Our online auction is over, and was a tremendous success. The auction was promoted as our means of raising funds to receive matching grant dollars as awarded by the Unitarian Universalist Funding Program. What is that all about, and what is our Fellowship doing these days?
The UUFP grant was awarded based on our project titled “Unitarian Universalist Community Presence Phase 1”.
Three goals were set:
1) Improve visibility of UUism;
2) Deepen interfaith connections;
3) Establish a connection with people of historically marginalized identities in the region.
Toward these goals, we have secured a new physical home, distinct from our sibling Congregationalists, located in the heart of Historic Downtown Pocatello. We have expanded our programming, to learn about our faith’s history; to deepen our personal theology and tie it to our UU faith; to develop our intercultural competency; and to connect our education programs distinctly to our UU principles.
We are strengthening our interfaith connections through collaborative events such as the commemorative MLK service in January and with interfaith dialogue opportunities every month. Rev. Jenny is founding a non-profit, AFC, Inc (All For Community). Through our relationship with AFC, we will have a clear path to support and amplify the best efforts of our wider community, including the non-profits we already support through Share-the-Plate offering–and through community-wide projects designed to bring people together.
We are surviving a pandemic and could have spent the year quietly, focusing on simply getting through. Instead, as understandable as that would have been, we learned more about Zoom than we ever would have imagined. We expanded our programming to tend our hearts and minds and to provide meaningful time for connection. We moved!
Why work so hard? The answer is simple: Our community needs us, a progressive faith that empowers people to explore life’s mysteries and existential questions among friends who value the question as much as, or more than, any answers. Our community benefits when our Fellowship thrives, because we are that fiercely loving faith where we challenge “either/or” thinking, and we welcome all identities in all aspects of Fellowship life. Pocatello is better for having this Fellowship here.