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Dr. Glen Thomas Rideout, Director of Worship Arts Ministries, is excited to invite you to consider applying to become a worship associate here at First Universalist, as we at once re-start a once vibrant program here and create its new place in our community from the ground up.

Worship associates are members of our community who serve as worship leaders with our current worship team. Associates participate in selecting worship themes throughout the year. They each contribute to the planning of worship services, having a voice in shaping what the community experiences together on Sunday mornings. Associates prepare words for different elements of worship and lead the congregation in service 2–4 times a year. They join the worship team in reflecting on what’s going well in our services and what ought to be improved. 

The term “worship associates” was developed at Oakland. The program was begun by Rev. Robert Eller-Isaacs, who was later joined by his wife Janne in co-ministry. The church formally adopted the program in 1988. 

“The sharing of power by the clergy and sharing the benefits of participation in the active ministry of the church is the real gift Unitarian Universalism has to offer its people,” said Eller-Isaacs.

Here’s what former worship associates at First Universalist have said about the program:

“I have been speaking in public since I was 12 years old. I do it professionally. But it was always about someone or something else. Being a Worship Associate has given me a chance to speak my truth, to be vulnerable, and to share my heart.” – Ginger Murphrey

“More than anything else I’ve done at First Universalist, being part of the Worship Associates team made me feel a part of this church.” – Marion Dane Bauer

“The worship associate circle expanded my soul in ways that I could not have imagined. Gathering with such a wonderful group has made me feel more connected to the church.” – Benjamin Miles

Before the beginning of the church year, worship associates come together to get to know the worship planning and leadership process here at First Universalist, and to train in important skills like what makes a great worship theme, speaking in public, and writing for worship. Along the way of their terms of service, worship associates will work closely with me (as well as with our ministers leading worship), receiving feedback to encourage and strengthen their worship leading technique and help them to become steadily more comfortable and proficient on the chancel. 

Worship associates are a vital part of how the community helps to build its own worship experience. Associates are valued members of the worship team and leaders in the community. They represent our community’s diversity of age, race, socio-economic background, spiritual perspective, culture. Still, the team will be united by a common love for our community, an investment in its worship, and an earnest desire to help build it up. 

If you’re interested in becoming a worship associate here, we invite your application to the program for the coming year. Applications are being accepted now through June 14, 2023, with our initial gathering to happen in July. 

This past fall, many of you participated in a survey to help us decide how we might continue to make our spaces as inclusive and accessible as the COVID-19 pandemic shifted to an endemic stage. Your Leadership Team combed through your responses, listening and learning as we went. We decided at that time to continue requiring masking in the Sanctuary on Sunday mornings to make it as inclusive a space as possible, and to move to masking optional in the rest of our spaces. We also promised that we would revisit this decision in the spring, and even though the weather often doesn’t feel like it—spring is here. 

After careful consideration of local and national health guidelines, which have continued to evolve over the past year, and ongoing monitoring of COVID levels in Hennepin County, we have decided to update our COVID Community Care Policies, effective this Sunday, May 21:

• Masking will be welcome, but not required, inside the church building—including the sanctuary—when Covid community/hospital admission levels in Hennepin County are Low or Medium. Masks will be required inside the building when those levels are High.
• High quality KN95/N95 masks will be available free of charge for anyone who wishes to use one when in the building.
• Creating an intentionally inclusive space where masking is respected and welcomed without question is all of our responsibility.
• We continue to encourage all who can be vaccinated against Covid-19 to receive the initial vaccination and subsequent boosters to reduce the impact of Covid 19 for each person individually and for our wider community, collectively.
• We continue to ask people to stay home if they are feeling sick. 
• We will continue to offer online and multi-platform opportunities for spiritual growth, and will continue to focus resources on further strengthening our online and multi-platform community. 
• We will work with congregants and families on an individual basis to address health and accessibility concerns, and to find creative ways to care for each other and connect. Please reach out to Rev. Ashley Harness to brainstorm together. 

We welcome your feedback as we continue to navigate new times and circumstances together, committed, as always, to caring for each other and our larger community with love.

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