Dear readers,

This is the last issue of InterConnections. The newsletter that began in 1998 as an effort by the Unitarian Universalist Association to present very practical information to congregational leaders is coming to an end as a result of the Association’s current financial shortfall. I am choosing to retire at the end of August.

As editor of InterConnections for its entire life—and the person who has written virtually all of it—it has truly been life-changing for me to do this work. It has been a joy to talk with many of you over the years about the successes in your congregations, and then share those stories with other leaders through InterConnections.

Don Skinner

Please know that InterConnections is not going away completely. InterConnections will live on as a rich archive that you can access any time you wish. If you come home from a board meeting frustrated about an issue, or if one wakes you up in the middle of the night, you can search InterConnections to see how other congregations may have solved similar problems.

The InterConnections archive includes hundreds of articles about all aspects of congregational life, from full-on profiles of exemplary congregations, to articles on how to do Joys and Sorrows better, or how to be more welcoming on Sunday morning.

Please also remember that the UUA has more ways now for leaders to learn from each other than it did in 1998. Now there are email lists, Facebook laboratories, and webinars. I urge you to avail yourselves of all of these, in addition, of course, to contacting your district and regional UUA staff when questions arise.

InterConnections was the inspiration of former UU World editor Tom Stites, who wanted the newsletter to be “relentlessly useful” to leaders. As we wrote in the first issue, “InterConnections searches out the congregations that have had extraordinary successes with an issue and tells you how they did it, then recommends other resources you can draw on in tackling the same issue.”

We hope we have held true to that mission and we wish you the very best.

Donald E. Skinner

Rasor is director of the Center for the Study of Religious Freedom at Virginia Wesleyan College. He is a UU minister and the author of an earlier book, Faith Without Certainty: Liberal Theology in the Twenty-first Century.

A UU theologian, Rasor dispels the myth that conservative Christianity is the only valid religious voice in national debates on social policy. He calls on religious liberals to bring their religious convictions to bear on current issues.

A discussion guide will be available in October. Reclaiming Prophetic Witness was one of 14 books considered for the Common Read. The book is $15 from the UUA Bookstore, with discounts for purchases of multiple copies.

More information about the selection process is on the Call and Response blog of the UUA’s Faith Development Office. In the forward of the book Rasor writes that there has never been a more important time for UUs to speak about about issues including the environment, immigration, and gender.

Would you know what to do if your congregation’s Sunday morning service was disrupted by people who despised your beliefs? It happened July 20 to the congregation at First Unitarian Universalist Church of New Orleans.

In the middle of a service—during a period of meditation—activists from the anti-abortion fundamentalist Christian group Operation Save America began speaking about “abominations” and shouting that the church was “not a true faith,” said the Rev. Deanna Vandiver, who was leading the service. She is executive director of the Center for Ethical Living and Social Justice Renewal, a group affiliated with UU congregations in New Orleans.

The service was dedicated to commissioning UU youth leaders from around the country who were completing a youth justice training program in New Orleans.

The congregation responded appropriately to the disturbance. Vandiver invited the protesters to stay if they could worship respectfully. When they continued to speak out, the most vocal ones were escorted out by members of the congregation and police were called. Others were made to leave later when they engaged youth and others in inappropriate conversations during coffee hour.

Read full article.

There was a time when it was a bit of a challenge to identify Unitarian Universalist congregations with thriving young adult ministries—but not anymore. More and more congregations are getting the hang of young adult ministries, and they have lots to teach the rest of us.

The Rev. Annie Gonzalez, the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Young Adult and Campus Ministry Associate, has been collecting stories from congregations with thriving young adult ministries and posting them on the Blue Boat blog of the UUA’s Youth and Young Adult Ministries staff group. She writes about a different congregation each month.

If you’re looking for inspiration or simply for helpful tips about starting or strengthening a young adult ministry, this is a place to start. “It’s been very inspiring to collect these stories,” said Gonzalez. “It also reminds us there is no one formula for engaging young adults.”

Read the full article.

The seven ways are:

• Communication – Provide a resource person to listen to the needs of the person with a disability and their family to learn how they can work together toward full inclusion.
• Accessiblity – To the extent possible, meet the physical needs of the individual.
• Support – Provide an aide or peer assistant to enable participation in religious education, small group ministry, etc.
• Leadership – If leaders of faith communities are committed to inclusivity then it is more likely to happen.
• Participation – Invite people with disabilities to be on boards and committees and to take visible roles in congregational life.
• Education – Congregations that educate their members on disability issues are more welcoming and better able to integrate people with special needs.
• Love – Parents of children with special needs who experienced love and acceptance reported their congregations were sources of great strength and support.

In addition, UU World had an article on books to help UU congregations welcome people with disabilities in its Summer 2014 issue.

For membership professionals there is the UU Association of Membership Professionals which is open to paid staff who work with membership issues. A membership is $40.

The Association of UU Administrators is open to administrators of congregations. Fees range from $55 to $75, based on the size of the congregation.

The Liberal Religious Educators Association supports educators with continuing education programs, conferences, and newsletters and other publications. Fees are $50 to $175.

The UU Musicians Network invites congregational music directors and others involved in music ministries to join. Fees are $70 to $100.

The UU Small Group Ministry Network is open to leaders of small group ministry programs. Membership is $40 for an individual and $100 for a congregation.

Here’s how.

Virtually all of the workshops at GA, which cover a wide range of topics about aspects of congregational life, were audio recorded.

Any adult who registered for any part of General Assembly should have received an email (probably on July 10) from Strategic Events Plus with a code that provides free access to the audio content of all of the workshops. For $75 you can buy the workshops loaded onto a flash-drive.

If you didn’t attend GA you can buy downloadable access to all of the workshops for a fee of $150, or you can get them all on a flash-drive for $225.

The business sessions and the worship services from GA can best be viewed by accessing them directly from the GA website, for which there is no charge.  The only content you cannot get are those presentations that include music, which is copyrighted and for which the Unitarian Universalist Association could not get permission to use apart from the original presentation at GA.

If you have not received an email from Strategic Events Plus you may contact the company at support@strategiceventsplus.com or 888-640-4899, extension 104, from 9 to 5 p.m. weekdays. Please check your spam filter for the email before contacting the company, however.

Strategic Events Plus also has GA content back to the 2009 GA.

• The Selma Awakening: How the Civil Rights Movement Tested and Changed Unitarian Universalism by the Rev. Mark D. Morrison-Reed. $18.
• Not for Ourselves Alone: Theological Essays on Relationship edited by the Rev. Laurel Hallman and the Rev. Burton D. Carley. Twelve essays exploring the movement from individual identity to relational connectedness. How to think about ourselves as part of something larger. $16.
• Children of the Same God: The Historical Relationship Between Unitarianism, Judaism, and Islam by the Rev. Susan Ritchie. $14.
• Creating Justice Together: Service Projects for Families and Multigenerational Groups edited by Susan Lawrence. $15.
• Missionaries, Builders, and Pathfinders: Unitarian Universalist Stories from the Midwest, West, and South, 1830-1930 by Gail Forsyth-Vail and Polly Peterson. Exploring the pioneers who helped liberal religion spread into regions beyond the northeastern United States. $15.