Care & Support
We strive to be a community of authentic connection.
Street & Mailing Address:
General Contact:
How to Reach Us:
- Reach our ministers at the Fellowship office: 920-731-0849
- By email: christina@fvuuf.org or hannah@fvuuf.org
- To speak to a member of the Care Team, connect with Rev. Christina who will make referrals.
- To reach one of our ministers in an emergency, call our Emergency Care Line at 920-383-1565.
Memorial Garden:
We have a beautiful garden for remembering our loved ones who have passed on to memory.
Sharing Your Life’s Journey:
We want to know what is going on in your life. You will have the option to share privately or publicly.
Contact Cyndi Polakowski (cyndi@fvuuf.org) to be added to the weekly email of our Fellowship’s joys and concerns.
What is Pastoral Care?
Anyone in our community may seek care and support, confidentially and free of charge. Our concept of care comes from our Unitarian Universalist values that each person deserves emotional and spiritual support, and that accessing it in a community can be especially helpful and healing.
Here at the Fellowship, it means that individuals can access a listening presence with someone who represents the support of the whole community, so that their pain and gladness can be held in love.
Congregational care (sometimes called pastoral care) is not a substitute for mental health care, legal counsel, family mediation, social work, or even professional therapy. It is a purposeful, low-pressure way to connect with others and yourself, spiritually and practically, for the purpose of sacred peace, emotional growth, or problem solving about a variety of life issues.
Examples of why someone might desire care could include:
- interest in deepening meaning in life
- family conflict
- homelessness
- personal evolution
- life changes
- gender transition
- a new diagnosis for you or a family member
- aging
- religious growth
- coping with illness
- death of a family member
- caregiver or parenting challenges
- making a decision
- …and more!
Providers of Care:
Co-Minister Rev. Christina Leone-Tracy is the lead person for care, supported by Co-Minister Rev. Hannah Roberts Villnave, other staff, and the Care Team (CT).
CT members are lay leaders whose talents and experience enable them to meaningfully respond to people in times of joy and sorrow. They practice a ministry of presence and quiet listening, and are available for one-time or ongoing connection. CT members are vetted, trained and supported by our ministers.
Other Care Resources:
- Reach out to one of our ministers if we can help by providing modest and occasional financial help swiftly and confidentially from the donation-supported Ministers’ Discretionary Fund.
- Ask co-minister Rev. Christina to have our Meal Ministry offer you a home-cooked dinner to help get you through a sad, busy or difficult stretch.
- As co-minister Rev. Christina if you need rides or other limited kinds of practical support. She will try to connect you to someone in our community who might be able to help.
- Request that a care team member or minister get you a grief kit, which is a small bag of items that can help you create a ritual for sorrow at home. This can be a meaningful symbolic reminder that you are always held in the loving embrace of community. You can read more about grief kits and their contents here.
- Collaborate with a minister to create a private ceremony, whether for a wedding, a funeral/memorial service, or blessing a new child.
- Our ministers can also help to create rituals to support you with all sorts of life changes. Examples include a blessing for transitioning genders, moving to a new home, returning to civilian life after service in the armed forces, or retiring from the workforce; or a ritual to commemorate divorce, entering hospice care for the final life stage, finalizing an adoption, offering a child for adoption, or having an abortion.
Important Contacts Outside the Fellowship:
Ministers are always happy to work with members to find supportive resources such a professional therapist specializing in an issue or experience you might be facing, online NA group, local grief support meeting, and more. Please contact them directly!
Calling 2-1-1 (or visiting 211wisconsin.org) will put you in touch with information, referrals, advocacy, crisis intervention, and more. This is a 24/7 statewide resource.
9-8-8 is a nationwide crisis/ suicide hotline that is also available.
877-565-8860 Trans Lifeline provides trans peer support that is divested from police.
If you are afraid for your own safety or the safety of others, please call 911 immediately and then let a minister know afterward.
Together, we create the caring community we desire.
The Care Team offers safe space and our presence for all who seek connection, compassion, and non-judgmental listening.
Meet the current members of our Care Team:
Megan McLachlan (she/her), chair
I have been at the Fellowship for about 15 years, and my husband Tom and I can be found in the kitchen doing coffee. Our 2 sons went through Religious Education, Our Whole Lives, and Coming of Age, and are now young adults. My day job is with both NAMI Wisconsin and NAMI Fox Valley, and I’m a good listener if you want to talk!
Deb Andrews (she/her) 
I’m a longtime Fellowship member, retired children’s librarian, writer, and avid reader. I’m married to Gerry, have two grown sons and two wonderful daughters-in-law. I love my work as a lay minister at the Fellowship, as part of the Care Team.
Lynn Romenesko (she/her) 
I’m a social worker who is passionate about trauma-informed care and the importance of presence and compassionate witnessing with others in emotional crisis. I have training in emotional CPR and recovery coach certification. I am a proud mother of 3 grown children. I’ve been a fellowship member for 6 years and happy to be on the care team supporting others where they are at.
Marya Liechti (she/her) 
I am grateful and happy to be on the Care Team.
I retired in January 2018 after 34 years as a licensed professional counselor and a state-certified alcohol and drug abuse counselor in private practice. In 1984 I opened an outpatient mental health practice in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Seven years later I moved my private practice to Neenah and eventually worked for New Wellness Associates in the Green Bay and Kaukauna offices. Before 1984 I was a staff member for 10 years at the Oshkosh YMCA. I taught exercise and wellness programs. My favorite program was teaching an aerobic dance class called Fitness Fantasia. I was also a choreographer for the national program.
I am divorced with 3 delightful adult kids and 5 grandkids (also 3 granddogs and 5 grandcats).
I started attending the Goddess Group in 2018 and Sunday service at the UU soon afterward. I look forward to listening to and supporting you.
Kathryn Rose (she/her) 
I’d like to give you a little background about myself: In the mid-80s, I was excommunicated from a very conservative Lutheran church (the religion I grew up in) for divorcing my abusive husband. Through much counseling and introspection, I realized I was gay and that was not at all acceptable in society back then, so I stayed in the closet. I thought I’d never find a church that would accept the real me, a lesbian. After “church hopping”, I found the UU, and they welcomed me! At that time, the Fellowship was the only open and welcoming congregation to the LGBTQ community. What a relief to finally find a spiritual home! I became a member in 2007. We come together and care for one another, even though we have different backgrounds & belief systems. My thanks to all the ministers, staff, and members who have been so supportive of me over the years; sharing my joys & concerns.
I am married to Sheila Kain and have 2 adult daughters who have been estranged from me for many years and 6 grandchildren I have not yet met…yet. Hope is still alive!
After being encouraged to become a member of the Care Team, I took the plunge a year or two ago. Thank you for this opportunity to serve.