...the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston (Texas)!  They have requested the grant for the purpose of:  Creating a Multi-site Church – joining the congregations of First UU Houston, Northwest Community UU Church, and Thoreau UU Congregation, into one church, three campuses.

Nominate yourself or your best and brightest youth leaders to be the Youth Observer onthe UUA Board by April 23!

http://www.uua.org/re/youth/leading/observer/183581.shtml

Our GA 2012 open source resource sharing site is now live.  If you have or come across stories that would be good to share, please do so.

 http://immigrationjustice.blogs.uua.org/

Thanks to all the SWUUC congregations which participated in Association Sunday 2011. Click "Read More" for more details.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0vIFWyxrY8

The newest pamphlet To the Point: 15 Elevator Speeches offers a diverse collection of brief responses to the question “What Is Unitarian Universalism?” from Peter Morales, Forrest Church, Bill Sinkford and others. You can read the full text and purchase packs of 25 from the UUA Bookstore at http://www.uuabookstore.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=1508

Inspirational stories of the 2011 Breakthrough Congregations can be found on the UUA web site, at http://www.uua.org/growth/breakthrough/index.shtml. These stories can also be found on the main navigation bar on the lefthand side of the Growing Your Congregation's Membership page (http://www.uua.org/growth/)

Equual Access is searching for stories of inclusion, hospitality, and creative thinking by our congregations.  If you have a personal story of how a Unitarian Universalist congregation overcame barriers (physical or attitudinal) to welcome a person with disabilities, please share it.

Our own Rev. Ron Robinson was interviewed extensively in this piece on Tulsa public radio.

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kwgs/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1782856/Local..and..Regional/Project.School.House.The.Turley.Impact

The UU Historical Society announces several prizes for sermons, essays, stories, poems, and other written projects.

The office of Worship and Music Resources has added more material to the Worship Web on UUA.org. In addition to the chalice lightings, readings, and sermons that have long been available, you can now find new resources including songbooks, articles on music in worship, and tools for creating multigenerational worship services.

The Stewardship and Development staff group hopes that you will help celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the 1961 merger that created the Unitarian Universalist Association by taking up a special collection for Association Sunday. Please sign up today and let us know that you are planning an Association Sunday event for October 2010.

The Congregational Stewardship office has financing options available to congregations wishing to build a new spiritual home or make renovations to their current one. You can choose from several different loan and grant options, including a green construction award for congregational renovations that receive Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. 

The recent edition of Catalyst is now available in the Congregational Bulletin. Catalyst is a newsletter from the UUA Office of Racial and Ethnic Concerns. It contains information on upcoming events and news from Unitarian Universalist organizations, including the Liberal Religious Educators Association (LREDA) and Diverse and Revolutionary UU Multicultural Ministries (DRUUM).

The UUA Office of Electronic Communications is excited to announce that a new recommended resources page is now be available as part of the February 1st debut of a revitalized UUA.org! The new resource page has multimedia content, news, updates, and more for congregation members and leaders.

The Unitarian Universalist Association's (UUA) online Congregational Certification of Membership system is now ready to certify your congregation's membership and statistical information!  In addition, congregations are invited to participate in the Congregational Poll, which decides whether to admit a revised Draft Statement of Conscience (SOC) on Peacemaking to the final General Assembly (GA) 2010 agenda, and which proposed Congregational Study/Action Issues (CSAI) to admit to the final GA 2010 agenda. 

Please check out the new Addictions Ministry website at http://www.uua.org/leaders/leaderslibrary/addictionsministry/

Getting Started in SSL!  Join Weekly Friday Calls 1 PM EDT

Standing on the Side of Love Campaign and UUA Staff will be holding weekly 45 min. web-cast conference calls to share resources and best practices with people coordinating Standing on the Side of Love activism in their congregations.  Calls will include how to get your congregation involved, how to develop a local campaign, how to use new media, how to bring SSL to interfaith colleagues and allies, and more.

Unitarian Universalist Association President Rev. William G. Sinkford issued the following statement regarding the murder of Dr. George Tiller: