All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church
We welcome you to our diverse and inclusive sanctuary.
Dear Members of All Souls,
On Sunday, June 1, 2025, following the church service, we will hold our Annual Congregational Business Meeting. This meeting is an important opportunity to come together as a church community, as we discuss and make decisions that directly impact our shared future.
All Souls,
I was talking with a ministry colleague about UUism. We were reflecting on the tradition and the impact we have on society–the UUA is involved in a lawsuit against the DOJ regarding ICE impacting the freedom of religion.
We were speculating on history, looking back through time.
Friends at All Souls,
This mid-winter bleak day, the snow is falling, and the roads are covered. The ability and willingness to travel wanes. But that doesn’t mean a soul’s journey is waylaid, on the contrary…
“The search for truth is not a matter of being found at the end of a road. It is a matter of experience and transformation. It’s in living, and working through the processes of thought, that we come to understand something of the truth of ourselves and the world.” (From Michel Foucault’s The Use of Pleasure)
All Souls Friends,
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” – Howard Thurman
As I have been reflecting on the coming new year–The different ways ‘25 is used in rhetoric and branding. I have been trying to build some sort of framework for goal setting for myself as I try to live my values. I sat this week, pen and paper, trying to map this out. Two things came together for me.
Dear All Souls Members and Friends,
As we approach the new year, it’s time to prepare for our Annual Certification with the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA). This process is an important opportunity to reflect on our congregation’s growth and ensure we’re meeting both local and national commitments.
What Is Annual Certification?
Each year, every UU congregation is required to provide key information to the UUA. This includes:
– Membership Numbers: The official count of members in our congregation.
– Financial Data: Operating expenses and financial statistics from the previous fiscal year.
– Delegate Representation: Determining how many voting delegates we can send to the UUA’s General Assembly.
This information helps the UUA calculate our contributions to the Annual Program Fund (APF) and district dues, which support the many resources and programs that benefit UU congregations across the country.
Why It’s Important
Certification is more than a formality; it’s a way to ensure our congregation’s voice is represented within the larger UU community. It also allows us to reflect on our progress, strengthen our connection to the UUA, and sustain programs that support our mission and values.
In addition, this process serves an important purpose for All Souls directly. By verifying and updating our membership records, we can ensure our directory is accurate and that we have current contact information for reaching you via emails and phone calls. This is critical for communicating church closures, emergencies, or other timely updates.
Accurate information also allows us to keep our youth safe and supported. Knowing who is participating in our programs helps us create a secure and welcoming environment for children and families in our congregation.
How You Can Help
To complete this process, we’ll be reaching out to verify and update our membership records. Please take a moment to respond when asked, as accurate information is vital for our submission and our community. If you’ve moved, changed your contact details, or have any updates, now is the perfect time to let us know!
Thank you for your continued support of All Souls and for helping us stay connected to each other and to the wider UU community. If you have any questions about the certification process, feel free to reach out—I’d be happy to share more about why this work matters.
Jen Gibson
All Souls Administrative Coordinator
Happy New Year!
Reflecting upon our UU Values, I wanted to highlight-Generosity- not in a asking for money sort of way, or even in an ask for committee work, or an ask that puts you outside of yourself. Generosity is my favorite value amongst the 6 UU values. It asks us to offer a little of ourselves to gain access to something much greater than ourselves, to lean on understanding far more than any rule or orthodoxy.
Friends at All Souls,
“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.” ~Albert Camus
I have been struggling with hope. This is as a philosophical notion, a theological notion. There are the issues in front of us that some of us see, and the issues that so many of us deny–I know I’m in both camps–the issues of privilege and oppression, classism, racism, exploitation of our environment and each other. I have been around long enough to know disappointment as we build sandcastles to address these existential threats, only to see the tide wash them away.
November is here. Many of us, maybe all of us, have been waiting for November with bated-breath. The presidential election, Issue 1, the senate race–remember to vote. Democratic process is part of our expression of faith. Election Day is the last day to vote.
These races have major implications in our daily lives. At the time of writing this, we are still days away, and the outcomes are not anywhere close to being clear. Although I try to develop prophetic voice, mainly social justice advocacy and being an accomplice in justice work–future telling prophecy is well out of my reach…But I’ll offer you this, if I ever get prophetic future vision, I’ll start with lotto numbers…there will be signs 
Dear Beloved Community,
There is a prayer that is dominating my prayer life right now–It is interesting to notice my prayer life in this public forum of a newsletter. Most of the time my prayer life is my inward self talk. In metaphysical form, it is calling the divine within me, just as ‘Jesus take the wheel’ is an emergency sort of self talk. This prayer life is important: The things we tell ourselves/ the messages we call out for and the things we teach/tell ourselves.
I heard this from a colleague: a pastor, Methodist, and Womanist Scholar. She is a friend of mine, a teacher of mine, and an accountability partner for me–she and I had very different upbringings. She’s an African-American woman who grew up affluent in Cincinnati and I grew up further out from Cincy, on the bottom side of the economic and class structures–an Appalachian in the Midwest. She shared the prayer that she heard her church aunties and matriarchs praying in the Black Church she grew up in. I pray…
Friends,
I hope September finds you well, and the return to bonfires, apple cider, and pumpkin spice offers something that is both new and nostalgic, as it does for me. With sweater weather approaching, and morning coffee in a flannel shirt on the back porch—it stirs something in me. Continue reading “Message from the Minister”