In its early years, SUUF was like \u201cthe little engine that could.\u201d\u00a0 At times, although the terrain ahead looked awfully steep, the congregants committed themselves to ascend it, set off, persevered, and found themselves traversing hill after hill.<\/p>\n
SUUF got off to a sputtering start when, in the 1980s, a small group of Unitarian Universalists met sporadically in several Sedona homes.\u00a0 That little group faded.<\/p>\n
A decade later, however, in July of 1993, a few hardy souls set off to start a congregation here.\u00a0\u00a0Cae Fessenden\u00a0got four people to join her in pledging the financial support needed to launch the group that was to become SUUF. \u00a0Cae is considered the mother of SUUF, the spark plug who first inspired the Sedona Unitarian Universalists to found this Fellowship. She was a registered nurse (who had been the first Planned Parenthood nurse in Connecticut at a time when it was illegal and risky to do such work). She was a dynamic UU leader and, with her husband, Fred, a passionate environmentalist, as well.<\/p>\n
In August of 1993, Cae led a caravan of 15 people up the canyon to the Flagstaff UU service, where they heard and met with Beacon\u2019s new part-time minister, Joyce Smith.\u00a0 They spoke with her about coming monthly to speak in Sedona.<\/p>\n
Upon her return, Cae shared this vision of a visiting minister back in Sedona, and soon got 10 households to make a financial commitment. With that support, on September 26, 1993, at 4:00 p.m., 30 years ago, at\u00a0Kachina Point Retirement Village\u00a0(now called Sedona Winds),\u00a0Rev. Joyce Smith\u00a0led SUUF\u2019s first service.\u00a0 SUUF was born!<\/p>\n
Over the next decade, SUUF held bi-monthly minister-led services at Kachina Point, interspersed with discussion-group Sundays held in members\u2019 homes.<\/p>\n
A decade after SUUF\u2019s birth, in 2003, SUUF co-president\u00a0Carl Cooper\u00a0made a big decision.\u00a0 He decided it was time to apply to the national Unitarian Universalist Association to make SUUF an official UU congregation. To qualify, UUA required a minimum of 30 consistently attending members.\u00a0 They had almost enough.\u00a0 With great effort, Carl got a few more people to attend and sign up, until the 30 members mark was achieved.\u00a0 He then shepherded the paperwork through the district and national levels.<\/p>\n
In hindsight, one might assume that was an easy task.\u00a0 But it wasn\u2019t. \u00a0To be a recognized UU congregation, the group would have to pay $50 per member per year to the UUA.\u00a0 Some members felt that was a waste of a lot of money, and quietly undermined Carl\u2019s efforts in order to prevent the group from meeting the 30-member requirement.\u00a0 But Carl persevered and eventually succeeded.\u00a0 That early group had climbed this next steep mountain on SUUF\u2019s journey\u2014becoming an official UU congregation!<\/p>\n
Over the next decade, SUUF continued meeting in a variety of places.\u00a0 Among them were the\u00a0Church of the Red Rocks\u00a0(on Sunday afternoons, after their own services were over),\u00a0the Elks Club, and the\u00a0Sedona Creative Life Center.\u00a0 They hosted a series of one-time speakers and part-time ministers who visited from out-of-town to lead a service, usually twice a month.<\/p>\n
At the end of their second decade, in 2013, the SUUF congregation realized it had another mountain to climb.\u00a0 More consistency and stability were needed.\u00a0\u00a0Rev. Glenn Farley\u00a0was hired to be the congregation\u2019s leader, and the Sunday services were moved\u00a0to the\u00a0Sedona synagogue.\u00a0 The next year,\u00a0Susannah Martin\u00a0became SUUF\u2019s Musician\/Music Director.\u00a0 The group took a breath, looked around, and saw that they had indeed climbed another mountain successfully!<\/p>\n
By the beginning of SUUF\u2019s third decade, the group was moving along with ever greater confidence.\u00a0 In 2016, they became a\u00a0Welcoming Congregation, a status for which many requirements, dealing with LGBTQ+ programming and practices, had to be met.\u00a0 The congregation has proudly continued to meet those requirements each year since.<\/p>\n
Mid-decade, in 2018, a variety of changes occurred.\u00a0Anthony Johnson\u00a0began a year-long internship with the congregation, alongside Rev. Glenn. \u00a0The men\u2019s breakfast group and the women\u2019s luncheons formed.\u00a0 Outreach efforts began focusing on the Sedona Food Bank Kids\u2019 Backpack Program.\u00a0 Fund-raising events, such as dinners with music and auctions, were held.\u00a0 Throughout these years, congregants continued to address social justice issues, to protest and march for causes in which they believed.<\/p>\n
The Sedona Hub became the location for services in September 2019; however 6 months later in March 2020, SUUF hit a rough patch, as did the rest of the world, during the COVID pandemic period.\u00a0 But they rolled up their sleeves and chugged up that mountain, too. Rev. Glenn continued to provide written and video sermons for the rest of that season, when he elected to resign. Virtual online services were provided the following year, with Rev. Robin Landerman Zucker and Rev. Anthony Mtuaswa Johnson offering sermons each month. The SUUF board did what it took to keep the congregation operating during that challenging time.<\/p>\n
A burst of new energy emerged for SUUF when\u00a0Rev. Anthony\u00a0was hired as the minister starting September, 2021.\u00a0 The group cautiously resumed in-person services at the JSCVV synagogue, while wearing masks to protect each other\u2019s health.\u00a0 That year, the Marketing Team started publishing a weekly ad and a news article in the Red Rock News.\u00a0 New ministry teams were formed to help do the Fellowship\u2019s work: a Care Team, a Worship Associates Team, a Marketing Team, a Welcoming\/Member Team, a Widening the Circle (now called Social Justice) Team, and later, a Finance Team.<\/p>\n
In May of 2022, 10 new SUUF members were initiated.\u00a0 The \u201cWidening the Circle\u201d program was expanded to include three ongoing participant-led discussion and study groups.\u00a0 The groups met over the summer, and beyond, to explore the challenges faced by people in systemically marginalized groups in America.\u00a0 The groups were a monthly film group that discussed documentaries about the struggles of our less fortunate neighbors, a book group reading thought-provoking non-fiction studies of marginalized groups, and an \u201cEvolving Elders\u201d group that held theme-centered discussions of topics relevant to life in one\u2019s senior years. These groups continue to meet in member homes.<\/p>\n
In September of 2021, when in-person Sunday services had resumed at the synagogue, the average attendance was in the 40s.\u00a0 By the end of May, 2022, attendance often averaged in the 70s with attendance records in the 80s being set.\u00a0 Wonderful people were attending, joining, and telling their friends about SUUF. From May of 2022 to May of 2023, SUUF gained 34 vibrant new members. One visiting couple remarked, \u201cThis is the friendliest UU we\u2019ve ever been to!\u201d<\/p>\n
At SUUF\u2019s May, 2023, annual meeting, members voted unanimously to make Rev. Anthony Mtuawsa Johnson the congregation\u2019s Settled Minister.\u00a0 In UU circles, that means there\u2019s an understanding that the minister and the congregation are in an ongoing satisfactory relationship and plan to continue it for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n
SUUF is now entering its fourth decade.\u00a0 If the congregation, or better said, \u201can opportunity,\u201d in the coming year.\u00a0 What\u2019s the next hill to climb?\u00a0 How will we surmount it?\u00a0 How will the now mature SUUF congregation participate in identifying and achieving its next set of goals?\u00a0 Whatever lies ahead, the group is confident that SUUF now has, within everyone\u2019s hearts, minds, hands, and souls, the power to do whatever it commits itself to do.<\/p>\n
After SUUF\u2019s 30-year celebration on September 24, 2023, we set off on our fourth decade of congregational life!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In its early years, SUUF was like \u201cthe little engine that could.\u201d\u00a0 At times, although the terrain ahead looked awfully steep, the congregants committed themselves to ascend it, set off, persevered, and found themselves traversing hill after hill. SUUF got off to a sputtering start when, in the 1980s, a small group of Unitarian Universalists … Continue reading A Brief SUUF History<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7058","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7058"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7756,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7058\/revisions\/7756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}