-19 is making us more aware of the balancing act between how we serve the common good – our public health – and individual rights and desires.
 
We have put up new signs at the entrance that summarize our guidelines:

Help keep the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ventura a safe place. 
Please protect this community and serve our common good by:
 
      1.  Wearing a mask indoors.
      2.  Practicing physical distancing.
      3.  Being mindful of your own and others’ health, including being vaccinated if you can be, staying home if you are feeling ill.
 
I wish you all a safe and happy Thanksgiving.
 
Be well,
Yukio Okano
UUCV Board President