UUA
Call me Ms. Delegate
Just found out that I get to attend Regional Assembly as a delegate! Okay, so it was kind of by default, but I’m still honored! Apparently, MidAmerica Regional Assembly has 11 delegate seats open for the CLF (Church of the Larger Fellowship) and 11 or fewer CLF members attending so I’m a shoe-in.
Seriously though, this will be a wonderful opportunity for me to attend a regional UU business meeting. While I have many years of non-profit management under my belt, I don’t have them in the field of ministry. I’m truly looking forward to the experience.
Don’t think I’ll be so lucky for General Assembly in Providence, but I will be there with my eyes and heart wide open! 😀
One Assembly, Two Assembly
Today was filled with applications, registrations and reservations for both the MidAmerica Regional Assembly-Bloomington, Indiana, to be held on April 12th, and the UUA General Assembly, June 25th-29th, in Providence, Rhode Island.
As some of you may recall, I attended GA last year in Louisville as a volunteer and I’ve applied to volunteer again this year. With registration as costly as a campsite or dorm room, the price to attend can add up too quickly when one is not sponsored by a congregation.
Volunteering is a great way to get access to most of the Assembly (less the 24 hours working spread out over up to 6 days), and as I found out last year, it’s a great way to quickly meet a large number of dedicated UUs with a strong desire to play an active role in the Assembly.
So here’s hoping to see you at GA! Last year’s memories are still here too!
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For more info on GA, visit the GA 2014 page.
Interested in volunteering? Check out these ‘Volunteer Opportunities.’
Find your UUA Region here.
Ready to rumble!
Back on the blog and writing again feels so good! I’ve got a busy schedule ahead, beginning on Monday when (Arctic blast willing!) I begin the Purdue University Master Gardener Training Program.
Deer have been passing through the woods behind us every day so in preparation for the weather a salt lick is out, the bird feeders are full, and we’ve got some loose seed ready to put out during the negative temperatures expected this week.
Jeep is ready and packed with emergency supplies for the heavy snow expected tomorrow and I’ve got lots of UUA reading to catch up on. Putting on a slow cooker with homemade soup and baking some bread. Hopefully we’ll all make it through warm, cozy and well fed!
To learn about the Purdue University Master Gardener Program, visit: http://www.hort.purdue.edu/mg/about.html
Student of the Prophetic Sisterhood
So I am applying to a few seminaries for Fall 2014. I’m signed up to attend January convocation at Meadville Lombard in Chicago and am planning on visiting the Harvard Divinity campus. But with so much time before I can even make my final decision, I decided to be proactive by beginning the UUA ministerial required reading list.
Many of the seminarians I’ve already met often post on social media about the difficulty in attending courses, internships, writing papers, and all the while, attempting to read and absorb the rather large collection of writings meant to introduce ministerial candidates to the expansive world of Unitarian Universalism.
With a random spattering of documents and books, I’ve chosen as my first reading, a book that touches close to home in my personal journey. The Prophetic Sisterhood: Liberal Women Ministers of the Frontier, 1880-1930 by Cynthia Grant Tucker (Authors Choice Press, 1990.) The women in the book are independent, strong, and always choosing a path with love, difficulty, and leadership in the face of male dominance.
Always one for the unique path in life, and after competing in a few beauty pageants in high school, I graduated early and joined the Marine Corps at the age of seventeen. I was attending boot camp while my friends were attending prom, and I was at my first duty station during our high school graduation ceremony. If that wasn’t enough, I served as a C-130 (Cargo) aircraft mechanic and later did a tour in the Army as a heavy wheeled vehicle mechanic, spending all eight years of my tours as the only female in my workspaces. I followed these with now twenty-plus years in the social work field, working for the American Red Cross in multiple countries and volunteering for many other groups.
Now, much older and wiser from my veering paths in life (I say as I laugh half-heartedly!) I find my faith and family as the touchstones to my life–now merging my social work past, my love of literature (theology is strongly interpretation of the written word, is it not?) and my humble beginnings as a religious lay leader to my fellow recruits while in boot camp.
My path has lost its twists and turns and is now a single road before me. Dusty, rocky, and assuredly over more mountains than I’ve already climbed, but single and chosen by my life’s experiences and my heart’s longings to guide, love, and support my fellow human beings.
So, with the Prophetic Sisterhood, I begin.
traveling tUUsome 