UUA President Peter Morales Releases Strategic Plan for Professional Ministries
From the Rev. Peter Morales, President of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA): "I'm pleased to announce the public release of the new five-page UUA Strategic Plan for Professional Ministries. The plan, developed by our Professional Ministries Task Force, outlines eight key recommendations gleaned from our 64-page Strategic Review of Professional Ministries Report. I cannot emphasize enough how valuable input from individuals and organizations has been in developing these recommendations, all of which can effectively be advanced through the efforts of UUA staff working closely with our partners and constituents. We already are acting on several initiatives in the report, and look forward to sharing our progress with you as these efforts come to fruition."
Final report from the Strategic Review of Professional Ministries Task Force
to UUA President Peter Morales
April 2011
Executive Summary
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations
25 Beacon St.
Boston, MA 02108 uua.org
Our Unitarian and Universalist ancestors were notable for always getting into trouble. They raised a ruckus in their time by loudly questioning outworn religious thought and working to bend the arc of the universe toward justice. What kind of a ruckus are we Unitarian Universalists making in our time? We certainly cannot afford to rest on the great legacy of our Unitarian Universalist past, as if the intellect and the passionate engagement of our religious pioneers and prophets ennobled us today. If you were to walk up the grand marble staircase at UUA headquarters at 25 Beacon Street in Boston, you would see powerful photographs of UUs in yellow “Standing on the Side of Love” t-shirts witnessing for immigration justice in Arizona. Yet despite these inspiring contemporary images, you also might feel that you were stepping back in time, with busts and portraits of our 19th century forebears holding you in their gaze from their hallowed perches above.
How do we take the best from our past and at the same time live with radical creativity in the multicultural reality of the present day? Unitarian Universalism lifts up a powerful theological message, poured through the vessel of covenant: you are at once precious and distinct, and at the same time intrinsically a part of the oneness of all being. This message provides us with a quandary and a call. The quandary is this: we must live out our faith as individual members and congregations while holding in tension the needs of the whole. And the call is this: we are to walk together in the ways of love, inviting all who would join us in our big tent of faith.
Our UUA President, the Rev. Peter Morales, was elected in 2009 on a platform of change. He believes most urgently that Unitarian Universalism can and should be the religion for our time. If we are to live up to this challenge, we must equip our religious professionals to become deeply grounded in theology, cross-culturally competent, strategic about the use of technology, entrepreneurial as leaders, and resilient in the face of new challenges.
To this end, President Morales commissioned a Task Force composed largely of UUA staff to study key areas in the formation of our professional ministries, and to make recommendations for how the UUA might best direct its energies and resources in the service of a dynamic multicultural future for our faith. This Strategic Review of Professional Ministries, the culminating report of that Task Force, offers eight recommendations (presented in more detail on pages 4-5):
1. Aggressively Recruit Leaders;
2. Support Multicultural Immersion Learning;
3. Re-imagine and Evaluate our Credentialing Efforts;
4. ExpandTransitionSystems;
5. Support Advanced Learning for All Religious Professionals;
6. Be More Strategic in the Use of Scholarships and Grants;
7. Measure What is Truly Important;
8. Go Deeper: Partner with Related UU Organizations.
Read on for more information!!
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