WELCOME!

Upcoming Programs for Congregations in 2010 and 2011

For a complete listing of programs offered through the District in the upcoming church year please click here. Please help us spread the word on these programs by making copies of this PDF, hanging them on congregational bulletin boards and passing them along to potential participants. Thanks!

MBD Marches at Boston's 40th Gay Pride Parade

by Heather Kobayashi, First Parish Church in Arlington, MA

When our small contingent of youth arrived at the pride parade on a gray June Saturday morning, I felt distinctly underdressed. Going to the parade had been a last-minute decision for me, so I had no rainbow gear and no pride paraphernalia. This felt like more and more of a mistake as my friends posed with decked out drag queens and bought rainbow flags to wave. I was unprepared for the visual cacaphony of feathers, makeup, color, and bondage gear that greeted us onsite, so it was somewhat guiltily that I volunteered to carry the Mass Bay District banner, given that my nondescript t-shirt and jeans weren’t contributing much to the display. So we stood and waited and took pictures and waited. [Read more]

Lay Led Worship GA Workshop

Watch a video of Rev. Sue Phillips's General Assembly presentation "Creating and Leading Dynamic Lay Led Worship" at this link. For a PDF of slides from the workshop, click here.

Adaptive Leadership GA Workshops

For a PDF of slides from the two General Assembly workshops presented jointly by the Rev. Dr. Terasa Cooley and the Rev. John Gibb Millspaugh of the Winchester Unitarian Society, click on these links:

MBD and CBD announce new District Executive

We are delighted to announce that the Rev. Sue Phillips will become the District Executive of the Clara Barton and Massachusetts Bay districts of the UUA on September 1, 2010. [READ MORE]

New Report on Young Adult Ministry

Eric Dawson's report of May 18th prepared for the Mass Bay District explores how Unitarian Universalist young adults define, understand, and apply their spiritual practices and needs. Gathered from a mixture of 350 interviews and surveys, the data paint a picture of deeply inquisitive, religiously open, and socially committed young people, skeptical about church life and hungry for lived spiritual communities. After exploring the spiritual needs and values of this group, the project moves to understanding how church life, particularly worship – the common heart of Unitarian Universalist spiritual life – speaks to these needs of young adult Unitarian Universalists. The report seeks to answer the question of how a liberal faith tradition like Unitarian Universalism can re-imagine its ministry to connect with disconnected young adults.

Read Eric's entire report at this link.

OWL Facilitator Training Registration is open

Register for fall or winter sessions of Our Whole Lives Facilitator training for grades 7-9 and 10-12. Find out more at this link.

Staff Sharing with Clara Barton District

We are pleased to announce that the Boards of Directors of the Massachusetts Bay District and the Clara Barton District have each voted unanimously to undertake a new shared staffing arrangement on a two year interim basis beginning July 1, 2010.

In their resolutions, both boards stated: "We make this decision as an affirmation of the following values:

to expand the reach of Unitarian Universalism
to increase and model collaboration between regions, staff and congregations, and
to build the capacity of our districts to more effectively express and fulfill our purposes."

This process of examining a shared staffing arrangement began in the fall of 2009 when a District Staff position became open in the Clara Barton District. [READ MORE]