January 20, 2018
King of Kings
Why does Mike King have a holiday? We know him better as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who, prior to his becoming one of the greatest civil rights leaders of all times, was a pastor. What did his congregants think of him? The role of pastor may be one of the most overlooked sides of Martin Luther King Jr. but it was one of the most important aspects of who he was. Today we’ll consider the Preacher King. Service led by Rev. Gregory Stewart. All Ages service (sanctuary)
Help Us Create an Effective Search Committee!
Beginning this week, church members are able to nominate fellow congregants to serve on the Ministerial Search Committee and help to choose the church’s next settled minister. The seven-member committee will begin its work in March and will oversee the process of defining what we’re looking for in a minister, presenting our church to ministerial candidates, and finding the best fit for our congregation.
The Board of Trustees has designed a nomination form for members to use to indicate who they’d like to see speak for them on the Search Committee. We’d like to see as many members as possible fill out the form before January 25 and list the 3 – 7 UCE member who have the qualities needed.
The number of nominations each person receives will be tabulated, and a short list of candidates who are willing to serve will appear on the eventual ballot. For an electronic version of the nomination form, go here.
Nomination forms were distributed after both services last week, and they can also be picked up anytime from the church office. A box is available in the lobby for returning the forms, or they may be mailed electronically to the Communications Coordinator, Melanie Kitchner at admin@ucevanston.org . Completed forms should be returned by Fri, Jan 25. Only church members may make nominations to the Search Committee.
At a meeting at 12:15pm on Sunday, January 6 Rev Amy Shaw, the UUA’s Regional Transitions Coach, described the ministerial search process and listed the major attributes a Ministerial Search Committee member should have. Rev Shaw’s speech and the presentation by Board of Trustees Chair Jeanne Kerl, which followed, were video-taped and can be viewed online at https://youtu.be/bjrZHjqNUzY.
According to Shaw, “Ministerial search is one of our most important tasks as a congregation.” Each member of the committee must act on behalf of the entire membership. “Ministers come and go, but the congregation is constant,” she said. She suggested we look for a minister who matches with the congregation in all of its imperfections.
Rev Shaw, who serves the Lake Country UU Church in Hartland, WI, went on to observe that ministerial search is not a job interview. “It is a call,” she declared. Before you start you need to know who you are and what you need in a minister. She went on to say that we’ll need to work with our Interim Minister Greg Stewart to heal any broken places in the congregation and to decide our goals for the years ahead. The Board has the task of forming the Search Committee, setting budget priorities and listening to the congregation; but it’s up to the Committee to do the rest of the work of selecting a new minister.
According to Rev Shaw we need to make sure every constituency within the congregation is represented within the Search Committee. If some group is missing, a member of the Committee may need to commit to speak for them – be they members of Women’s Circle, college students, or theists.
The main work of the Search Committee will start in March. Members will need to commit to spending approximately 20 hours / month on committee business. Some months will be relatively light. The committee members should be good listeners, good at building a consensus, and committed to UU pluralism. Members will need to serve as committee Chair, Treasurer, Communications Director, Scheduler, Survey / Opinion Gatherer, and Web Specialist.
During her presentation, Board Chair Jeanne Kerl encouraged those attending the special ministerial search meeting to spread the word to their friends in the congregation, so everyone knows how important this task is and how vital it is for everyone to participate. If we all work together, we will find ourselves a new minister, who is a perfect fit for our congregation by August 2020, Jeanne said. “The congregation needs to think deeply about who should represent them,” she continued.
According to Jeanne, a vote will be taken in February from the short list of candidates who are willing to serve and who receive the most nominations. The top four vote-getters from the congregational vote will be included on the final slate, and the remaining three members will be chosen from among the second-tier of candidates to assure the full committee represents all of the various constituencies within the church. Current Board members can be nominated for the Search Committee, but they will need to resign their board position before they begin serving on the Committee.
This final slate of seven people will then be put to the congregation for an up or down vote.
Nominating & Recruiting – Seeking UCE Congregational Leaders Part II
In a previous newsletter article [click here for article], the Nominating & Recruiting (N&R) Committee outlined the process for selecting UCE’s board and leadership committee members. In this edition, we share some of the current N&R team’s aspirations to make the process more equitable and more transparent. What have we missed? What are your suggestions?
Contrary to common misperception, the N&R team does not choose the future members of the UCE board or committees. Ideally, N&R nominates and recruits enough candidates by the spring to give the voting congregation a wide range of qualified members from whom to choose for each open position. Unfortunately, this has not been the case in recent years. The reality has been a scrambling search to find enough willing volunteers who have not recently served on one of the committees, resulting in slates that are just barely filled by May.
Some of the N&R team’s aspirations for 2018-2019 are to:
· Meet and get to know more UCE members.
· Expand our circles within UCE; get out of our own “bubbles” within the congregation.
· Challenge each other and ourselves to disrupt systemic bias in our leadership selection process – question what a “good fit” means.
· Build diverse, collaborative teams, with complementary skill sets, personalities, perspectives and experiences, on each board and committee.
· Match candidates’ experiences, skills, and interests to various leadership positions.
· Foster interest in and transparency around leadership selection and development.
· Engage and develop new leaders rather than reallocating established leaders when possible.
· Find a large pool of willing volunteers well in advance of the May Annual Meeting.
· Give the voting UCE membership as large a slate as possible from which to choose board and committee members.
Do you have opinions about the N&R process, or about who our future leaders should be? Do you want to join the UCE board or one of the UCE leadership committees yourself?
We would love to hear your voice. Please reach out to any of us on the N&R team: John LaPlante (co-chair), Shirley Adams (co-chair), Vicki Doebele, Alice Swan, Sarah Iles, Ruth Orme-Johnson, Woody Haynes, Beth Thompson and Maggie Wilson. Share your thoughts on the feedback forms we will have set up at bulletin boards, or look for us at the back of the sanctuary on first Sundays of each month. You are also welcome to email the N&R co-chairs: shirley@comeoutdancing.com, johnlaplante73@gmail.com. Thanks for your input!
Seeking UCE Congregational Leaders
Do you know how we choose congregational leaders at UCE? Do you think the leadership selection process should be more equitable and more transparent? Do you have opinions about who our future leaders should be? Do you want to join the UCE board or one of the UCE leadership committees yourself? Read on to understand our leadership selection process, and to make your voice heard about how it works or who our leaders should be.
Per the UCE bylaws, our congregational leaders are elected at each Annual Meeting in May, when the voting membership selects a third of each of the Board of Trustees, the Endowment Committee, and the Nominating and Recruiting Committee. Trustees and committee members each serve a 3-year term, starting and ending a third at a time, on a staggered basis, so that a third of each group has their terms expire and their replacements elected each year. (Members often drop off for personal reasons before their 3-year term ends, resulting in more than 1/3 turnover most years.)
The Nominating & Recruiting (N&R) Committee identifies and nominates qualified candidates from the congregation to serve on each of these committees. Through a process that starts each fall, the N&R team conducts one-on-one conversations across the congregation to find members who are interested in and whose skill sets match the needs of the positions opening in the spring.
The N&R team recruits broadly and aspires to find diverse, previously unidentified candidates. This article is penned by the N&R team to spread the word about recruiting, in hopes of finding leadership candidates who may not be known to N&R, or who may not be aware of UCE leadership opportunities.
What can you do to help shape our future UCE leadership? You can:
- Talk with any of the 2018-2019 N&R team: John LaPlante (co-chair), Shirley Adams (co-chair), Vicki Doebele, Alice Swan, Sarah Iles, Ruth Orme-Johnson, Woody Haynes, Beth Thompson and Maggie Wilson.
- Help recruit your fellow UCE members as volunteers, especially people the N&R team may not know.
- Share your thoughts with N&R through the feedback forms we will have set up at bulletin boards, or look for us at the back of the sanctuary on first Sundays of each month.
- Email the N&R co-chairs with questions, thoughts and feedback: shirley@comeoutdancing.com, johnlaplante73@gmail.com.
- Suggest a UCE member as a potential leadership candidate.
- Let us know that you’re interested in being considered for leadership!
Stay tuned for a follow up article about the current N&R team’s aspirations for 2018-2019.
January 13, 2019
Liberal for Life
If you were arrested for being a religious liberal, would there be enough evidence to convict you? This sermon understands Unitarian Universalism as a countercultural lifestyle, not a Sunday morning choice. Given that the Unitarian Church of Evanston is a religiously liberal oasis in a changing political landscape, how shall we then live? Service Led by Rev. Gregory Stewart.
A Few Keys To the Future
Sure, I’m clairvoyant. Always have been able to predict the future. I’ve confounded the experts, from the Amazing Randy to the kids in my household. So when I share my list of predictions for 2019, I do so with both graciousness and no little arrogance:
- There will be wars and rumors of wars in 2019. No, I am not talking about the Middle East. The real war to watch is in Springfield now that a democrat occupies the governor’s mansion. Why, the poor will be cared for, children will be fed, women will regain control over their own bodies and our guns will be locked up and loaded into obscurity. I’m irate! If he keeps his campaign promises the church will have nothing left to do! (Good thing he’s probably just another politician.)
- The Cubs, Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks will play sports in 2019. Don’t get too excited, I didn’t say they would play well. As a truth teller I really don’t like to get into the details. That’s why I am a Bulls fan. No surprises there!
- The Unitarian Church of Evanston will grow and change in 2019. And so will you. That’s what separates the living from the dead, so far as I know. And I want this congregation and its ministries to really go on living. Sure beats the alternative (so far as I know).
- First-time visitors will come to the Unitarian Church of Evanston in 2019. For some, we’re an emergency room for those who have been scarred and injured elsewhere by toxic theologies or broken dreams. Others seek sanctuary from a world that refuses to accept them as they are. Mostly they come because they know a good party when they see one.
- Visitors will return to the Unitarian Church of Evanston in 2019 if somebody knows their name. That is where you and I come in. Chances are, that’s how we got here in the first place. Given the belief that all things will eventually grow into harmony with the divine anyway, shouldn’t we be making room at our banquet table now?
So much for predictions. The longer I live, the more I want to live in the moment and experience life as it comes. No predictions, no guidebook, no prophesy, no horoscopes. Ready, set, go!
The joy continues,
Greg
January 6, 2019
It’s the first Sunday of the New Year. Ministerial Intern Susan Frances will talk about the importance of taking care of ourselves when we are facing challenges in our own lives and challenges in our communities and the world. All Ages opening worship (sanctuary)