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

The Voices of Our Elders:
The Stories That Become Our Memories     

I have only parts of stories of my mother. Although she was living with me for the last two years of her life, she was fully in dementia. And because we had been estranged for many years before I took her in, I lost the opportunity to ask her the questions that would inform a fuller memory of her life. When she died at 95, I had so many unanswered questions.

Many in my father’s family had died in the Holocaust. I was never told their stories and first learned that my family suffered under fascism when I was 52 years old. Fortuitously, It was during an episode of 60 Minutes, in which a member of my father’s family told the viewing audience that 23 members of the Franzblau family were exterminated by Hitler.

Our stories, the ones told to us, and the stories we tell, become the memories that our friends and family hold dear. These stories, these testimonies to lives lived, are written word documents to be passed on, to become our herstories and histories that create continuity and connection. That is why the voices of our elders must be heard and preserved.

UUCV is beloved to us. But churches are institutions, and an institution is only as strong as its members, each member leaving footprints. Footprints, however, fade over time, just as time erases most things. How do we keep our memories of those of us who have so deeply and profoundly influenced UUCV and affected those of us who have passed through its doors?

Susan Franzblau, Silvia Hutchins, and Xenia Young have designed a project to do just that.  Neal Ortenberg will help with the technology. This project: The Voices of Our Elders – endeavors to preserve those memories through interviews. Our intention is to use these interviews:

1. As a record for their families and for UUCV;
2. As a way to honor and celebrate the lives of our elders;
3. As a way to build a sense of community and connection;
4. As a recognition for the gifts and other contributions they have left for us; and
5. As a way for our children to learn from the wisdom of those who came before.

Join us in supporting this project. We will interview and record our elders using a pre-set questionnaire that we developed. These interviews will be preserved on a memory stick. We will be selecting elders based on their desire to be interviewed, their age, and medical conditions. Most interviews will be in person but for those who have moved away, we will use the church’s Zoom account.

Post Script: We hope that many of you volunteer to be interviewed. We expect this project to be ongoing and we are eager to hear your voices. Given that I (Susan) am the only interviewer so far, I am looking for others interested in sharing the excitement of doing the interviews.

Susan Franzblau

Good People,
 
After leading worship this past Sunday, I hopped onto Zoom and joined our Coffee Hour Breakout Rooms to chat with folks. Any number of people asked, ‘What’s the plan for services?’ and ‘Is there a process?’ My answers were:
‘Yes, we’re planning as best we can. As for the process – you’re in it.’
 
Sometime last spring, we held out hope that we could all be together in the sanctuary with relatively few restrictions. Yet that was not to be. Now we are taking it essentially a Sunday at a time, paying attention to what is working and what’s not, and adjusting as we go.
 
Here’s what’s happening now.

• We have a spiffing new lights-camera-action sanctuary (studio) and a team of people to help run it.
• We’ve had three hybrid services and are working out just a few kinks.
• We’re paying close attention to ventilation and other Covid safety measures.
• Our children and youth are enjoying RE outdoors with a dedicated group of teachers.
• We’ve got a team of people checking the outdoor areas for cleanliness and safety before classes begin each Sunday.

What’s coming next?

• We’re re-assessing our situation each Sunday, paying attention to county, state, and UUA guidelines.
• We are taking all three as just that – guidelines – and deciding what works best for us.
• We are prepared to pivot as needed. 

Future Outdoor Events

• Our Annual Auction kicks off with a live event on Saturday, Oct. 23 at 3:30, with food and entertainment. Please RSVP here.
• Both Oct. 31 and Jan. 30 are fifth Sundays, so we are currently planning to have Outdoor All Generations services in the parking lot on those days.
• On Oct. 31, we’ll have a Tree of Remembrance Ritual to honor those who we’ve lost in the last year(s).
• Jan. 30 will be an Animal Blessing service, also planned for outdoors, though we’ll pivot to indoors if the circumstances allow.

 
And for good measure here is a Time Capsule from church as we left it in March of 2020. UUCV Time Capsule You’ll see that I hadn’t even managed to turn my office calendar from February to March that year. There is also a shot of the altar as it was on Christmas Eve in 2020.

• It’s been a long, strange journey, and it’s not over. 
• Yet We are re-entering the church, bit by bit. 
• And our space are waiting for. 
• We’ll be creating the church anew.

Some of our old practices will revive, some will be reinvented, and some new things will be created.
 
As we enter this next phase of our church life, I invite you into a deeper practice of non-attachment. Try not to be attached to outcomes or to timelines. As we have learned over and over, expectations can lead to disappointment.
 
With love,
Rev. Dana

• Sept. 5 – The Wellspring of Our Faith will be a typical Zoom service with Carolyn Bjerke, Roseanna Bellino-Strickland, and me about the upcoming Wellspring program that invites all to deepen their practice in and connection with our UU tradition.
• Then on Sept. 12 we will be Following the Flow, at an All Generations, Outdoor, Live-Streamed and In-Person Water Communion Service! It will begin at 10 am in the back parking lot and on Zoom. Bring or have water from a place that is meaningful to you. This service will need a Team of People to make happen. Follow this link to see how you can help out.
• On Sept. 19 we’ll be Embracing Possibility head on.
• On Sept. 26 we’ll hear from our UUA congregational liaison Melissa James on the possibilities before us as we deepen our relationship with our new Director of Religious Education, Fidelity Ballmer. 

Good People,
 As I said on Sunday, it feels like we’ve been running a marathon and the finish line keeps getting moved. I’m starting to realize that metaphors of races and lights at the end of tunnels do not apply. 
 
Is this a matter of managing expectations – not so much as in lowering them, but as in not having any?
Will the Dance with Uncertainty become the way of the world?
 
Everyone, breathe now.
 
Also on Sunday, what was intended as an update on where the conversation stands regarding the church and reopening, sounded like a done deal. This is still an on-going conversation at many levels of church leadership.. 
 
We had definitely hoped to open the doors wide on Sept. 12 for worship in a well-ventilated sanctuary to all comers, along with lights, cameras, and action in a streamed service for folks who still prefer staying home. The Board, Reopening Team, Staff, Worship Team, Minister, RE Team and more have been conversing all summer and are adjusting plans in light of the Delta variant and vaccines unavailable for kids under 12. 
 
Here’s where the conversation now stands: 
Worship through Sept. 12.

• Sept. 12 – THE BEST NEWS FIRST … The Worship team and I agreed that it feels best to together in-person outside for our Water Communion service. This is planned as an All Generations service, though we our families are feeling cautious. 
  • Note: We will need a whole crew of folks to make happen. Be on the lookout for ways to help out.
• Aug. 22 – Sankofa: A Walk into the Light of Love, a cluster collaboration hosted Santa Paula with Reggie Harris, an amazing UU musician – https://reggieharrismusic.com. Note: this service starts at 10:30 am.
• Aug. 29 – Liberation and Universal Truths with Paula Cole Jones, who is on UUA staff, founder of ADORE – A Dialog on Race and Ethnicity, and a co-author of the 8^th Principle. Link to her writing here: https://www.uuworld.org/authors/paulacolejones
  • Note: Jones is actually a Big Deal among UUs. We are thrilled to have her with us. 
• Sept. 5 – The Wellspring of Our Faith with Carolyn Bjerke, me and more!

 
Beyond Sept. 12

• A tech crew convened by Kitty Merrill has been busy all summer installing a new system for streaming services. This will be up and running by September. 
• The plan is for the Worship Team to begin leading worship from the sanctuary as soon as we can.
• At some point soon – perhaps as early as Sept. 19 – we will start having small(er) distanced groups of masked people attending worship in person. 
• What the configurations of people indoors will be and how many are still part of the conversation. 
• Fidelity and our RE teachers are planning meaningful outdoor RE experiences for children and youth come September. Look for more about UU Gardening, Children’s Chapels & Youth Group meetings. 
• MORE GOOD NEWS: The fall will bring us more and more opportunities to gather in person – outdoors and in – and we will still need to look out for those who are vulnerable among us. 

 
Keep breathing, All.
Sometimes I think that is the only suggestion I have for getting through. 
Breathe slowly and deeply into your solar plexus and belly. 
Exhale slowly and fully. 
Repeat.
 
With love,
Rev. Dana

Dear Ones,    

I am excited to share some news with you.

From the time I began as the Music Director at UUCV, it has been my passion and love to find places that music and ministry intersect. Through worship, working with Rev. Dana, collaboration with musicians and working with the choir, I have had the opportunity to explore how music deepens our faith, worship. and community.

In particular, I have been blessed to learn about what it means to be a UU Music Director through the 3 years of study in the Music Leader Crendentialing Program. With the congregation’s support, I was able to complete this program and then integrate my learning into our music program. During Covid, I was able to take two sessions of Beloved Conversations which helped my understanding of racial justice and deepened my commitment to keeping it in the forefront of my work. Finally, and very significantly, I was able to participate in and facilitate a UU Wellspring course of spiritual deepening for our congregation with Rev. Dana. Practicing deep listening, learning about UU Sources, and being in covenant with this group has changed the way I will approach all of my work.

This growth and study has given me direction, understanding, confidence and has led me to explore my calling as a UU more deeply. I have been considering seminary for a few years and I have been inspired by the ministry of Rev. Dana and Rev. Carolyn. I may not have gone forward with the idea if it hadn’t been for this year of study and isolation during Covid. Rev. Dana has listened, encouraged and helped guide me. With her support, I was accepted into 3 theological schools and chose United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities where I will start in the Fall in online courses. My goal is Chaplaincy, not Parish Ministry.

I am excited about how this learning will support and deepen my work at the church. I am particularly interested how music enriches our faith, intersects with Chaplaincy and how I can support musicians in their journey and calling.

As I head down this path, I look forward to sharing my commitment to spiritual growth, racial and social justice in new and richer ways with UUCV and especially within our music program.
With love,
Carolyn