Q&A: How UUA Regional Staff Can Help Congregations

A member of the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Congregational Life staff in the Southern Region since 2020, Rev. Byron Tyler Coles explains the work of regional staff and the variety of ways they can help congregations.

What’s the role of the UUA’s regional staff?

Regional staff is one of the unique expressions of the covenantal relationship between our congregations and communities. While some mistakenly perceive the role akin to a bishop with unquestionable power and authority, Congregational Life offers partnership and support rooted in relationship. At the core of what we do is to affirm and cultivate the fullest incarnation of Unitarian Universalism in any given area. This is done through what we call the Four C’s: coaching, connecting, challenging, and companioning. With Love as our guide, regional staff partner with religious professionals and congregational leaders alike to discern their strengths, growing edges, and points of possibilities. From there we offer resources, additional conversations, challenge and encouragement so that leaders might feel confident in their ministries that give tangible shape to the Beloved Community in the here and now.

Can you describe a typical day for regional staff?

Most days unfold as one might expect for ministry in the twenty-first century: with an almost endless number of emails, phone calls, and Zoom meetings. Yet your Southern Region staff have a weekly practice of gathering on Tuesday mornings for our staff meeting. Over the course of an hour and a half we take time to conjure sacred space by sharing opening words, checking in with one another as faithful partners. We uplift individuals and communities by holding a moment of silent prayer, we strategize how we might support our congregational leaders with their various ministries, and much more. From there we are off, back to the emails, phone calls, and Zoom meetings. While those can and do feel tedious from time to time, we understand that each interaction is a part of the collective ministry that we have with one another as Unitarian Universalists—the ministry of Love. And it is through these interactions that we change the world one moment, one call, one interaction at a time.

What sorts of requests have you’ve seen from congregations? Was there a time you felt most proud of the help your team offered?

As a “Primary Contact Team,” we share the expressed requests and needs of congregations from across the American South, Carribean, and northern Mexico. While we receive a variety of requests for connection and support, by and large, an overwhelming majority fall into the categories of conflict management, pastoral care and connection, strategic planning, and leadership development. While leaders might reach out with express need in any one of these categories, we often encounter leaders that realize something is needed but aren’t exactly sure what that might be or how it could be addressed. That’s okay. As faithful partners, we are here to lend support and guidance along the journey.

In all of this, I find most pride in offering support that gives way to the inbreaking of the Beloved Community, when a sense of power and strength is claimed for the betterment of oneself and their community. This often occurs for the board president of a lay-led congregation mired in conflict who comes to a place of fortitude to know that they are not only clear on their values, but also feel emboldened to lead with those values to address the conflict at hand. Or for the religious professional who is sensing a need within their community, maybe around religious education or prophetic witness in their greater community, who departs from our shared conversation with a sense of feeling emboldened in their wisdom and their ability to effect change.

Who can reach out to regional staff, and how?

Religious professionals and congregational leaders are our primary focus as members of your Congregational Life staff, though we welcome hearing from all members and friends of our congregations across the Association. Members of your regional staff can easily be contacted via email or phone calls, and the Partnership Activation Request Form if you are in the Southern Region. While we understand that folx might feel a sense of trepidation in reaching out to us, know that it is a part of our ministry to be in faithful partnership with you. Reach out and reach out often. As Unitarian Universalists, we are all equally blessed by the shared ministry of Love. And together we grow and transform alongside one another.