“People come to church longing for, yearning for, hoping for … a sense of roots, place, belonging, sharing and caring. People come to a church with a search for community, not committee.” — Glenn Turner

A Different Way of Doing Church

The Small Group Ministry program deepens and broadens personal spiritual growth. A group usually consists of 8-10 members who meet at each others’ homes or CVUUS or Zoom. Each meeting is focused on a spiritual or religious topic. The goals are to:

• Listen and be listened to in a safe place
• Learn about the mysteries of our world and our spiritual paths
• Build new and deeper personal connections
• Serve our community and each other’s needs

Each group has a facilitator who links the group to the SGM steering committee and the minister. The steering committee and minister provide overall guidance, recruit new members and establish new groups. Most (but not all) groups take the summer off. This year groups will explore the Soul Matters’ themes centering our worship services and religious exploration for youth. Soul Matters’ overarching theme for 2024-25 is The Practices of Our Faith: how we act out our values in the world with our UU core value of liberating love. September through June’s themes are: Invitation, Deep Listening, Repair, Presence, Story, Inclusion, Trust, Joy,  Imagination, and Freedom. 

Goals of Small Group Ministry

The Small Group Ministry program deepens and broadens personal spiritual growth. This is done through five components:

• Listening: Deep listening is gift for both the speaker and the listener. A connection forms when we share and give this gift to each other.
• Worship: Worship is central to the life of our congregation. Small Group Ministry augments and strengthens our shared experience.
• Community: Small groups meet the need for connection and intimacy that is both a hunger in our society and essential to the ongoing life of a religious community.
• Learning: People come to the church seeking spiritual growth, seeking to know themselves better, to grow into their understanding of the world and to ponder the age old questions of faith: how to live, what to believe, how to act, what meanings we can decipher from the mystery of life.
• Service: A life of faith is a life of service. As human beings, we seek to be of use, and a healthy congregation needs to provide avenues through which we may serve.

How Small Group Ministry Works

Ministry happens in the meetings, which focus on spiritual or religious topics through a process of deep listening and service projects. Topics that may be shared during meetings include: sacred places, perfection, mothers, community, living simply, music, and healing. Groups choose their own order, direction and pace. Service projects are expected from each group once a year. In general, projects tend to be ones that serve the church community or the local community, but they can be larger projects that reach beyond our church community.

What is expected of members?

Group members are expected to commit to regular meeting times and to practice deep listening. Deep listening is a way of focusing intently on what another person is saying without interruption or simultaneously formulating a response. Deep listening also gives an individual an opportunity to speak without interruption or comment.

What are sessions like?

• Opening Words: Gathering in, settling down, reminding participants of the special opportunity of the gathering, possibly reflecting the topic of the session. The meeting may begin with the lighting of a candle or a chalice.
• Check-In: Participants share news of what has been happening in their lives. Each group develops its own customs as to the length of sharing. This portion of the meeting may expand from time to time when circumstances call for it.
• Topic/Discussion: A paragraph or two lays out a topic and presents questions that will elicit thoughtful discussion and significant reflection. A group may stay with a topic several weeks or be done in one evening.
• Check-Out: Likes and Wishes: This is an opportunity for feedback.
• Closing Words: This brings the formal session to and end. Groups are encouraged to start and end on time.

Join a Group

Contact Larry Vanderburgh (518-532-9752 or lwv1212@gmail.com) or leave a message at the CVUUS office at 388-8080.

They meet monthly as follows:

*Saturday morning  9-11 am onsite at Fenn Chapel, (2nd Sat of each month) Contact Doug Richards

*Sunday afternoon, 12-2 pm, onsite at Fenn Chapel (no longer on Zoom, 2nd Sunday of month). Contact Helene Vanderburgh

*Tuesday evening  7-9 pm on Zoom, (1st Tues of month), Contact Rev. Christina

*Tuesday evening  7-9 pm onsite in Blue Room (first Tues of each month) Contact Dinah Smith

Opportunities exist for “drop in” participants who would like to “test out” the small group model of spiritual sharing.

A different door into Small Group Ministry is provided by Affinity Groups, groups that share a common interest or life experience and want to share based on these experiences. Find out more about the available affinity groups here.

Small Group Ministry Premise & Elements

Premise: To develop further at CVUUS, small group ministry needs to:  1) Strive to include all congregants and friends in some way;  2) Not be bound to traditional concepts of what constitutes small group ministry;  3) Look and feel much more like a form of worship, drawing on Rev. Jacob Trapp’s broad        definition of what constitutes worship:

To worship is to stand in awe under a heaven of stars, before a flower, a leaf in the sunlight, or a grain of sand.

To worship is to be silent, receptive, before a tree astir with the wind, or the passing shadow of a cloud.

To worship is to work with dedication and with skill; it is to pause from work and listen to a strain of music.

To worship is to sing with the singing beauty of the earth; it is to listen through a storm to the still small voice within.

Worship is a loneliness seeking communion; it is a thirsty land crying out for rain.

Worship is kindred fire within our hearts; it moves through deeds of kindness and through acts of love.

Worship is the mystery within us reaching out to the mystery beyond.

It is an inarticulate silence yearning to speak; it is the window of the moment open to the sky of the eternal.  

Elements of Worship adaptable to SGM: Readings, chant * Music (live or recorded, instrumental or singing); drumming * Dance; other forms of movement; yoga * Meditation; prayer; silence * Testimonials,     reflections, memoir *  Visual arts * Rituals with food, including preparation, in nature, with natural elements, for milestones * Journey and pilgrimage, hiking * Sewing, weaving and other domestic  arts * Covenanting  * Benediction  * Expressions of Gratitude, Compassion or other explicit values.

More Information

See the UU Small Group Ministry Network.