Between Sundays Apr 22, 2021

by Admin | Apr 22, 2021 | Between Sundays

Good People,  
Folks keep asking if we have a date set for reopening for worshiping in person. The answer is, Kind of….

Here is the Big Picture background and tentative plans.
Our Reopening Team has been looking closely at the details of how and when we will reopen.
They sent out the recent survey, which 128 people responded to. Thank you!
And, of course the Board of Trustees is staying abreast of it all.

I have also been in regular contact with the other clergy in our cluster. We have all agreed that if at all possible, all six cluster congregations will open for in-person worship on the same Sunday. We tentatively, and perhaps optimistically, are hoping that Sunday will be Sept. 12. That is the date we would all be holding our various In-Gathering and Water Communion Services, which would feel so good.

By that date we are hopeful that everyone who wants one will have gotten a vaccination. By that date we will likely have had time to install and practice with a camera and video system that will allow us to continue to Zoom and/or stream our services to all who still want or need to join worship from home.

The Reopening Team and the Board concur with this overall concept and timeline. Yet this is still tentative. September is almost five months from now, and any number of different things may yet happen.

So, keep fingers crossed, think positive thoughts, send out prayers and good vibrations – whatever works for you. My good colleague Rev. Rod Richards from San Luis Obispo says he has been preaching on Holy Flexibility this whole year. So, let us also practice Holy Flexibility for these next months,

And in the Mean Time…We can start gradually, not turning the spigot from ‘off’ to ‘full strength’ overnight. Here are planned small steps and some suggestions for easing in gradually.

The Board has approved the Reopening Team’s recommendation that we can reopen – just for small groups in Berg Hall on May 1. The church will be deep, deep cleaned by April 30. Look for more details about guidelines and protocols for those small groups soon. They will include people being masked and distanced with doors and windows open. Everyone will need to schedule meetings with Administrator Jennifer Luce.

This can help us all see a few people, and then a few people more. So, we can practice ‘people-ing’ again gradually. Personally, I have found my ‘people-ing’  muscles are out of shape.

A couple weeks back, Jimmy led a Yarn-Bombing event in celebration of our newest members. I was so happy to see those 15 folks, that I found myself talking and laughing, spinning in metaphorical and literal circles. I was exhausted by 1 pm that Saturday, and I had to go home and take a nap before finishing the service for the next day.

Our Reopening Team, our Board, and our cluster congregations are moving thoughtfully and carefully toward reopening. We want everyone to be as safe as possible, especially those who are most vulnerable among us. There are so many factors to consider. And we can begin practicing being together again in this new world.

We will not go back to what we once called ‘normal.’ We’ll be finding our way again newly. Look to this Between Sundays space for more detailed information in the coming weeks from the Board and the Reopening Team.

With love and hope,
Rev. Dana

Between Sundays April, 2021

by Admin | Apr 8, 2021 | Between Sundays

Good People,

Writing to let you know that I have been selected as a member of the General Plan Advisory Committee for the City of Ventura. I applied because giving input into the cities General Plan means I can address a confluence of issues that are of great importance to me and to the times we are living in and through.

The advisory committee is gathered to provide insights to the General Plan project team to better understand sensitive community needs and also to encourage people to engage with the general plan process. It is an advisory body that does get to make recommendations to the City Council as they update the General Plan.

I wanted to be part of the committee because it is a place that so many of my own and our congregation’s justice concerns intersect. I hope that I can advocate for services for our homeless neighbors and for truly affordable housing for people of all income levels. I hope that the plan can begin to address the continuing effects of age-old and recent ‘red-lining’ housing practices.

This General Plan looks 10 years ahead, and I am highly aware that this is a critical decade for us all to address the effects of climate change that will continue to unfold for the next 20, 30, 40 years and more. Transforming our city into a place that is environmentally sustainable community will mean reducing cars, increasing walkability, increasing bike-ability, and creating efficient and useful public transportation,

I see this work also as an intersection of own sense of urgency as a citizen and resident of Ventura and also for bringing Unitarian Universalist values to the public square. The people who chose the GPAC said that among the reasons I was chosen is that I can be a connection to the faith community.

So, this is both a personal and a professional endeavor for me. I am also choosing to work from within the civic structures and institutions as a member of the community who can have personal input and impact as a member of the clergy in the city.

I encourage all to be involved in this process. I’ll let you know when there are forums where you can bring your input. And please share with me your ideas about the directions Ventura can and should grow into.

I know there are plenty of members who are not residents of the city of Ventura. Yet I am inspired by you all in taking this role. Our communities are all different and all connected.

My dream is to live in a community of many diversities – of race, ethnicity, economics, age, family composition – that is sustainable and contributes to human and environmental flourishing.

May it be so.
With love and hope,
Rev. Dana

Between Sundays

by Admin | Mar 4, 2021 | Between Sundays

Good, Patient, Persistent, Resilient People,
 
Yes, it’s March 2021, and we approach the anniversary of the days that our lives flipped upside down. 
In one of my first missives about the shutdown, I shared that the Board had ‘decided to cancel all gatherings and meetings for up to 3 weeks, or until Sunday, April 5th.’ Oh, how little we knew.  And how well we have weathered this year, which had so much more in store for us.

Our theme for March is Commitment, which is fitting both when we look back and as we look forward. It is our commitment to each other and to the church itself that has kept us going, deepened our relationships in the paradoxical ways of Covid Time. Moving forward, our continued commitment to one another is needed to persevere to the other side of this long shutdown. We will be changed, in some ways transformed, perhaps with a greater understanding of the place of UU Ventura in our hearts and in the community.

March is also Generosity Month. Last March we were one week away from Celebration Sunday in which we would make our pledges for the next year when the doors slammed shut. The Board and Generosity Team decided to postpone our annual stewardship drive in the face of so much uncertainty.
 
We’ve made it through financially because of the continuing gifts from members and friends, and the assistance of a PPP grant and other UU sources. This year we have been approved for another PPP grant which gives us more breathing room to look ahead. We can begin now to rebuild a solid financial footing for the years ahead.
 
Here is a preview of the Month of March in Worship:

• On March 7, I will be speaking about Meeting the Moment. Our church and our faith tradition are practically designed for evolving, changing, adapting to what each new moment reveals. We support the church because it helps us meet what each moment requires.
• March 14 is another collaborative service with our cluster congregations, combining resources to bring anti-racism trainer Shelly Tochluck who will speak on Solidarity and Racial Justice: How Do We Stand Together if We are not All Together?  Another moment we met this year was uncovering the deep and systemic racism in our country. Though we were all at least aware of it, the murder of George Floyd revealed it as an inescapable and horrific reality. And yes, many among us lived that reality every day. So we are, together as UUs in our cluster and across the continent, meeting this new moment with Commitment.
• On March 21, we will join worship with UUA President Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray leading a service on generosity and giving, Loved into Being.  In anticipation of this service, pledging members and friends should be on the lookout for a mystery gift bag delivered to your home beginning on March 7.
• From the end of March into April we will celebrate Passover, Easter, and then the beginning of the month of Ramadan, exploring the traditions of the People of the Book – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam – all of which still inform our Living, Flexible, Adaptable Tradition.

Between Sundays

by Admin | Jan 21, 2021 | Between Sundays

Dear Ones,
What an amazing and auspicious day has dawned. 
Yet into this new day I still carry the image of 400 pillars of light lining the Reflecting Pool between the Washington and Lincoln Memorials at dusk last night. 

Each light representing 1,000 lives lost. These times we are living through continue to ask us to have ‘supple hearts.’ Hearts that can somehow hold inspiration and heartbreak; fear and hope; relief, resilience and resolve all at the same time. 

My own first response was of relief, which began the night before at the memorial. The relief was that we were as a nation acknowledge these losses together, and that those about to lead us were naming and holding our collective grief. The ceremony was simple and beautiful. As someone named it today, a beauty that has been missing in our public life. 
 
I hadn’t realized that I had been missing it. At the inaugural my sense of relief grew, as I saw a small but diverse crowd gathered on the Capitol steps and the beaming smile of Vice President Kamala Harris after taking her oath of office. Her hand lay on two Bibles as she took the oath from Sonja Sotomayor, the first Latina Justice of the Supreme Court. One was a family Bible and the other had belonged to the first Black Justice, Thurgood Marshall. 
 
As the inaugural continued, my relief grew resolve. As the 46^th President of the United States Joe Biden said, ‘This is a time of testing. We face an attack on our democracy and on truth, a raging virus, growing inequity, the sting of systemic racism, a climate in crisis, America’s role in the world. Any one of these will be enough to challenge us in profound ways. But … we face them all at once, presenting this nation with one of the gravest responsibilities we’ve had. Now we’re going to be tested. Are we going to step up? All of us? It’s time for boldness, for there is so much to do. And this is certain … we will be judged, you and I, by how we resolve these cascading crises of our era.’
 
Yet when Amanda Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet ever, stood at the podium my relief and resolve grew into gratitude, inspiration, and some combination of awe, hope, and possibility. 
 
She began,
‘When day comes we ask ourselves,
where can we find light in this never-ending shade?
The loss we carry, a sea we must wade
We’ve braved the belly of the beast
We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace
And the norms and notions
of what just is
Isn’t always just-ice
And yet the dawn is ours
before we knew it
Somehow we do it
Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed
a nation that isn’t broken
but simply unfinished…’
 
And she closed, 
We will rebuild, reconcile and recover
and every known nook of our nation and
every corner called our country,
our people diverse and beautiful will emerge,
battered and beautiful
When day comes we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid
The new dawn blooms as we free it
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it
If only we’re brave enough to be it
 
May we rebuild and reconcile and recover.
May we be so resolved and inspired and brave. 
 
There is yet a very long road ahead for us as a nation and as individuals to realize the promise of this day. Yet let us take some time to release some of the weight we’ve been carrying though we may not have realized it. Let us release clenched shoulders, make room for deeper breaths. 
Take in the beauty and sorrow and possibility. 
 
Let us never forget the lives we have lost to the coronavirus aided by a government that did not live up to its duty and promise.

May that lights that reflected last night, and the ones lit and relit in our supple and brave hearts carry us through the harshest dangers and into the promise of this day.
May it be so.
 With love,
Rev. Dana

Between Sundays

by Admin | Jan 14, 2021 | Between Sundays

Dear Ones,
 Be sure to stick around after church this Sunday for our 3rd annual Mid-Year Budget Review, at 11:30am. It will be in the same Zoom Room as the Sunday service, accessible through the same link. 
 
When we did this review just 12 months ago, we were looking ahead to a year when it appeared, after several years of careful work and planning, we would finally get to a place of sustainable financial stability with our operation budget. It felt especially good to our Finance Folks who are the ones who sweat these details. I remember telling people that the budget team had put together the most beautiful church budget I’d ever seen. 
 
Of course, less than two months later the Covid Shutdown began and all certainty – financial and otherwise – went out the window.
 
There are several pieces of good news in the midst of continued uncertainty and a projected deficit for our 2021-2022 budget. 

1. We have significant savings and reserves in the bank – indeed the most of any church I have known. These funds exist for many reasons, including the visionary generosity of devoted members and incredibly careful stewardship of those funds by our boards and finance people over nearly a decade.  
2. We did not need to dip into any of those funds for our current fiscal year, even though the 2020 pledge drive was essentially canceled.  
3. Because of lowered expenses and the PPP small business loan in 2020, we will probably end the current fiscal year with a surplus. 

Whew!
While we are still in strong long-term financial shape, the immediate- and medium-term will present challenges. Which is why you should come to the Mid-Year Budget Review.
There you will:

• learn how we are doing financially this church year.
• learn how we are positioned for the on-going impacts of the Covid-19 recession for next year.
• give the Finance Committee input for our 2021-2022 budget planning during still-unprecedented uncertainty. 

In January 2019, the Board of Trustees and Finance Committee instituted these budget reviews to make the whole budget process to be open and accessible to all our members. Ultimately, our annual budget is a moral document, roadmap for us to realize our mission.
 
I hope to see many of your there.
In faith,
Rev. Dana

Between Sundays

by Admin | Jan 9, 2021 | Between Sundays

Dear UUCV Community,
I am overjoyed to share with you all that UUCV’s long anticipated Children’s Chapel is on it’s way! I hope to see our Religious Education community on Jan. 17 at 9 AM for our very first Chapel titled “Imagining A New World” in celebration of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It is an honor to reimagine sacred space together on this most sacred of days.

The Children’s Chapel is a space for families, parents, guardians, grandparents, children, youth, RE volunteers, and the broader RE community to join together in sacred space a few Sunday mornings each month. Each Chapel will begin with a chalice lighting, a time of Joys & Sorrows, and a Welcome. Our time together will be about 25 minutes and include interactive activities, children’s books, music, meditations, guest speakers, and space for families to just be together.

I remember my heart immediately leaping up in joy when Rev. Dana shared the Children’s Chapel idea with me way back in June: “Yes, yes, yes! Let’s do THAT!” I looked towards my many poetry, worship, and UU Youth materials and knew that creating a space for children to gather and reflect was a project I would gladly take on.

Right from the beginning, a Children’s Chapel has been central to my intention for my time in this position. RE community members have responded positively to this idea. And then… life got in the way, as it tends to do, as I learned the ropes of the new position, navigated the holiday season, and juggled competing responsibilities. I am overjoyed to be getting this project up and running!

I am joyfully seeking and happily accepting any offers of volunteers for this Children’s Chapel project! If this idea excites you, please reach out and let me know – big or small, any contributions are welcome. Attending our first Chapel will give you a good sense of what a Children’s Chapel entails and if you are interested in this new volunteer opportunity.

I am so looking forward to sharing this new adventure with you all. Our upcoming Jan. 17 “Imagining A New World” chapel will include a guest visitor, a beautifully illustrated story, music, and a meditative body prayer. I hope to see you there.

With care,
Fidelity Ballmer
Religious Education Coordinator
Fidelity@UUventura.org