Since the Board of Trustees approved UUC’s participation in the Faith Land Initiative (FLI) in October, our FLI cohort team (comprised of Gayle Childers, Patricia Graesser, Dave Mentz and Rev. Beth Chronister and now Rev. Doug Wadkins) has been quite busy.

Trainings

Our FLI team participated in three all-day trainings in November, December and April. These trainings covered community organizing tools, an anti-racist framework, land access/exclusion history timeline, values-centered reflection, creating a story of us and now, conducting meetings for discernment, the participatory learning process, asset mapping and planning.

Researching

The team held research meetings with Byron Krystad and Cynthia Setel to understand past and present facility uses and considerations for any future uses.

After an initial collaborative meeting with social justice and UUC facility leaders in January, the team expanded to work on three particular areas of interest:

• Research meetings with external parties
• Criteria refinement
• Congregational meetings

Research meetings with other faith communities so far have included St. John’s United Lutheran, St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox, Gesthemane Lutheran, Seattle Mennonite, Maple Leaf Lutheran, University Lutheran and University Congregational United Church of Christ. Research meetings with community organizations included Seattle Library, Eckstein Middle School, King County and North Seattle Opportunity Center.

Communicating

At meetings with UUC members and friends on April 6, 22, 27 and May 4 the team provided an overview of the Faith Land Initiative and asked for congregant thoughts on four questions:

• Which values do you strongly believe we should prioritize in considering ways to share our physical resources?
• What do you feel UUC is being called to do in our community now?
• What hopes do you have about the potential for sharing our physical resources?
• How do we share our space and remain responsible stewards, leaving a legacy for those who come after us?

If you weren't able to attend one of these meetings and would like to share your thoughts, please fill out our online questionnaire.

Preparing

Our FLI team is now documenting learnings from research meetings and common themes from congregational meetings and preparing for a presentation at UUC's June 15 Annual Congregational Meeting.

Questions?

If you have any questions or would like to share any input relating to this process, please contact Patricia Graesser, Gayle Childers or Dave Mentz.