Month: March 2020 (Page 1 of 2)

Vital Signs 💗

March 27, 2020 /

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Wherever you are, and however you’re doing, you are not alone. We are all in this together.  

After a couple of weeks of increasing intensity, things got even more real yesterday with Larimer County’s (and then soonafter the Governor’s) instruction to shelter in place. How are you holding up?

For a lot of us, the order just makes official what we were already doing. But for others, this will be another layer of change, and grief, and potential isolation. It’s why I’m so grateful that our Community Circles are launching this week!

Over 50 of you who are Community Circle Leads are right now reaching out to over 1200 others of you (!) all across Northern Colorado. Checking in, and offering a sense of connection and community – in addition to the practical support that many may need. If you haven’t heard from a Lead by Sunday, let us know, we’ll make sure they have your accurate contact info.

Because again, this is the good news – we are in this together. We are all trying to figure out what life means now, how we can connect in meaningful ways – what courageous love looks like now.

In this spirit, we’ve decided to reframe what this weekly email will cover. Since Mondays will bring you a weekly re-cap of Sunday’s service (with youtube links and written text whenever it’s available), this email can instead be a chance to offer a “pulse check” on all that’s going on. And I’m thinking we call this weekly email, the Foothills Pulse.  (I mean, we were looking for a good new name!) A place to check in on the vital signs of our community – the ways we are living out our mission and our covenant with each other, and for our wider world.

We are all in a learning mode right now – so much is totally new. Learning means a lot of opportunity to really live into our values in a fuller, deeper way than ever before.  I’ve been returning to our Foothills values a lot this week:

Joyful Resilience. Deepening Belonging. Collective Courage. Transcendent Wonder. 

They can be grounding guides for us as we learn and discover who we are now, who we are becoming.

Learning also means there will be a lot of stumbling, and struggling, and imperfections. I hope you’re making a lot of space for grace and compassion – for yourself, and for all of us. That you know and really feel that everything you are doing is enough, that you are enough, and that there is enough love to hold you, and all of us. This is our theme for worship this Sunday. What it means to be enough, and to have enough. Please join us (and invite any friends from near or far who are seeking community and connection in this time) – 9:00 on Zoom, 11:00 on the regular livestream channels. See you there.

With love,
Rev. Gretchen[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

When Everything Turns Upside Down (The Ethical Life: week 3)

March 19, 2020 /

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Things are shifting quickly all around. Schools moving online. Restrictions on gatherings for more than 10. Restaurants and movie theatres closing. News of lay offs. So many of us trying to figure out how to work from home, and parent, and “not worry.” Not to mention, the rising numbers of infections.

It’s so much. So much is turned upside down, from even just a few days ago. So much is uncertain.

Which is why in these times, I am so grateful to be serving this community, and for this community – all of you, and this community of courageous love. We may be apart physically, but there are so many ways that we are closer than ever.

Starting with our worship service last Sunday. Wow!! Such a cool and moving experience at 9:00 to see so many of you logging on. Next best thing to actually being together.

If you didn’t make it but want to try the 9:00 live Zoom worship this Sunday, just click here a few moments before 9. If you are new to zoom, check out this overview.  And if you have specific questions, reach out to techhelp@foothillsuu.org.

At 11, we went live on our usual platforms (Facebook, our website, Roku, etc) – and got to interact with folks on Facebook in the comments. Also awesome!

More information for both services can be found here.

We’ll be back this Sunday at both 9 and 11, and we’ll keep sending the whole thing out by email by Monday afternoon. Please keep sharing your feedback as we are learning as we go.

With that in mind, with the CDC’s recent declaration of no gatherings over 50 through May 10th, we are coming to terms with the reality that this is not a short term experiment.  Until the day the restrictions start going in reverse, and the number of infections are going down, the world will keep shifting, and remain uncertain, for quite a while.

Which is why we need each other now more than ever!

Our main way to do this is through Community Circles, groupings of 20-25 geographically close and demographically dispersed households that will commit to making sure the others in their group have the friendship, the food, the medicines, the spiritual tools  – and anything else that they need – to sustain through these times. It looks like we’ll have just over 32 Circles across Northern Colorado! Training for our Leads will start tomorrow, and we’ll launch this weekend. We’ll share more info on Sunday.

In order for us to remain connected and to care for each other in this time, we ask every household to complete our COVID-19 Household Information Form as soon as you’re able.

Below you’ll find info on which of our programs and events are moving online, which are being cancelled for now, and which are officially postponed. There are creative responses happening everywhere across our congregation, and across all of Northern Colorado – to keep showing up for each other and for the most vulnerable in our community.

Finally, I want to encourage each of you to take care of yourselves, be patient with yourselves. Take good walks outside (practicing social distancing). Limit social media use. Keep up (or take up) a spiritual practice that you do every day.

This is a collective experience of trauma we are having. Even already. Expect to be a little more tired. Expect outbursts – not just from the usual suspects. Some of us aren’t used to being THISCLOSE to our whole families or partners for this much time! (And if home is not actually a safe place for you, please reach out!) 

Speaking of which – I made a video that I sent out to our community members 69 and older, urging them/you to stay home.  Take a look here. 

BUT! I’ve since changed my mind. I think it’s time we all do whatever we can to stay home.

If you don’t have all you need for groceries for a couple of weeks, if you can wait until your Circle is up and running, your Lead will help in coordinating grocery runs. If you can’t wait, please stay at least 6 feet from anyone else at the store, and wash your hands before and after, and be sure to wipe down the cart. Go as infrequently as possible. Same for medicines or other essentials. The alternatives to this sheltering in place model are not good. Seriously, stay home.  

Stay home as an act of service, and an act of love.

I am so looking forward to seeing you all again this Sunday where we will be exploring the “Blessed Unrest” of living with uncertainty. Please be in touch with questions or needs of any sort. While I’m not getting to all my email responses in these days, I am reading everything (and so appreciating your messages!!), and forwarding on any questions you have.

With love, and gratitude,
Rev. Gretchen[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

March 15th – All Online Worship “State of Emergence-y” 

Listen to Rev. Gretchen’s message here
Listen to Rev. Sean’s King Soopers message here
Watch Rev. Sean’s King Soopers message here

Text
Rebecca Solnit’s A Paradise Built in Hell (How to Survive a Disaster) 
Pablo Neruda’s Keeping Quiet 

Songs/ Meditation 
Rev. Kristen and Christopher Watkins Lamb Lovingkindness Meditation 
Be sure to catch the montage of Foothills set to Spirit of Truth 

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Courageous Love in a Pandemic – Foothills News Regarding Worship & Beyond

March 13, 2020 /

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Dear Foothills Community,

When Governor Polis declared a state of emergency earlier this week, there were a lot of us still trying to decide – is this an emergency?

These declarations are often about releasing funds and enabling coordination – but because there haven’t been sufficient tests available, and the illness is not immediately impacting those nearest us, it can be hard to decide the right response.

We have wanted to respond in a way that acknowledges how important connection is during times of increased anxiety and social unrest. Which is true about the times we have been living in even before the outbreak of a global pandemic! We know how important Foothills is to so many – and to us. We need each other now more than ever.

And, we want to follow the prudent advice to prevent community transmission through social distancing – especially given how over-represented the most at-risk population is in our congregation. This is not about theoretical risk. These are our friends, and family, our trusted and beloved community.

What is the call of courageous love in these times?

A few shifts in the past few days have been clarifying.

First, we received guidance late yesterday evening from our UUA President, Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray, that congregations refrain from gatherings with more than 25 people as a way of slowing down the spread of the virus and protecting our communities.

And second, last night Governor Polis indicated that Colorado is already experiencing “community spread,” meaning the virus is moving freely among the public without a clear source of infection. Given how slowly tests have been made available, we have to act as if the one confirmed case in Larimer County is actually one of many.

As a result, we have decided that starting this Sunday, we will be moving all of our gatherings online at least through the month of March (including Sunday worship), acknowledging that we really don’t know what’s going to happen next and we need to be responsive to shifting realities.

Each Sunday 10% of our congregation connects into worship digitally, this Sunday it will be 100%. That is a huge change. For many the idea of virtual church doesn’t quite make sense. For others, the struggle to learn and adapt to new technologies is daunting. This switch is not an easy one to make and it will require adaptation on all sides. But we encourage you to lean in. As Rev. Sunshine Wolfe wrote, this particular moment calls us to “stay away and stay connected.” Because real and meaningful connection can happen online.

While we are grieving that we will not be together in our sanctuary for a while, we are also so grateful that we can continue to be together in community in other ways, and to take this as an opportunity to strengthen our connections and care for one another and to live out our mission. The how of our mission may be shifting, but the mission itself, the call of courageous love, remains as urgent as ever.

Starting this Sunday, Foothills Worship Plan:

  1. At 9:00 am, we will offer a zoom-based experience. Zoom is a simple one-click video conferencing application that will allow us to connect personally, including with some small group breakout sessions. If zoom is new to you, we will be sending out tutorials and slots to sign up for assistance on Saturday. We’d love to have your advance RSVP so we can know generally how many to anticipate.
  2. At 11:00 am, we will offer a Facebook Live, Roku, Apple TV, & FireTV and Foothills website livestream broadcast of an edited version of the 9:00 zoom service. Facebook Live doesn’t allow for face to face interaction, but our staff and ministry team will be hanging out in the Facebook chat throughout the live broadcast, connecting with you as we worship together.
  3. By Monday, we will provide the whole service in an email, broken down so you can more easily interact with each element. We hope this will be accessible even for the least-tech-oriented among us.
  4. The service itself will be a Foothills service you know, with the Foothills community. With a few things re-tooled for this different medium. We’ll light a chalice and say our covenant, and there will be music and a time for meditation and offering up prayers for our community and for the world. And, we will have the chance to reflect more deeply on what courageous love means in this time – including by connecting with one another. We encourage you to find a chalice (or maybe just a candle!) and have it with you during the service; while it is simple, it can be a meaningful living reminder of our living faith, and the light of hope that continues to shine.
  5. These services are for all ages – especially those over age 10. For kids younger than 10, or their parents, our Family Ministry time is planning some special and supplemental ways to gather and connect, and there will also be a special zoom gathering for our youth. Look for more information tomorrow about specifics.

Programming, Staff and Building Use

  1. Starting Friday March 13th, all Foothills groups and gatherings will either move online or be canceled at least through the month of March. All means all – from meditation to choir to book groups. The staff directly responsible for each of these programs will be coordinating with the event/group leader to make decisions and to ensure they have the tools they need.
    This includes our Spring Break Camp. Registered families: look for communication from our Family Ministry team tomorrow about refunds and alternative strategies to support children and provide childcare relief during spring break.
  2. All of Foothills staff members and ministers will begin working from home after March 13th. We will ensure the phones forward so that we can still be responsive to any callers, but the office itself will close. We have told the few staff members who are not usually eligible for PTO that we will provide them with this support so that they do not need to come to work sick. For those employees whose jobs will not be possible during this time (i.e. choir directing), we will continue to provide a weekly minimum pay so that they don’t lose an inordinate amount of income. This is an important opportunity to be the sort of employer we believe all employees deserve!

Community Care and Connection

  1. In the next week, we are planning to establish geographically-based Community Circles of 15-20 households.  Each Circle will have a lead member who will coordinate with the other members, ensuring that everyone has friendship, food, medicines, and spiritual resources that they need during this time. These circles will be demographically diverse to ensure that those who are most vulnerable in this time are paired with those who are less at risk.
    1. If you are someone who would be willing to be a Circle Leader, please let us know here.
    2. If you are someone who is vulnerable due to an underlying health condition or other reasons, please let us know by emailing caring@foothillsuu.org.
We hope that these Circles will allow us to connect with those Foothills folks who are our literal neighbors in ways we wouldn’t otherwise, and build new networks of support that can last far beyond this situation.
  1. Beyond Community Circles, we also want to be responsive to all who may be needing a little extra support.  There’s so much about this experience that can produce anxiety, grief, confusion. It may cause serious financial hardship. It can bring up past traumatic experiences and crises.  This is in addition to whatever challenge, grief, or anxiety you may be facing in your life already.  We are here for you. Please let us know what’s going on in your world, and how we can best journey with you in this time.  Email caring@foothillsuu.org, even if you aren’t yet sure what might be helpful.
  2. If you are tech savvy and looking for an opportunity to support our community connections in this time, please let us know. We are looking for volunteers to help make these shifts as smooth as possible. 

Community Partnerships
We have also been reaching out to our community partners as well as the interfaith community to see how we can partner with them to serve the most vulnerable during this time. We are identifying how the services our congregation provides in partnership with them can be adjusted or amplified. For example, considering how to safely offer our FFH hosting starting on April 5th, or our regular Food Bank.
We are also reaching out to the City to advocate for further support for the most vulnerable, and for a more definitive direction to businesses and community organizations. This is a time when it is especially clear how we are all in this together.

  1. We have also been reaching out to our community partners as well as the interfaith community to see how we can partner with them to serve the most vulnerable during this time.  We are identifying how the services our congregation provides in partnership with them can be adjusted or amplified. For example, considering how to safely offer our FFH hosting starting on April 5th, or our regular Food Bank.
  2. We are also reaching out to the City to advocate for further support for the most vulnerable, and for a more definitive direction to businesses and community organizations.  This is a time when it is especially clear how we are all in this together.
Community Stewardship 
  1. While it is tempting and understandable to respond to this situation by stockpiling our resources, hoarding what we have, or otherwise taking a pause in our generosity – this is a time when we can do so much good by intentionally sharing our resources. We invite us to consider how this time may call us each back to that ancient practice of giving away a small percentage of our resources – money, time, energy, goods – in a very intentional way, so that we all can more fully live.
  2. With this in mind, if you are able, please consider donating to the ministerial discretionary fund.  You can do this by going here and selecting Ministerial Discretionary Fund from the drop down.  We will use this to fund to support church members whose employers do not offer sustained PTO (so that they can choose to stay home when they are sick) or who are vulnerable financially for other reasons in this time, including needing groceries or other critical supplies. Every gift will add up and make it more possible to provide care for each other in this time.

This is really hard, and there’s so much that remains unknown. We are going to want more certainty and more control than is possible. We may not always be our best selves, and we may not always get it “right.”

But through all of this, we also have an opportunity to respond in the ways that only a church can, in the way that only this church can. We can be a community that is listening to the call of courageous love, and trying with all integrity to follow that path, together. We can learn together, and we can actually grow practices that deepen our relationships and sustain our community long after this time. And there will be an “after.”

For now, it’s helpful to remember and ground ourselves in Foothills’ core values of joyful resilience, collective courage, deepening belonging, and transcendent wonder. You will see all of these values at work in our time together on Sunday, and in all that we do and discover together in the days ahead.

We are so grateful to be in this community with you. You are each in our thoughts and prayers in this time.

With love,

 

Your ministers: Rev. Gretchen, Rev. Sean and Rev. Kristen on behalf of the whole staff team
Your Board of Trustees: President Sara Steen, Vice President Sue Sullivan, Secretary Debbie Gentry, Treasurer Brendan Mahoney, and Trustees Cheryl Hazlitt, Glenn Pearson, and Joan Woodbury

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How We Can Be the Church Now (The Ethical Life: week 2)

March 11, 2020 /

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]If you’re like me, you’ve been getting a lot of emails in the past few days from various groups and leaders sharing their response to the novel coronavirus.

Like those groups, Foothills has also been planning. Both in terms of prevention, as well as response for the more widespread arrival of the illness in our area, which seems at this point, inevitable.  We will be sending out more information with these plans and guidelines in the next two days to everyone connected to Foothills.

For now, I want to focus on the central question we’ve oriented ourselves to as we have been making these plans: How can we continue to be the church through this time?

As in, how will we continue to show up for each other, and be a source of courage and comfort? How can we respond carefully, thoughtfully, and creatively? What does courageous love mean in this moment?

These are the questions we’ve been asking ourselves, and we’d also love to hear what you’d say…What do you believe courageous love asks of us in these days? Respond to this email with your thoughts.  We’re listening.

We know we have a unique role to play in these times as a steady source of connection, community and care.  And, we take seriously our responsibility to maintain a sense of caution and preparedness – especially as a community with a high percentage of those in the higher-risk demographics – all without succumbing to sensationalized fear, racism or xenophobia.

We seek to follow guidance, reason, and science – anxiety and panic is a contagion in these times, too.  In our conversations with experts, they have reminded us that one of the biggest dangers in situations like this is the “worried well” who hoard resources and overwhelm the health care system, preventing those who are actually ill from getting the resources they need to recover.

Given the realities of the virus, it’s likely we’ll need to find some new ways to live out our mission in the coming days and weeks.  However, our mission doesn’t change.  In fact, it’s even more urgent that we find ways to be there for each other, and for our neighbors across Northern Colorado, and beyond.

We certainly didn’t plan that this global health crisis would coincide with our current series The Ethical Life. But, the messages we’ve offered these past couple of Sundays – from virtue ethics and the call to act for the good, to the commitment of our faith to be duty-bound to the all that means all – these can be helpful orientations to keep us grounded through this time.

As we think about our response, two things are most on our minds:

First, if you are feeling especially vulnerable or under-resourced in this moment, please let us know at caring@foothillsuu.org. This helps us know who to especially remain in contact with, and also we may be able to help ensure you have the resources you need to remain safe and healthy, particularly in the case of larger scale quarantines.

I know there are a number of you out there who fit this description – we are here for you.

And second, if you are at all feeling sick (or one who is especially vulnerable) please stay home. Now is a great time to check out our livestream! And if you need help getting it set up, again, please don’t hesitate to reach out – hello@foothillsuu.org.  If this just isn’t an option for you, you can always catch the sermon on podcast.

In order to ensure that “staying home” is available for all those who need it, we are seeking to grow our ministerial discretionary fund, anticipating the need for church members who don’t have paid time off to have a little extra assistance to make time off possible. If you can make a donation to the discretionary fund, please follow this link and select “Ministerial Discretionary Fund” from the dropdown, or send us a check in the mail with Discretionary Fund in the memo line.

As of now, our plan remains to gather on Sunday for church, to be the church for each other, and to continue to be a steady voice of hope in these times.   Whether in person, or online – 8:30, 10, 11:30.

In community, and with love,
Rev. Gretchen

PS I really appreciated this poem from Dori Midnight, speaking to the spread of the novel coronavirus.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Notes from The Ethical Life: Week 2 – All or Nothing   

Listen to the message
Read the transcript

Text
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail
William Stafford’s The Gift
Elizabeth Nguyen’s A Crowded Table in the Time of CoronaVirus
We Persist (for Elizabeth Warren)

Referenced in the Service          
Jonathan Haidt’s The Psychology of Self Righteousness
How the Women’s Suffrage Movement Betrayed Black Women

Further Resources
Deep dive into deontological and consequentialist ethics
Frederick Douglass: A Woman’s Rights Man
Info on UU the Vote

Music
We sang our series theme song, Your Life Is Now
The band played Queen’s I Want It All at 10 & 11:30

Remember
We dedicate our lives to the proposition
that when we are faithful in our commitment to the whole,
we can and will create a world where we can all get free for all time.

To who, and to what have you pledged your loyalty? And who might have you inadvertently left out?[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Major Building News!

March 5, 2020 /

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Last Sunday (March 1), we enthusiastically voted to move forward on our design for a phase 1 of $8.2 million! If all goes as planned, we’ll break ground in November, and complete construction in November 2021.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”34841″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_masonry_media_grid grid_id=”vc_gid:1583437058351-97871f66-eac2-8″ include=”34843,34842,34840″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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