Three Community Ministers Now Affiliated with CUUC

Rev. Deb Morra is a Community Minister whose affiliation with CUUC goes back the longest. Community Minister Rev. LoraKim Joyner has been affiliated with CUUC since 2013. And this year we welcome Community Minister Rev. Stevie Carmody into affiliation with CUUC.

What is a Community Minister?

The traditions of Unitarian and Universalist ministry have included centuries of prophetic ministerial service beyond the walls of congregations. In 1991, Community Ministry was formally recognized as a specialization within Unitarian Universalist ministerial fellowship.

Community Ministers serve the cause of Unitarian Universalism in many ways: as chaplains in hospitals, prisons, or the military; as counselors with a spiritual or pastoral orientation; as leaders of community service nonprofit organizations; as spiritual directors or teachers; or other forms of Ministry outside a congregational setting. Informed by the Unitarian Universalist tradition and theology, UU Community Ministers serve peace, justice, compassionate relations, and spiritual growth and depth. Rev. Deb Morra’s ministry is counseling. Rev. LoraKim Joyner’s is organizing Central and South American villages for conserving their parrot populations. Rev. Stevie Carmody works for our Unitarian Universalist Association, where he is the the Emerging Adult Ministry Associate and is responsible for development of denominational programs for youth and young adults.

Unitarian Universalism informs, grounds, and constitutes the primary religious identification for many spiritual leaders who are providing healing and transformative service in our world. CUUC celebrates these ministries as vital parts of the liberal religious movement to which CUUC is dedicated. Our support and recognition of the Community Ministers who affiliate with us facilitate the important work they are doing out in the world.

What Does Affiliation Entail?

Community Ministers work outside of congregations and are not paid by a congregation. However, being a Unitarian Universalist means being a part of a Unitarian Universalist congregation. So a Community Minister who identifies as a UU Community Minister needs a tie to a congregation. This affiliation generally involves some volunteer ministerial service from the minister and, from the congregation, supportive encouragement and interest in the UU ministry they do in the world.

Meet Our Newest Affliliated Community Minister: Rev. Stevie Carmody

Stevie (he/him/his) is a UU minister committed to fostering community, exploring the sacred, and making justice in youth and young adult communities. Originally from Arlington, MA, Stevie left his Catholic upbringing in middle school, and joined his local UU congregation on his own—drawn to our faith's commitment to young people and our emphasis on values-based action. There he first heard a call to ministry.

Stevie believes relationship roots us in the work of transformation together. He seeks to be an accountable partner, a joyful collaborator, and a soulful listener. He brings experience in youth ministry in Arlington and General Assembly, and experience to young adult ministry at Rowe Camp & Conference Center, First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego (with a campus ministry at University of California San Diego [UCSD]), and with the UUA's Meaning Makers program.

On the Journey: Simplicity

The Jan issue of On the Journey has arrived! HERE

This month, UU Journey Groups will be exploring SIMPLICITY. Don't miss it, and don't miss your Journey Group meeting to get together to work with this theme!

The Jan issue of On the Journey features

• poems from Emily Dickinson, Mary Oliver, William Wordsworth, Sandra Gilbert, Peter Gizzi, and Josphine Miles
• a quotations page of 23 provocative, witty, or trenchant remarks
• Henry David Thoreau's de rigueur passage on simplicity
• a taxonomy of "five simplicities"
• essays on reducing stress by doing less and doing it slowly, reducing consumption, and de-cluttering
• 9 TED talks curated for your viewing edification
• a page of questions
• a spiritual exercise for the month

The Questions Page. Select one or two questions about which to share your thoughts or musings with your Journey Group.

1. (a) Were the questions for the “Defining Moment” (p. 2) interesting? (b) Did you reflect on any of the questions about the poems (pp. 2-3)? (c) Do you have a comment on any of the quotations (p. 4)? (d) If you watched some or all of the TED talks (p. 9), which were particularly interesting?
2. The passage from Thoreau (p. 5) is well-known. Did you find yourself engaging (anew) with this brief “simplicity manifesto”?
3. “Simple in actions and in thoughts, you return to the source of being.” (Lao Tzu) What disconnects you from “the source of being”? How might you return?
4. Which of the “Five Simplicities” (p. 5) support or are part of which other ones? Which ones would make other ones harder?
5. What do you think of Toni Bernhard’s suggestions (“How to Reduce Stress by Doing Less and Doing It Slowly,” p. 5)? Do you think you’ll try following any?
6. How about Michael Forman’s (“5 Ways to Reduce Unnecessary Consumption,” p. 6)? Do these suggestions call to you?
7. Then there were the tips from Madeleine Somerville (“Creating Change, Reducing Consumption: How Living with Less Can Transform the World,” p. 7). Anything there that you’ll adopt?
8. Finally, Julie McCormick write about “How to Declutter Your Life and Reduce Stress” (p. 8). Have you been inspired to do some do-cluttering?
9. In what ways are you prepared to be (or continue being) counter-cultural in the direction of a simpler life?
10. What do you wish you could say “no” to in your life? Why haven’t you? What would happen if you did?
11. Who might be your teammates in building a simpler and more fulfilled life? Who could you ask for help, and what help would you ask them for?
12. The old Shaker hymn says, “Tis a gift to be simple, tis a gift to be free.” What’s the connection between simplicity and freedom?
13. Do you already have the balance you want? If so, how do you notice and appreciate the simplicity and beauty of your life?
14. Does simplicity mean something entirely different for you from how these questions seem to treat it?
15. Is there a different question about simplicity that is niggling at you?

The link to the current and all past issues of On the Journey can always be found at cucmatters.org/p/journey-groups.htm

On the Journey: Curiosity

The Dec issue of "On the Journey" has arrived! HERE

This month, we explore CURIOSITY. Don't miss it, and don't miss your Journey Group meeting to get together to work with this issue!

Check In, p. 1. How has your month been, and what’s one thing that piqued your curiosity in the last month?

Questions:
1. (From p. 2) How might the word “curiosity” have gotten from the archaic meaning (carefulness, fastidiousness, attention to detail) to its modern meaning? What happened in our culture that would have shifted “curiosity” from the mostly bad sense that it had in Middle English – (prying, meddlesome, nosy), to the more positive associations with the word today? How do you see “curiosity” connected to “care”?

2. (From p. 3): Are there things better not pried into – as Whitman and Davies suggest? Fulton, too, suggests “new is a hooligan.” What is lost by holding everything open to interrogation?

3. (From p. 4) Which quotations resonate with you?

4. What kills curiosity?

5. How curious a person are you? Average? More curious or less curious than average?

6. If you were to become more curious than you are now, would that be advantageous?

7. What are you curious to know about curiosity itself?

8. When is curiosity a bad thing?

9. Suppose you could snap your fingers and double the level of curiosity that humanity in general has about one subject of your choosing. What subject would you choose? Why?

10. Which do is more important: curiosity to arrive at a definite knowledge, or curiosity about questions that can have no final answer?

11. What’s more the more important in human life: knowing, or the process of finding out? (Has Google deprived us of something by making finding out so many answers so easy?)

12. We are curious for knowledge. Are we curious for wisdom? (And what’s the difference between knowledge and wisdom?)

13. Is judging really a bad thing? Is curiosity really a cure?

14. Is there a different question about curiosity that is niggling at you? What is it?

EXERCISE (p. 11): Fill out this eight-question Curiosity self-assessment

The link to the current and all past issues of On the Journey can always be found at cucmatters.org/p/journey-groups.htm