Update from the Board: October 2025

Autumn Blessings! It is with a very grateful heart I type this message to all of you.   

Your Board has been very busy in the last few months. Since our last update in early August, we have met 4 times for regular meetings, plus a few extra for Personnel and Ministerial Search, and participated in a retreat led by Reverend Carol McKinley. At the retreat we discussed the role of the Board, KUUF By-Laws, conflict navigation, and last but not least, shared ministry. 

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KUUF Board Meeting Update: August 26, 2025

At the August 26 KUUF Board meeting, members discussed the Shared Ministry Committee’s recommendation to slow the ministerial search for a year in order to focus on visioning, but the Board also acknowledged the need to balance this with moving promptly on the search process. Additional topics included ICE Agent Intermediator roles, pending heat pump bids, acceptance of an estate gift, reduced sanctuary rental for KIAC training, reviving an aging support group, and strengthening the Personnel Committee and committee charter processes.

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From the Board President

Dear KUUF Members and Friends,

Although the Board had every hope that Rev. Victoria would be renewing her contact with us, we understand that she has a great opportunity in working full time in Seattle with another minister. We are both sad to see her go, and happy that she is following her spiritual calling. We wish Rev Victoria the very best in her future. 

Ruth Powers-Piccone, Board President

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Stewardship Kicks off February 1!

As the month of Love, February is the perfect month for KUUF to have its annual Stewardship Campaign.  This year our theme is GIVE AND YOU WILL RECEIVE.  We all know that our Fellowship gives us so much to enrich our lives; inspirational worship services that nurture our souls and help us grow in our own spiritual depth, support and friendships through our many discussion groups like Chalice Circles and the monthly Grief Group, opportunities to engage in social justice, and religious education for our children that will guide them throughout their lives.  We receive so much from KUUF!  There are a myriad of ways that KUUF meets our individual needs. 

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A message from our new Minister

August 8, 2023

Dear Members and Friends of KUUF,

As I write this first note to you, I am feeling gratitude and a sense of joy and anticipation. Beginning a ministry alongside you as your quarter-time minister, I wonder where we will be called and invited to go together, and who we will become. I am looking forward to our shared ministry.

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Masks optional starting April 30!

Masks optional starting April 30!

The results from the KUUF survey regarding the wearing of masks during worship service are in: the great majority of members of the congregation support lifting the mask mandate. The Moving Forward Task Force noted that the number of Covid cases is moderate, as is the stress on our hospital system. For these reasons, the Moving Forward Task Force made a recommendation to the Board that that the mandate be lifted. At its April 25 meeting, the Board approved making the wearing of masks optional at our upcoming Sunday service on April 30. Although masks will no longer be required, anyone who wishes to remain masked may do so. The Board also supports the Task Force recommendation that people get the new Omicron booster shot, which will soon be available for folks over age 65 and for those with compromised immune systems.

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KUUF Update

As you know, this Sunday will be Reverend Crystal's last day in the KUUF pulpit. For the remainder of April, she will be taking her paid study leave and only available for pastoral care emergencies. Even in the short eight months she has been with us as a contract minister, she has made an impact, especially with her loving pastoral care and joyous intergenerational services. At the end of the service this Sunday, we will have a brief leave-taking ceremony, to thank her for her service here and wish her well in her future ministry.

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Recommendations regarding health precautions

The Moving Forward Task Force has been meeting over the course of the pandemic to advise the Board of Trustees on what it considers the most prudent steps to take to maintain the good health and safety of our beloved community,

We have recommended a conservative course of masking and vaccinations for those attending services in person. We recognize that the requirement of masking while indoors has become annoying to some people, in part because KUUF is one of the few places that still requires masks.

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KUUF COVID Protocol Announcement

The Board and the Moving Forward Task Force encourage everyone who is eligible to get the

newly released booster vaccination as soon as they can. This will further protect our members

and our faith community. We all should do whatever we can to protect our own health and the

health of everyone in our community, including getting vaccinated and boosted!

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Current Service Updates

Come to KUUF this Sunday! Here’s what will be happening (and stay tuned for future updates)!

• We are still wearing masks for the time being and requesting that those attending attest that they have been vaccinated.
• Singing during the service is encouraged!
• Meetings in the buildings may resume.
• We are offering coffee after the service.
• Live-streaming of the service will, of course, continue, as will Coffee Hour on Zoom.

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Update from Moving Forward Task Force

As you probably know, last week KUUF moved to “Masks Optional but Recommended” status.  The Moving Forward Task Force met 5/12/22 to make a recommendation regarding our plan to resume the choir’s singing with masks optional.  Because the COVID numbers are rising, and are now 217 per 100K population, we recommend against singing unmasked, and also withdraw the “Masks Optional” recommendation. 

We will continue to monitor the data weekly in hopes of bringing the choir back into our live services.

KUUF resumes in person

Join Us Online or In Person this Sunday at 10:30am

On Sunday, March 13, KUUF resumed in-person services, two years from the day that we closed our doors due to the COVID pandemic. Sunday’s service was a joyful reunion with old friends, and a welcome introduction to new ones, here for the first time.

Come to KUUF this Sunday! Here’s what will be happening (and stay tuned for future updates)!

• We are still wearing masks for the time being and requesting that those attending attest that they have been vaccinated.
• Singing during the service is encouraged!
• Meetings in the buildings may resume.
• We will offer coffee after the service as soon as we are able.
• Live-streaming of the service will, of course, continue, as will Coffee Hour on Zoom.

Please submit a joy or sorrow before service to be included during service.

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From the Board of Trustees

Dear Members of KUUF,

You are receiving this Survey Monkey so that you may suggest names of KUUF members to serve on the KUUF Selection Committee that will select our next transitional minister.

Background

As you know, our fellowship is embarking on a search for another bridge or transitional minister, who will step in after Rev. Carol’s contract with us ends, and assist us in our search for our next settled minister. These transitions between settled ministers, which is what Rev. Jessica was, are meant to be a year or two long, in part, to give the succeeding minister and congregation a fair opportunity to know and appreciate each other beyond the shadow of the previous minister.

On Tuesday, February 22, your Board of Trustees and members of the Committee on Shared Ministry met with Rev. Sarah Schurr, who is our Congregational Life Staff contact person in the UUA Pacific Western Region, to discuss how we might proceed. Rev. Sarah heard the difficult memories that many in our congregation have of a past transition, and she reassured us that the UUA is taking steps to improve its assistance to congregations. Following this extensive conversation with Rev. Sarah, your Board agreed that KUUF will post our search for a transitional contract minister in the UUA system when we are ready to do so. If you have any questions or concerns about how we came to that decision, please reach out to a Board member.

Prior to registering our posting with the UUA, our fellowship will engage in conversations regarding what worked well in Rev. Jessica’s ministry, and what we are hoping for in the next ministry. We made a small beginning to these conversations during coffee hour on February 20, but we are very aware that coffee hour attendees are a small portion of the whole congregation. The Board is looking to the Committee on Shared Ministry for advice and direction on how we may expand these conversations to other venues and even modes of expression to reach everyone.

Once we have discerned, from all these conversations, what KUUF will be looking for in a transitional minister, we will be ready to post our position in the UUA system. And once we do that, we will need a Selection Committee that will review the responses to our posting and select our next transitional minister.

The KUUF Selection Committee

This committee will be made up of five members of the congregation who know the congregation well and can be depended upon to act in the best interests of the congregation as a whole, and not to favor one group or activity over another. They will be charged with reviewing the submissions, checking references, perhaps traveling locally to see an applicant in action, and interviewing. All of which will involve a significant commitment of time and energy. They must accept the duty of strict confidentiality in their work.

This is where we all come in: we all have an opportunity to suggest a name or two of people who we believe can carry out the duties described above. The Board is NOT asking for volunteers for the committee, but rather for the names of people who we trust to act in the best interests of the congregation and who can observe the necessary confidentiality.

Deadline

Please fill out the survey with your suggestions and submit by Friday, March 11.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LYD2928
Thank you for your assistance!

In Fellowship,

KUUF Board of Trustees

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Note from the Board

Notes from the Board, February 2022

As we move into our third year of living with COVID, and as we move forward from our precious time with Reverend Jessica, your Board has been very busy. We want to share with you the work we have been doing.

Many of you know that Reverend Carol McKinley, who has served us for years as a visiting minister, has agreed to take a quarter-time position with us for six months, February through July 2022. She will be speaking in the pulpit once a month, and taking on Pastoral Care duties together with our Pastoral Care team. Watch for her communications in upcoming issues of the Candle.

We are grateful that in this transitional time we have a minister whom we love and trust.

Looking beyond these next six months, the Board (advised by our Committee for Shared Ministry) is weighing our options:

· Do we want to begin a search process through the UUA? This would take 1-2 years and result in our calling a new settled minister

· Do we want to engage an interim minister for 1-2 years to help us discern what we need before looking for a new settled minister?

· Do we engage a part-time contract minister (1/2 or ¾ time) who could, if we are all excited with her/him/them, eventually be called into settled ministry or be replaced with another contract minister? This is the route we traveled with Reverend Jessica.

Each of these choices is complicated, and like any decision has positive and negative consequences. We will soon be launching listening sessions guided by open-ended questions to assess how our beloved community is feeling and how we best move forward. The questions might look like these:

· What has worked well for you in Reverend Jessica’s ministry?

· How has our congregation changed through that ministry?

· As we move toward re-opening, what do you think will strengthen our ties to each other?

Again, watch in the Candle for information on these listening sessions, and please attend and add your voice.

We are thankful for the response to our recent Volunteer Survey, and for all of you who added your names to help us do the work of this Fellowship. We have an incredible staff and a core of very dedicated volunteers to lead and serve on committees, and now we have some new names to add to that core. If you were not able to respond to the survey but want to add your talents, please contact Tanesha Smith at admin@kuuf.org.

One thing that Reverend Jessica left us with, which we all need to remember, is that this beloved community is very strong. We will go forward, and we will do it together. We were so fortunate for the loving guidance she shared with us, and we will move forward in strength and love.

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