by Admin | Aug 27, 2020 | Between Sundays
Open Questions: An Opportunity for Collaboration
In our topsy-turvy world caused by the pandemic, economic stresses, racial strife, and ecological disasters, all of us are seeking safe havens of connection and meaning. We need each other more than ever. How is the UUCV Board striving to meet these needs?
At a recent retreat, the church board created a vision of ministry: “The UUCV Board of Trustees will guide the congregation through the current COVID-19 situation to come out on the other side healthy, engaged, and vital. We will be flexible and open to what a healthy, engaged, and vital church will look like in a new post-coronavirus reality.”
In addition to this vision of ministry, the Board created a set of “open questions” at the retreat. Open questions are meant to foster serious thinking about the mission of the church as the Board creates agendas and goals for the year.
Here are the Board’s “open questions” for this 2020-2021 church year:
- “How do we continue to create and then sustain a community that is more racially and culturally inclusive?”
- “How do we develop financial and spiritual resources to support our vision, especially in the time of COVID-19?”
- “How do we support our professional and volunteer staff, especially in the time of COVID-19?”
These questions cannot be answered by simple “yes” or “no” responses. Rather, they require contemplation and they may generate a range of answers. It is important to note the Board does not have any pre-determined answers.
The idea of open questions comes from Dan Hotchkiss’s book Governance and Ministry. He sees these questions as calling for a “wider, longer conversation than a quick goal-setting process can accommodate.” Importantly, Hotchkiss believes open questions provide an opportunity for boards to collaborate with the congregation to think together about the future.
Good communication between the Board and the congregation can be challenging. Posting of minutes, newsletter articles, and announcements about policy send information in one direction. Rather than the Board choosing the direction of the church and making decisions in secrecy, discussion of the open questions is a way for the broader church community to express its ideas and opinions about how the church is doing and what goals should be pursued. It is an opportunity to influence the board as well as a way for the board to share its thinking.
In the spirit of collaboration, then, the UUCV Board wishes to invite the congregation to participate in discussions about the open questions. We want to hear your thoughts and ideas, not only as they relate to the questions, but to any other concerns you may have.
Beginning Thursday, September 3rd, a monthly Zoom Board “Happy Hour” will be held at 5:00pm—Zoom ID is 707-277-4205. As President of your Board of Trustees, I will commit to hosting these sessions each first Thursday of the month, unless a better day and time is identified. Everyone is invited to be part of this meeting. There is no agenda other than to discuss the open questions and any other concerns you wish to bring up.
Additional Zoom meetings may be hosted by other Board members as the church year proceeds.
Be well,
Yukio Okano
President, UUCV Board of Trustees
by Admin | Jul 14, 2020 | Between Sundays
Good People of UUVentura,
Yesterday, I sent the letter below to the members of Ventura’s City Council. They will be holding a second on-line hearing tomorrow evening. I encourage you to join in and share your own thoughts – either as a Chumash descendent or as an ally Chumash peoples.
In faith and solidarity, Rev. Dana
My Letter:
Dear Mayor LaVere, Vice Mayor Rubalcava, Council Members Brown, Friedman, Heitmann, Nasarenko, and Weir,
I write to you as a faith leader in Ventura to thank you for taking up the situation around the statue of Father Junipero Serra that stands before City Hall.
Yet first I want to express my thanks and admiration for the courage shown by Mayor Matt LaVere, Father Thomas Elewaut, and Tribal Chair Julie Tumamait Stensile who spoke together for hours to discuss this emotional, historical, and fraught issue that is far older than this particular statue. In our divided times when so many grow loud and angry and accusatory so quickly, it takes true courage to sit and speak and listen with open hearts, open to different perspectives, willing to be changed by another’s story.
I hope the entire council will follow their courageous leadership.
When I saw the statue on my first visit to Ventura as I was considering ministry here four years ago, my heart sank. Yes, it is an impressive and even majestic work of art, yet that is part of the problem. Before ministry, I spent a decade teaching California history in elementary school. I know that the story of the Native Peoples of California and of the Missions is complicated, including cruelty to the point of genocide. The majesty and the placement of this statue completely covers up, silences, and causes deep pain to those who are descendants of a people nearly wiped out by Spanish and later American settlers.
It was clear to me then, and my conviction only grows stronger, that this statue dishonors the first peoples of this land. And now I have heard their voices telling of their pain and the multi-generational trauma the statue re-triggers. Telling only one side of a multi-layered history disrespects all of us, though most especially the Chumash peoples. If their voices are not as loud as some and their numbers perhaps smaller, it is largely because of a history incompletely told.
After years of being marginalized and silenced, it is time for all to listen well to their stories, their pain, and their request. I ask that the council accept the agreement made by the two most direct two stakeholders in these stories – Tribal Leader Tumamait Stensile and Father Elewaut. Please move the statue from in front of City Hall to the grounds of Mission San Buenaventura.
Also, please resist any suggestions that you put this on the ballot. Making such controversial decisions is a significant part of your responsibility in this representational democracy. For the voice of the people most directly harmed can so easily be drowned out, essentially silencing them once more. That would simply compound the damage already caused and do nothing to address the deeper issues, which won’t somehow just go away.
Moving this statue does not erase history. Rather it teaches a more complete history. In telling the fullness of our history, we gain a chance for deep human meeting and the possibility of reconciliation of centuries-old wounds.
In our fractured times, with so many loud and divisive voices, I ask that you find ways to embrace the truths of the past that our future may bring healing and reconciliation. We can then move on together.
Respectfully,
Rev. Dana Worsnop, Minister
Unitarian Universalist Church of Ventura
by Admin | Jun 18, 2020 | Between Sundays
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. We will be on line for a while yet. We want to know the kinds of online offerings you would be interested in to nurture your souls and keep us connect in the weeks and months ahead.
This is a moment that I am happy to belong an Association of Congregations that have pledged mutual support to one another. Below* you will find an explanation that we are not an officially a ‘denomination,’ but rather an association of congregations pledging mutual support. Ultimately, We are all in this together.
Here are Several Cool Things going on at UU Ventura aided by being a part of the UUA:
** For worship on Sunday, June 28 at 10 am, we will be joining the service from our virtual UUA General Assembly – Rooted, Inspired & Ready. This is a chance to worship literally with thousands of UUs from around the world. We’ll probably join the service from our own Zoom link. Keep eyes peeled for more info in the next week.
** Moving In Project – We received a $5000 grant from the UUA Disaster Relief Fund
The Disaster Relief Fund was created in 2017 after Hurricane Harvey to help congregations and congregants who experience loss due to disaster. A key component of the grants is so churches can make contributions to local partners, deepening our relationships. In this Covid Time, the grants go to churches “responding to the crisis with systemic, collaborative approaches, partnering with local organizations to provide assistance … to people who are at significant risk to health and livelihood because of Covid-19.”
Here is our grant application in part: Since the pandemic has been upon us, we have been working with partners in the community to support programs housing our homeless neighbors in local motels. Because they are in one place, it’s been easier for case managers to place them in housing. Members of a long-standing church committee – Lift Up Your Voice to End Homelessness – started a program called Moving In which accepts donations of furniture, kitchen essentials and bedding, and then moves them into the apartments of the newly housed. It is a community collaboration including the local synagogue, other churches, the police department, city staff, and a local farmer with a truck. Our grant request is to cover the cost of two storage unit for a year.
In just over two months Moving In has moved in 14 people into 8 households.
** Spirit Level Grant for $9000
The Spirit Level Foundation offers grants for “the health and growth of UU congregations in Southern California.” I actually got a call encouraging us to apply for a grant set up especially for these Covid Times. It’s unusual to get a call saying, “We have some money we’d like to give you. Just ask.” We did and received something over $9000. An association of congregations, indeed!
And it didn’t stop there.
** UU the Vote
Spirit Level also offers matching funds to support UU the Vote efforts. We are already participating, under the leadership of Debbie Norris and Jimmy Vasquez. Now, if we can raise $2600, Spirit Level will triple our gifts for $7800. We are almost half-way there. The funds will cover expenses and pay for administrative work. Look for an on-line donation link.
UU the Vote is a voter registration drive. All are invited to join letter-writing Parties on Zoom every Thursday at 2pm. The goal is to write 15,000 “get out the vote” letters to traditionally underrepresented registered voters. Thus far, 2055 letters have been prepared by 30 congregants. Recently, Chalice UU Fellowship of Conejo Valley partnered with us. We’ll keep going into October. More mutual support between and among our congregations!
More Cool Stuff We’re Doing
** The Mask Project has been enthusiastically supported by a whole team who sewed and delivered something more than 300 masks to the congregation. And they couldn’t stop. They have now made and given 130 ‘mask mates’ to Ojai Hospital, 26 masks to the Oxnard Homeless Shelter and Staff, 46 masks to Step Up Ventura, and are soon to deliver another 110 masks to Family to Family at their lunch event.
And all that doesn’t include the 275 masks that were recently mailed to the Navajo Nation.
** Summer RE Curriculum: The Freedom Fighters
Inspired to action by the new Civil Rights Movement we are experiencing, Emily Carroll created a curriculum using the anime cartoon Avatar to help our kids explore justice, respect, kindness, integrity and the 7UU principles.
Times are very challenging and we are still doing Very Cool Stuff.
With love,
Rev. Dana
* We are organized under Congregational Polity which means that we are an association of self-governing congregations. The Unitarian Universalist Association is actually all of us. The staff of the UUA – including the president we all elect – are there to offer resources, leadership, and guidance. The UUA cannot tell us what to do, though it is made up of people devoted to our tradition who know whereof they speak most of the time.
by Admin | Jun 11, 2020 | Between Sundays
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 officer. The outrage and the protests were swift and keep growing. I hear outrage, despair, and helplessness. Yet I also see hope, energy, and passion. People who are even glad to be alive at this amazing turning point. We might even be able to change enough and make a real difference at last.
I’ve been reminding myself and others that the pandemic will be a marathon, not a sprint. The same is true of this “new” Movement for Racial justice. We need to be in this for the Long Haul. Remember:
The Freedom Rides lasted 7 months.
The Greensboro sit-ins lasted 6 months.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted 381 days – that’s 1 year, 2 weeks, and 2 days.
The protests arose so quickly, with people of so many backgrounds and races. My spirit leaps, especially when I see the engagement, the power, the commitment of young people. A change is coming with urgency. Yet a few days and weeks will not dismantle the structures of oppression that keep Black, Indigenous, People of Color – in America and around the world – under the knee of white supremacy and systemic racism.
It is our faith that every person is born with inherent worth and dignity. Yet as a predominantly white congregation and denomination, our work of dismantling oppression needs to be engaged on many levels simultaneously. Those of us who are white need to examine our own hearts, to see the ways that we have benefitted from – and even participated in – practices that keep BIPOC oppressed. We need to follow the lead of BIPOC who tell us what they need. We need to listen to the narratives of their lived reality – and believe them.
We have the chance to truly live the mission of our church in ways that actually can make a difference. We have longed for change for decades and centuries. Sometimes we have been part of it. Yet the work of dismantling oppressive systems is far from done, and we get to carry it forward. I, too, am excited and overwhelmed and outraged and committed and despairing and so glad to be alive – on this planet, in this time, with you good people.
Let us examine our hearts, be accountable to our values and each other. I hope that your spirit leaps at the possibility of being part of the changes we long for. And it will also be often-uncomfortable and hard work. Yet I know we are up for it and up to it.
In the next month, I will be forming a book group to discuss issues of racial justice, especially the work that white people need to do to dismantle racism in our hearts and in the culture. If you wish to join that, or be part of a group envisioning how the church join the struggle, please let me know.
Below are some resources for ways that we can begin this work of justice. There are lots, though these are local and a good place for us to start.
Let’s get to it, and keep going.
With love,
Rev. Dana
by Admin | May 17, 2020 | Between Sundays
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 year.
She writes: “Over the past several weeks, the UUA has consulted with multiple public health officials in order to update the guidance we provided on March 12 recommending congregations stop gathering in person. Based on advice from experts, we continue to recommend that congregations not gather in person. We also recommend that congregations begin planning for virtual operations for the next year (through May 2021). Take a moment to breathe. I know this is significant.”
Though this is stark and hard news, my first reactions to her missive were gratitude and relief. Gratitude for real leadership that consults experts and faces reality. Relief for clear guidance that we can begin to make plans around. For the last two months, it has seemed that the ground has been shifting by the hour, the day, maybe the week. Though it is a long time to consider, we can move ahead now with plans and goals.
This may yet be hard to wrap our heads around. Cities, counties, and the state are beginning (hopefully very slowly and deliberatively) to open up. Yet gathering in large groups in enclosed spaces will be the last to reopen.
Alas, as Rev. Frederick-Gray says: “Religious gatherings are highly contagious events. Singing together, the familiarity of people across households, the multigenerational community of children, youth, adults, and seniors—the things that make our congregations so special—also create more risk for spreading the virus.”
We have been utterly amazing over the last two months in worship and in so much beyond. The importance of this spiritual community of kindred spirits and shared value has become clearer. We are finding ways to strengthen the ties that bind us together. Our ministries together never stopped being essential.
Now we get to take a deep breath, and take a moment to take it all in (once more).
Let the sense of disappointment, even heartbreak wash over you. There is the particular loss of not being able to sing together felt acutely by the choir and our church musicians.
Then we get to ourselves up and take up the creative, long-term planning that will continue to carry us through. We will still be able to be flexible to changing conditions. We may well be able to gather in small groups – observing all the recommended safety protocols – before May 2021.
I am grateful to be a part of a religious tradition that reveres science, human community, and justice. Quoting Rev. Frederick-Gray again: “This pandemic teaches us that our actions directly impact the health and well-being of our neighbors, and so it is imperative that we make choices that keep our congregations and the larger community safer. As COVID-19 disproportionately impacts people with disabilities, Black people, Indigenous communities, Latinx people, the elderly and essential workers, a majority of who are women and women of color, religious communities have a moral responsibility to do all we can to reduce risks for those already at such high risk.”
So, let’s all take a moment to breathe.
I leave you with something to look forward to next week. Our speaker May 24 will be Tanner Linden, a young man who has grown up in the church and who this community has helped form into a fine young man. Many know the amazing things Tanner has done in church, in denomination, and beyond. He has also worked at the Santa Barbara Zoo for several years. His topic for Sunday, May 24? It’s a Zoo Out There. It promises to be a thoughtful and delightful Sunday.
Our mission as a church may be more vital than ever in these times. A large part of that mission is to nurture our children and youth a they grow into kind, compassionate, and thoughtful people. Next Sunday, we’ll get to see an example of doing that.
With love and gratitude,
Rev. Dana
by Admin | Mar 5, 2020 | Between Sundays
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 deadly disease could spread quickly through our closely connected world. And it keeps not quite happening. First there was SARS and then MERS and then H1N1, none of which managed to be the worst combination possible. (Actually, first there was AIDS, which was utterly lethal though not air born contagious. Ebola was frightening and yet containable.)
Scientists call CoVid-19 a novel corona virus, as in new enough that humans have no immunity to it, and a vaccine is a year or more away. It is also contagious, perhaps as much or more than the flu. It is currently not clear what the death rate is or will be.
- There are good reasons that the WHO and others are very concerned about it and taking extreme measures to contain it.
- How bad will it be? Will it mean closure of public spaces – like schools and churches? Will there be quarantine orders?
- We can’t know, though this one seems serious enough to make plans for us to respond.
To that end, we have created a Coronavirus Response Team, including Jessie Austin, Melissa Ruiz, and Janice Frank who are all in the medical profession and represent the Safety Committee and Religious Education. Others on the team are Yukio Okano, Board member and Pastoral Associate; Worship Associate Sue Brinkmeyer, and Kitty Merrill from the Publicity Team.
For now, we are looking into ways for the church to be as safe as possible and considering how we will respond if there are closures and/or quarantines.
Even if this does not turn out to be “the Big One,” so to speak, it’s a good idea to be proactive. So, follow the suggestions below, and we’ll let you know plans as they develop. A good link for local information is http://www.vcemergency.com.
As always, we will be in this together, and we’ll find our way through together.
With love and caution,
Rev. Dana
Coronavirus and UU Ventura
As new cases of the coronavirus (CoVid-19) are reported in the United States and around the world, the congregation is called to education and caution.
Here are a few basic guidelines. We ask that you follow these precautions even if you yourself are not at risk, as many members of our community are at a high risk:
- Wash your hands frequently — use soap and water and scrub for at least 20 seconds. Humming the tune of Come, Come Whoever You Are takes about 20 seconds.
- Sneeze or cough into the crook of your elbow or a tissue, not your hand. Wash immediately after coughing, sneezing, or blowing your nose.
- Avoid touching your face, especially your mouth or nose or eyes, with unwashed hands.
- Regularly disinfect frequently touched surfaces, including keyboards, phones, elevator buttons, door knobs and light switches.
- Use hand sanitizer or hand wipes.
- Avoid close contact with individuals who are sick.
- Stay home if you are sick.
- Greet others in non-physical or low-contact ways, especially during coffee hour.
UU Ventura will follow best practices as recommended by health authorities. Sections of our service may be changed to reduce the spread of germs. Hygiene practices in our kids’ programs are being increased. If the suspension of large gatherings is recommended, we may suspend services and other programming, or they may be live-streamed.
