LOVE WILL GUIDE US - Mel and Rose

En route from Charleston, WV to Seattle, WA aboard the west-bound Zephyr, Unitarian Universalist co-ministers emeriti Mel Hoover and Rose Edington debark in Grand Junction in time to deliver the August 5, 2018 sermon at the UUC of Grand Valley - 536 Ouray Avenue - Sunday, 10:30 a.m.

Mel Hoover, Penny Youngren, Rose Edington

The sermon title is from the hymn "Love Will Guide Us" both our first principle of respect for the worth and dignity of all people and the love ethic are needed as we look at key issues in UUism.
In just a little over a year, the UUA had its president resign, a three-person interim co-presidency, and our first elected female president.  We weathered some impressive institutional change, and we still have much work to do.  Love helped get us through the past year; and love, with all its joys and challenges, continues to undergird our never ending faithful actions.  What is the love story of Unitarian Universalism?  What is the love story of UUs  in Grand Junction?
Clergy couple Mel and Rose are co-ministers emeriti of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Charleston WV.  To carry their activism into retirement they founded MelRose Ministries for Positive Transformative Change.  When on the staff of the UUA, Mel directed its national justice work, overseeing the anti-racism, anti-oppression multicultural ministries programs and serving on President Bill Clinton’s One America Task Force. In 2013 he received the UUA’s Annual Award for Distinguished Service. He is on the Board of UU Ministry for Earth.

Rose is on the Board of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition where she has served as its president and is the recipient of its outstanding volunteer of the year award. Both Mel and Rose are members of the Steering Committee for WV Interfaith Power and Light.

The couple recently wrote a chapter for the book "Justice on Earth: People of Faith Working at the Intersections of Race, Class and the Environment" published by Skinner House (UUA's in-house publisher).  The story grew out of a "collaboratory" (collaborative laboratory) that pulled together environmental justice folks from UU Ministry for Earth, UU Service Committee and diverse activists from within UUism.  The chapter focused on UUC's response to the infamous toxic chemical spill that fouled the drinking water for 300-thousand West Virginians.