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The second question in the Meet the Moment framework is, “What are the most urgent needs of this moment?” We turned to UUs who have been working to assess specific needs through the lens of that very question as Meet the Moment Wave Cohort leaders.
Wave Cohorts are groups that collectively imagine how Unitarian Universalism can shift, amplify, redirect, or spread out our energy amidst unfathomable changes in our social–political–religious environment. They bring UUs into conversation and practice around particular topics to develop a shared understanding and move toward taking strategic action together. Some are focused on specific identities, while others are thematic, exploring broader practices or institutional changes.
Here, a Wave Cohort co-leader Emily Cherry shares their reflections on the most urgent needs that have emerged from their Wave Cohort discussions.
One of the privileges of serving our Unitarian Universalist Association as a member of the New England Region Congregational Life staff team is having access to a birds’-eye view of what goes on “in the field,” or in the 230+ organizations throughout the six states in the Northeastern-most corner of the United States.
Regular conversation with my colleagues in Congregational Life across the UUA’s other four regions (Central East, Southern, MidAmerica, and Pacific Western) has illuminated that many of us observe similar patterns across our congregations. For example, leaders in all regions, both lay and professional, are experiencing burnout at increasingly high rates. There is much concern about the financial sustainability of our congregations and their staffing structures. Folks are overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work it takes to keep a congregation’s bills paid, employee benefits administered, newsletters mailed, pledges tracked, and on and on.
Guided by the UUA’s mission to equip congregations for health and vitality, to support and train leaders, and to advance UU values in the world, Associate Director of Church Staff Finances Jan Gartner and I convened a Wave Cohort last spring called Growing Administrative Capacity, Confidence, and Competence Across Congregations. We and the fourteen religious professionals and lay leaders who joined our ranks believe that congregational administration is ministry—Administry! While we realize that administration tends to be less immediately engaging to folks than other aspects of congregational life, such as religious exploration or worship, we also know that it is a building block of our communities that enables us to live our values.
There is no reason each individual congregation should feel they have to reinvent the wheel or go it alone. As a community of communities, we have troves of wisdom and willingness to teach each other.
As a cohort, we came up with four ideas to foster connections across our Association:
- congregations share part-time administrative staff
- skilled administrators are hired by congregations to train, coach, or consult
- congregations opt into a systematized administration service organized by the UUA
- interim or developmental administrative staff are hired to assess systems and make recommendations for improvements
Bolstering administrative skills among congregational staff and lay leaders, as well as thinking creatively to share knowledge across congregations, are important ways to ensure that we are taking care of one another.