Read this week’s newsletter here: The Weekly Liberal June 7

In this week’s issue, guest preacher, Lena K. Gardner, writes about her upcoming sermon:

Things don’t often just emerge out of nothing. There are usually (and in most cases) a whole host of circumstances and unknowable intersecting things that conspire so that something can emerge – and it usually emerges as a response to a need. How can we begin to curate emergence as a need-based, love-infused response to the inherited world around us? How do we recognize what it means to create a loving response in our individual lives and collective world? Just as our needs are, our lives can be beautifully and continually emerging. This emergence can be curated, it need not be just something that is enacted upon us. We are both capable of and called to create responses to these continuously arising needs and we always have a choice in lacing our response with love, or shrouding it with fear and shame. Will we be rigid, inflexible and out of touch? Or will we be warm, responsive, nimble and yet persistent? This Sunday, we’ll explore emergence as curated response to a need.

Read this week’s newsletter here: The Weekly Liberal May 31

In this week’s issue, Board President, Eric Cooperstein, writes:

Dear Members and Friends,

It gives me great pleasure to write to inform you of an upcoming change in the ministry of First Universalist Church. At the request of our two called ministers, Senior Minister Justin Schroeder and Executive Minister Jennifer Crow, the Board of Trustees has agreed that Justin and Jen should serve as Senior Co-Ministers, with equal responsibilities and compensation structures. The Board will ask the congregation to ratify this transition at the Annual Meeting on June 3, 2018.

The Board of Trustees enthusiastically supports the move to co-ministry. It is another example of how Justin and Jen provide visionary leadership for our church, seeking to practice equity themselves and model how equity can be lived out in the world. The Board believes that Jen and Justin have demonstrated, and will continue to demonstrate, the honesty, maturity, and compassion that is necessary to succeed as co-ministers.

More information about the decision to move to a Senior Co-Ministry model can be found in the document Frequently Asked Questions about Co-Ministry, which is available here.

Your Board of Trustees is excited about this change and Justin’s and Jen’s joint leadership of the ministry of this church!

Sincerely,

Eric T. Cooperstein
President, 2017-18
First Universalist Church

Read this week’s newsletter here: The Weekly Liberal May 24 read more

Read this week’s newsletter here: The Weekly Liberal May 17

A message from Rev. Jen Crow in this week’s issue:

So many things have broken my heart this week. It started with the killings in Gaza, and was quickly followed up by our president referring to immigrants as animals. A few days later I was sitting with a Jewish friend as he described people calling him a Nazi and sending him pictures of himself burning in an oven after he made the radical public statement that both Palestinians and Jews are worthy of basic human rights. Coming from a place of fear, we do so much harm to one another. read more

Read the full issue of this week’s newsletter: The Weekly Liberal May 10

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Please mark your calendar and plan to attend our Annual Meeting, scheduled for Sunday, June 3, 2018, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Sanctuary.

This year our church business includes approval of the annual budget and the election of members to the Board of Trustees, the Foundation Board, and the Nominating Committee, as well as approving revised bylaws and ratifying a transition to a senior co-ministry model.

This is a time when we celebrate a successful year and conduct the business of this church that only church members can do. We need a quorum to conduct the meeting – please give us the gift of your time so that we may complete this work!

We look forward to seeing you on June 3!

Eric Cooperstein
President of the Board

Christa Anders
Secretary of the Board

159th Annual Meeting of the Members
First Universalist Church of Minneapolis
Sunday, June 3, 2018
11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Read the 2017–2018 Annual Report

View the Detailed 2018–2019 Proposed Operating Budget

View the Annual Meeting Agenda

View the Nominating Committee’s Slate of Candidates

View the 5/24 draft of the proposed revised Bylaws

View the FAQ About Bylaws Revisions

View the Letter from the Board President Regarding Co-Ministry

View the Resolution Regarding Co-Ministry

View the FAQ About Co-Ministry

Read this week’s email newsletter here: The Weekly Liberal May 3.

Every year, the Board of Trustees shares a draft budget with the congregation at meetings in late April/early May. The board prepares a final version of the budget for presentation at our Annual Meeting, which this year is scheduled for Sunday, June 3 at 11:30 a.m. (following the one 10 a.m. service). You can view the proposed operating budget narrative and summary here: 2018-19 Proposed Operating Budget.

Read this week’s newsletter here: The Weekly Liberal April 26

On view in the Social Hall April 29 through June 24 is the photography exhibit “Macro Nature” by Bri Moses. Bri’s images reflect the process and patterns of nature, in addition to how it is changing. By examining the subjects from a different point of view, she gains a deeper understanding of the relationship we share with our ecosystem and the delicate balance we rely on.

Bri will be in the Social Hall after both services on Sunday, May 20 to talk about her work and to sell additional items. View more of her work on her website.