Mission Peak UU Congregation
M i s s i o n     P e a k     U n i t a r i a n     U n i v e r s a l i s t     C o n g r e g a t i o n
"A Spiritual Community of Caring Hearts and Open Minds"

 


Mission Peak's Spiritual Portrait		 Rev

Rev. Barbara Meyers' Ministry

Quarterly Report to MPUUC Board of Trustees

September 2006

 

To the MPUUC Board of Trustees,

 

The following is a list of the activities I have engaged in during the last quarter as part of my endorsed community ministry.  Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

 

Yours in faith,

 

 

 

Rev. Barbara Meyers

 

Education

Caring Congregation Program

There are a number of activities with regard to the Caring Congregation curriculum:

  • Developed a 2-workshop version of Curriculum not requiring training. On website for free down load.
  • Developed a workshop for ministers about mental health issues. Submitted a proposal to have this be one of the workshops available for UU ministers associations to offer.
  • Anticipated Training Path:
    • Minister gets trained
    • Offer 2-workshop version of curriculum in congregation
    • If more interest, get leaders trained and offer 7-workshop version of curriculum
  • Training field tests in other districts being arranged.
    • Lancaster, Mass on November 10-12. To be confirmed
    • Other possibilities: Chicago area; San Diego; Portland
  • Grant Status
    • Grant specified trainings in PCD and two other districts
    • Will have PCD training and probably one other training by end of grant next March
    • Query in to UUA Grant office about taking longer to spend the grant money
  • General Assembly
    • Made presentation at GA in June with Peggy Rahman.
    • About 20 people signed up as interested in working with other UUs on mental health issues. Some of them very enthusiastic. Will start a UUA list-serve.
    • Sold 17 copies of curriculum
  • Curriculum will be taught again at SKSM starting Sept 6. So far 16 students from 4 seminaries have enrolled.

Classes and Seminars Given

  • Presentation of Caring Congregation at General Assembly on June 25 with Peggy Rahman
  • Spoke to instructors at Las Positas College in Livermore as part of a Alameda Country Anti-Stigma Speakers Bureau.

Classes and Seminars Taken

  • Attended General Assembly and Ministry Days in Saint Louis June 19-25. Attended several workshops, including one on a newly forming Addictions Ministry.
  • Attended Ministry to the Marginalized conference in Berkeley July 18-19
  • Attended NAMI California convention August 26. Attended excellent presentations there about mental health programs and ideas for being an effective advocate.

Books Read

  • Lincoln's Melancholy - How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness by Joshua Wolf Shenk
  • The Miracle, The Message, The Story - Jean Vanier and l'Arche, by Kathryn Spink
  • Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy, by David D. Burns
  • Alexander and the Wind Up Mouse, by Leo Lionni - children's book

Healing

Reaching Across
  • Continue working about quarter time at Reaching Across organization.

Support Groups

  • Continued co-leading new interfaith support group for people with depression and sadness.
  • Continued to recommend support group for families of those with mental illness. Have gotten feedback that this has been helpful

Pastoral Associates

  • Will continue being chair of Pastoral Associates until new replacement(s) identified. Recruited new associates.
  • Will continue to give training to Pastoral Associates and be compensated for this.
  • Publicized our Lay Pastoral Care program on a UU ministers chat line and 27 congregations requested a copy of it.
  • Made several visits to congregational members with mental health problems.

Priestly

  • Worship leader for service on "Stages of Recovery" on July 16
  • Worship leader for service on "Religious Impasse" on August 20
  • Guest minister at Petaluma congregation on August 27 speaking about "Living with Mental Illness."
  • Worship Associate for August 20 service on "We Were Made for These Times" with guest minister Rev. Kurt Kuhwald

Social Justice

MPUUC Social Justice Area
  • Identified 2 activities for the congregation to be involved in: NAMI Walk and Holiday Gift Program for Mental Hospital. This year's NAMI walk was highly successful.

Community Awareness

  • Mental Health pages on MPUUC web site continue to be widely accessed.

"Not in Our Town - Fremont" Mental Health Subcommittee

  • The focus of this effort is to obtain Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) for police officers in Fremont and Newark. We maintained a continuing presence on this issue in the community by telling police chief Steckler about grant possibilities that might support this effort.

Anti Stigma Effort

  • Spoke to instructors at Las Positas College in Livermore as part of a Alameda Country Anti-Stigma Speakers Bureau.
  • Looked into the possibility of putting anti-stigma programming on community access television. Was asked by county committee to make a proposal to produce one show. This will be presented at their September meeting.

UUA Accessibility Committee

  • Applied for a spot on the UUA's Accessibility Committee to become the denominational advocate for mental health accessibility. UUA Board to vote either this year or next on nominations to denominational committees.

Other

  • Met with Community Ministry Advisory Committee every quarter
  • Chaired MPUUC Mental Health Committee which meets about every quarter
  • Met with Committee on Ministry from MPUUC monthly
  • Met with mentor Rev. Dave Sammons every month