Newsletter, March 18: “Home Again”

 

Newsletter, March 18, 2014: “Home Again”

As winter turns to spring, your Ministerial Search Committee (MSC) is coming in from the cold. After miles of travel to neutral pulpits with our 3 Pre-Candidates, we are “Home Again” for marathon deliberations. Under the rules, we can’t tell you until April 6 where our deliberations stand. In the meantime, our charge is clear: To recommend to you a single Candidate to be your next settled minister.

As we develop our recommendation, we are exceedingly aware of the responsibility you have placed in us. You have been our lodestar, and no MSC meeting goes by without one member or another reminding us that every part of our work is about you. We have heard that you value strong preaching, scholarly insight, spiritual breadth, and spiritual depth. We have registered that the congregation sees its history and tradition as assets from which to draw as we build something new. We have understood that the essence of our theologically diverse congregation is not mere tolerance but constructive pluralism. We have grasped that our new minister will invite us to travel together on a spiritual journey, even though everyone’s journey will be different.

We have comprehended that our spiritual guide must be approachable, articulate, facilitating, cooperative, competent, inspiring, energetic, and pastoral. 

And a beacon of personal integrity.

And gifted in integrating music.

It is a tall order.

Whatever your spiritual practice, please lend us your strength as we complete our part of this task.

And prepare yourselves, for the biggest part is still ahead.

It is your part.

Soon, it will be your turn, to discern and to decide. Only you, the congregation, can call the Twelfth Minister in the 229-year history of First Unitarian Church. Candidating Week is April 25 to May 4. It is right around the corner.