 By Rhiannon Roselle, BoardTrustee
October is a month of many spooky things - pumpkin lattes, bats, ghosts, and goblins. It's also time for one thing that ISN'T scary . . . a return to the Annual Pledge Drive! First UU's yearly operations are made possible by member and friend financial commitments which make up 60% of our annual operating budget. It helps keep the programs, facilities, and music you love running. This year's Pledge Drive theme is Back to Basics: Building Our Community. With everyone longing for connection, the Annual Pledge Drive Team is planning something special. By the end of the month, every member will have received an invitation for a personal phone or zoom call or, if they're comfortable, an in-person visit. These personal calls and visits will be a chance to spend time with a fellow First UU congregant and are much more than simply making your financial pledge.
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The vote for the execution of the Grant of Easement and Agreement between UC Regents and First UU has passed with yes's from 98.5% of the eligible voters. Thank you for your participation in the voting process.
 This year, we are going "Back to Basics: Building Our Community" with our Fall Annual Pledge Drive. With everyone longing for connection, the Annual Pledge Drive Team is planning something special. By the end of October, every member will have received an invitation for a personal phone or zoom call or, if they are comfortable, an in-person visit. These personal calls and visits will be a chance to spend time with a fellow First UU congregant and are much more than simply making your pledge or financial commitment. The Annual Fund Drive is a time to build our connections with each other and with our church. It's a time to get excited about the things we can do in the future - things that will only happen with our financial and energetic involvement! An important aspect this year is we are switching from a "year round" to a "calendar year" pledge drive and we're also moving it to the Fall from the Spring, which will make our annual budgeting process so much easier. Your Annual Pledge Drive Team includes Dave Hunt, Pam Bates, Isaac Castro, Rhiannon Rhys Roselle and Robie Evans. Please watch your home mailbox and your computer inbox for more detailed information about your own financial commitment. Pledge cards will be available every Sunday. If you would like to volunteer to be part of the fundraising outreach, please contact Dave Hunt. For more information, go to our website
Good News from your Board President. We are all looking forward to being back together again in person on our Hillcrest campus for Sunday morning worship services. An amazing donor has given us a gift to purchase and install custom made shade sails for the Hillcrest patio to provide much needed shade while providing 96% UV protection! We hope to have them installed in the next few weeks. The company, SoCal Shade Sails has been installing sail shades for over 25 years. For photos of commercial installations and more info check out their website. The exciting thing is that we have two great references - one from our very own tenant: San Diego Cooperative Preschool who just installed shade sails in their back play yards. And, Palomar UU Fellowship just installed shade sails in their outside area so they could come back together for worshipping outdoors. Both organizations raved about the service and craftsmanship they received from SoCal Shade Sails. We anticipate that this will happen in a few weeks. For more information, please contact board president Julie Forest.
As Rev. Tom Owen-Towle reminded us recently, things around us are always changing and the best approach to life is to be an ever-changing person. Tom's words have special meaning during our current pandemic. Of course not all change is for the worse.
 First UU has been selected by Project New Village to receive the Fannie Lou Hamer award at the annual celebration to honor the legacy of that great civil rights leader. The event date is to be announced and the award ceremony will take place at the San Diego Port Pavilion. We hope to purchase a number of tickets to encourage our members to attend. More information will be forthcoming soon. If you're interested in attending please contact Steve Gelb konshin.gelb@gmail.com.
As a part of their 10-year master plan for the Hillcrest Medical Center, UC Regents/UCSD has asked First UU to sign an Easement Agreement in conjunction with their requested Street Vacation through the City of San Diego for Arbor Drive. Negotiations continue and deadlines are coming soon. Please join us for these important discussions and updates. Download the Special Congregational Meeting Agenda. If you need more information, please email Robie Evans.
Happily we have experienced two in-person large gatherings on our campus, the Saturday evening musical event in honor of Rev. Kathleen, and the Sunday worship service in the meeting house marking the end of her ministry with us after 14 memorable years. In most ways the recommended protocols about masks and distancing were observed, and so far no negative outcomes have been reported. We are pleased to continue recommending more in-person happenings.
 "I am very pleased to announce that the FUUSD Board has hired Omega Burckhardt as our assistant minister with a two-year contract. She will begin her ministry with us effective September 19. Here are some words from the soon-to-be ordained Omega Burckhardt." - Julie Forest, FUUSD Board President.
"¡Es un gran honor andar por este camino con Uds.! I am honored to serve as your Assistant Minister beginning in September. In this time of tremendous transition, I look forward to learning about this vibrant community within and beyond the walls of the church buildings, fostering relationships with ministerial and lay leaders, and working towards a shared vision of the Beloved Community of Now and the Future while honoring the traditions and complexities of the past. Juntos honramos el pasado, celebramos el presente, e imaginamos el futuro.  Our experiences with small group meetings are going well. No major issues have arisen, and we feel more confident about how other meetings may go. Any other small groups that wish to begin to meet on campus should apply for permission through Robie Evans. Church groups are free to meet off campus. Vaccinations are recommended. Mask wearing should continue. Of course anyone with symptoms should not participate. Each group leader should keep track of those who attend. Larger groups, up to about 30 people, will now be permitted to meet on campus. Please apply through Robie Evans to get the okay. The on-campus mask "mandate" continues, along with the other recommendations set out for small groups. The church has acquired a portable sound system which could help facilitate large group meetings.
 We’re happy to share the very good news that Rev. Michael Brown is coming to serve as Transitional Lead Minister from September – December. He will focus on preaching, pastoral care and Board support. He looks forward to meeting members and friends of the congregation beginning on Sunday, September 5. After December, other transition ministers will come between January – June and your Board will keep you posted on this as we continue to work with the UUA’s Transition Office. We look forward to working with Rev. Brown and are excited about his arrival. Rev. Brown writes that he recently completed a 27-year ministry at the Universalist Unitarian Church of Peoria, a pre-civil war church with Universalist roots. During Rev. Brown’s tenure the church grew by nearly 250 adult members, built a new church home, played a leadership role in the community, and received the UUA’s Breakthrough Congregation award. Rev. Brown was a co-founder of the local Interfaith Alliance and received the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Distinguished Service Leadership Award. After retiring as Minister Emeritus, he and his spouse, lifelong UU Diane F. Brown, moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to start a new path, but that path unexpectedly led him to First UUSD for a new chapter of ministry. He joins us with a sense of excitement, appreciation of our congregation, and readiness to serve in a time of transition and new possibilities for caring, community and transforming action.
128 voted. There were 36 absentee votes and 92 regular votes (all weighted equally).
Board Officers (elected with at least 84.38% of the votes): Vice President/Pres. Elect FY21-22 / Pres. FY22-23: Cora Pendergast. Treasurer: David Rogers (one-year term), Rosalba Ciampi (three-year term) and Rhiannon Roselle (three-year term). Nominating Committee (elected with at least 93.75% of the votes): Sarah Ormond (one-year term) and Mindy Hochgesang (two-year term). Budget: Passed with 93.75% of the votes. 8th Principle: Passed with 86.72% of the votes. Statements of Conscience: All passed. #1 (93.75% of the votes), #2 (91.41%), #3 (95.31%), #4 (91.41%), #5 (94.53%), #6 (95.31%), #7 (96.09%), and #8 (92.19%). If you missed the meeting, please watch the Annual Meeting video (membership login required).  By Rev. Kathleen Owens, LeadMinister
Unitarian Universalism is a covenantal faith. This means we don't follow a fixed creed handed down from a religious authority; we create a covenant for how we want to be in relationship with each other in this faith community. In 2008, this congregation created a church-wide covenant. As I mentioned in my May 23, 2021 "Real Community: Messy, Imperfect and Needed," this covenant hangs in every room at both our Hillcrest and South Bay campuses. It's also on our website - under the About menu tab, click on Governance; under Guidelines, you?ll find our Covenant of Good Relations.  Our experiences with small group meetings are going well. No major issues have arisen, and we feel more confident about how other meetings may go. Any other small groups that wish to begin to meet on campus should apply for permission through Robie Evans. Church groups are free to meet off campus. Vaccinations are recommended. Mask wearing should continue. Of course anyone with symptoms should not participate. Each group leader should keep track of those who attend. Larger groups, up to about 30 people, will now be permitted to meet on campus. Please apply through Robie Evans to get the okay. The on-campus mask "mandate" continues, along with the other recommendations set out for small groups. The church has acquired a portable sound system which could help facilitate large group meetings.
Our virtual annual meeting will be held via Zoom on Sunday, June 20 at 11 am. Please plan on attending to hear about and vote on important issues and learn about how things are going in our church. More detailed information about meeting URL and virtual voting process will be coming soon. See you there!
 Dear Members and Friends, This month marks my 14th anniversary serving this congregation. I’ve always held the thought that when my gifts, skills and talents no longer meet the needs of the congregation, that would be the time for me to move on. A while back, before the pandemic hit, I began to feel and think that my ministry here may be coming to a close and then the pandemic hit. I knew I needed to continue on to see the congregation through the crisis. There is now a visible reality of the crisis coming to an end though we will continue to live with this virus. There have been several costs of this pandemic, especially the loss of life as well as the long-lasting health issues of those infected. And many of us, including myself, have experienced effects, though without being infected. I feel I am at less capacity than before and for a while now, have been struggling with my own mental and physical sense of well-being.
 Dearest community,
As vaccines begin to roll out and we mark the longest nights of the year, many of us are celebrating our first hints of future light and hope at the end of what has been a long and lonely ten months. Your re-opening committee has been meeting regularly to discuss not how to open our church – our church community has always been open – but when we might be able to see one another in person and how we can best do that safely.  The Reopening Team has been researching and responding to your questions as our region continues to experience fluctuating and sometimes confusing COVID guidelines. As San Diego is currently in Tier 1 (Purple) on the state's infection scae, gatherings of any size are considered unsafe. However, we have been sharing ideas and we invite you to read the questions and answers so far. Steve H. sent in this one "I agree that we cannot get back to “normal” for many, many months, maybe years. But that does not mean that we must have no in-person activities. Please tell me if you think this suggestion is not advisable, and why."
 By Pat Gordon, First UU of San Diego Board Member
Our UU camp, Camp de Benneville Pines, located in the San Gorgonio wilderness, has been repeatedly hit hard this year and is in trouble. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all on-site events are canceled through April 1, 2021.The aftermath of the El Dorado Fire damage and the seriousness of the pandemic could require even further delays before we can consider re-opening. If we're to have a camp to bequeath to our children's children, then preserving what we have now is imperative. We almost lost our camp in the El Dorado Fire, this fire, and had it not been for the work of our staff and volunteers performing fire clearance duties throughout the summer, we would have. And yet, we'll still need more help during the spring and fall to rake pine needles and trim ladder fuels in camp- live or dead vegetation that allows a fire to climb up from the forest floor into the tree canopy. Please continue to send healing thoughts and good words of appreciation to our devoted staff, as they navigate through all the added responsibilities that come with the fire aftermath. We must now address the newest threat to camp's existence - flooding.  The team is studying how and when we might safely come together again in person. The following is an example of the thinking we believe is worth sharing. Here is the beginning of a recent article by Aaron E. Carroll, a physician in Indiana: "Stop Expecting Life to Go Back to Normal Next Year: Americans will need to take pandemic precautions well into 2021 — yes, even after a vaccine arrives by "Dr. Anthony Fauci warned us last week that Covid-19 is likely to be hanging over our lives well into 2021. He’s right, of course. We need to accept this reality and take steps to meet it rather than deny his message. Many Americans are resistant to this possibility. They’re hoping to restart postponed sports seasons, attend schools more easily, enjoy rescheduled vacations and participate in delayed parties and gatherings. It is completely understandable that many are tiring of restrictions due to Covid-19. Unfortunately, their resolve is weakening right when we need it to harden. This could cost us dearly".
We are less than three months away from the General Election on November 3, 2020. All California voters will be sent a vote-by-mail ballot with prepaid postage for the General Election. To make sure that you get your ballot, double-check your voter registration at voterstatus.sos.ca.gov.
As Unitarian Universalists we must speak and act to stop the frequent, state-sanctioned violence committed against members of our shared community. The murders of Breonna Taylor in Kentucky, Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, Tony McDade in Florida, and George Floyd in Minnesota, among so many others, were all committed by police or former police. Here in San Diego, we also see police brutality such as that perpetrated against an individual walking her dog on the beach as well as in La Mesa when a police officer had an altercation with a black man at a trolley station. This is not about a few rogue officers. This isn’t about the need for more training. This isn’t even about a change in leadership. Replacing one police chief with another is not enough if the pervasive racist system that empowers them is unchanged. The work of transforming our law enforcement and justice system into a true JUSTICE system will be long and difficult, messy and painful. We commit to that work, in solidarity with our partners. Violence against Black and Brown bodies, committed by officers of the law, demands this system must be remade.
On Saturday, May 2nd, 2020 we enjoyed a very moving and beautiful online ordination for Reverend Everett Howe. Press the play button to watch the recorded live stream go to our Facebook or YouTube pages to watch and see comments (and add your own). Go to our Facebook page | Go to our YouTube Channel | Download the Ordination Order of Service | Traducción al español .
Our virtual annual meeting will be held on Sunday, June 28th at 1 pm. Please plan on attending to hear about and vote on important issues and learn about how things are going in our church. More detailed information about meeting URL and virtual voting process will be coming soon. See you there!
 Hillcrest: bring your food donations to the Hillcrest parking lot every Saturday from 8am-9am. Deliver bags and boxes to the bed of Dana Tomlinson’s dark grey Ford pick-up truck with camper shell.
South Bay: deliver donations directly to the food pantry from 9:30am - 10 am. Get directions to either location. Peanut butter is our most frequently requested food! We cannot buy it in bulk, so your individual donations of 1 or 2 jars makes a difference! Our other frequently requested items are:
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Hillcrest campus 4190 Front Street, San Diego, CA. 92103 | South Bay campus 970 Broadway, Chula Vista, CA. 91911
For directions, parking and more see our Contact page.
Hillcrest campus 4190 Front Street, San Diego, CA. 92103 | South Bay campus 970 Broadway, Chula Vista, CA. 91911
For directions, parking and more see our Contact page.
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