The nursery at WUUC will be experiencing a staffing transition in the month of March. Our wonderful nursery coordinator, Jen Ikeda, has decided to take a step back in her role at WUUC. She will still be with us, but now as a childcare provider rather than the program coordinator. You will definitely still see her around the church, but maybe a little less frequently than before. She has graciously helped us as she transitions out of the coordinator role and we appreciate the dedication she brought to RE for the past 8 years as well as what she will continue to bring to her new position. Moving forward, please direct any questions about childcare or RE to me.
Here is a personal message from Jen:
“Watching our children grow over all these years has been such a treasured experience in my life. Although I want to free up more hours for working with my official students, and so will be spending fewer hours with the church, I am very committed to remaining part of this community. Mostly it’s the behind-the-scenes work that is changing for me so it won’t look all that different on Sunday mornings. I can’t wait for Skylar’s events and to continue connecting with our UU families.”
Blessings, Skylar Hopkins, Director Of Religious Education
WUUC Discernment, Dialogue and GA 2023 Delegate Plan
Your WUUC Board 2023 goal is to foster the development of healthier congregational communication and interactions, aiming to grow mutual understanding among the diversity of perspectives and beliefs represented and build a community where all belong together.
To that end, the Board has developed a plan to support our congregation’s discernment, dialogue and delegate selection process for the coming UUA General Assembly (GA) June 21-25, 2023. A simple majority vote by delegates will be required for moving the proposed UUA Bylaws Article II language forward for further discernment within the UUA in the coming year.
Here are the components of the Board Plan:
An Article II Resource List landing page with links to content both supporting and opposing Article II proposed changes. Content is contributed by WUUC members/friends and Resource List is being managed by Lori McConnell.
Article II Discernment & Dialogue sessions facilitated by a neutral non-UU mediator, Ryan Nakade, engaged by Rev. Dan Lillie. Two 2-hour sessions will be offered: Sunday, March 26th from 1:30-3:30 p.m. PST on Zoom and Sunday, April 23rd from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. PST in-person.
A survey or vote (TBD) of WUUC congregation conducted to provide guidance to WUUC delegates to GA 2023 for the purpose of voting on whether to support or oppose moving the Article II proposed language forward for further discernment within the UUA in the coming year. The survey or vote will be conducted in the early May, 2023 timeframe.
An invitation from the Board Secretary, Terry Santmann to WUUC members to express interest in being a WUUC delegate to GA 2023. Based on membership size, WUUC is eligible to select 3 delegates for voting at GA 2023. The invitation will be sent in the mid-March timeframe and (if needed) delegate selection by Congregational vote will be done consistent with the WUUC Bylaws for fair representation of congregants’ differing preferences.
WUUC members/friends will be asked to join the WUUC Denominational Affairs e-mail group to participate in in-depth e-mail exchange and discussions about Article II.
The Board will invite WUUC members/friends who have specific questions related to Article II or want a one-on-one discussion with a Board member to send questions/concerns to Board@wuuc.org.
The Board and Rev. Dan encourage WUUC members/friends to take advantage of this variety of opportunities for respectful listening, sharing of information, thoughts and feelings regarding the UUA Bylaws Article II proposal. If you have additional suggestions/ideas, please contact any of the Board members or Rev. Dan by e-mail at Board@wuuc.org or via individual e-mail addresses.
What do you actually do at Board meetings? That’s a question I’ve heard more than once, so I thought it might be helpful to write a short note each month to let you know what we are up to. First, a reminder of who is on the Board this year: myself (President), Jan Radoslovich (Vice-President and lead on the Ministry Council), Terry Santmann (Secretary), Kermit Sprang (Treasurer), Linda Sherry and Jeff Lu (Members at Large) and of course Rev Dan. We meet 1-2x/month.
This year started with an all day Board retreat where the focus was on setting some goals for the year. We came up with three goals: Healthier Congregational Communication and Interactions, Building a Safer Congregational Culture and Matching the needs of the church with volunteer availability (or, Rightsizing the Church). For the Healthier Congregational Communication/Interaction goal, Rev Dan has organized the Braver Angels workshop and the Monica Guzman discussion and the Board has restarted Community Conversations with more work to come. For the Building a Safer Congregational Culture goal, we have created a “Safer Congregation” task force comprised of two Board members (myself and Jan Radoslovich), R&R member Lori McConnell and at large member Justin Gertler along with Liz Ligon and Marlene Katz. Our goal on this task force is to create clear, well publicized policies and procedures along with education to prevent sexual abuse, sexual harassment and professional sexual misconduct at WUUC. The other goal for this group is to create a comprehensive Safer Congregation policy that addresses sexual abuse, harassment, misconduct and disruptive behaviors. So far, we have had our hand full with these goals and have not made progress on the third goal, but it is certainly not forgotten.
Please let any of us know if you have questions/concerns; we are here for all of you.
The Advocates for Social Justice will be sponsoring a Special Collection during the service on February 19th for the Communities of Color Coalition (C3). Based in Edmonds, C3 educates and advocates for social justice and human rights, especially for people of color and other under-represented groups that have been systemically oppressed. They do this through a transformational process that centers and supports those who are closest to the problem in developing and implementing the solutions necessary for systemic change. Our collection will go toward their comprehensive rental assistance program.
The December 18th Special Collection raised $503 for Arms Around You, a reentry resources and referrals program that serves formerly incarcerated individuals coming out of correctional facilities, the homeless community, and victims of domestic violence and substance abuse.
The ASJ Committee thanks WUUC members and friends for their generous support of our monthly special collections, which take place during services on the third Sunday of every month. Instructions for giving are posted during the service, and you can also donate anytime the following week at https://onrealm.org/wuuc/-/give/now, or by sending a check to WUUC at P.O. Box 111, Woodinville, WA 98072. Please make checks out to WUUC and write “ASJ Special Collection” in the notes.
Thank you for pre-registering for the upcoming Curiosity Clusters to discuss I Never Thought of It That Way by Mónica Guzmán. The pre-registration information you provided helped us determine how many clusters to offer, and what times through the week would be most convenient for many people.
Each Curiosity Cluster will meet for six sessions, 90 minutes per session (the first session will be 2 hours).
To sign up for the cluster that works best with your schedule, fill out this form:
The ASJ committee is excited to announce that together we raised over $2500 for this year’s Giving Tree! All gift card requests were fulfilled, allowing families to purchase presents for 19 children and food for special meals. Additional thanks to Lane Owsley for fixing up a donated bike that will fulfill a Green Leaf child’s special wish, Ann Lu for donating a Christmas tree to brighten a family’s living room this holiday, and Pam Green for the delivery of Farmer Frog food boxes the week before Christmas.
On January 15th our Special Collection will go toward Advocates for Immigrants in Detention Northwest, which serves immigrants in detention and when released, through welcoming services focused on transitional support and connection to vital resources for resettlement.
In October our collection of $770 benefited Honor the Earth, a native initiative to create awareness and support for Native environmental issues and to develop needed financial and political resources for the survival of sustainable Native communities. November’s special collection of $449 goes to the Northwest Abortion Access Fund, which serves Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Alaska with trained, compassionate volunteer advocates running a toll-free hotline, help with paying for their abortion care, and help with transportation and housing for the procedure.
The ASJ Committee thanks WUUC members and friends for their generous support of our monthly special collections, which take place during services on the third Sunday of every month. Instructions for giving are posted during the service, and you can also donate anytime the following week at https://onrealm.org/wuuc/-/give/now, or by sending a check to WUUC at P.O. Box 111, Woodinville, WA 98072. Please make checks out to WUUC and write “ASJ Special Collection” in the notes.
