by Admin | Sep 29, 2019 | Notes from President's Desk
Living in Paradise
In September the UUCV Board hosted a joint Retreat with the Board of the Universal Unitarian Church of Santa Paula (UUCSP). This was a collaboration that brought our two congregations closer together. We were led in a workshop on Multicultural Transformation presented by Rev. Johnipher Kwong from the Pacific Western Region (PWR) office. In preparation we were assigned some videos to watch and had optional reading of the book “White Fragility” by Robin DiAngelo.
This material complements the “Beloved Conversations” program that members of our church participated in last year and which will be offered again in 2019-2020. I encourage you to learn about this work and expand your understanding of what it means to be inclusive. As a congregation it impacts how we welcome the stranger to our community. We also explored what “Open Questions” to hold as a Board for the year. These are questions that are on the Agenda for every Board meeting as a reminder of the larger view needed when we do our work as members of the Board.
The use of open questions comes from “Governance and Ministry” by Dan Hotchkiss and is a resource that the Board has been using for many years. The first time the Board developed any open questions was in 2017-2018. Open questions create space for “balcony work,” where the Board and its conversation partners reflect together about the future. Often, the most important open questions facing a congregation are versions of: Who are we? What are we called to do and to be? Who is our neighbor?
Choosing a short list of questions – up to three, is important. With three years of this process completed you can see how the questions have changed over time. This year we let go of “What is our Mission?” because that is well in hand by the 545 Task Force as part of our 5-Year Planning process. We added a question based on the workshop on Multicultural Transformation. Two others were revised reflecting a deeper inquiry. You can see that the questions have all moved from asking “What” to asking “How” which implies a forward-looking view for the congregation.
2017-18
What is our Mission? What are the ways we want to grow?
2018-19
What is our Mission? How shall we achieve financial stability?
How do we “right size” our professional and volunteer staffing?
2019-20
How do we begin to create a community more racially and culturally inclusive?
How do we develop financial and spiritual resources to support our vision?
How do we support our professional and volunteer staff?
The Board will hold a Congregational Conversation in November. The new questions will be part of that event. what comes up for you as you reflect upon them and our future together.
Living in Paradise,
Bryan Buck, President
by Admin | Sep 29, 2019 | Committees, News (home), Support Group News, Volunteer
This Task Force is rolling out a series of initiatives to provide practical help for UUCV members. The formal rollout took place at the UUniques potluck in September. The Task Force is in response to concerns about the needs of church members, especially those who are older and/or who live alone. The initiatives include the following five programs:
1. Life Crisis Form: For members who want the church to have information on file in case of an emergency, a Life Crisis Form can be completed online at the church website. This information will be secure, confidential and accessible only by Rev. Dana or her designated assistant. An optional hard copy will be kept in a locked file cabinet.
2. “File of Life:” A personal medical home file prepared for emergency first responders. It consists of a medical card with emergency contacts, insurance information, health problems, medications, allergies, and other relevant medical information in a magnetized red plastic pocket designed to be put on the outside of the refrigerator.
3. Skills Exchange Program: UUCV members have many skills that can be shared; computer knowledge, handyman services, tailoring skills, house and pet sitting. This program will promote the sharing with church members:
• Shared Skills Barter (no fee): members can trade skills through negotiation.
• Skills Exchange for fee: members can offer services to other members.
Interested church members can list their skills for barter or fee exchange on a bulletin board in Berg Hall.
4. “Buddy System:” Church members who live alone can have a “calling buddy” check in with them on a regular basis to ensure they are safe. Senior members, especially, may be vulnerable if they fall and are unable get up. A calling “buddy” who is unable to reach a member could ask someone who has a key to check on the person. The UUCV Buddy System will help match up mutual buddies who call each other or arrange for a volunteer to make regular calls to those wanting to be contacted.
5. “Warm Line:” A dedicated phone line for church members to leave a message for a non-emergency concern to discuss with a caring listener. A Pastoral Associate would return the call within 24 hours. A Pastoral Associate, in partnership with Rev. Dana, is a church member who responds to pastoral needs and provides a confidential, compassionate, and listening presence. The Warm Line is not meant to address emergency situations more appropriate for a 911 call.
Task Force members include Corine Barksdale, Kent Brinkmeyer, Susan Franzblau, Yukio Okano, and Sylvia and Duane Wikholm. Gudrun Eastham provided assistance for the Skills Exchange Program. Questions? Yukio Okano at 805/985-1485.
by Admin | Sep 27, 2019 | Inreach/Outreach, News (home)
Inreach/Outreach Committee News
The congregation will vote on Sunday, October 6, to determine which organizations will receive our offerings in November, December, January, and February. We received 13 applications for the 15 available offerings. Your votes will decide which organizations receive an offering and how many offerings each receives.
You can use your votes to focus the impact our offerings have, if you choose. On average, a Sunday offering brings in $750. Therefore, if you’d like an organization to be able to do something that will require more than $750, you might want to give 2 or more of your votes to that organization.
A summary of each application is below, and the applications as they will be up in Berg Hall on October 6 are attached. If voting in person on October 6 is not convenient for you, you may turn in your votes by emailing me at suebrinkmeyer@earthlink.net or by putting a note or the attached absentee ballot in the Inreach/Outreach mailbox near the copier. Blank copies of this absentee ballot will be available on the table in front of the Inreach/Outreach box beginning this Sunday, September 29.
Thanks, Sue Brinkmeyer
Acting Chair, Inreach/Outreach Committee 818-281-6249
Summary of organizations applying for an offering:
- CAREGIVERS VC is requesting $1,500 to provide trained staff and volunteers who will transport more than 500 homebound frail, low and moderate-income Ventura County seniors to medical appointments, out-patient surgeries, medical therapies, pharmacies, and the market. They will also carry in groceries, take out trash and read mail or help with other chores.
- CAUSE (Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy) is requesting $3,000 to pay for and manage the ALERTA text system, which currently reaches over 6,500 immigrants with information about their legal rights, important workshops on naturalization and other topics, as well as ICE raids in our local neighborhoods.
- CFROG (Climate First: Replacing Oil & Gas) is requesting $2,000 to pay for staff to do the often complex research, legal work, and advocacy needed to successfully fight efforts by the oil industry to avoid oversight and regulation. Funding will allow CFROG to do the proactive work that helps protect the well-being of humans, wildlife and the land.
- Lift Up Your Voice Motel Fund Team is requesting $3,000 to provide a night or two at a motel when individuals or families, especially families with children, face special circumstances that make our one-time assistance likely to have a significant impact on their long-term health or well-being. Many times such families can’t get help until Monday when offices open, and no shelter is available, so our help is critical to keeping young children and those with serious health issues from being homeless in their car or on the streets.
- The Lift Up Your Voice Park Outreach Team is requesting $3,000 to continue outreach in the homeless community and to support homeless individuals and families. Lift Up Your Voice volunteers build relationships with our homeless neighbors and help them get connected to services. They provide such essentials as bus passes, feminine products, toothbrushes, toothpaste, body wipes, razors, socks, mittens, dog food, donated clothing, and blankets and other necessities.
- Lift Up Your Voice Safe Sleep Team is requesting $3,000 to help people who are homeless and living in their cars qualify for and stay in the Safe Sleep Program, which provides them a safe place to sleep in our church lot as well as case management services to help them return to housing. Funds will pay for car registration, smog fees, car insurance, and necessary repairs as well as provide a monthly “Pizza Night,” when our volunteers and our Safe Sleep guests can come together to build relationships and improve the efficacy of the program.
- MICOP (Mixteco/Indigena Community Organizing Project) is requesting $3,000 to train and certify two trilingual (Mixteco/Spanish/English) community members so they can become Department of Justice Board of Immigration Appeals accredited representatives who provide immigration legal assistance to the region’s indigenous immigrant community.
- Planned Parenthood California Central Coast is requesting $3,000 in order to offer financial assistance for services to patients who are low income, uninsured, under-insured, not qualified for state of federal health care programs, or facing a hardship that could require them to sacrifice health care. The goal is for no patient to go without healthcare simply because they cannot afford it.
- Reduce Barriers Fund, a partnership of River Community Church, the City of Ventura, and the Patrol Task Force is requesting $3,000 to reduce barriers that are preventing participants in the Community Intervention Court (aka Homeless Court) from ending their homelessness. Funds would provide access to shelter, sober living, work, addiction treatment or the like. The intent is to be able to react immediately to a need when it is identified and then have the time required to focus on helping individuals get insurance and housing assistance and take other steps that will allow them to end their homelessness.
- Santa Barbara Channelkeeper is requesting $2,500 to train and engage volunteers in the Stream Team citizen science program, which collects valuable, scientifically robust data about water quality and stream health in the Ventura River watershed. The data is used by government agencies to inform pollution prevention programs and water resource management decisions. The program also provides a rewarding community service opportunity for local citizens of all ages to explore and learn about their local creeks and watershed while also fostering environmental stewardship.
- Step Up Ventura, Inc. is requesting $1,500 to help provide one-on-one therapeutic services to resolve trauma and anxiety, build healthy parent-child relationships and promote optimal brain development in children affected by homelessness. Funding would also help train childcare and preschool staff to meet the emotional, social, and educational needs of homeless children so that they will be ready for kindergarten and have the skills to succeed in school.
- Ventura Community Partners Foundation is requesting $3,000 to rebuild Arroyo Verde Park’s playground, which was destroyed by the Thomas Fire. The new playground will serve children of all abilities and will include rubberized surfacing for children and adults with mobility challenges, play equipment to accommodate a wheelchair, sensory components for children, and cozy spaces for children who may need a quiet space to avoid over stimulation.
- Ventura Homeless Prevention Fund is requesting $3,000 to stop families and individuals from falling into homelessness simply because of a one-time but significant event such as an accident or illness that makes them unable to pay their rent this one time. Case managers help with budgeting and help clients qualify for reduced utility charges, free phones, and other services to ensure future housing stability. Over 90% of those helped pay rent on their own after our one-time help and remain housed one year later.
by Admin | Sep 15, 2019 | Services Upcoming
Sept 15, 2019 – Rev. Dana Worsnop, Worship Assoc. Celia Ortenberg
by Admin | Aug 27, 2019 | News (home), Notes from President's Desk
Notes from the President’s Desk – July, 2019
This month’s column is selected quotes I have used over the last two years. I hope that you will enjoy them, reflect upon them, and be moved to action by those that are most meaningful to you.
“This is no time for a casual faith.”
– Susan Frederick-Grey, UUA President
“If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing.”
– Benjamin Franklin
“I slept, and I dreamed that life is all joy. I woke, and I saw that life is all service. I served and saw that service is joy.”
– Kahlil Gibran
“Good endings make for good beginnings.”
– A phrase that I first heard at the UUCV.
“Want what you have.
Be who you are.
Do what you love.”
– Rev. Dr. F. Forrest Church
“You all are on the front lines – providing ministry and leadership to people of all ages, helping us all not to lose our humanity in this very inhumane time, helping us all not to lose hope. Today, as I awoke, the words of Adrienne Rich were on my heart:
“My heart is moved by all I cannot save:
so much has been destroyed
I have to cast my lot with those
who age after age, perversely,
with no extraordinary power
reconstitute the world.”
“My fellow leaders, I cast my lot with you. We will not give up hope.”
– Susan Frederick-Gray
“Our Deepest Fear
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
– Marianne Williamson
Living in Paradise,
Bryan Buck, UUCV Board President
