Beyond Categorical Thinking Workshop - January 19

A Workshop Sponsored by Your Ministerial Search Committee

Beyond Categorical Thinking

Sunday, January 19, 2014

UUA Facilitators will present the workshop in the Chapel

from 12:30 pm till 3:30 pm.

Lunch is provided and child care is available during the Workshop.

On January 19^th, members and friends of First Unitarian Church are invited to participate in the Beyond Categorical Thinking (BCT) workshop offered by the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) for congregations involved in the search for a new minister.  Our facilitators will be Danielle DiBona, from Rockland, MA, and Donna Dolham from Union, ME. 

The BCT program is designed to promote inclusive thinking and to help prevent discrimination in the search process for a new minister.  The program will include elements in our Sunday morning worship service with Rev. Tracey Robinson-Harris in collaboration BCT facilitators, as well as the workshop where we will:

• Consider the hopes, expectations, and concerns we have for a new minister
• Learn more about the ministerial search process
• Explore how thinking categorically about people sometimes interferes with choosing the best candidate
• Consider issues regarding age, gender, gender identity, nationality, physical ability, race, and sexual orientation.

Members of the Prudential Committee and the LLPC are urged to participate.  All members and friends of the Church are welcome. The Beyond Categorical Thinking workshop is another opportunity for everyone in our congregation to be part of the search process. 

We would like to know how many people intend to participate.  Please sign up on the clip board at the Search Committee table in the Bancroft Room.  If you plan to have you children in child care during the workshop (A Hogwarts program will be provided!!) please sign up.  

Dec. 17, 2013 Newsletter: The Survey: What We Heard (5): What Is Great Preaching?

Congregational Survey: What We Heard (Part Five): What Is Great Preaching?

You probably won’t be surprised to learn that the topic you identified as the single most important ministerial quality is “Great Preaching.”  We asked you define that for us and your responses were both thoughtful and passionate. You told us some remarkable things:

“Great preaching is when I feel that I haven’t been fed any predictable answer, but rather, have been challenged to face hard questions.”  

“He or she makes the space safe for me to search for the truth within.”  

“Good preaching digs deep, exposes me to new thoughts and unexplored ideas and traditions from other cultures/religions, makes me uncomfortable with my smugness and desirous of greater spiritual growth and knowledge.”

“Great preaching connects everyday life with the spiritual and the cosmic.  It draws me out of my little world and puts me into the stream of life.”

“[Great preaching] challenges us to think about a spiritual/moral/ethical/life differently.  Thinking about what we usually let slide is like shaking off our spiritual cobwebs before we head out into the world again.”

“A good preacher always makes me think about things in a way that I might not have otherwise, and reminds me of my responsibilities to my fellow human beings.”

“Good preaching brings humor and humanity.  Good preaching is humble and uses stories from life experiences to connect with the rest of us.  Good preaching touches us at deep levels.”

“I like to feel that the minister has led me to question my own beliefs without finger pointing (a tongue lashing on a political issue or ‘topic of the day’ is not good preaching).”

“Leaving on Sunday with a thought not considered before.”

And there were 82 more!     

In the November 12th newsletter, we published an excerpt from our response to the question in the Congregational Record that asked us to “profile the minister we seek.” We did our best to summarize what you told us and used several quotes from the survey to be sure the message was clear. To review what we wrote, go to the right margin of this article, click on "November," scroll down to "Profile," and click on it!  

Below is a “Phrase Cloud” that represents your comments in the survey (the size of the letter represents the number of times the word was used):

 

Reverend Merritt once told us:  “The UU mind needs to be intellectually challenged. The UU heart needs to be opened. The longing of the UU soul needs to be acknowledged.” It seems we’re all pretty much “on the same page” on this one.

Our “Survey: What We Heard” series will resume in mid-January, when we turn to what you told us about your spiritual beliefs and practices.

--The Ministerial Search Committee: Jesse Anderson, Alison Barrows Ronn, Jane Beckwith, Noel Cary, Shannon Kirshenbaum, Diane Mirick (chair), Lee Reid