Friends, I write to share some of the really cool things that have been happening in the church in some cases in spite of Covid-19 and in others because of it. Before your read on about Many Cool Things, please respond to a new Community Needs Assessment Survey....

Dear People of UUVentura, And the curve balls keep coming. In the midst of a pandemic, we are now also in the midst of a new wave of the Civil Rights Movement. The world watched George Floyd die slowly in front of our eyes, under the knee of an impassive police...

Dear People of UUVentura, The latest word from Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association is the recommendation that we start addressing the reality that we may well not be able to gather in person for worship for a full...

Will This Be an Actual Pandemic? It’s hard to know if we are over- or under-reacting to the coronavirus CoVid-19. For years, the World Health Organization and other public health organizations have worried about the possibility that a new, highly-contagious, and...

There is a new team on the block at church – the Generosity Team. Its formation was inspired by the mission statement of a similar group from the First Unitarian Church of San Diego. “Our mission is to develop financial and spiritual resources for the current and...

TWO LENSES... All the work we do in the church should be viewed through (at least) two lenses: How do we promote anti-racist and anti-oppression values? How do we live sustainably on our “Blue Boat Home” in the face of a growing climate crisis. Both of these questions...

Rev. Dana Dear Ones, Though I was only 16, I remember well the impeachment hearings that led to President Nixon’s resignation in 1974. My mother, a born and bred and devoted Republican, was glued to the television and radio. She was utterly appalled at the testimony...

Dear People, This past Tuesday Supervisor Steve Bennett invited me to give the Moment of Inspiration at the Ventura County Board of Supervisors. It was an honor, and better still that he acknowledged our congregation and especially our dear Harold Cartlidge for work...