PWR May 2026 – Resource Blogpost

By Rev. Sarah Gibb Millspaugh, PWR Congregational Life Staff

It’s 2026 in the United States, and it’s an extremely challenging time for our nerves. So many forces are pushing our nervous systems into flight, fight, freeze, or fawn mode that we experience people, even dedicated members of our congregations, acting out or shutting down in ways that cause harm.

If this is happening in your congregation, we on UUA Regional Staff want you to know you are far from alone. In addition to the coaching that leaders can access from their Primary Contact on PWR Staff, the UUA website has an abundance of resources to help you navigate the challenges of dealing with destructive behavior and the conflicts that are often connected to that behavior.

If you’re not experiencing destructive behavior right now, expect that it could happen at some point. This is a good time to look at what kinds of Safe Congregation policies you have in place.

Our main Safe Congregations landing page has several sections you can explore to find what you need, including links to our just-updated Guide to Becoming a Safer Congregation.

Our Community Resilience Hub and our Building Security landing page both offer resources to plan for the possibility of violence or disruption by hostile intruders, which we know is a real possibility in these volatile times.

When conflicts emerge, it’s always good to find a way to address them before they become occasions for destructive behavior. But if you find yourself in the midst of a conflict where people are behaving destructively, it becomes all the more complicated to address, especially if the conflict is directed toward the board, the minister, the safety team, or any group that would normally address the destructive behavior. We urge congregational leaders to seek out the counsel of their Primary Contact on PWR Staff in such situations. They can listen to your needs and help you find a way through your particular situation.

We can’t change everything about the scary time we find ourselves in. But we can choose to be proactive and responsive, fostering a safe and supportive environment in our congregations. This helps us co-regulate our nervous systems, creating more grounding and more joy in our communities. May it be so for you and your UU community, this spring, and always.

Rev. Sarah Millspaugh is about to complete ten years on the Pacific Western Regional staff and the UUA’s Safe Congregations Team. She will begin serving the Palomar UU Fellowship as their minister this summer.