Minister's Message

A message from UUFD Minister Rev. Jamie Boyce

Happy New Year UUFD!

The start of the New Year always fills me with optimism, hope, and excitement and I am excited about our future together at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Durango. Saying “yes” to the call to be your minister remains my great joy and privilege and these first six months have been exciting and busy – and I have loved every single moment!



In the year ahead we will continue to grow in our shared ministry together. In the spring, we will return to the work of creating a congregational covenant to strengthen our relationships and prepare us to meet the future with confidence, care, and love. I also look forward to launching a Committee on Shared Ministry to support our growing community in meeting our mission “To Love Courageously. Inspire Spiritual Growth. Work for Justice”. In 2025 we will continue to expand our Faith Formation program, adding new opportunities for covenant groups, affinity groups, and religious education programming for all ages. It is an exciting time to be a part of our flourishing, vibrant, community of love and justice!

May your New Year be blessed with rest, renewal, connection, and celebration! 

In faith and love,

Rev. Jamie

President's Message

A message from Board President Tim Miller

Happy New Year!

2025 promises to be yet another eventful year; frankly, it will astound me if it isn’t! My New Year’s wish is that we can be intentional making time for the things that bring meaning and love into our lives and not obsess about things beyond our control. 

Shortly after the time you read this, we’ll know for sure where we will hold Sunday worship on January 5th. We’re planning to meet in nearby Needham Elementary’s multi purpose room, with coffee and social time after the service in Bowman Hall. But there’s still a chance we may have enough heat pump units operating by then to be in the sanctuary. Please read the e-announcements on Friday, January 3rd!

I am looking forward to two other upcoming events. On Thursday, January 9th, 5:30-7:00pm, team leaders, committee chairs, and board members will gather in Bowman Hall for a Leadership Council meeting. A light dinner will be served.

In addition, on the weekend of February 15-16, UU Stewardship Consultant Kay Crider will facilitate a series of meetings to help us assess our capacity to create a new fellowship hall space in the coming years. This weekend represents the first “baby step” in such a process. I urge everyone to participate in this effort.

Regards,

Tim Miller

January News from Faith Formation

“People forget facts, but they remember stories.” ~Joseph Campbell

The one thing all humans have in common since the beginning of time is story telling.  We’ve all seen those iconic images of cave people gathered around a campfire.  Surely they were telling stories to one another just as we do now.  Stories are our way of making sense of our own lives, and they are also our way of building connection with one another.  Sometimes those stories are the made up kind, like Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.  Sometimes they are the heartbreaking or redemptive or joyful stories of our own lives.  And the best stories reveal some truth to us in such a profound way that we are changed simply by reading them.  

This month’s Soul Matters theme invites you to embrace your own story—the one you tell about your life and, equally important, the story of your life as you imagine it to be.

Faith Formation for Kids

A HUGE thank you to all the volunteers who helped Faith Formation in December with the Holiday Market and The Christmas Play.  

In January the kids will also be exploring the power of story.  During the month, the focus is on these four components: 

Stories and You, the practice of building your unique identity.

Stories and Friendship, the practice of building meaningful connections, 

Stories and Social Change, the practice of building the future we hope for (MLK Day).

Stories and Religion, the practice of building our UU identity.

Val Pal is Coming:  This fun annual event pairs one of our kids with a secret Valentine who sends (via old-fashioned snail mail) at least three contacts containing jokes, illustrations, and other age-appropriate snippets to an assigned child.  The big reveal comes on Valentines Sunday with a party where the kids find out who their secret Valentine is.  This is a fun, lovely way to build relationships between our kids and our adults.  Deadline to sign up is January 15.

If you are the parent of a child, and you’d like to have your child participate, click here.

If you are an adult who would like to be a secret Valentine for one of our children, click here.

OWL For Elementary is Coming in March.  Watch this space and the Faith Formation News for details.

Faith Formation for Adults

Book Study:  Christ for Unitarian Universalists.  This book, authored by Rev. Scotty McLennan (a minister, lawyer, and professor of ethics), rose to the top of many suggestions for several reasons.  Most prominent of these is the expressed desire of many to have a class on developing your own theology.  Given the influence of Christianity in daily life, it’s good to have a solid foundation about this theology and our relationship to it as Unitarian Universalists.

In a highly accessible and conversational style, McLennan addresses the historical figure of Jesus, Jesus the Christ, the deeper meaning of Christian tenants (Christmas, the crucifixion and resurrection), the influence of evangelicals, and our UU approach of rationality and doubt.  The purpose is to stimulate dialogue regardless of whether Jesus the Teacher or Christianity is central to your religious life. 

This book study will meet for 7 weeks beginning January 13 in Columbine House from 6 to 8 p.m. For more information or to sign up, click here.  

Organizational Session for Soul Matters Sharing Circles Covenant Groups:  January 5, 2025

Using the Soul Matters Sharing Circle, four new covenant groups will form in January, designed to specifically address the needs of (1) families and parents, (2) newcomers to UUFD,  (3) the artists among us longing for creative expression, and (4) a Zoom group.  Each of these have monthly materials specifically based on that interest group.  The themes are the same across the Soul Matters platform each month and investigate ideas like deep listening, joy, trust, and imagination.  For more information and to sign up, click here.  If you’d like know see a sample packet, click here.  



A session to get acquainted, answer questions, and develop good meeting times will be held at 11:30 on Sunday, January 5 in Columbine House.  Whether you’ve signed up or not, all are welcome.  

Personal Faith Development – January:  Living Love Through the Practice of Story 



Stories have power.  Some of the most powerful stories are those we tell ourselves about our own lives—you know the kind I mean.  The ones that label you as “less than” in some way.  The clumsy one, the one who is never-ever going to succeed at anything, the one who can’t sing, cook, understand math.  If you’re like me, Bleh! to those disempowering stories we may have let others (or ourselves) tell.  This same power of story plays out in family life, in our cultural life, and in the life beyond our own town.  Story affects how we imagine social and justice struggles, sometimes with narratives that undermine and discourage taking action or reinforcing a belief that nothing will ever change.

This is the underpinning for this month’s theme:  living love through the practice of story, which might involve in telling a new one.  Storytellers often imagine, “what if?”  This simple question expands the imagination and embraces the idea of a new story that embraces the values UU embodies: justice, equity, transformation, pluralism, interdependence, generosity.  And then it begins, that new and more empowering story.  Once upon a time …

Two practices to try out:

Your reverse bucket list.  This is the story of the amazing things you’ve already done.  Lean on these questions to inform your choices.  What have you done that, by your own standards, is interesting or different?  What have you gotten right with your relationships?  What have you done that makes you feel especially proud of yourself?  How have you shown up for someone important to you?  What is a hard thing you’ve managed top see through and overcome?  Then, tell a story about this in a full, rich, joyful way.

Write a five or six word story.  Yes!  Not pages—words!  Many of us have probably seen that most famous one:  “For sale: baby shoes.  Never worn.”  Story  should evoke some emotional reaction in a reader, and that one does.  For other examples, check out these.  What is your story in six words?  

In closing, consider this: “The question is not so much ‘What do I learn from stories?’ as What stories do I want to live?” ~ David Loy

UUFD is Hiring!

UUFD is in need of a music director and pianist (one person) depending on interest and abilities. Compensation is competitive based on experience, etc.

If you have friends, friends of friends, relatives, etc. who might be interested in this part-time position, please have them contact Rev. Jamie Boyce at minister@durangouu.org for information.