Author: Rev. Sean Neil-Barron (Page 8 of 10)

Dear Members of Foothills Unitarian Church,

The church year 2016-17 has been a momentous year for our world, and for our congregation.  We have met the many unforeseen challenges with clarity and conviction and looking back together we truly have risen to answer the call of courageous love. Here are just a few of our highlights from our year together:

We enthusiastically and unanimously claimed Unleashing Courageous Love as our collective mission.

Not only did we install a new senior minister for the first time in 25 years, we also ordained our assistant minister, marking our first ordination in that same period.

Our community has rallied to found the first mobile food bank site in Larimer County ensuring that each month over 100 families have access to the food they need.

The day after the election, we gathered all together to sing, grieve, pray, and just be together. Responding to the pain and division in the wake of the election, we proclaimed our Universalist faith loudly for all to see on Drake.

We’ve ramped up efforts for Climate Justice, convened an Interfaith Coalition for Sanctuary, and given away our space for community organizing that aligns with our values.  

And our work for justice and healing has not gone unnoticed by our national movement. Foothills was announced as the 2017 winner of the Bennett Award for Congregational Social Justice efforts!  Read more about the Bennett Award.

To make space for all are seeking our progressive religious community, we added a 3rd Sunday morning service in February, resulting in more than 30% greater attendance on Sundays during this same period in any prior year since we began tracking in 1984.

We demonstrated a greater generosity than we have ever shown – breezing past our previous top-limit of 400 pledging units to a total of 404 households making a financial commitment to our mission, and giving away over $37,438 to our community partners through our Share the Plate efforts.

We also brought to completion our governance work that has been ongoing for the past 3 years.  The Governance Task Force has met with numerous leaders and groups so that we can make official the many changes that we’ve been experimenting with over the last 5 years, and add to these a greater degree of accountability and alignment.  

We hope you’ll dive into the 2016-2017 Annual Report which offers a fuller picture of our ministries and the governance proposal which summarizes the changes we hope to make official in the coming church year. We hope to see all our members at our Annual Congregational Meeting June 4th at 11:30 AM.  

There have been times in the past year when we might’ve given into despair. Instead, we responded to these challenges with a stronger and clearer sense of mission.

Looking ahead, together we can build on all we’ve learned and become this year as we seek to transform Northern Colorado – and beyond – with the power and promise of Unitarian Universalism.

In partnership,

Rev. Gretchen & Rev. Sean

Rev. Sean Neil-Barron

Rev. Sean is Foothills Acting Senior Minister while Rev. Gretchen is on Sabbatical.
Responsible for Worship, Justice Ministries, Faith Formation Strategies and sits on Foothills Executive Leadership Team with Director of Finances and Operations Katie Watkins.

Sean was born on Treaty 7 land in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and comes to Foothills after four years in New England where he completed seminary at Harvard Divinity School where he studied alongside future imams, rabbis, justice activists, and other Unitarian Universalists. Sean is a self-proclaimed nerd — particularly about history, current politics, science, and Star Wars. Outside of ministry you will find Sean hiking or cooking up a storm with his partner Charles, watching his son’s basketball games, all under the watchful eye of their dog Dollie.

by Libby, a member of Foothills

I am a wildlife biologist and animist, which means I balance being a scientist with a belief that everything on our planet has a spirit. I also believe in the interconnectedness of these spirits in the web of life – whether at the molecular, physical, or metaphysical level – we are all one connected being.  We are the ferruginous hawk, the cutthroat trout, the bison, the coal and oil extracted from the ground, and the prairie meadow at sunrise. When I see these things, I see the divine. When I look out at your faces, you reflect back to me this same connection to divinity in our natural world.

Nathan has been asking me recently where and when he can see gods, goddesses, and spirits. As an adult with an earth-based spiritual practice, I have gained my own familiarity with how to see these spirits. Now as a parent, I’m challenged with how to share this knowledge with my son in a way that makes sense and won’t get him ostracized at school.  As a parent, I have appreciated the religious education classes here at Foothills that reinforce and expand on what I teach at home.

One of the reasons I became a member of Foothills is one of the core theological principles of Unitarian Universalism is that “All of life is connected and interdependent”.  That the ground we walk on is holy, the air we breathe is holy. That as a community we affirm that all life on this planet has an inherent worth and dignity, not just human life.  Celebrating Earth Day is a reaffirmation for us as Unitarian Universalists to find and care for our holy planet. As science teaches us, each of our actions has a reaction, whether in service projects, prayer, meditation, or in climate justice advocacy work. We light this chalice to honor the earth and all our actions to protect her.

Rev. Sean Neil-Barron

Rev. Sean is Foothills Acting Senior Minister while Rev. Gretchen is on Sabbatical.
Responsible for Worship, Justice Ministries, Faith Formation Strategies and sits on Foothills Executive Leadership Team with Director of Finances and Operations Katie Watkins.

Sean was born on Treaty 7 land in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and comes to Foothills after four years in New England where he completed seminary at Harvard Divinity School where he studied alongside future imams, rabbis, justice activists, and other Unitarian Universalists. Sean is a self-proclaimed nerd — particularly about history, current politics, science, and Star Wars. Outside of ministry you will find Sean hiking or cooking up a storm with his partner Charles, watching his son’s basketball games, all under the watchful eye of their dog Dollie.

by Karen Harder

This is a story about the power of prayer and sidewalk chalk.  For the past six months, I’ve followed a spiritual practice of daily prayer.  What I pray to has changed with each of the UU sources we’ve studied in our Wellspring small group.  But my format remains roughly the same:  name the un-nameable; place myself in relationship to what I name; state the pain, the fear, the need, the worry or whatever I’m wrestling with; express gratitude; and let it go.

It sounds harder than it is, usually.  But I really struggled one morning in mid-November – you remember: November, maybe you were struggling too.  I was about a mile and a half into my pre-dawn power walk, which normally helps focus my thoughts, but prayer would not come. All I had was a feeble “Help me.”  I tried again, the most authentic prayer I could think of.  Looking up at the dark sky, I said out loud:  “Help us.”  At that very moment, I looked down at the sidewalk, and illuminated by the streetlight were the words: “We begin again in love.”  I stopped.  I looked around, and behind me, a few squares back, I’d blown right past another square that read: “Everyone is entitled to dignity and respect.”

I finished that walk feeling lighter, comforted, supported, more hopeful, more alive, held.

I know divine intervention didn’t write that message on the sidewalk.  Someone in this congregation did, performing a random act of courageous love, maybe in response to a prayer of their own.  They shared their faith – deciding to act as though actions matter – and in so doing, answered a prayer I had not yet even prayed.

I think this illustrates what prayer does, whatever the formula, addressed to whomever or whatever it may concern:  It helps keep in front of me what I yearn for, it positions me to see where I’ve come from, what I already have, and what I just might offer others.

I light this chalice for prayer, and for this safe space in which to practice leaning into silence, listening for our authentic voice, and losing our fear of speaking truth out loud.  May we continue to grow through our connections, expanding our capacity to hear more, share more, and pray more.

Rev. Sean Neil-Barron

Rev. Sean is Foothills Acting Senior Minister while Rev. Gretchen is on Sabbatical.
Responsible for Worship, Justice Ministries, Faith Formation Strategies and sits on Foothills Executive Leadership Team with Director of Finances and Operations Katie Watkins.

Sean was born on Treaty 7 land in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and comes to Foothills after four years in New England where he completed seminary at Harvard Divinity School where he studied alongside future imams, rabbis, justice activists, and other Unitarian Universalists. Sean is a self-proclaimed nerd — particularly about history, current politics, science, and Star Wars. Outside of ministry you will find Sean hiking or cooking up a storm with his partner Charles, watching his son’s basketball games, all under the watchful eye of their dog Dollie.

From Rebecca Parish

Rev. Sean Neil-Barron

Rev. Sean is Foothills Acting Senior Minister while Rev. Gretchen is on Sabbatical.
Responsible for Worship, Justice Ministries, Faith Formation Strategies and sits on Foothills Executive Leadership Team with Director of Finances and Operations Katie Watkins.

Sean was born on Treaty 7 land in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and comes to Foothills after four years in New England where he completed seminary at Harvard Divinity School where he studied alongside future imams, rabbis, justice activists, and other Unitarian Universalists. Sean is a self-proclaimed nerd — particularly about history, current politics, science, and Star Wars. Outside of ministry you will find Sean hiking or cooking up a storm with his partner Charles, watching his son’s basketball games, all under the watchful eye of their dog Dollie.