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Table of Contents
Connecting
Your Congregation
District
President’s Column
Qiyamah’s
Corner
Ministerial
Matters
Lifespan
REmarks
Field Staff
Calendar / Save this Date!
Your Wild(e)
Trustees Report
Chalice
Lighter Update/1st Annual NC Choral Festival
A Victory for
Poultry Workers in NC!
Mind the Gap
Walking
Lightly on the Earth
Rev. Bill
Sinkford to Keynote TJD Anti-Racism Conference / TJD Young Adult & Campus
Ministry Midwinter Retreat
GLBT Issues /
TJ District Fair Share
Beacon Press
/ Reflection on FLC / Request for Proposals /A Day of Possibilities
Open
Positions / Visit Northern VA!
Resources for
Congregational Leaders
Lay
Leadership Development / The Flaming Chalice
District
Calendar |
District President’s Report
by Dr. Leon Spencer, TJ District President
Conversations, Dialogue and Association
The TJ District Board recently reorganized our liaison
system to congregations. We have appointed a liaison to each congregation.
By the time of publication of the TJ Connection, I hope that your
congregation has been contacted by a board liaison.
Please let us know how we can help and what you are thinking and doing. If
you let us know your needs, we are likely to find resources in the form of
programs, materials, and consultation within our district to match your
needs. We will make every effort to be supportive of your congregation's
vision. The resources available in your district are what you pay for with
your dues. These dues help us to provide services, share resources and
provide consultation at minimal cost to you.
Congregational visits have always been the most enjoyable part of my role
as district president. I always leave with a sense of community and
association and I always learn something. Recently, I visited a
congregation and after worship service, I had the opportunity to meet with
one of the committees to be in conversation about the district and to
listen. It was an honor and a learning experience to hear about joys,
struggles and ideas around congregational life, connecting with larger
community and other issues and concerns. I have heard similar needs in
other congregations, and you may have heard them also. After some
listening, good conversation and sharing, it became evident that the
district had a service that was a good match for this committee's
needs/wants. Sharing this resource with this committee seemed to provide a
new energy in the group, and we were soon brainstorming together over
lunch about how we could work together to provide this resource from the
district. I left the meeting with a sense of satisfaction and excitement
about this committee's work moving forward with some "outside (TJ
District)" energy. Here was a hard working and dedicated committee in a
great congregation with a hard working dedicated minister needing to be in
conversation, needing to share needs and to put on our thinking caps
together. I could not help but wonder how many other congregations just
simply need to be in relationship, to be in association with the district,
and with each other, and with the UUA. Because there are similar needs in
many congregations, there is no need to reinvent the wheel. The District
can build a network for meeting your congregational needs. Please join us
in building a strong association within our district. It is good to be in
association.
Dr. Leon E. Spencer
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