Year: 2019 (Page 7 of 20)

Discover What’s Possible Together

August 27, 2019 /

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Dear Foothills Members and Friends, 

The time is finally here to figure out how we are going to create a campus that is big enough for us to truly unleash all that our mission asks of us, and all that we dream of doing together.  

Throughout the month of September, there will be 18 opportunities for you to join a Focus Group. In these one-hour sessions, you’ll join with a small group of other Foothills’ folks to talk through the details of our building plans, and to assess our shared commitment and readiness to launch a full building campaign in the near future.

We are asking every member and supporter of Foothills to join one of these conversations. For attending, you’ll get to view a special 3D video of the full campus design so you can see what’s possible really come to life.

Based on what we learn in these sessions, the Board will be convening a report to the congregation at a special meeting in early October where we will decide together if we are ready to officially launch our campaign, and to decide our next steps for our future. 

Please sign up now for a session — this is going to take all of us! We have tried to vary the times/dates so that at least one will work for everyone. If you’re curious, go to the registration link to get an outline of what happens in a Focus Group.

It’s an exciting time — we can’t wait to discover what’s possible — together.

Looking forward to seeing you soon — on Sunday, and at a Focus Group!

Rev. Gretchen 

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Meeting One Another Again

August 19, 2019 /

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/eTigJyE5laA” align=”center” css=”.vc_custom_1566246416983{background-image: url(https://foothillsuu.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/thumbnail-GH.jpg?id=32497) !important;}”][vc_column_text]


Dear Foothills community, 


I’m taking a big, deep breath as I write these words.  


It’s a breath of eager anticipation and excitement to see you all – I’ve missed you! I can’t wait to see you.


It’s a breath to tend to some anxiety I can feel, unsure what it will be like to return after the time away.   


It’s a breath of relief to be here, after this incredible time set-apart, to show up as I am, now, and to meet you as you are, now. 


And most of all, it’s a breath of gratitude. I cannot believe what a gift you have given me, and my family, and my ministry.  I’ve decided that everyone should get a sabbatical – that sabbaticals are a part of my vision of the Beloved Community! 


During my sabbatical, I’ve spent a lot of my time in my backyard, getting to know the dirt, the plants, the trees, the next-door-neighbor’s chickens, the rocks, the weeds, the squirrels. It’s been a time of resetting, both for my long-neglected garden, and for myself. 


There have been so many lessons along the way, but the one I want to start with, is about time. Which is, how much time it takes if you are going to really do the deeper work, the work of real transformation.


Sometimes, I’d realize that whole days had passed, and I’d barely made it more than a few feet further than I’d worked the day before. But this was what it took to get down deep, to make real change, to understand what is there, and also what is really possible. 


I start here because I think this is the invitation for us, too, as we move into this transition and reunion. 


It’s an invitation to go slowly, intentionally, carefully – and with curiosity and a sense of adventure for all that is possible.  


To really meet one another again, paying attention to the growth, the losses, the new curiosities we’ve experienced over this time. Noticing the shifts in the church system, in our individual lives, and in the world.  And for me to share the shifts in my life and sense of ministry.


To listen spaciously for who we are now, and for who we are becoming as we stretch forward into the years ahead.


It’s an intention that honors the time we’ve spent apart and the work that we’ve done, by taking this transition seriously.  And as this month’s series says, by taking it personally. 


It’s an intention that is not shallow, or superficial, but deep, and real. Which means most of all moving at a pace that tends to our whole system’s health, and wholeness.  I’ve been thinking this transition will take about the same amount of time I was away to feel complete.


It’s perfect to begin with this Sunday’s Water Communion – a ritual about gathering in, and a celebration of the ways we are changed simply by meeting one another, and by forming real and deep community. 


I am so looking forward to being with you again this Sunday. Be sure to RSVP here so we can send you all the details about the gathering – 10 am, Northside Aztlan Center. 


Another big breath. 


See you Sunday.

Gretchen

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row]

It’s Personal

August 16, 2019 /

Have you ever noticed that whenever someone says “Don’t take this personally but” no matter what the next words out of their mouth can not be taken any way but personally. 

When people have said “Don’t take this personally but I don’t believe being gay is nature”, it’s hard for me (Rev. Sean) to respond by saying “of course I won’t take your statement that  disregards my inherent worth and dignity personally, I’ll place it over here in a bucket of theoretical statements about things you believe that even though they impact me deeply, I’ll suspend any judgement or feelings about for the sake of your request”.

Don’t take this personally is another way of saying “I know you might be hurt by this or” or “It’s not about you even though you are involved”. But most of the time “Don’t take this personal” is a way of communicating don’t be a person about this.

 Don’t be…..A person who has insecurities, emotions and hangups. 

        A person who is porous and internalizes the world around them.

      A person with a specific and unique story that is still unfolding. 

Instead be a robot — unfeeling, dispassionate, and utterly generic and replaceable. 

It’s Personal is a worship series that begins August 18th that asks the question: what if we did take it personally and how might that change everything. 

Making It Personal wading through the water towards deep rather than shallow relationships. 

When we make it personal, what was once generic and distance becomes real and intimate. What might have gone ignored or unseen, is now in our faces. When we make it personal what might have once been only theoretical— terms like the beloved community, people living with addiction and mental health struggles, the kids that annoy you as they talk to their parents during worship —  start to have a face, and a story, and personalities, and depth in that true messy yet beautiful human way. 

In short, making it personal is the bridge towards relationships that actually matter. 

Sean’s Reflections on the End of Gretchen’s Sabbatical

August 15, 2019 /

Dear Wonderful Foothills Community,

On Monday, I removed Acting Senior Minister from my email signature line. It was just over 14 weeks ago that Rev. Gretchen, Foothills’ Senior Minister, stepped out into her time of sabbatical. And you will be hearing more from her about her time away in the weeks and months to come, but in this moment of transition, I wanted to share a few reflections. 

Sabbatical is a collective venture and so are its blessings. While it’s easily apparent what time away from ministry might afford for renewal, what might be more hidden are the gifts that sabbatical has brought to our congregation in Gretchen’s absence. 

Sabbatical has reinforced to us that the church has always been and will also be greater than any individual minister, staff member, or lay member. The vision of being a church of humanity unleashing courageous love, could never be and should never be thought to be contained or connected to a single person. Sabbatical didn’t mean church stopped or was put on hold, put in limbo for a quarter of a year. 

Sabbatical invited us to take on new ways of being. Staff members portfolios shifted into new areas. Church members stepped up into critical leadership roles to fill the needs that arose. One prominent example is Foothills member, Karen Harder stepping into a newly created role of Lay Pastoral Care Minister. But it’s the small shifts and moments too. It was the grace that we offered each other when something didn’t get done. It was the hospitality volunteers that stayed for the next service to make sure everything went smoothly. 

Sabbatical flexed our muscles for faith and trust. It was not lost on me that during our sabbatical 60% of our full-time staff were millennials. Each day of the sabbatical I was reminded of the deep trust that being placed in my ministry. It was humbling, terrifying — and because there wasn’t a second that went by that I felt alone or partnerless in our work— it was deeply beautiful. Which isn’t to say there were not many challenging moments — there were many. I imagine it will take me some time to process the experience, as of right now I am mostly filled with a deep thankfulness for everyone in our community. 

As was our plan, for the past few weeks Gretchen and I have been meeting in advance of her return and over the next three weeks she will be stepping back into her role.

Gretchen’s first Sunday back in worship will be our All Church Water Communion Celebration at the Northside Rec Center on August 25th. 

Our Sabbatical Team has been collecting your experiences about this sabbatical time in order to help us learn about the experience, because this may have been the first sabbatical in a long time but it won’t be the last. If you have thoughts please sent them to sabbatical@foothillsuu.org.

Fourteen weeks is a long short time and I am so grateful to be welcoming Gretchen back this week. I’ve missed her, and I know the staff as well. And because many of you have asked, once Gretchen is fully back in her role in Sept/Oct I will be taking some time away for vacation and study leave. 

In faith and partnership,

Rev. Sean Neil-Barron
Associate Minister

I Am Only One

August 6, 2019 /

by Ticie Rhodes, Sanctuary Everywhere Core Team Lead

Anticipating the launch of Sanctuary Everywhere volunteer trainings, Foothills’ program to accompany asylum seekers and provide them Sanctuary both within the church walls and without, I was asked to write about how developing and working with this program has affected my life.

To do so would tell only a fraction of the story, so as I invite you to join in this work with our team, I will try to share the larger story–of how it has affected my life, yes, but also how it has affected others’.

Since last October, Sanctuary Everywhere has grown from providing in-church Sanctuary to Ingrid, an immigrant from Peru with a deportation order over her head, to accompanying asylum seekers living in detention under circumstances you’ve read about; to working with lawyers to get parole for them; and to providing housing with a host family, and a Village to support them as the asylum seeker navigates their new life in this country.

Many of you met Lorenzo and his young son Pedro during their brief in-church Sanctuary stay at Foothills in July. Lorenzo’s 48hrs living at our church bought his lawyer time to reopen his case, removing his deportation order.  Two Sanctuary Everywhere team members accompanied Lorenzo and Pedro to their next ICE appointment, shared their relief that all went well, and returned them to their family–wife and their five month old–elsewhere in Colorado.

But what other lives have we touched, as we’ve launched this program? 

We accompanied — that is visited in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention and funded for communication with family and additional food — ERP*, who now lives with a Foothills member and works in Fort Collins, supported by a Foothills Sanctuary Everywhere Village.

We accompanied MJC*, and helped her find and get paroled to a host family near her own family, elsewhere in Colorado.

We accompanied ILC* briefly, until she was deported to Guatemala.

Currently we are accompanying BT*, awaiting word that he may be paroled by ICE to a host here in Fort Collins before his court date later this month. A court date while in detention almost always results in deportation–in his case, back to his home where he was arrested and beaten by police for political  activism and where his father, a political activist, disappeared almost 20 years ago.

Recently when I sent BT a money order, he sent me the following handwritten note on a scrap (yes, scrap) of paper–

Dear Lettice Rhodes.  good day. I take you money, and I want to say to you thank you very much.  you so help me in my hard time. God bless you!!! I will never forget you help.  Thank you so much!

So, how has Sanctuary Everywhere affected my life?  

I get to send money orders… and know that it makes a big difference to someone who needs that help and some hope.

I get to drive an asylum seeker to get root canals and fillings in her too-long neglected teeth… and the chance to connect across a cultural chasm and make an important difference in her health.

And yes, I get to go to meetings and hammer through the challenges of caring for individuals trapped in a vicious system, for Davids against Goliath… and forge deep connections wrought by working in a small group of committed people for work that speaks to us.

And when I feel small and discouraged, looking for ways to help, I remember this, that we are stronger together, and the words of Edward Everett Hale (1822–1909) American author and Unitarian clergyman.  

I am only one; but still I am one. 
I cannot do everything; but still I can do something; 
and because I cannot do everything, 
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

We’d love for you to join our team. Signup for one of our upcoming Sanctuary Everywhere trainings here.

*Initials used to protect anonymity.

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2025 Dispatches from the journey of Foothills Unitarian

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑