Some notes from my quick survey of Unitarian Universalist websites. This speak to the broad middle in quality; I’ll be writing about the really amazing ones and some deeply problematic habits another time. Unitarian Universalists sites make little use of web fonts, which is unfortunate as Google makes many families available free of charge. (This… Continue reading Observations from the Unitarian Universalist website scan
Category: Church administration
Bookmark this resource for better print publications
A couple of years ago I ordered a book called Typography for Lawyers in order to improve the quality of office communications. And it really helped, until I misplaced it. (I’m sure I’ll find it which behind a bookcase one day.) Bitstream Charter seems to do a decent job of keeping the layout of documents… Continue reading Bookmark this resource for better print publications
Making sense of the last UUA Board meeting
The news about the recent Unitarian Universalist Association Board of Trustees meeting, in UUWorld online magazine (“Consultant to aid impasse between UUA board, administration“) deserves plenty of attention. And you are welcome to leave comments here. I’m left wondering if the board is micromanaging, if the higher reaches of the management team is incompetent, or… Continue reading Making sense of the last UUA Board meeting
Churches are slow
An office-mate — for those who don’t know, I’ve worked for the past decade in the non-profit field, not in churches — pointed out a New York Times article about how hard it is to make congregations green. (“Solar Panels Rare Amid the Steeples” by Kath Galbraith. But what lept out was the management issue,… Continue reading Churches are slow
An old order of service at the old church
A little Google-noodling lead me to this order of service from Universalist National Memorial Church in 1939. Yes, the service is on one leaf — very different than the norm (in most any church) today. Indeed, an outline pasted in the hymnal hymns and readings on the hynmboards, and announcements from the lectern would produce… Continue reading An old order of service at the old church
Best church website?
Church websites come and go, and what’s considered good changes so much. But their value is hard to overstate. Have you seen (by your own definition) some really good sites lately? Extra credit for pointing out Unitarian Universalist (or Universalist, Unitarian, Free Christian or kindred) ones.
Nineteenth century “new media” social networks: thoughts for Universalist history
I found an article as a link (and example) of the author’s use of plain text to compose complex (in his case, academic) documents. I’m being drawn to this practice as a way to improve my productivity. (I now often use UberWriter, a GUI frontend application to pandoc, but will also use pandoc on the… Continue reading Nineteenth century “new media” social networks: thoughts for Universalist history
A Unitarian Universalist wish list
Sometimes it helps to ask: “what would you like to see? what resources do you wish could exist? what connections do you wish existed? what problem would you like to resolve?” Think about issues that might concern many congregations, but may or may not be normally handled by denominational staff. I’m thinking within the Unitarian… Continue reading A Unitarian Universalist wish list
The twenty-times-a-year church
I have been combing the pages of the Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church of Ireland and came across one church – small, remote? – that meets less than weekly but more than monthly in a very sensible pattern: nine months, meeting twice a month (first and third Sunday in this case) two months, meeting once (January and… Continue reading The twenty-times-a-year church
Full text of “Parish Practice in Universalist Churches”
A while back I lifted out clips from the 1946 polity and administration guide Parish Practice in Universalist Churches with little commentary. Now you can download the PDF to read the whole thing yourself. I don’t know if it is still in copyright — there’s a terrible problem with orphan works — but I’ll keep… Continue reading Full text of “Parish Practice in Universalist Churches”