Greetings, !

Spring has finally arrived in the Northern Hemisphere! Many of us celebrate the change in weather and the awakening of plant life. Depending on our faith tradition, we may also recognize holy days honoring resurrection, rebirth and/or deliverance (such as Eostre, Easter and Passover). Below are some related poems from various faith traditions. If there is a poem you have written and would like to share, please email it to info@naunitarians.org for consideration.

Eostre

The snow has all melted
And winter has gone,
Now Nature is singing
Springs’ most beautiful song;
As we honor the Goddess -
The Devine Eostre,
While she breathes her life
Into the birds and the bees;
She's fertile and loving
Ancient Mother is she
From the youngest child
To the oldest tree

~ Lady Caer Morganna

Easter Week

See the land, her Easter keeping,
Rises as her Maker rose.
Seeds, so long in darkness sleeping,
Burst at last from winter snows.
Earth with heaven above rejoices;
Fields and gardens hail the spring;
Shaughs and woodlands ring with voices,
While the wild birds build and sing.

~ Charles Kingsley

The Retelling

At my seder table,
I learned that some stories need to be told more than once
to make us stop, gather together and tell it aloud
though we have heard it many times before
so we remember.

Every spring, we read the same story of our exodus from Egypt
but it is never the same twice.
Every spring, someone is missing for work, move, illness or death.
Every spring, there’s a new mood or geo-political incident.

The annual retelling is like the sharing of all hard stories,
never told the same way twice.
never heard the same way twice.

It is a crossing over a desert of shifting sand
that allows us to see something that we hadn’t before
as if for the first time.

~ Ellen Blum Barish

NAUA's basket is steadily filling up as well, with new spring CIRCLES and other offerings, new members and volunteers, and new funding from our generous donors. This March we received at least 25 separate donations, with some members giving twice or three times!

Below are some charts to show you where our income is today versus prior months and years. THANK YOU to all the generous stewards who sustain NAUA as a powerful force for promoting liberal religion. 

Above-the-Line Deduction (New for 2026 - Great for Non-Itemizers): A nice addition from the otherwise questionable "One Big Beautiful Bill" passed last year: Even if you take the standard deduction (and don't itemize), you can now deduct up to $1,000 ($2,000 if married filing jointly) for cash contributions (e.g., check, credit card, electronic transfer) to qualified public charities. This is an above-the-line deduction, reducing your taxable income directly. If this is important to you, donate this year and deduct up to $1,000 in donations next year without itemizing. 

Many thanks to the 147 NAUA members and friends who completed the NAUA Principles Survey. The Principles Task Force has sorted through the results and created a list of popular ideas / concepts around which we want to draft principles for review by membership. In the near future, we will be hosting Zoom sessions to gather member feedback and input. It's important that this is a member-led project and not a top-down one. 

The values / ideals members felt were most important to include were “individual inherent worth and dignity” and “reason and open inquiry,” with “democratic process” and “free speech and tolerance” close behind. Also popular were “interdependent web of existence” and “respect for our place in nature.” “Community building and interconnection” came next.

There was space on the survey to suggest additional values. Values / ideals that were mentioned more than once include:

• A free and responsible search for truth and meaning
• Right of individual conscience
• Respect for religious and historical roots and philosophical traditions
• Compassion
• Pluralism
• Gratitude

The majority of respondents were in favor of referencing the former 7 principles of the UUA when developing ideals for our own organization. The primary reason chosen for adopting a set of principles was “letting others know who we are.” The majority of respondents also wanted to see principles "help shape NAUA policies and activities” and “serve as a statement of belief.”

Thank you to those who took the time to respond to the survey and share your reactions. A number of comments were also submitted near the end of the survey. Here is a sampling:

“Thank you for doing this. I can live with compromise, but used this to convey my own particular preferences.”

“Let’s look forward, not backward. Let’s build a serious, exciting, positive religion that outsiders want to join. The discussions should be, “How can we better serve the communities in which we live?”

“Thank you for working to build an inclusive community which does not focus on subsets of people based on fads. Rather, build one based on universal truths (principles) which apply to all, regardless of association.”

“It would be ideal if some form of the Principles could be easily sung or recited regularly. It should work as an affirmation or prayer. There can be a more complex version in the bylaws, but there needs to be a version that is easily memorized and recited during chalice lightings and meeting openings. The precise number of principles is less important than a memorable poetic flow that serves as an anchoring foundation for the faith. People shouldn't have to look up the principles.”

“Thank you for this thought-provoking survey, I’ll be thinking more about the topics.”

Suggestions for new NAUA programs, or changes to existing programs, are always welcome. Please email your suggestions to info@naunitarians.org or speak directly to one of NAUA's board members.

We seek to understand how science confirms or contradicts religious or philosophical conceptions, think about how the disagreements might be resolved, and also identify religious or philosophical issues that have been neglected by science, which might lead to fruitful growth on both sides.

• Session 1: February 7 (completed, recording available)

• Session 2: March 7 (completed, recording available)

• Session 3: April 4: "Recollection and Meaning"

• Session 4: May 2: "Types of Consciousness"

Register with IARF.net and then register for the course at https://iarf.net/network/courses/30/. The course takes place on the first Saturday of the month; time is always 8:30 AM ET. The course has a discussion board for announcements, asking questions and general conversation related to the subject. Don't worry if you missed the March session; simply review the recording from that session and join for the remainder of the series.

If you are interested in joining or observing a board meeting, please read the board meeting participation policy on our website before emailing our board secretary for the Zoom link: secretary@naunitarians.org.

Note: Past board meeting minutes can be found on our website.

Join our April worship service for a sermon by Dr. Terry Anderson. This sermon explores the evolving relationship between Humanism and Unitarianism, tracing their shared roots in reason, freedom, and human dignity. It examines how these traditions have influenced one another historically, how they interact today, and what their future partnership might look like in addressing modern ethical, spiritual, and social challenges.

Twice per month the group reads about and discusses a different topic of interest. Note: We are skipping this week's forum CIRCLE due to its falling on Easter Sunday.

This book examines recent illiberal trends in traditionally liberal American institutions. It focuses on Unitarian Universalism, a historically liberal church whose national leadership has adopted an extreme, authoritarian version of anti-racism as a “theological mandate,” causing strife and division.

Inequalities, unfairness, and prejudices are problems in all societies throughout human history. Stereotyping, unconscious biases, and tribalism are innate in human psychology and society. There is no single or objectively correct answer to addressing disparities. There is also no single or objectively correct way to organize societies, communities, and organizations.

While the various racial justice models offer important insights into race and society, the author believes in classical liberalism, freedom of speech, and the free exchange of ideas, things that many extreme social justice movements and activists oppose. Freedom of speech and expression and the respectful exchange of ideas inherently support diversity and multiculturalism. Iliberalism, dogmatism, censorship, and authoritarianism are oppressive of all groups, minority and majority, and should be rejected wherever they appear.

As there are no simple or objective answers, this book encourages discussion. The most intolerable aspect of recent illiberal trends, and a key reason for the author writing this book, are the attempts to suppress the open exchange of ideas.