Our REDI training is now ready! What is REDI training you may ask? It stands for Racial, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, and it is a training that all active, authorized clergy with their standing in the Florida Conference of the United Church of Christ will be required to complete. The Florida Conference will offer this training four times in 2023-24. Each training will consist of two four-hour Zoom videoconference sessions on consecutive days. The first training in 2023 took place  April 24,-25. The next one is scheduled for Sept. 22-23. Click here to learn more or register!

The Florida Conference will be underwriting a "Clergy Burnout and Self-Care" online workshop on Oct. 27 from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET. Together we will acknowledge the very real risk of clergy spiritual, physical and relational exhaustion, and we will explore how to recognize the red flags of unhealthy ministry relationships and practice self-care so as to avoid burnout. Florida Conference clergy who attend will earn one unit of boundary training credit. Registration is required, but there is no cost to participate for clergy who have their standing in Florida. Cost is $40 for clergy who have their standing in another conference or association. The workshop will take place via Zoom video conference, and links will be emailed to registrants the week before the workshop. Register today!

The latest issue of Celebrate Florida starts with coverage of local church and UCC National Setting response to the controversy at New College in Sarasota. There's also a recap of post-Ian rebuilding at our churches that were damaged by the hurricane, news on the recent Coalition of Immokalee Workers protest march, and details on how many of our churches experienced the Season of Lent. Read all about it!

According to an article in the Orlando Sentinel on Feb. 1, 2023, "Former Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran is slated to become the next president of embattled New College of Florida, while Gov. Ron DeSantis is pushing to cut diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and curtail faculty tenure on state university campuses. All of these planned changes apparently are intended to further DeSantis’ campaign against what he describes as a 'far-left' agenda in higher education." Conference Minister Rev. John Vertigan is urging the church to raise its voice and object to the "hijacking of higher education at New College and on campuses across the state of Florida." Read his pastoral letter here.

If you've been missing our e-Celebrate and Celebrate Florida email newsletters, you may have missed the announcement last December that we discontinued e-Celebrate, which had been published every other week, in favor of a new weekly newsletter that we're calling The Sunshine Connection until we come up with a better name. If you'd like to start receiving The Sunshine Connection, you can sign up here. In addition, starting this year, Celebrate Florida will be published quarterly, at the end of March, June, September and December, rather than every other month as it had been. If you've already subscribed, you don't need to do anything. If you'd like to subscribe or update your email address, go here.