“I love collaborating with congregations during the work of a transitional period: to reflect, vision, grieve, heal when necessary, and, finally commit to an exciting next phase of congregational life.”

WHERE I HAVE SERVED

As an Accredited Interim Minister, I am currently serving First Parish Church Unitarian Universalist in Duxbury, Massachusetts. As two very good and full years of the interim period draw to a close, the congregation has called a new settled minister. Together, we have continued recovery from the pandemic with increased attendance, a growing religious education program, multiple programs and fundraisers, and reflective interim work. A particular area of focus has beens staffing and personnel; we gathered a personnel committee, created full job descriptions in accordance with best practices. and are producing a full employee handbook. We are also managing a specific transformation in one position.

First Parish in Beverly (MA) Unitarian Universalist (2021-2023). When the interim period began in August of 2021, the congregation was meeting only virtually, not only because of the pandemic, but also because it had just begun a renovation to make the building more accessible. In spite of not being able to gather in person until March of 2022, First Parish took the work of moving toward the future seriously. To better manage conflict, we created a Parish Board covenant and a congregational covenant, and we clarified lines of supervision. We began new approaches to Religious Education to revitalize a program that was hit hard by the long period of separation.

Prior to this position, I served as interim minister to First Universalist Church in Rockland, Maine (2019-2021) . There we brought together a as a unified staff team after making three hires and learned more about changing roles of ministry. The congregation learned what it means for congregation and minister to share ministry in a trusting and trusted partnership. Members also grew in understanding issues of racial justice, including those centering on the Indigenous peoples of Maine, through workshops, films, and book reads.

Before that I served as Interim Senior Minister at First Unitarian Universalist Society of Burlington, VT (2018-2019) ,where I recommended they undertake a developmental ministry before calling their next settled minister. They are now doing very well as a vibrant congregation of 450 members.

At the First Religious Society Unitarian Universalist of Newburyport, Massachusetts (2016-18), a healthy, lively congregation of 400 members, the two year interim resulted in a unanimous call for its first settled woman minister. The congregation was particularly engaged in the interim process of reflecting on their identity and future, with the Transition Team visiting other congregations to witness what Unitarian Universalism is like iterations. They began to envision a new future while appreciating a stable and valued past.

I have also done interim ministries at the Fourth Universalist Society of New York City, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Medford, Massachusetts, and the First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church in Canton Massachusetts. As a settled minister I served Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Macon, Georgia. In this work I have served congregations as large as 900 members and as small as 60 members. I have loved them all! I have 24 years of experience serving in the parish.

WHAT I BRING

Broad experience of ministry in a wide variety of congregations: urban and small town; historic and relatively new; small, medium, and large.

Training and experience in transitional ministry.

A collaborative approach to ministry with lay leaders and staff.

A commitment to excellence in preaching and worship. From creating meditative Winter Solstice Services and joyous Christmas Eve services to incorporating new ceremonies to commission lay caring leaders, I am passionate about our common religious celebration.

Creative ways to accomplish the focus tasks of interim ministry. I like to adapt specific strategies and techniques to an individual congregation’s needs, and I have a particular commitment as interim minister to help a congregation’s understanding of what is happening in the larger world of culture and religion.

Expertise in working with staff. I have worked with large, multi -minister staffs, very small stairs, and in between staffs. I hold up the importance of mutual respect, direct communication, and a commitment to mission.

Experience with policy based governance, including a perspective that governance is a means to the end of mission, and not an end itself. We need always to ask, how will our governance empower us to live our purpose?

WHO I WANT TO SERVE

I seek to serve a congregation that relishes the possibility of becoming wiser during a transitional period. Any congregation committed to appreciating its strengths, reflecting on its challenges, and then moving toward a renewed future will find a committed partner in me.

I take joy in serving a congregation that values transitional time period not as a time to endure, but rather, as a gift that allows the congregation to re-commit to what really matters.

EDUCATION AND WORK

Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in English Literature, University of Tennessee

Master of Divinity, Harvard Divinity School

In addition to ministry, I have been an educator, teaching English for five years at Auburn University and for shorter stints at Piedmont Virginia Community College and Mount Ida College in Newton, MA. I served as a legal writing instructor while I was a student at the University of Virginia School of Law.