11-09-2007, 07:26 PM
Hello,
It just occurred to me that I never introduced myself here. I do pop up on the Yahoo group once in a while so many of you know who I am.
My name is Kenneth Brennan, I’m director of Unity Restoration Fellowship in PA.
URF actually started our before we became AUC members. I was ordained with an independent Church many years ago and have led a small study group that, over time found itself Unitarian, at least in principles.
When our small group reached 30 reliable members we became aware of the AUC. This was a blessing, but it also a presented a challenge.
You see, we were all geared up to attempt what the AUC had already accomplished. So, having found the AUC, we also found ourselves without a purpose.
After joining the AUC we decided that our grand educational outreach ministry was no longer necessary. So we rented a building and set up as a traditional Sunday congregation.
This proved disastrous as it seemed to cut against our sense of purpose. We just could not sit and “exist” just for existence’ sake.
By the end of the first month of services, half of our group was threatening to split if we did not come to a group consensus on what we were all here to do.
We realized that we were a congregation of “doers”. Without a purpose and a task to see through, we had nothing.
Over the following weeks we held what seemed like several thousand meetings. We did loose many of our less devoted local members in this process but more is not always better.
Finally, we began to understand our role. We would take a close look at what the AUC does, and see how and where we can further promote the Unitarian community.
The answer was the new improved URF. We set our sights on helping provide resources for small group ministries. The way in which we do this is to charter branches of URF, under our banner. This allows us to transfer powers and resources to our start-up chapters that would otherwise not be available.
These include, Clergy licensing, educational standardization, and soon, shared tax ID and liability insurance.
We also added a few fellowship related programs such as Knights Unitarian which grants awards of Honor to Unitarians who make an impact on our faith.
And I merged an existing ministry of my own Corps of Disaster Response Chaplains into URF.
Make no mistake, we are still very much in the start-up phase, but now we have clear direction, and motivation.
Our latest, and greatest, task is to establish a Unitarian Divinity School.
Alas, right now URF has exhausted its financial resources (mostly on the building rent) and we are using this period of financial inactivity to plan these programs.
In the mean time, I hope to finally submit a few articles or sermons for the “American Unitarian”. Since we don’t hold services anymore, these unused sermons should be used for something, Right?
As always, all AUC members are invited and encouraged to lend a hand.
Thanks
Kenn
It just occurred to me that I never introduced myself here. I do pop up on the Yahoo group once in a while so many of you know who I am.
My name is Kenneth Brennan, I’m director of Unity Restoration Fellowship in PA.
URF actually started our before we became AUC members. I was ordained with an independent Church many years ago and have led a small study group that, over time found itself Unitarian, at least in principles.
When our small group reached 30 reliable members we became aware of the AUC. This was a blessing, but it also a presented a challenge.
You see, we were all geared up to attempt what the AUC had already accomplished. So, having found the AUC, we also found ourselves without a purpose.
After joining the AUC we decided that our grand educational outreach ministry was no longer necessary. So we rented a building and set up as a traditional Sunday congregation.
This proved disastrous as it seemed to cut against our sense of purpose. We just could not sit and “exist” just for existence’ sake.
By the end of the first month of services, half of our group was threatening to split if we did not come to a group consensus on what we were all here to do.
We realized that we were a congregation of “doers”. Without a purpose and a task to see through, we had nothing.
Over the following weeks we held what seemed like several thousand meetings. We did loose many of our less devoted local members in this process but more is not always better.
Finally, we began to understand our role. We would take a close look at what the AUC does, and see how and where we can further promote the Unitarian community.
The answer was the new improved URF. We set our sights on helping provide resources for small group ministries. The way in which we do this is to charter branches of URF, under our banner. This allows us to transfer powers and resources to our start-up chapters that would otherwise not be available.
These include, Clergy licensing, educational standardization, and soon, shared tax ID and liability insurance.
We also added a few fellowship related programs such as Knights Unitarian which grants awards of Honor to Unitarians who make an impact on our faith.
And I merged an existing ministry of my own Corps of Disaster Response Chaplains into URF.
Make no mistake, we are still very much in the start-up phase, but now we have clear direction, and motivation.
Our latest, and greatest, task is to establish a Unitarian Divinity School.
Alas, right now URF has exhausted its financial resources (mostly on the building rent) and we are using this period of financial inactivity to plan these programs.
In the mean time, I hope to finally submit a few articles or sermons for the “American Unitarian”. Since we don’t hold services anymore, these unused sermons should be used for something, Right?
As always, all AUC members are invited and encouraged to lend a hand.
Thanks
Kenn