"Desert Reflections:
Faith and Politics"

Director's Message

Every year when I travel to Ghost Ranch, I am coming home to a place of renewal. WUULF (Western Unitarian Universalist Life Festival) provides two of the key elements of religious or spiritual experience…sacred time and sacred space. Others may not consider this week their sacred time, but this time spent in community with like-minded, but diverse friends, old and new, is the time I find both sacred and profound.

When I look up at the majesty of Kitchen Mesa towering above the valley of Ghost Ranch, I am filled with awe as I hear music reverberating throughout my being. As I turn to see Chimney Rock, I remember the fabulous vistas along the trail and the panorama at the top. How could anyone not feel the glory of sacred space in these majestic forms?

As I write this, I am remembering the beauty and spiritual experience of my last week at WUULF at Ghost Ranch. Each year I take from the week sustenance for my spirit throughout the year by remembering the joy, the friendships, the awakenings, and of course, the inspiration. This election year we are fortunate to have Mike Morran as our theme speaker to give some clarity to the interaction, as well as separation, of faith and politics.

I invite you to come and join our joyous community.

Jane White - Director, WUULF 2008

Please welcome Stephen H. Furrer as our Minister in Residence for 2008!  The Reverend Doctor Stephen H. Furrer is (since 2000) the Minister of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Santa Fe.  Steve is a sixth generation Unitarian Universalist, who grew up as a member of the Shaker Heights, Ohio, Unitarian Church. He reports that his great great great grandparents were converted to Universalism in 1830s rural Pennsylvania by the extraordinary itinerant Universalist preacher, the Reverend George Rogers and his family has been theological liberals ever since.

Steve is a graduate of Hamilton College, the Pacific School of Religion, and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.  He has served UU congregations from Hawaii to Maine, was a founder (1989) of Unitarian Universalists for a Just Economic Community, a member of the UU Funding Program from 1995-2001, and of the West Regional Sub-Committee on Candidacy, reviewing the credentials and recommendations of ministerial aspirants, since 2006.

Steve's ministry in Santa Fe has focused on spiritual formation and community outreach.  He will be able to attend WUULF by virtue of having recently begun a five month sabbatical leave during which he'll be studying successful congregational efforts to transform into truly anti-racist, anti-oppression, multicultural churches both within UUism and elsewhere.

For more information on Steve's ministry and the Santa Fe congregation, be sure to visit the website, http://uusantafe.org/staff/21/MinisterandStaff.