September 2016
We have recently updated our Rental Guidelines and Application form. If you are interested in renting space at the Meeting House, or know someone who is, please use this form:
https://ushartford.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Event-Rental-App-06-2016.pdf
We want to lift up and appreciate USH Staff member, Rayla Mattson, for stepping up and being willing to serve as Rentals Manager. Rayla is your first point-of-contact for scheduling an “outside rental” or non-USH event. Once your event is scheduled, our Office Administrator, Linda Clark, handles the online web calendar, how your event appears on that calendar, whether or not its relevant to our congregation and should be listed in our Weekly E-news, etc.
Our primary reason for being is to be a congregation, “nourishing spirit, building community, and working for justice.” Our focus is, appropriately, on addressing the spiritual needs of our members and friends, and on promoting Unitarian Universalist Principles in our larger community.
We have recently experienced a situation that brought the tension between wanting to see our space used, on the one hand, and consistently promoting Unitarian Universalist Principles, on the other hand, into sharp relief. Like many congregations in the 21st century, we are always trying to stay afloat financially, and one of our assets is our spacious Meeting House. It’s great (and, in fact, necessary, for us) to see it used and rented out. However, we are a private space, not a public forum for every issue under the sun. Any outside rental needs to respect our Unitarian Universalist Principles along with understanding that we are a private congregation whose primary purpose is to serve our members and friends.
As an additional personal reflection, I will add this: I was born in 1975. I remember clearly what life was like before the Internet. Growing up a bisexual or lesbian kid in Oregon in the 1980’s, I know what it is like to struggle to find people who are speaking the truth as I see it. Struggling to find that record or cassette tape, or that particular magazine that would share and affirm my perspective on the world is an experience I remember well. This, however, is not 1985. In the age of the Internet, most people have access, even if only via their public library, to every imaginable opinion out there. Our congregational Meeting House does not need to even try to provide a platform for every opinion on every matter in the name of free speech. There are countless platforms out there, at the end of every Google search. We will continue to prioritize and showcase only those perspectives that affirm and promote our Unitarian Universalist Principles.
Thoughtfully,
Rev. Heather Rion Starr, Lead Co-Minister for Administration, Unitarian Society of Hartford