Featured Articles from Compass Rose

by The Committee on Ministry The Committee on Ministry (COM) is a team comprised of UUSM’s professional minister(s) and individuals selected jointly by UUSM’s Board of Trustees and the minister. In addition to our new contract minister, Rev. Laura Thompson, serving on the Committee on Ministry are Richard Davis, Kathy Kinner, and Kathy van Leuwen. Combined, the lay members have been active at UUSM for a century and served the congregation intensively in the areas of governanc

By Rev. Laura Thompson Beloveds, Having spent the last couple of months settling in and getting to know you, I am now ready to begin leading us on our shared Developmental Ministry journey. What is Developmental Ministry? Developmental ministry is a time of intentional reflection and action — a sacred period in which a congregation takes stock of its life, renews its sense of purpose, and strengthens the structures that support its mission in ways that are meaningful and sust

Greetings from the UU Church of the Philippines. May this message find you all well and in good spirits! As you may have seen on the...

REFLECTION: The Gift of GENEROSITY This reflection was first written and published in November 2023. It has been lightly edited to update it for publication this month. Before I began to dive deeply into our August congregational theme, The Gift of GENEROSITY, I naively thought this topic would be about helping to meet others' needs by digging into my wallet to donate to the non-profit organizations I support. But I soon discovered Generosity is so much bigger than just bein

This reflection was first written and published in April 2024. It has been lightly edited to update it for publication this month. Our congregational theme for the month of July is The Gift of INTERDEPENDENCE. This theme explores the [former] 7th principle of the Unitarian Universalist Association: Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. The Article II [Bylaws] revision of the 7th Principle expands upon these ideas: We honor the interdepend

Our congregational theme for the month of June is Flourishing Together. A good place to start considering this theme is to understand what flourishing means. I like this definition a lot: "To flourish means to grow, thrive, and achieve success in a healthy and vigorous way, usually because you are in an environment that supports your growth. Rooted in the Latin word for flower or bloom, it can apply to living things, ideas, and even communities." [emphasis added] I cannot thi