Read this week’s newsletter here: January 17 Weekly Liberal

Image: A Re-imagined (photoshopped!) version of a 1952 photo in which the Reverend Carl Olson, who served First Universalist Church between 1939 and 1963, along with trustees Rollin Andrews and Robert Pugh, preside over the burning of the mortgage after the church was able to get out of debt in 1952. (with Rev. Justin, Rev. Jen, and board president Eric Cooperstein’s faces)

In this week’s newsletter, Rev. Jen Crow writes:

We did it! Your gifts to our capital campaign, Not for Ourselves Alone: Building an Inclusive Future , allowed us to pay off our mortgage and become debt-free in 2018. And while we don’t have a photo of the mortgage burning like we did in 1952 (see above…!), we’re pretty proud of this accomplishment and all of you for your generosity. Thank you!!

There’s so much more to come as your gifts to our capital campaign are put to good use, and we’re delighted to have the mortgage paid off and the tuckpointing work on the sanctuary building complete as we consider next steps.

This Sunday, leadership from Shir Tikvah and First Universalist will meet to continue our conversations about co-locating at 3400 Dupont Avenue. As people of faith, we are called to live and act out of a prophetic imagination about what is possible as we strive to heal the world and build the Beloved Community. Given our current political climate, to even consider co-locating is a defiant act, an act that disrupts the dominant narratives of fear, division, and hyper-individualism, and dreams about new ways to model what we want to see and be in the world.

As we consider co-locating, the follow vision drives us:

• Environmental Stewardship: Reducing our shared environmental footprint.
• Disrupting White Supremacy: White supremacy in America depends on three pillars: racism, anti-semitism, and Islamophobia. Partnering with Shir Tikvah would require First Universalist to be in faithful relationship across culture and religion with a Jewish community. In this relationship, we will learn, grow, and ally with our partners in disrupting white supremacy culture in all forms.
• Healing Justice Impact: There is a long history of anti-semitism in the Twin Cities. Co-locating in a historic Synagogue invites us to name and revisit this history, to identify anti-semitism and white supremacy as it exists currently in Minneapolis, and to create a new story about how we (Unitarian Universalists and Jews) support and inspire each other. We will do this as we grow in our own unique religious identities, and work collectively and collaboratively toward the dismantling of white supremacy culture that harms us, our siblings, and the planet.
• Financial Stability: By sharing the costs of operating the building, we shore up First Universalist’s financial future, ensuring our ability to continue living into and amplifying our mission.
• Incubator Impact: As a shared house of worship, 3400 Dupont becomes a new space, a learning incubator for the kind of “brave space,” partnering, collaboration, and communication that is needed to meet the challenges we face in the 21st Century.

We look forward to sharing more about our co-location conversations and possible models at our upcoming State of the Church Meeting on Sunday, Feb. 10 following the second service. Please join us to learn more and hear about next steps in this visionary process.

In faith,
Rev. Jen