Dear Friends,
Thank you to all who attended and contributed to the UUCO Annual Meeting, held last Sunday after worship. My favorite part was the expressions of gratitude, a display of our interwoven network of committed UUs here in Ogden.
The budget we’ve adopted for the new fiscal year reflects how we aim to deal with the ongoing challenges of COVID-19 - how we will adapt congregational life to these challenges. In her most recent announcement to congregations, the Rev Dr Susan Frederick-Gray, UUA President, posed a question. I quote her here, because it applies directly to UUCO:
“How do we unlock greater capacity for the ministry that is needed, while being honest about the ways our capacity is reduced?”
I think we addressed this very well during the UUCO Annual Meeting, by unveiling plans for how we will proceed with worship and other activities in the coming year. Basically, we aim to continue virtual worship, but with tech upgrades and new personnel upgrades- a tech manager- so that our Worship Associates can concentrate on the content and quality of worship services rather than the technological challenges of virtual delivery. After we return to live worship and other activities in the church building, our virtual broadcasting of UUCO worship and other activities will continue as a form of outreach to those who cannot attend. Thus, we aim to offer simultaneous live and virtual worship at UUCO when it is considered safe to do so.
We would all like to know, “When will it be safe to return, and under what conditions?” To aid in this decisionmaking, we’ve assembled an advisory group that will make informed and principled recommendations to the Board of Trustees as to when & how to return to live services. Members of this team are Heide Cottam, David Winmill, Chalice Gustaveson, and me. The team was carefully selected to give sound advice from health-care professionals, support staff and scientists involved in COVID-19 research. Except me. I am just the Trustee dude, but the Board of Trustees will be the ones charged with making informed decisions about how & when to return to “live” church activities.
Even with the many uncertainties of the pandemic, I feel good about our path forward, and our commitment to make our worship and other activities more inclusive and our building more accessible.
Finally, I want to remind everyone that this year’s UUA General Assembly (“GA”) will be fully virtual. A full slate of events, workshops and speakers is planned from June 24 through 28, 2020. Please register for GA by following the instructions given further down in this newsletter.
Thanks again to all of you that participate so fully and willingly in the life of our church; to those who have adopted Unitarian Universalism as a way to do good in the world; to those who spread their wings beyond our congregation and into the community; into the vast, inclusive network of inquiry and energy of action that’s encompassed in the larger UU movement of which we’re a part.
You make the world go ‘round. Keep it up, OK?
Namaste,
Bill
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