Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Phoenix

Author: Nick Laux

  • Budget Review Meetings & Congregational Meeting

    Come join us on June 9 for the Congregational Meeting, and everyone is welcome to attend, but only UUCP members are eligible to vote. You can attend this meeting in person or via Zoom. In addition to the voting on the budget, we will be sharing information about the state of the congregation and our Framework Project. Meeting topics will include:

    • Our slate of elected leaders
    • The current proposed budget
    • Entering into an Affiliate Minister relationship with Rev. Sky Williams-Tao

    UUCP believes in having an open and transparent budget process, so we invite you to come and learn all about what is in our 2024-2025 budget at our two upcoming Budget Review Meetings. Join us to get a deeper dive on:

    • Sunday, June 2nd @ 12pm in person in Room 11
    • Monday, June 3rd @ 12pm on Zoom

    Want to get a jumpstart? You can preview documents for our 2024 annual meeting online:

    • 2023 Congregational Meeting Minutes
    • 2024-2025 Budget
    • Slate of Candidates
    • Rev. Sky Williams-Tao’s bio
    • 2024 Congregational Meeting Agenda
    • Framework Project Report
  • Notes From Your Dance Partner

    Notes From Your Dance Partner

    It feels like this was a week of big transitions for many. Some finished or graduated from school (as teachers or students), some of you head to cooler weather for the seasons, some of you are making moves, some of you are starting new projects–or ending them.  Sometimes there are words for these transitions and sometimes there are none.  

    For all of these transitions–or even just the little transitions of your day–here is a beautiful song that reads like a Mary Oliver poem.  May the words land on you where you might not have the words.

    The Lost Words Blessings
    By Julie Fowlis, Karine Polwart, Seckou Keita, Kris Drever, Rachel Newton, Beth Porter, Jim Molyneux, Kerry Andrew.

    Enter the wild with care, my love
    And speak the things you see
    Let new names take and root and thrive and grow
    And even as you travel far from heather, crag and river
    May you like the little fisher, set the stream alight with glitter
    May you enter now as otter without falter into water

    Look to the sky with care, my love
    And speak the things you see
    Let new names take and root and thrive and grow
    And even as you journey on past dying stars exploding
    Like the gilded one in flight, leave your little gifts of light
    And in the dead of night my darling,
    find the gleaming eye of starling
    Like the little aviator, sing your heart to all dark matter

    Walk through the world with care, my love
    And sing the things you see
    Let new names take and root and thrive and grow
    And even as you stumble through machair sands eroding
    Let the fern unfurl your grieving, let the heron still your breathing
    Let the selkie swim you deeper, oh my little silver-seeker
    Even as the hour grows bleaker, be the singer and the speaker
    And in city and in forest, let the larks become your chorus
    And when every hope is gone, let the raven call you home

    If you’d like to hear the song, you can find it here:
    https://thebirdsings.com/lost-words-blessing/

  • 2024 Congregational Meeting

    Come join us on June 9 immediately after worship for the Congregational Meeting. Everyone is welcome to attend, but only UUCP members are eligible to vote. You can attend this meeting in person or via Zoom (Meeting ID: 878 1702 2873). In addition to the voting on the budget, we will be sharing information about the state of the congregation and our Framework Project. Meeting topics will include:

    • Our slate of elected leaders
    • The current proposed budget
    • Entering into an Affiliate Minister relationship with Rev. Sky Williams-Tao

    Want to get a jump start? You can preview documents for our 2024 annual meeting:

  • UUCP Space Shift Update for May 21

    UUCP Space Shift Update for May 21

    The Great UUCP Space Shift continues! Here are some things you might notice this week at UUCP:

    • Children’s Ministries has moved to Room 2 and is unpacking.  
    • The copier is still in Room 2. Please be aware that it is an office space when you are using it.  
    • The Preschool is packed up and almost moved out.  
    • The Annex Rooms are all closed and inaccessible as DVLC does some construction work over the summer.  
    • The handicap access into the main UUCP building is still accessible through the back patio.  
    • The play structure has been removed. We will be looking at creative new ways we can reimagine that space for play.  
    • There are office supplies upstairs in the space that was previously Brigitta’s office.  

    We will do our best to keep you updated in this space in Compass and the website.  We are SO grateful for your patience, your curiosity and your laughter (see Rev. Christine’s Notes From Your Dance Partner to hear more about that) as we continue to shift this summer. 

    The GREAT Space Shift

    We are looking at a BIG space enhancement next year with a mini-Capital Campaign of approximately $150,000 that will provide us with a number of great enhancements–ones that will provide benefits for so many different groups within UUCP, including:

    • Turning the Music Office in the sanctuary into a Wiggle Room
    • Having that wiggle room connect to a nursery in the hallway.  
    • Having multiple Adult Faith Development classrooms in Rooms 12 and 15.  
    • Creating a Children’s Faith Development Room in Room 11.
    • Possibly enlarging and refreshing the Johnson Room, so that we have more room in there and can rent it out for weddings, etc.  
    • Moving our youth chapel from Annex C to Room 1 (in July)
    • Moving our Children’s Ministry office to Room 2
    • Creating a Toddler Space

    You will be getting more information on where exactly everything is going, where you’ll be able to find the printer/paper clips/chalices/etc] and having input on whether your group has any additional needs in the coming months.  

    The MINI Space Shift 

    In the short term, you will see a few “mini-moves” beginning as early as May, including:

    • Moving items out of Annex B and C and having classrooms available in 10, 11, 12 and 15
    • Stephanie (our Business Administrator) moving to Room 9 in July
    • Children’s Ministries moving to Office 2
    • The Youth Chapel moving to Office 1 (in July and into 3 and 4 for the month of June)
    • Office supplies will be in the Ministerial Intern office upstairs

    We are excited to share more information with you as we have it and want to be proactive and transparent with the information.  Look for the Space Shift logo for updates in Compass and the website and on signs in the building. We hope you are as excited for the transformation as we are. And we hope you will be patient and kind as we figure out the many details involved in this kind of shifting. 

  • Notes From Your Dance Partner

    Notes From Your Dance Partner

    Chaos. It’s pretty much chaos at UUCP right now. The two schools finished their school year this week, and one is moving out of the building to their new location this week. The other one is starting renovations on their spaces, and we are moving rooms around this week and next week. In the midst of this, we are preparing for Kids Camp in two weeks, where the congregation is used in a different way. Stephanie’s office has become a storage room and the Children’s Ministry team is digging out of boxes. There are two different trash dumpsters on campus. It’s chaos.

    And yet, do you know what I heard in the hallway today, amidst some drilling and moving? Laughter. I’ll admit that it’s a little bit of a maniacal laughter that comes where you are so stretched so thin, that all you can do is laugh. Some of it is the laughter that comes with the relief of having the preschool gone after a very difficult last two years with them. Some of it is the sound of hope of having fresh possibilities with new space, and some of it is just how functionally the staff is working together right now, getting through several months (hell, several years!) of some difficult times.

    We have practice as a staff team improvising and having each others’ backs as we figure it out–the pandemic time was a time when we had to really practice this, all while the staff was getting used to a new manager (me). We figured out online worship in a different way each week for the first few months. We found new ways to communicate, to reach out to you all, to serve new needs. We’ve honed those skills and are using them again.

    We’re a little tired of being resilient and would really like to try on a bit of stability. But I can tell you that I have never worked with a more talented, committed, flexible (and funny) staff. This includes Benjie who we miss–and boy do we have some stories to catch him up on when he returns!

    If you see a staff member (or Bunny Hodas, who is an unofficial staff member right now), give them a smile and a thank you, and maybe join in on the maniacal laughter with us.

  • Notes From Your Dance Partner

    Notes From Your Dance Partner

    I don’t know about you, but I get a lot of yummy feelings from a good ritual. A ritual can make me feel centered when there is a lot of chaos around me. A ritual reminds me that I am just part of the circle of life and there have been people before me who have gone through these rituals and that there will be plenty of people afterwards going through them as well. A ritual helps me to be fully present and just take in the moment. And sometimes, there are parts of rituals that just make me smile.  

    Rituals have great power in a religious community, and even more so in Unitarian Universalism, where we don’t have outside forces telling us what rituals we should have. Even without a creed, rituals help us find the spiritual meaning in everyday life. More than that, they foster community, inspire reflection, celebrate our diversity, and affirm our values.  

    We have a number of rituals in Unitarian Universalism, but it happens that we are putting FIVE of them all at once in one service this Sunday:  our Child Dedication, Coming of Age Graduation, Youth Bridging, New Member Ritual and Volunteer Recognition Ritual. It will be a Sunday where we fully live into the Circle Game of our lives, with gratitude, meaning and love. I hope you will join us and fill up your spirit for the week.