Would you like to hear some practical and actionable items ideas for your own financial planning? How can individuals and families across the full spectrum of financial ability empower charitable, abundant living with the resources they have? Come hear some practical topics, ranging from regular monthly giving as part of your budget to leaving a legacy gift through detailed estate planning. We will talk about best practices in charitable giving strategies including the benefit of using retirement accounts to make Qualified Charitable Distributions (decreasing personal taxable income) and how donors can benefit from setting up a Donor Advised Fund (DAF) as a legacy gifting asset. Consider making charitable giving a soul-satisfying feature of your personal financial life. We have recordings with is Matt Lowe, Managing Director and Advisor at Greene Wealth Management in Seattle whose firm has managed East Shore’s Endowment Fund for over a decade.
ECAM has 500 postcards waiting to be written for NO on I 2117. The backers of I 2117 want to repeal Washington State’s Climate Commitment Act (CCA) and forever ban any future price on carbon. The revenues raised through the CCA are important to improve our environment, to reduce pollution, and to fund projects for marginalized communities severely impacted by climate change. We need to defeat I 2117.
Pick up packets of 25 post cards in foyer on Sundays from Kristi Weir or to learn more about the NO on I 2117 campaign. Kristi will also have a post card writing party on Sept 19, 10-noon, at her house. Email her for her address.
Send Postcards
The Earth & Climate Action Ministry Team (ECAM) supports the work of Get out the Vote: The Environmental Voter Project (EVP). This project increases the number of voters who value the environment using postcard messaging.
Ron Lovell from ECAM is supporting this effort and has packets of 10 postcards for you to write and address. Pick a packet in the foyer on Sundays.
The Board of Trustees and the Staff Leadership Team met over the two days of August 24th and 25th for our annual retreat. Dr. Melissa James of the Pacific West Region (PWR) of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) flew up from her home in San Diego to facilitate in person for the two days. I want to share with you a brief recap of what we did and some of the progress we made.
During the first day, we all told stories to each other in three rounds, patterned after how water lilies grow in a wetland. On the surface, water lilies have bright, beautiful flowers and leaves—known as lily pads—that provide support to the blossoms. Below, at the bottom of the marsh, are stalks and roots, where the environment can be murky and mucky. In between, there are new stems with lily buds that have yet to reach the surface and fully bloom. In each round, we took turns sharing experiences at East Shore that metaphorically matched these respective stages of water lilies: blooms, muckiness, and buds. It is always remarkable to me how valuable storytelling is in helping us better understand each other—learning about our joys and what gives us a felt sense of beloved community, our struggles in darkness, ambiguity, and difficult passages, and our visions and dreams for the amazing things we hope and believe are emerging.
Later that day, we focused on trust-building by learning about “braving,” a tool developed and taught by Dr. Brené Brown. The seven aspects of the braving mnemonic are boundaries, reliability, accountability, the vault, integrity, non-judgment, and generosity. Dr. Brown has an eight-minute braving video available on YouTube that we watched, which I would recommend to others. Later in the retreat, we had the opportunity to explore where the Board and SLT were strong in terms of braving and where we had growth edges. The tool offers a structured way for individuals and groups to examine what is needed to repair or strengthen mutual trust. Personally, I found it helpful to name one or two areas where the board could acknowledge having fallen short in the past and to begin thinking about how we could commit to the changes needed for better Board and SLT trust.
Our first day ended with an embodied practice of letting go, in which Rev. María Cristina offered us a ritual and the space to be vulnerable and hopeful. I am personally going through a lot in my life right now, and there are things that I know I need to let go of. Being able to share previously unspoken truths with my beloved board and SLT gave me a feeling of support and care that I know will carry me forward throughout the year. The ritual ended with all of us singing a hymn together, which simply put, just felt nice. I went home after the first day feeling so much closer to my teammates and prepared to move into the more practical aspects of board work the next day.
On day two of the retreat, each of us was asked to come up with one or more key initiatives the board might focus on for the coming year. After going around the room a few times, we had gathered a list of around twenty. Rather than jumping right in to start prioritizing that list, our next step was to group those focus items into larger categories or focus areas. But before we started working on that, Dr. Melissa performed a kind of magic trick. She flipped over a large sheet that was on an easel at the front of the room and revealed a list of 5 or 6 focus areas that she had prepared overnight. She had come up with these areas after having listened to our stories the day before. Surprisingly, we found that with few exceptions, our items clustered rather neatly into these areas Dr. Melissa had apparently divined. We quickly added one or two more to round out the list and capture our remaining items, and then we had our list. Of course, there was nothing magical or tricky about what Dr. Melissa had done. She had merely invited us into a space where we could tell our stories and then listened deeply. I marveled at how much we had managed to organize ourselves collectively by going slow, paying attention, building trust, and only then discerning how we might move forward this year.
The rest of the day, we formed small groups to start working on the top three focus areas that were calling to us. We emerged with high-level plans and then assigned owners and named follow-up actions. While I am tempted to share them here, I’m choosing not to for now, as all of this discernment is still quite fresh and raw. I think, for now, it’s more important to just share our process and let you know we are working on relationships, trust, and braving as we move into this year. Borrowing from adrienne maree brown in her excellent book, Emergent Strategy, we are moving forward with the idea that “Small is All.” In other words, large-scale transformation begins with small, intentional steps, and these small changes can accumulate and influence larger systems and structures. I will share more details next month.
Thank you for reading this installment of Board Buzz. I and other board members will be communicating with the congregation here and in other ways throughout the year. We are just beginning, and we are braving these small, intentional steps now so that we are able to lead the community collectively in the larger steps to come.
With Love and Gratitude,
David Langrock
ESUC Board of Trustees
President
As we prepare to usher in a new congregational year in September, I send you my deep gratitude for all that we shared last year and also my joyful hope for all that we will dream and build together as we continue our shared ministry journey.
I am grateful for all the ways we created healing spaces, inspiring worship services, amazing musical performances, beautiful community partnerships, compassionate pastoral care, excellent programs for children and youth, generous fundraising, vibrant membership programs and events, and so much more!
We participated in rituals and ceremonies that celebrated elders, blessed children and youth, honored our beloved departed, welcomed new members, spoke truth to power, and lifted up community partners in solidarity. We embodied our values as we marched as a strong contingent in the Seattle Pride Parade, participated in important events organized by our Lummi and Duwamish Indigenous partners, welcomed and cared for our Porchlight guests, celebrated Diwali with a fantastic youth dance troupe, marked the wheel of the year by celebrating the seasons, contributed to supporting our Khasi Hills School partners, sent care packages to women in need and advocated for reproductive rights, created an Easter service that celebrated the divinity of Transgender people, welcomed a representative of the Wampanoag nation who shared with us the true spirit of Thanksgiving, cheered for the new members of the Clara Barton Sisterhood, and shared the pulpit with our own staff and congregants who taught us about laughter as a spiritual practice, embracing imperfection, surviving toxic theology, the benefits of veganism, parenting as a spiritual practice, and Climate Justice, just to name a few.
As we look forward to our third year together, we are invited to keep listening deeply, to continue learning, to support each other, and to build bridges together, especially during difficult times, all the while being guided by our values: Justice, Pluralism, Interdependence, Generosity, Equity, Transformation, and Love.
Beloved East Shore community, let us be grateful for all that we have accomplished this past year. Let us welcome a new year together with gratitude, joy, and a renewed commitment to embodying Dr. King’s Beloved Community. Let us be grateful for the gift of a new year, another opportunity for us to build bridges across differences, to be intentional about repairing what needs healing, and to continue to work together to successfully reach our congregational goals. May our faithful work bring us closer together and may this unity be a source of strength when facing adversity and making brave choices.
Spirit of community, in your name we welcome a new church year as we recommit ourselves to “…Live lives filled with goodness and love because that is how we will become the best people we can be.”
Witness transformation in the lives of both the children and yourself. The children will remember your support, care, and positive influence.
Experience Unitarian Universalism through different lenses, deepening your connection to the church and your faith by participating in both worship and teaching.
Service is our prayer.
Who teaches?
People with children and people without children. People in their 20s through their 80s. Long-time church members and relative newcomers. You!
Who, me?! Yes, you!
We have one of the largest Unitarian Universalist Children, Youth, & Families programs in the Northwest – and that means we need a lot of volunteers! Our current major volunteer needs are with our Sunday morning Religious Education program. We need approximately 20 more adults to join volunteer teams to make our programming happen successfully and sustainably.
Volunteer teams consist of four adults for each grade level and service time, who will rotate through to ensure there are 2 adults in each classroom each Sunday. This averages out to every volunteer being in the classroom once or twice a month. Please thoughtfully consider whether you can support our congregation by volunteering your time, energy, and presence on a Religious Education team. We really and truly cannot do this ministry without you and other fabulous volunteers.
Current Volunteer Needs for Religious Education:
Little UUs room Ages 0-5: 2 needed
Discovery Year Kindergarten-3rd grade: 3 needed
Stepping Stones 4th-6th grade: 2 needed
YES-UU 7th-8th grade: 3 needed
YRUU 9th-12th: 3 needed
Important Dates
September 7, 9am-3pm: Annual Volunteer Training
September 15, 10:30am: First Day of RE
Interested?
Fill out this form. If you are interested in joining a volunteer team in support of our young folks this year, or if you’d like more information to help make your decision, please reach out to Amanda via email at [email protected] or by phone at 425-747-3780 x 104. You will make her day!
by Amanda Alice Uluhan, Director of Religious Education
As we return with joy to the new church year ahead of us, it is a great time to reach out to those you love, or maybe even just like, and let them know they are welcome! Here are just a few easy things you can do to be more invitational.
1. Leave a Positive Review on Google or Facebook (and Yelp, Nextdoor, etc.).
Helping East Shore achieve 5 stars and some great reviews will help with people search for churches in the area. Why not take a few minutes and share with the world why you are part of this community?
Do you follow us on Facebook? Or Instagram? Threads? If you do, like our posts! Comment on our posts! Share our posts! Make your own posts! If you interact with our social media (not ESUConnections) your friends will see it. When they see it they might just think “wow they really are doing great things and I know my friend thinks like me, maybe I should check them out.” So follow us and let others know how great we are!
3. Invite Someone to a Worship Service
If you enjoy it, what makes you think your friend won’t? Check out the upcoming services! There are some great choices, various topics… really something for everyone!
4. Invite Someone to a Church Event Other Than Worship
Have you seen some of our great non-worship events? Book groups, movie screenings, potlucks, classes… and more. These are great “side door” events that get your friends coming to something that will get them to know us. And come on, once you get to know us, who wouldn’t want to come back?!
5. Share a Sermon Podcast with a Friend
Did you know that the audio of the sermons is available to listen to? We also have them as a podcast! You can find past sermons here. You can find the podcasts using your favorite app and searching “East Shore Unitarian Church Sermons.” What has been a favorite sermon of yours?
by Nicole Duff, Director of Membership Development
1. Leave a Positive Review on Google or Facebook (and Yelp, Nextdoor, etc.).
2. Follow Us on Social Media… and SHARE!
3. Invite Someone to a Worship Service
4. Invite Someone to a Church Event Other Than Worship
5. Share a Sermon Podcast with a Friend