Ballou Channing District Ministers Rally to Deliver Letter to Boston City Hall Supporting Occupy Boston.

On Wednesday, November 30, five UU ministers from the Ballou Channing District joined a rally of about 30 faith leaders in front of Boston City Hall to deliver a letter supporting the Occupy Boston movement. They were among the 10 BCD ministers and 10 ministers and lay leaders from the Mass Bay District who signed the letter. In all, 164 signatures were collected from faith leaders throughout eastern Massachusetts.

The letter was composed by Massachusetts faith leaders and Occupy Boston Chaplains. It was addressed to Mayor Menino, the Boston City Council and the Boston Police Department urging restraint from the use of force against the protesters in the event of a police action to remove the Occupy Boston encampment.. It also called for the creation of additional shelters to house displaced protesters and other homeless people in the city. A copy of the letter can be read at http://www.occupyboston.org/2011/12/03/boston-clergy-city-remain-nonviolent/

BCD 2012 GA Task Force Working to Inform About Issues and GA

The newly formed BCD 2012 General Assembly Task Force, established by the BCD Board of Directors, decided at their initial meeting on November 30 to:

• Distribute by electronic mail a semi-monthly bulletin to congregation offices and congregation leaders that will give updated information about GA events and logistics,as well as about immigration and the other justice issues this country faces that will be explored at the Phoenix GA. The first bulletin will come out in early January.
• Host seminars in March about immigration issues in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. More information about the seminars will be in the January BCD in Brief.

The Task Force invites everyone to take advantage of UUA resources, including adult education curricula, to deepen their understanding of immigration and economic justice issues at http://www.uua.org/immigration/index.shtml and to follow the GA web pages at http://www.uua.org/ga 

Connect to the BCD Facebook Page

People who connect to the BCD Facebook page will find this to be a good way to receive news and updates about district events, as well as resource information links to the UUA and other places. The Facebook page is at http://www.facebook.com/bcduua.  If you are on Facebook, "LIKE" our district's page and start to automatically get new posted information.

BCD Office to be on Holiday Break

The BCD office will close for the holidays on December 22 and reopen January 3. District Executive, the Rev. Bill Zelazny, will be away from the district from December 22 through January 1, but will be available by email at zelaz@aol.com, and for emergency by cell at 401-339-0602.

UUA President Launches New Blog

Beyond Belief: Reflections from the UUA President, a new UUA blog, was recently launched by UUA President, Peter Morales. The blog will discuss Unitarian Universalism in general and the public witness work that is a vital aspect of our faith. President Morales wrote in the first entry, "My blog is about religion that is beyond belief. It is about how we treat one another, about how we live our lives, about the connections we make and the difference we make." Check it out at http://president.blogs.uua.org/?tr=y&auid=9764309 

Universalist Heritage Sermon Award

To encourage deeper study of the message of Universalism the Universalist Heritage Foundation is offering an award for a sermon that best brings to life the essence of the Foundation's mission - to educate future generations about the Universalist tradition to continue to put forth the Universalist message as an agent of hope for a fractured world.

The award includes $500, the opportunity to present the sermon at the Universalist Heritage Center in Winchester, New Hampshire in the summer of 2012, and have the sermon featured in the fall 2012 issue of the UHF newsletter. The sermon must have been delivered before a Unitarian Universalist congregation or be a theme talk at a conference or district meeting between January 1, 2011 and March 31, 2012. Both ordained clergy and lay preachers are eligible for this award.

Sermons are to be sent by April 1, 2012 to: The Universalist Heritage Foundation, PO Box 1641, Nashua, NH 03061, or may be sent electronically as a word attachment to UniversalistHeritageFoundation@gmail.com As much identifying information as possible should be removed from the body of the sermon, but a cover sheet with name, contact information, delivery date and the congregation/event should accompany the document.  

UU Mass Action's New Project - Telling Our Stories of Justice Making

This Fall UU Mass Action has started a new project called Acts of Faith https://actsoffaithdotorg.wordpress.com/ where the stories of Unitarian Universalists engaging in interesting and effective social justice service, action or reflection will be widely shared. The project goal is to help congregations think creatively about the social justice work and to learn from the exciting things that are happening around the state.

The first Acts of Faith blog post went out Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, and told the story of the UU Church of Medford's "It's Not Your Birthday" project.  http://actsoffaithdotorg.wordpress.com/2011/11/23/itsnotyourbirthday/.   For the past several years the UU Church of Medford has challenged its members to cut back on how much they spend for the holiday. They then ask the congregation members to gather the money that they did not spend on Christmas and donate it together to charity or social justice projects.

If your congregation is doing a creative social justice service, action or reflection project then Mass Action wants to hear about it. Email Jesse Jaeger at jjaeger@uumassactions.org with your story.

The UU Funding Panel is supporting this project with a matching grant. Every new donation to UU Mass Action will be matched dollar for dollar. Donate on line at www.actsoffaith.uumassaction.org or mail a check made out to UU Mass Action, PO Box 8207, Lynn, Ma 01904.

Positions Open

• Administration and Finance Director
  First Parish, Brewster
   
   [Half-time with possibility to be expanded in the future.   Works under the direction and supervision of the Senior Ministers.]
   

Position duties to include, but not limited to: manage the office team of volunteers and paid staff; maintain an up-to-date data base of all members and friends of the congregation; layout and produce the weekly newsletter, order of service and other publications; attend key meetings of the finance committee and the endowment board and produce reports relevant to same, as requested.

The successful candidate will have good people skills and enjoy interacting in service to others; be a good team player; have excellent supervisory skills; have extensive computer skills using Microsoft Word, In Design, Dreamweaver, Excel, and data base management software, as well as standard office equipment.

Formal job description is available upon request to: revjd@firstparishbrewster.org. Interested Submit resume with cover letter and three professional references to revjd@firstparishbrewster.org. Closing date: January 3, 2012. Anticipated start in February, 2012. 

• UUA and other UU Organization

Several positions are currently open at the UUA and other related organization. Go to http://www.uua.org/careers/openings for details. 

Calendar

Dec 23- Jan2  BCD Office Closed - Christmas Season Holiday

Jan 14*          BCD Board mid-year-Retreat                                              9:00 a - 3:00 p
                         First Parish Brewster, MA

Jan 21             Healthy Congregations -- Part 2                                          9:00 a - 4:00 p

                        First Parish, Bridgewater, MA

Jan 28             Healthy Congregations - Part 2 (snow date)

Jan 28             Developing Effective Stewardship Workshop                    9:00 a - 3:00 p

                        Murray Unitarian Universalist Church, Attleboro, MA

Feb 25             Leadership Discussion Forum                                             TBA

                        Location: TBA

Feb 27             BCD Board Meeting                                                            6:00 - 9:00 p

                        First Parish Church in Taunton, MA

Mar 3              New England/BCD Music Conference

Mar 7              BCD UUMA Chapter gathering                                          9:00a-12:00n

First Universalist Society in Franklin, MA

Mar 10            Canvasser Training                                                               TBA

                        Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Falmouth, MA

Mar 26            BCD Board Meeting                                                             6:00 - 9:00 p

                        First Unitarian Church, Providence, RI

Apr 21            Young adult conference                                                          TBA

(Tentative)       Location TBA

May 5           Spring Conference and Annual Meeting                                9:00 a - 3:00 p

                        Unitarian Universalist Society of Fairhaven, MA

May 7-9          BCD UUMA Chapter Retreat

Glastonbury Abbey, Hingham, MA

May 19           Youth advisor / youth leader training                                   TBA

                        Location TBA

May 21           BCD Board Meeting                                                              6:00 - 9:00 p

                        First Congregational Parish in Kingston, MA

Jun 20-24       General Assembly

                        Phoenix, AZ

* New since last issue