This is a personal account of a trip to attend the Unitarian Universalist Pacific Western Region Assembly of Congregations held at the Double Tree Hotel in Portland, Oregon, April 27-29, 2018. The theme of the assembly was “Stories of Hope, Courage, Resistance and Resilience”.  My attention to this event was drawn by a notice about it in the December 2017 UUCGV Newsletter. The following narrative is based on information provided about the event and notes made at the sessions attended.
I missed several of the presentations relating to the conference theme due to spending evenings off site at the less expensive but distant Portland International Youth Hostel. The seven venues or events which I did visit, attend or in which I participated, are highlighted herein: the keynote address, caucusing, the UU College of Social Justice, ‘Living Cully’, the trailer parks walk through, the book displays, and the Sunday morning worship.
First, why offer to share this experience with readers of the UUCGV Newsletter? It is because the event was very meaningful to me, and I am hopeful that at least parts of it may be to you. In particular, I am thinking about those parts concerning the UU College of Social Justice; the titles of books providing spiritual grounding for social justice centered work; and the challenges of providing, protecting and preserving adequate housing for low-wage households. But now, back to the beginning.
Keynote Speech
     On Saturday morning, April 28, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, a former immigration and labor activist in Seattle and current Washington State’s 7th District legislator in the US Congress, gave the keynote address. Jayapal is the first Indian-American to be elected to Congress. She said that she ran for Congress because she realized that we were losing ground and she wanted to build common ground and personal ground; people power, not corporate power.
She said, “Progressive ideas are not left; they are centrist in that they support all of us – teachers, caregivers, ironworkers, farm workers, sanitation people, women in every industry who have suffered disrespect, people who work for those in despair, and ministers who tend our souls.” She related some of the good things that happened recently, among others, non-Muslims showing up at protests to support loyal American Muslims and the defeat of Trumpcare three times. Concerning our failures, she cited those to provide coal miners with clean alternative energy jobs and ‘buying in’ on corporate lobbyists’ ideas that there is nothing we can do about what is going on.
She concluded by saying, “We need to spend more money on poverty, raise wages, invest in affordable housing, fix our tax system, have income equality, and reinstate nutrition assistance for children. I am for BIG ideas. Did anyone ever accomplish anything worthwhile by thinking small? Thanks to each of you who have done something that took risk, not knowing what the outcome might be.”
Caucus
     Following the keynote presentation, the several hundred attendees were divided into 35 groups of six to eight individuals for caucusing. Caucus is an international practice that is used by Unitarian Universalists; every social justice project; in democracies; and across the world for political, economic and social reasons.  It is structured to facilitate listening and conversation to allow more voices to be recognized, to develop ideas, and to discuss what it is like to be ‘us,’ what it is like to be ‘on the margins,’ and what it means to live with a certain identity.
Every person has several identities. These include such categories as citizen or immigrant, ethnicity, gender, physicality, race, religion, sex, gender and socioeconomic status. The intersection of all these identities creates a spectrum of privilege or marginalization which affects access to opportunities and experiences in life and shapes how we are united with or separated from others. Caucus requires all participants to lean into the discomfort of conversations that society has sought to prevent.
In our caucus group of six, we discussed, “What it means to be White?; where does privilege show up in our lives?; how might we acknowledge, support, and draw support from people of color?; what is patriarchy?; what is White fragility?; and what are micro-aggressions?” I was asked to not take notes to protect the privacy of the participants. Hence I remember little regarding individual responses. But in general, we reported being comfortable in the majority and greatly benefited by our ‘Whiteness.’
 
The Unitarian Universalist College of
Social Justice
     On Saturday afternoon along with 50 others, I chose to go on the Experiential Learning Field Trip to ‘Living Cully,’ (LC) a northeast Portland nonprofit. The orientation for the trip was led by three staff members of the UU College of Social Justice (UUCSJ) in Boston, Massachusetts. The College offers year round ‘Justice Journeys’ for individuals or youth groups. These ‘Journeys’ are designated to deepen participants understanding of and ignite their passion for social justice. Each program includes interactive activities and hands-on service.
These ‘Journeys’ explore racial, economic, immigration and climate justice in Boston, MA; Immokalee, FL; New Orleans, LA; Tucson, AZ and West Virginia. In addition to ‘Journeys,’ the UUCSJ offers ‘Grow’ workshops for young adult activities, aged 18 to 34, to deepen spiritual grounding, to develop skills and to build community to sustain justice work. Finally, the UUCSJ provides ‘Internships’ with small stipends for young adults to put their faith into action for social change.
But back to the Experiential Learning Field Trip orientation. ‘Living Cully’s’ mission was described as “re-interpreting sustainability as an anti-poverty strategy by concentrating environmental investment at the neighborhood scale and braiding those investments with traditional community development resources.” We were told that LC works for jobs and economic development, transportation advocacy, and anti-displacement (foreclosures), youth programs, after school programs, health, the environment, the creation of a neighborhood park (Cully Park) to be opened this summer, 16 years after the project idea in 2002, and affordable housing about which you will read in the following section.
‘Living Cully’
     Following our orientation to ‘Living Cully’ at the Double Tree, we were loaded onto a tour bus. Fifteen minutes later, the bus rolled into an old building with a ‘Living Cully’ sign above the entrance. We unloaded, entered and were seated by staff members (volunteers?) Tony, Maya, and Dave, each of whom spoke to us in turn. Tony informed us that, “Unitl recently this headquarters building was a ‘Sugar Shack’ in which a lot of illegal stuff was going on. A few years back the owners were called to account and had to sell the building. ‘Living Cully’ bought it in 2015.” He added that in the near future, ‘Hacienda Housing Development,’ a partner with LC, will build 130 units of affordable housing on the site.
Maya said, “Despite the recent 2015 acquisition, we still don’t have enough property ownership in our neighborhood to keep gentrification from creeping in.” In this regard, she said that LC was creating a land acquisition fund. ‘Cully Coalition on Property,’ a group of a dozen or so churches has given LC $15,000. A Presbyterian church is donating $50,000 over five years. Local people are now coming to LC offering to sell the nonprofit their property to be redeveloped as affordable housing. She added, “We need to be proactive and not just let injustice come to us.”
Concerning the immediate neighborhood, Dave said that Cully was one of the most diverse suburbs in Portland with 50 percent people of color, and equivalent number of non-English-speaking residents and a majority of low-income families. He added, “Thirty-four percent of its streets are without sidewalks. Parents have to walk their children to school down the sides of the streets.  Many ‘sidewalks’ that do exist are of mud, sand, gravel or grass. Schools have new principals about every year and reading and math scores are low.”
Walk-Through of Mobile Home Parks in the Cully Neighborhood
     Tony then invited us to walk around some of the mobile parks in the neighborhood to hear more about and see some of the challenges facing LC in its efforts to protect and promote affordable housing in the neighborhood. At the first park, with monthly rates at $500, he told us that the park owner is proposing to take out the trailers and build 15x20 foot (300 square feet) tiny homes which will sell for $40,000, plus monthly rent for the space in which they will sit. He added, “Everyone is moving to Portland. There is only 1% vacancy. This is driving up all costs for living units.”
As we passed the second park, he remarked, “Rents here are being raised 50% without the owner fixing anything up to force people out. And rents are slated to rise 9.5% annually going forward. Developers prefer to build high-rent units.” He added, “We have to find ways to keep landlords from raising rents and putting people out.” In this regard he said that LC was going to conduct interviews Thursday evening, May 3, to determine the extent of maintenance needs and of failures by property owners to follow existing rules and regulations in order to bring infractions to light and force owners into compliance or lower proposed rental rates proportionately.
Next, we walked past a third park with trailers parked within six feet of each other. Tony said that it is required that three feet be allowed so that the trailers can be walked around. The good news was that this park had been slated for sale to out-of-town developers who wanted to buy it for gentrification. However the developers failed to give advance notice to the residents so the proposal was rejected by the city. With the help of local churches, the property was purchase by ‘Living Cully’ and will become a neighborhood residential area for low income residents and will not be gentrified.
Writer’s Comments
The challenges facing ‘Living Cully’ to protect renters and fend off developers are not unique among nonprofit city housing advocates. Donna Anderson, writer of “How to Protect a Renter Nation” in the summer of 2018 ‘Affordable Housing’ issue of YES! Magazine reports, “It is almost as if cities want to build new housing for higher income earners, bring those people in, and push the existing community out. Nationwide, renters make up to 51 percent of the population of U.S. cities. It is important to understand that tenants’ rights are not a small, niche issue. It’s a major fight for working-class people of color asserting their right to place.” (pp.35-36)
Elsewhere in the same issue, another writers report, “Wages have not kept pace with the cost of housing nor has the number of low-cost houses kept pace with the number of those in need of them. Wages for low-income earners have been stagnant since 1980 (almost 40 years) while housing prices have gone up 50 percent in today’s dollars. Over eleven million ‘cost burdened’ renters spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing. And for every 100 extremely low-income households, only 29 affordable units are available. As a nation, we prioritize housing for the wealthy over that for the poor.” (pp. 1, 17; 22)
Display of Books
     On Sunday morning, April 29, hundreds of books displayed two-row deep on three six-foot long tables placed end to end greeted me when I arrived at the Double Tree Hotel for the morning service which was to take place three hours later. Prior to the service I managed to look over them all despite the fact that books were purchased and changed in and out and new titles added. More than three dozen categories included: biblical interpretation, capitalism, Christianity, democracy, fascism, guns inequality, justice, money, non-violence, poverty, power, racism, spirituality and wages.
The category which most caught my eye was that designed to deepen spirituality grounded action for social justice work. Among the titles recommended by the UUCSJ are Justice on Earth, edited by Manish Mishra-Marzetti; Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Maree Brown; Centering, edited by Mitra Rahnema; Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson; The Third Reconstruction by William J. Barber II; Reclaiming Prophetic Witness by Paul Rasor and Sacred Ground by Eboo Patel.
I jotted down a total of 50 titles of which I consider twelve ‘must reads.’ But I purchased only two: In Non-Violence: The History of a Dangerous Idea (2006), Mark Kurlansky discusses non-violence as a distinct technique for overcoming social injustice and ending wars. In Reclaiming Prophetic Witness, (2012), Paul Rasor dispels the myth that conservative Christianity is the only valid voice in the national debates on social policy and calls upon religious liberals to bring their religious convictions to bear on the issues of our time… At this moment, the call came for morning worship.
Morning Worship
     Following song, opening words, the lighting of the chalice, a body prayer, a litany of atonement, a blessing, reading of Psalm 12 and more music, Reverend Vanessa Rush Southern, minister of a San Francisco UU congregation, delivered the sermon entitled ‘Mercy, Mercy Me.’ Her message was based on the words attributed to the Old Testament prophet Micah as recorded in the Bible in the book of Micah, chapter six and verse eight, “Do justice, love mercy and walk humbly before your God.”
She said, “In our world, love and mercy are often after thoughts. Yet mercy in the Unitarian Universalist tradition is right up there with Justice. Justice is one side of the coin; mercy is the other. Justice is too harsh; it requires the balance of mercy.” She remarked that to ‘love mercy’ means to ‘desire kindness’ so that we may be freed from unkindness (or evil) we have done to others. She added that mercy is radical big heartedness.
The pastor told the story of how she had deeply hurt a girlfriend when she was in the eighth grade. After she apologized, her 13 year-old friend said, “Let’s just forget it and start all over again.” The minister said that after her friend forgave her and showed revolutionary love at age thirteen. She added that God only moves to mercy when we show repentance (when we apologize as she did to her friend). She concluded her sermon saying that mercy comes from the word ‘olive,’ the oil of which in ancient times was considered a human balm. “Mercy is what love in action looks like.”
Following her sermon, an offering was taken up to be divided between three entities: ‘Living Cully,’ the UU Youth College Scholarship Fund, and a fledgling UU congregation in southern California. After the offering, the service was concluded with the prayer, “We are not alone, we are better together, and God in his/her many names is with us.” The conference was over at the conclusion of the Sunday morning worship.
Back Home
     So what have I taken away from the experience? A greater appreciation for UU beliefs, observances and actions; two new UU acquaintances and hopefully, correspondents; an introduction to ‘caucusing’; a dozen worthwhile new ‘reads’; and interest in learning about the circumstances of low-income renters locally; new insight to Mica 6:8, and that at 86, I can actually make such a trip in one piece. I thank Mallory for registering me and helping me prepare for the event.
 
David Pilkenton, Friend
UUC Grand Valley

This is a monthly column helping us to get to know our friends and members in a deeper way. We thank Monte High for taking the time to do these in-depth interviews for our newsletter.
 
     Andrea Tanner’s first raft trip down The Canyon was in the spring of 2016 (the Grand Canyon). For 28 days in April and May, the Colorado River escorted her into the soul of the American West. It was a small group, three rafts and four people. She navigated solo in her 18 foot cataract. They put in at Lee’s Ferry, Lake Powell and would travel 282 miles to the take out at Pierce Landing, Lake Mead.
     The river meanders and surges through a desert landscape and ecosystem that will take your breath away. Remember to breathe. The phenomenon of heightened awareness is well known within the river-boating community. River tripping does strangely wonderful things to your mind. The river delivers a profound gift; it reaches into the heart of you, and all of your senses become more fully alive. This is what Andrea loves about her time on the river, how you travel back into another time, or more precisely, how you step out of time and into the present moment. The experience takes hold of you; it knocks you your knees in gratitude. Many in the rafting community refer to it simply as – “Church”.
     River tripping is about more than navigating a waterway. Each trip brings a different experience, often with a different group of people. The bonds that form along the river are strong. The group shares in the experience of heightened awareness, and soon begins to experience each another with this same sense of charmed awareness, creating an intimacy within the group that is not often found in everyday life. It starts to happen as life slows down and the river captures you, enthralled. Some in the boating community use the term river-listening. River listening – listening without judgment, criticism or advice, and attending so closely that you can repeat back in your own words what is said. Attentive, caring listening may be the greatest, most healing gift a human being can give another.
     This particular trip was unique because of its smaller size. Most of The Canyon rafting caravans are larger, to provide a higher level of safety. Many of the mighty Colorado’s rapids are very challenging and require scouting – where the rafters go to shore and plot the best line through the rapid before continuing. Experienced boaters call it “big water”. Andrea was fortunate in that her three companions were experienced Canyoneers, each with over 10 previous trips down The Canyon.
     Andrea particularly enjoyed boating (and hiking) alongside Joe, the geologist. It was like having a personal tour guide. He provided information on the history, the fauna and the flora, as well as the geology of the Canyon. As you gaze upward at the canyon walls, at the layers of Old Earth marked as if by crayons, each strata represents millions of years in the history of the earth. Who could dream up such a thing as The Great Unconformity, a layer of strata where no rock is preserved and no one can explain why, dated back to the time of the earliest life on earth?
     And, because the river flows through a deep-walled desert landscape, an uncommon variety of wildlife abounds on and near the water. You, the blessed witness, float silently by. Snakes! And behold the plant-life, showing-off, with the thirstier flowers on the verdant shore and the spring-time blooming cacti thriving out beyond the reach of the River. Suddenly, the strangest creature appears before your bewildered eyes – a blooming Ocotillo cactus – the flaming-fingertipped/sun-worshiping octopus of the desert.
     And, a rich human history dating back to the ice age is interwoven among the vertical walls and projecting plateaus of the Canyon and the series of interconnecting side canyons. With the eerie echoes reverberating off the Canyon walls it’s as if the Ancient’s conjured ghosts walk alongside you, as you make your way amongst the ruins, absorbing the significance of the petroglyphs and the pictographs.
     The bizarre, abstract elemental rock sculptures, and the waterfall that disappears into the gravel, wild orchids flourishing, in the desert. So many sights to behold! So many trails to explore! For the first 14 days of the “raft” trip, the group hiked more miles than they floated. All in all, two hundred and eighty-two miles of river, and the surrounding countryside. A fierce and challenging watercourse, and an otherworldly beauty. Impossibly improbable, mysterious, miraculous, magical. Snakes!
     Andrea was born and raised in Boulder, Colorado. She grew up outside – out-of-doors, sort of like a slightly more civilized Tarzan. The family lived in a cabin in Sunshine Canyon during the summer, only going to town when it was time to visit the dentist. There was no electricity. They had a water tank that filled from a nearby spring. She and her two older brothers had the run of the land.
     During her teenage years, Andrea spent six weeks every summer at the Anderson Camp on the Sweetwater Ranch, horseback riding, backpacking and of course rafting, which was her favorite. It is located on the Colorado River, where the River bends away from the interstate, 7 miles North of Dotsero. (All of Andrea’s children would attend the Anderson Camp in the coming years.) Andrea’s afterschool activities were ski racing and showing quarter horses. Andrea also grew up in the ritualized, sacramental Episcopal Church.
     After high school Andrea went to Europe for a year. She stayed in Vienna, Austria for a while, and then worked and ruminated at the L’Abri Fellowship in Switzerland. L’Abri is an evangelical Christian organization founded by Francis Schaeffer. He emphasized the humanness of the spiritual experience. It was very practical and down to earth, grounded and real. He believed that true spirituality is lived with a grace that is free to be fully human, as opposed to trying to live on a higher spiritual plane. Andrea let go of the evangelical dogma, yet many of the principles she learned at L’Abri remain an important part of her faith.
     After returning stateside, Andrea enrolled at Covenant College, which is located in Lookout Mountain, Georgia. As it turned out, the school was simply a passage to her destiny. The nearby Hills began calling. She began to seek out the inscrutable rockface at Lookout Mountain Park, just across the border in Tennessee. Once Andrea got a toehold, the rock’s challenge could not be denied. More and more she began to pack up her ropes and pulleys, and embark to face the challenge of the rock.
     She moved to Iowa City to be near her brother – and took up sailing. Learned to use the wind to propel her boat. Then, at the age of 19, she met Hal, and a few years later (1982) they moved to Grand Junction. Always, always the outdoors calling. Andrea would continue her excursions into the sacred elements, where life was simplified, where she could live in the present moment like a prayer. She would become a rockclimbing guide, while continuing her other various outdoor activities.
     At 24, Andrea became a mother. She had three kids in four years – Jessica, Nick, and Stacy. Her principal focus in life became loving her children. Still, a homebody she is not. As the children grew she soon realized that getting outside was actually a good child-rearing strategy. At home the children often seemed to be in one another’s way – fighting and arguing. Camping in the great outdoors, the children were a team. They were more helpful, entertaining and kind. Andrea and three little ducklings, seeking a natural high.
     At 30, Andrea became a single mother. She took the children out among the rocks, along the trails and into the forest. They went camping, hiking, biking, boating, and they skied a lot. At 36, Andrea met James, and he joined in their excursions. As the children got older, they started to get into sports. Ski racing of course, most winter weekends were spent at Powderhorn; but, they also chose some of the more traditional sports. This kept Andrea and James hopping, yet she knew that the key to everyone’s sanity was keeping the children busy. And she loved this time with her children.
     At 36, Fiona was born. Fiona’s post-formative years were experienced more like a single child. Andrea and Fiona continued to pursue the various outdoor activities that the older siblings had participated in, but Fiona never got into sports. Andrea and Fiona spent a lot of time on the river. When Fiona was 12 years old, the two of them spent an entire summer on the river, leapfrogging from one river to another. They were only home for three days that summer.
     It was about this time that Andrea discovered the UUCGV. She’d been attending the Koinonia Church when she found out about the children’s coming-of-age program at the UUCGV. She introduced Fiona to that group and began attending Sunday services. Mother and daughter both connected with the UU culture, and gradually became more and more involved. Andrea appreciates how our Congregation challenges her thinking, how it sparks her curiosity. In recent years she has begun to volunteer more and more, and has jumped into leadership positions. Fiona is still very close to the group of kids that she met in Religious Education.
     It was also about this time that Andrea enrolled at Colorado Mesa University to finish her degree – Business Administration, with an emphasis in Human Resources.
     Andrea has been single for several years now and seems to have found her groove. She has six grandkids. She has a (big) boatload of friends. She has the Great Outdoors. Lately, she’s been getting into technical Canyoneering, which combines hiking off trail through slot canyons, and rock climbing. When a rock wall blocks your progress, no problem, you simply scale it and proceed. And she’s been boating to beat the band. She was thrilled to be invited by Dennis Myers to join the group on his yearly trip down the Salmon River. This expedition is unique because most of the river-trippers are gifted musicians. Bluegrass music echoes through the canyon – every night at camp, a concert.
     Dennis has an unfathomable wealth of experience immersing the oars. He is The Old Man of the River, having alighted, delighted, upon a multitude of rivers; rounding the rivers so many times that they now recognize his turtle-essence and call out to him by name. His blood is in the river; the river is in his blood. Andrea met Dennis and Mary McCutchan on the San Juan River in 2010. They were attending a women’s rafting/writing retreat put on by Sandy Dorr, writing down the river.
     A year ago, Andrea went through a traumatic, life altering experience. On her second trip down the Grand Canyon, a member of her group died on the river. He had 30 years of experience, yet inexplicably forgot to put on his personal flotation device after scouting a challenging rapid. It is not that uncommon for a raft to capsize, but a death on the river is very rare. Death is a part of life, but to witness it firsthand, to pull the body from the river and attempt resuscitation is almost unthinkable. Needless to say, this really shook Andrea up. She could not continue the trip and flew home with the help of the Park Service. She is grateful for the incredible support provided by the Park Service, and by her friends and family.
     This trauma shook her to the core. It shook up her belief system, her thinking about the river. She felt the need to get back on the water, so in the following months she took as many river trips as possible. She is coming to terms with the experience. She is beginning to think that perhaps the river simply is. The river flows within the contour of the land, the water’s friction and torrent shaping and reshaping the contour of the land. The river swirls and whirls, turns and tumbles, crashes and roils and surges and floods. It gurgles and burbles and babbles and ripples, trickles and clatters and plunks, splashes, pours and gushes, drips and laps, gurgles and seeps. It flows into a pool, the surface smooth as glass, reflecting yourself back as you are.
     This very moment Andrea is loading her boat and gear. By the time you read this article Andrea will be on The River again. She was lucky to receive an invitation to join the notorious Hilty gang for their raft trip through the Grand Canyon. Permits are hard to come by. Andrea’s hope is to experience ten trips down the Grand Canyon, sitting atop her 16 foot boat, conducting, One with the oars and the sound of the river. Singing...
My life flows on        in endless song      
despite life’s lamentations…
 
*Dennis Myers, Mary McCutchan, Sandy Dorr and the Hilty’s are all UUCGV members.

Hello friends,
Our annual congregational meeting is coming up on Sunday June 3rd after church, and I hope you will join us! This is a chance for our board and TLC leaders to share what we've been working on behind the scenes. The board is working on implementing an "action plan" of how to move forward with recommendations from the impressive long-range planning team report that was done this year. One section of that report covers better definition of our staff roles and responsibilities, and finding ways we can use our volunteers as effectively as possible. We'll also be voting on the slate of new leaders for next year proposed by the Leadership Development Team. It's our annual business meeting, but hopefully a good time of sharing and community building too. And I bet there will be a potluck, so hope to see you there!
~​Janet Cummings

NOTE: This was submitted to UU World in November, 2016 along with photos, but wasn’t published in the magazine. It’s hard to imagine that it’s been almost four years since we moved into our new home!

     The Unitarian-Universalist Congregation of the Grand Valley (Grand Junction, Colorado) finally has its own home. Now sun filters through shade trees and our big potted plants, flooding the warm-toned sanctuary and backlighting our wonderful choir. Natural wood paneling provides a pleasing backdrop for the chancel. Our called minister, Rev. Wendy Jones, delivers another thought provoking sermon over an excellent sound system.  Children play downstairs or attend RE. The basement provides a large dining area and commercial kitchen. Members and guests mingle after service over coffee, enjoying conversation with kindred spirits.

     After meeting in homes and rented space since 1955, enduring cycles of economic boom and bust, community contraction pains, and way too much turbulence between ministers and congregation, we have a home and we love it! How did this come to be?

     Grand Junction is located in western Colorado. With a population of 60,000 (county is double that), it is the largest town between Denver and Salt Lake City. Agriculture and a gyrating  energy industry dominate the economy.  Although Grand Junction enjoys a university, community college, arts and music, and a regional medical hub, it is as conservative as the west gets. And we are the largest UU congregation in this region between Denver and Salt Lake.

     With a bit of irony, the congregation was founded by geologists and engineers in the 1950s uranium boom that supplied Cold War atomic bombs. As transition led from an unstable uranium economy to unstable oil, gas, and coal industries, the community suffered booms and busts and population growth and loss. The fledgling UU fellowship had its own years of boom and bust. There were several false steps with contract ministers and congregation out of synch and no ministers lasting over three years. The congregation almost winked out in the 1980s when a new young couple breathed life into it with help by several tenacious older members.

     For years, longer than Moses wandered in the desert, we moved around meeting in homes, a picnic site, rented office space and several churches. Membership at best seemed stuck at around 70, enough to survive but not thrive. Rented buildings never suited our needs. One site was gloomy. At the last site, services had to be in late afternoon. The building seemed attractive but the late afternoon lighting made a somber ambiance. Timing was awful for RE families and attendance dribbled down. Our small group seemed lost in a sanctuary that could seat 250. Hosting special groups, whether just music or anyone hinting of controversy, was a problem for the landlord. Such is the life of a renter. Things were getting dire.

     At the same time with the recession on, a drop in real estate values seemed to provide buying opportunities. Two offers were made but with no success. We considered designing our own building but land and construction costs were too much.
     A generous anonymous offer by a congregant reinvigorated the search and we took a serious look at a 1970s credit union building. The location was good, across from the town's central library in the leafy historic district. But it was hard to visualize re-working it into a church home. The interior was a warren of small rooms (think loan paperwork), and what about the drive-up window? Drive-through prayers? Fortunately one of our congregants was a contractor who visualized what our repurposed bank would look like. And you know, in seven months after making an offer we had our opening service on a beautiful early June day.

     Well, that's understating things a bit. Money poured into contractor work to comply with current fire safety and other codes, without even buying things we see and use. We needed an elevator to comply with ADA code. Luckily members contributed specialized skill for lighting and audio system design. Not to mention a few stalwart grunts with time and a bit of energy to whack out old walls, pound nails, bust concrete, climb up scaffolding, rip out old carpet, set tile, debate colors, bring refreshments, and finally, paint. Volunteers contributed over 3000 hours of dirty, exhausting work. Green design features were used as much as possible, besides repurposing an older building.

     But we finally arrived, and it is ours, really ours after loads of sweat equity. And what a difference it makes! Now we have a sacred home of warmth and tranquility. Guests wander in and like what they see. Sales people know the value of the first impression, and they have it right. We host whoever we want, drawing the general public into our home. Music groups grace evenings and afternoons. But the old vault with foot-thick concrete walls still remains. Makes a good crying room or meditation place, though not at the same time! An Hispanic legal aid group actually uses the vault for office space.

     One year after our first service in the new sacred space, we voted to call our contract minister, Reverend Wendy Jones. Rev. Wendy is still part time but that works with her full-time children and husband. This called for celebration, with a dual ceremony for Rev. Wendy's formal calling and dedication of our new building in August 2015.
​
     After wandering over 60 years, we now have a place of our own. We're happy, and we're growing. We have a home that is beautiful and serene, and we have a minister we’ve called. Looking back, it is just amazing how fast things went from dismal, near-crisis low attendance services in rented space to cheerful growth and vigor in less than one year. Sometimes, things just seem to fall into place.

We will be hosting the Faces and Voices Exhibit at the beginning of March. If you are able to help with take down of this on Wednesday March 14, please contact Robert McDonald at elderethone@gmail.com. 

​More about the exhibit:

Faces and Voices is a multimedia exhibit designed to educate the public and create empathy for the life experience of the homeless.  While we can go online to see the data on homelessness and poverty in America, rarely do we choose to speak to a homeless man, woman or youth to get to know them; instead, we may make up a story in our own minds as we drive by or cross the street to avoid contact.  How then can we understand that a homeless person is a sister or brother, mother or father, a human being like anyone else deserving of human dignity and respect?    

The exhibit includes veterans, men, women, families and youth telling their own stories in their own words. Through photographs, audio interviews, written transcripts and some life size pieces, the stories of our homeless neighbors come to life.  The exhibit is tailored to each location… at some sites we have mounted photos on the wall while at others we mount the photos with headphones and MP3 players on cots with accompanying camp stools and other items that give a personal feel to the overall experience.  

The exhibit will be at UUCGV February 28 through March 14. Please invite friends to come view this eye-opening exhibit. 

This is a monthly column helping us to get to know our friends and members in a deeper way. We thank Monte High for taking the time to do these in-depth interviews for our newsletter.
 
     Phil Ellsworth was born in Mishawaka, Indiana. Mishawaka adjoins South Bend, and straddles the southwestern  Michigan border. The area hosts hundreds of lakes. “If there is a heaven, it’ll have lakes”. For summer vacation the family would pick a lake and put up a tent – where the family would live for the summer. Dad worked for the Studebaker Corporation; he would leave for work in the morning and join them again in the evening. They chose the banks of beautiful,  clear-water lakes to stake down their flapping summer home. Phil and his younger sister Nancy were free to roam. They had a rowboat and long cane fishing poles. Days swimming through a world of water. They befriended kids from nearby farms. Phil and his dog Wiggs had many adventures. Phil also treasured the family road trips to the Upper Peninsula for scenic and wildlife viewing – hoping to spot a deer. Now the deer come to his backyard.

     During his senior year of high school, at the age of 17, Phil joined an Army reserve program for graduating boys. It was an officer training program designed mainly for engineers. He was at the University of Kentucky for a year when the Army discontinued the program and placed them all on active duty, as infantrymen. Phil went to Fort Benning, Georgia, for basic training, and then on to Fort Bragg, Kentucky where he joined the 100th Division. They landed in Marseilles, France, in October 1944.

     The Army shaped Phil’s entire life. He would carry the experience of war with him always. The following quotes and poems are from Phil’s book “Memories of War”:
 
     “November 9, 1944, my 19th birthday. We stand in the woods in the Vosges Mountains in Lorraine and sing several hymns before going into combat, among them “I Would Be True” and “I Need Thee Every Hour”. Before we can disperse, shells began exploding in the trees above us. Johnny Chillemi is our first fatality. After dark I am sent to the company command post on some errand. I poke a twig in my eye and make my way almost blindly.”
 
     “Christmas Eve, 1944. The open, rolling hills near Rimling, France are covered with snow. Burley and I huddle in a hole. A flare brings momentary daylight and then it’s night again. In the distance – but too close – the sound of German tanks on the move.”
     “It is mid-January, 1945. Robert Burlison (Burley) dies of wounds received when the company is overrun.”
 
 
Robert Burlison
American Cemetery, Epinal, France
 
If he knew fear, I did not see.
He was a brother’s arm to me,
And when he fell, fell part of me.
 
 
Epinal
 
It seems unfair, considering all,
That I am here in this place now
With ninety summers on my brow
And you are there in Epinal
Among our comrades sleeping there,
That I can hear the robins sing
And see the almond tree in spring
And you are there. It isn’t fair.
 
Flowers, if you grow in Epinal,
Grow near where Robert lies.
I will dream that he has eyes
And sees some fairness after all.

 
The Meeting
 
Once, in a contested place,
I met a soldier face to face.
We stopped and turned and walked away,
Both to live another day.
 
I often wonder who he was
And where he is and whom he loves,
And if he ever sees, like me,
A soldier in his memory,
 
Or if before the end he fell,
Leaving only me to tell
Of our meeting, face to face,
Once, in a contested place.
 
 
Talking to a high school class about the war
 
When I talk to them about the war
I tell them of the ones we left behind
To be gold stars in grieving windowpanes,
How if you live they’re what you think about
And glory isn’t even in your mind.
 
And what of those caught in your rifle sight?
Those, too, you think about, for they as you
Trudged in the mud, lay fearful in the night
And dreamed of home. Those, too, you think
about,
... Those, too...
 
I tell them that; I know it to be true.
 
 
     “There are three to whom I know I owed my life during the war. Two were German, one of them an officer that must have said, “Hold your fire”.”
 
     “How improbable, to have survived and to be here in this place. It is as if I have lived two totally different lives. I wonder how many veterans feel the same.”
 
 
 
 
     On Phil’s first day home from the war, his dad took him to the local pub to get a drink – but they wouldn’t serve him because he was too young.

     Phil took advantage of the G.I. bill to get a geological engineering degree from Michigan Technological University. His first job out of school was for an iron mining company. He was lucky to be in the first group to ride the cage down a new 2000 ft. deep underground shaft – lucky that an old Welsh miner stopped Phil from leaning against the back  of the cage when he didn’t realize there was no back to lean against.  What he thought was the back was the rock wall going by too fast to be seen.

     In 1952 Phil was hired by the Atomic Energy Commission. He loaded up his 1935 Plymouth and headed West – to Grand Junction, Colorado. The AEC office was located along the Colorado River, a short distance southwest of the Fifth Street bridge. Grand Junction was home-base, but Phil and a college friend were stationed in the Lukachukai Mountains near Shiprock, New Mexico. They were searching for uranium. Every other weekend Riggs Aviation would fly them back to Grand Junction in a Beechcraft Bonanza airplane. Phil remembers the Hotel D and the Carousel Bar downtown. And a blind date romance that was cut short after two dates because of circumstances beyond his control. Margaret lived upstate in Craig, but was working on a nursing degree through St. Joe’s hospital in Denver. She happened to be in  Grand Junction completing a training course for nurses who expected to work in rural hospitals. Phil was transferred to Grants, New Mexico; and Margaret disappeared from the face of the earth.

     After five months in Grants, Phil took a job with the Kerr-McGee Corporation, doing uranium exploration.  His group was headquartered in Grand Junction. Phil started working on a project in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. Every couple of weeks he would drive back to Grand Junction for a few days and then head back to Wyoming. One spring day he stopped for gas in Craig, when out of the blue he heard someone calling his name. It was Margaret!  She was running an errand for her mother after finishing her shift at the hospital. She happened to look across the street  and see a black 1948 Studebaker Commander convertible with red leather upholstery parked at the gas station, and knew she had been in that car. It took the time for her to cross the street for her to remember his name. Sure enough, there was Phil standing beside his car. Phil would revisit Craig every two weeks until they were married that September.

     Phil’s career took off and the family grew, by two girls and a boy. Phil and family had several stops across the West, Midwest, and Australia. Yes, Australia, where the entire family spent a year in Canberra, while Phil traversed the continent. The children enrolled in school and for a brief time became a part of the community, exotic birds and all. They all thoroughly enjoyed it, and they might have stayed longer but Margaret and Phil were worried that one of the girls would fall in love and get married – and forever be halfway across the world in Australia.

     Phil’s jobs sent him flying into some of the most remote and beautiful places in the world – all around North and South America, Greenland, Niger, Algeria, Fiji, Tahiti, New Zealand and Australia... including an unexpected stop in the remote jungle of Venezuela. On a flight from Caracas to the southeastern corner of the country Phil, his partner and the pilot found themselves over a complete cloud cover.  After some time they realized from the sun position that they couldn’t be going in the planned direction, and were headed toward the Brazilian rain forest with a dysfunctional navigation system. As they became more and more nervous, the clouds inexplicably parted, and below them was a short grass landing field in the middle of the jungle. When the plane landed they were greeted by people who were mostly naked. Fortunately there was an English-speaking doctor in the village who could point them toward civilization.

     Phil is grateful for the adventures, the awesome natural beauty and the different cultures that he experienced; yet, what most motivated him in his work was the search for “Hidden Likenesses”. He was hooked by the feeling of the-moment-of-discovery, the feeling of seeing something for the first time that no one has seen before – in that moment your heart skips a beat. This search took place mostly at a desk, with geological information and maps. You take something you understand, and consider if it can somehow fit with something you don’t understand. There is a geological likeness between mineral deposits that tells you why they ended up where they are – “Hidden Likenesses” – if you can find it. Yet, in the moment of discovery it is as if “it” finds you, a gift from out of the blue.

     When Phil retired it was a natural transition, from searching for hidden likenesses that reveal minerals, to listening to the Muse that reveals a melody of word. Phil now spends most of his time writing – or listening, awaiting the moment of inspiration that appears out of nowhere, begging to be penned.

     Though the war is a shadow forever at Phil’s side, his life is defined by love. He was fortunate to find Margaret and the love that brought him a cherished family; and later in life to find another big, astonishing love, with Verity. Phil was fortunate to have loved two wonderful women. Sometimes at night he’ll look up at the stars and imagine that it’s Margaret and Verity looking at him.

     “Cedaredge is a good town to be old in”. Mornings you’re likely to find Phil at Stacy’s Main St. Gallery, drinking coffee and chatting with friends. His daughter Carolyn lives two blocks away and is a great help in his old age. (His daughter Ruth and son Philip live in Austin, Texas.) Friday afternoons you’ll find him at the nursing home playing his harmonica for the residents. Phil’s harmonica has provided him with some good company over the years. He spends a lot of time listening to music: music soothes him. Phil enjoys the monthly UU meetings of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison discussion group. And thanks to David and Kim Stueck, Phil is able to attend many Sunday services at the UUCGV. Most of you will have heard him speak, and were certainly touched by his adroit and heartfelt sermons (he calls them talks). You’ve heard his beautiful poetry. Phil has been a Unitarian since 1960 when he and Margaret joined the UU Fellowship in Golden, Colorado.
 
     My life flows on...     in endless song...

     Plan to join attendees from 185 PWR congregations as the four districts of the Pacific Western Region convene in Portland, Oregon, April 27-29, for the 2018 Regional Assembly. Three dynamic speakers will address the theme, Stories of Hope, Courage, Resistance, and Resilience. The Rev. Dr. William Barber, a national figure in civil rights activism, will be in the pulpit for Sunday’s worship service. Saturday’s keynote speaker will be Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, the first Indian-American woman to be elected to U.S. Congress. Jayapal has spent the last twenty years working internationally and domestically as a leading advocate for women’s, immigrant, civil, and human rights. The Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray, UUA president, will speak at Friday evening’s opening ceremony. Frederick-Gray will share her emerging vision for the future of the UUA and the wider movement.
Several workshops will be offered during Saturday’s programming. If you prefer, you may opt to participate in a local social justice activity. Full details about workshops and the social justice activity will soon be posted on the Pacific Western Region website (www.uua.org/pwr).
     All four districts of the Pacific Western Region will hold concurrent annual meetings on Saturday afternoon. Meeting materials and delegate information will be distributed in February/March.
     If you are a minister, religious educator, or music director you will want to attend the day-long Professional Day activities on Friday, April 27. Rev. Erika Hewitt, UUA staff Minister of Worship Arts, and Dr. Glen Thomas Rideout, Director of Worship and Music at the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ann Arbor, will be presenting a workshop for religious professionals on multi-generational, multicultural worship. In addition, the Revs. Elizabeth Stevens, Emily Brault, and Susan Maginn will be presenting “From Burden to Blessing: Working with Secondary Trauma” for community-based ministers. Professional Day programming will be held at First Unitarian Church of Portland prior to the start of Regional Assembly. Registration for Friday’s Professional Day will be available via the Regional Assembly registration form.
     Regional Assembly registration will be open by January 4. You will be able to access full details and the registration form through the Pacific Western Region website (www.uua.org/pwr).
     The Portland DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, site of the Regional Assembly, is offering discounted room rates through March 29. If you book through another link or by phone, be sure to use the group code, UU8. Full details will be posted on the PWR website before registration opens January 4.
     PWR staff is working hard to keep registration costs low. An Early Bird adult registration fee will be available through January 31 and fees for young adults, youth, and children will be discounted. Still, could your congregation consider either subsidizing or fully funding the costs for at least one person to attend Regional Assembly? What a great opportunity for someone identified as a potential leader in your congregation!
     Be sure to check the PWR website (www.uua.org/pwr) after the first of the year for full Regional Assembly details.

This is a monthly column helping us to get to know our friends and members in a deeper way. We thank Monte High for taking the time to do these in-depth interviews for our newsletter.
 
     Imagine three little girls, sisters, playing “Office” – insurance office, to be more specific. Budding feminist professionals at heart, before they even understood the concept of feminism. They each had a little desk, or station, with paperwork that they passed around to each other. And a “camel” stamp to imprint on important documents. They particularly enjoyed making up names for their fictitious clients. They had a toy phone and a Blip electronic game that made noises like an intercom. I probably shouldn’t mention that they also liked to play pretend-bridge while “smoking” candy cigarettes.
     Janet Cummings’ first choice of career was grocery store clerk, because they get to push all those buttons. As a young child Janet was fascinated with buttons, with the sound and rhythm that they created. Mom was especially thankful for this fascination after the birth of Janet’s twin sisters Diane and Marjorie. Three-year-old Janet was younger than mom would’ve chosen to start her on the piano, but she needed something to keep Janet occupied while she cared for the twins.
     Janet grew up in Greeley, Colorado. Mom taught piano lessons (and was an elementary school teacher before the children came along). Dad worked as an accountant. Janet had a very stable childhood. She was able to navigate K-12 with several of the same friends. She started playing the French horn in sixth grade middle school. Her dad took her to a UNC horn choir concert when she was deciding which band instrument to play, and she was hooked. Janet was fortunate to grow up within the Greeley music community – while walking Greeley sidewalks, music was in the air.
     Janet chose to attend University of Northern Colorado because of their excellent music program. She wanted to study music even though she knew that she would never go Pro. She did not want the life of a professional musician where everything revolves around the music, requiring long hours of practice every day. Yet, she wanted music to be a big part of her life. She knew that music would benefit her well-being.
     Janet met Walter at UNC. He was completing a doctorate in conducting. He was a charming, good-natured, gentle man with a melodious southern drawl. He was enthusiastic about band music, and played the slide trombone. They discovered a mutual interest in tennis and got to know one another better from opposite ends of the court, over and over reciting the words “15-love”. They worked a summer music festival in Breckenridge together, where they climbed their first 14’er – and the match was complete.
     While Janet was completing the final year of her “Music in French Horn Performance” degree, Walter took a job as the band director at a college in New Hampshire. Walter did not like the atmosphere of this position and decided to find a career path where the air was easier to breathe. So, when he returned to Greeley Janet and he set out upon a new path that would lead them to Grand Junction. Walter decided to try his hand at running the East Middle School Band program.
     In the month of December, 1989, Janet graduated from college, got married and moved from her hometown of Greeley to Grand Junction. Janet and Walter were married in the Greeley Unitarian Universalist church. It was the first introduction to UU-ism for both of them. When they attended a few Sunday Services to check out the congregation, the minister asked for feedback at the end of one of her talks. Janet got the sense that these UU folks were living more in the moment than what she recalled of her Episcopal and Presbyterian upbringing. She was impressed because they were active participants rather than passive bystanders. (Janet started questioning the teachings of her religion of origin during a world religion class in seventh grade. It seemed to her that one’s place of birth determined one’s religion.)
     Shortly after the move to Grand Junction, Janet met Marge Miller at a Sierra Club potluck. Marge invited Janet and Walter to a Sunday Service, and when they did not attend until six months later, Marge jokingly referred to them as “wayward Unitarians”.
     Yes, like many UU’s, the Cummings are believers – that wilderness nourishes the soul. They are avid hikers, backpackers and campers. But the fishing is all Walter (and Sam when he became old enough). Janet is happy to cheer them along. More recently, Janet and Walter have taken up pickleball (sort of like tennis with a smaller court) for exercise and to relieve stress – and have a lot of fun in the process.
     In 1992 the Cummings started their music publishing business in the basement of their home on Chipeta Ave. Janet went back to school to get a degree in accounting to get a better grasp on keeping the books. Her teachers encouraged her to go ahead and take the test to get her CPA license. This proved fortunate a couple years down the road when Janet stumbled into a job as an accountant for Community Hospital, where she still works part-time. Grand Mesa Music is now flourishing. They publish music for concert band, marching band and string orchestra. They meet composers and band directors from all over the world. Walter doesn’t travel across the country as much as he used to, though he still occasionally drives the van to weekend music conferences, and he and Janet (and Sam) travel every year to the worldwide music conference in Chicago.
     Along with her part-time accounting job at Community Hospital and her bookkeeping at Grand Mesa Music, Janet also works with Colorado Mesa students as an accompanying pianist (7 this year) and teaches private piano and horn lessons at home. And she plays horn for the Grand Junction Symphony (27th yr.). She is also a band parent, which she loves. Sam plays the trombone and is switching to the baritone for marching band. Janet is pleased that Sam enjoys band, so she doesn’t mind being the chauffeur for his practices, and she delights in traveling to watch him perform. It is a good thing Janet likes to be busy!
     Sam arrived in 2003. Janet especially appreciated the UUCGV community during this period of her life. After Sam’s adoption several mothers helped ease her transition into motherhood with kind support and sage parenting advice. The UUCGV is like extended family to Janet. Many of her closest friends are members.
     Janet’s been around long enough to cheer for the “Rising from the Ashes” award that the UUCGV received, as well as witness the earlier period when the congregation dissolved into ash. (This experience serves Janet as an important reminder of the need to invite young families to the church.) She has been a steadfast member of the finance team, alternating in the role of treasurer, as well as playing the piano for Sunday Services – for many years. She is the standing president of our congregation, but she doesn’t feel very presidential. She sees herself more as a facilitator, which she hopes fits well with our leadership model of trying to work toward consensus on all decisions. The leadership qualities that Janet has learned while volunteering for the UUCGV have proved helpful to her out in the “real world”.
     One of Janet’s favorite UU experiences was attending a recent national UU General Assembly in Columbus Ohio. We are a little isolated out here in Grand Junction. It is comforting to witness people from congregations all across the country, gathering to celebrate and plan for the future. It feels wonderful to connect with the larger movement. GA’s are teeming with energy, with a plenitude of workshops and talks to choose from. Janet was thrilled to hear a large, impressive choir backed up by professional musicians, serving the multitude with good vibrations.
     Here comes Janet buzzing along, busy as a honey bee. In actuality, the buzz is more of a sweet melodic hum reverberating from a deep well of benevolent intention. She is rarely in a hurry. How she does it is a mystery. Janet is one of the most grounded individuals you will ever meet. A musical life indeed!
     Coming soon – Walter is organizing a UUCGV youth/adult brass ensemble to perform during the Sunday Service on December 17.
 
Life goes on...      in endless song...