Introducing the ‘Inside’ pages

ith this issue, we are pleased to introduce a new section, the “Inside” pages. The two-page section in the News department (see pages 46–47) pulls back the curtain on congregational leadership and on the UUA staff groups and organizations that support their work. We hope that “Inside Your Congregation” and “Inside the UUA” will be useful immediately to congregational leaders (lay and ordained). But we also hope they will entice members in your congregation—perhaps you!—to consider becoming a leader, too.

“Inside Your Congregation” shares stories and tips from InterConnections, the UUA’s free how-to newsletter for congregational leaders. Edited by Donald E. Skinner (a UU World contributing editor), InterConnections has been collecting best practices from congregational leaders for twelve years now. Sign up for your free subscription to the monthly email newsletter by visiting UUA.org/interconnections, where you can also search through the online resource library for topics relevant to your leadership role. (See “Suburbs reach out downtown” and “Useful resources.”)

Senior Editor Michelle Bates Deakin, who edits the “Inside” pages, will highlight a different staff group or related organization in each issue. This time she profiles the Office of Church Staff Finance and the UU Retired Ministers and Partners Association, which work together to assist retired clergy in need. (See Ministering to the ministers.”)

Michelle and Don covered this summer’s UUA Justice General Assembly in Phoenix. For additional coverage, including video interviews, more photos, and detailed accounts of many events we couldn’t fit into these pages, visit our General Assembly blog.

We are also pleased to announce the return of audio recordings of selected UU World articles, a service especially designed for people with visual or learning impairments. Don Hymel, a voice actor and member of First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Antonio, Texas, has recorded some of the articles from this issue, in collaboration with the UUA’s Congregational Life staff. You can listen to and share mp3 files of selected UU World articles by visiting UUA.org/accessibility/visual or uuworld.org/about/audio.shtml. Please send feedback about this service to access@uua.org.

The Rev. Laura Randall, who has worked in our office as an administrative assistant for six years while also preparing for ordination as a UU minister, is leaving as this issue goes to press to take her first full-time ministry position as a chaplain for a Boston-area hospice. We will miss her in the office, but are thrilled that she has been called to work she has longed to do.

This article appeared in the Fall 2012 issue of UU World (page 3).