VIEW FROM THE 'RIM

I wanted to make sure that everyone had a chance to read the letter of congratulation on the 10th Anniversary of MVUUF meeting house from Rev. Lisa Presley, Congregational Life Consultant for MidAmerica UU Region of which MVUUF is a part.

"Dear Friends,

I understand that today you are celebrating ten years (10 years!!) in your "new" building and location! Congratulations to you all for what you accomplished then, and how you live your lives today.

It took courage to decide to build a new space, move into a new neighborhood, and start out afresh in your adventure of being a congregation. It took dedication, hard work, and lots of money to make that dream come true. It took so many people, so many hours, so many decisions (big and small), and so much sense of the future to make that decision. The people who were there then, and many of you are still here now, took a brilliant gamble for the future.

Today, you are celebrating that gamble! Ten years is a mighty long time, and a mighty short time, and no matter what, it is great that you celebrate all that you have accomplished. Be proud of yourself, and enjoy your day.

And then, next week, start asking yourself this question: what is it that we want to be able to celebrate together ten years from now? How do we want to build on who we have been and what we have done, and what are we called to do? What does our community need from us? What do our fellow UU congregations and congregants need from us? How can we best serve to transform the world, and pull the arc of justice a little closer to the earth? What, then, do we want to celebrate? Ponder well, then take the same kind of bold, generous, and daring gamble that the people did who brought you to this day.

So, congratulations! Celebrate! And then, get cracking!

With deep love and affection for you all (including the building),

Rev. Lisa Presley 

Congregational Life Consultant                                                                                              

MidAmerica Region

(formerly District Executive of the Heartland District, who truly loves you, and your building!)"

I, too, am so very proud of MVUUF's accomplishment in building this meeting house a decade ago and join with Lisa in looking forward to the congregation putting the building to use as it carries out the work of helping to heal our world.

With my warmest regards, as always,

Your interim minister,

Mary

TRANSITION TIMES 

The Board has appointed a Transition Team (TT) to facilitate the Fellowship's journey through our Interim Period. Transition Team members are Joe Law, Trudy Krisher, Bonnie Thompson, Edwin Fuller (co-chair), and Barb Weber (co-chair).

The TT will be working closely with our Interim Minister, Mary, with the Board and with other Fellowship leaders for the next two years. When Mary's ministry ends, the Transition Team will disband to make space for the new minister.

 Our role is to assist in the Interim tasks. We will serve as "eyes and ears" for Mary here at MVUUF. We will help her in the challenging work of encouraging all of us to explore who we are now, who we want to become and how we will get there.

We will also help keep the congregation informed about the Interim process and tasks, including the search for our next settled minister. We will not be the Search Committee, which the congregation will elect in the coming months. But we will monitor the progress of the search and assist in communication about it.

Communication will be a big part of what we do, so watch for announcements in this space as well as in Sunday bulletins, the news list and other formats. In particular, we will shortly erect a visual map of the tasks in the Interim process, so that everyone can know how far the Fellowship is on this journey into our future and what further steps are expected.

Communication is a two-way street, so there will also be opportunities for you to share. We will want to hear how you think things are going and what your dreams are for our beloved community and how you envision us all bringing these dreams to fruition.

Please let us know if you have questions, concerns or kudos. The road ahead is full of exciting possibilities for us all! --Barb Weber, Transition Team Co-chair

LEADERSHIP RETREAT REPORT

The MVUUF Board, Transition Team and the Program Council met in a leadership retreat on Saturday, September 21, moderated by Sarah Clavez from the MidAmerica Region of the UUA.    This interim minister startup workshop was held to help the fellowship leaders focus our work for the next two years during our transition period.  We explored in depth the following questions: who are we, who do we want to be, and how do we get there.  Great discussion and ideas came forward from our group of motivated leaders here at MVUUF.  The Transition Team will provide more information and updates as we move forward with implementing ideas that were created at this retreat.  The Transition Team will also be looking for congregational input during this period.

ACTION ALERT