From Rev. Karen Gustafson: May 29, 2020
Dear ones,
In August of 2019, I was invited by the UCE Board to serve as Interim Minister, completing the second of an anticipated two year interim period between the departure of Bret Lortie and a new Settled Minister. In October, after many conversations and retreats and meetings of many kinds, the UCE Leadership presented to you, the Congregation, a compelling assessment of the desirability of an additional year of Interim.
This assessment included an invitation to all of you to engage in a process of looking at the systems and programs, expectations, hopes, vision and ultimately the Mission of UCE so that your Search process could provide a clear and compelling picture of who you are and who you want to be as a Unitarian Universalist congregation. In the months following this difficult decision, many of you responded with candor and diligence and generosity and love. The rededication to your Mission of “Nurturing the human spirit for a world made whole” at the Sunday service on February 23 was inspiring.
Kathy Underwood and others were in the midst of beginning to take on the tasks of revisioning your Religious Education for Children. The Board had taken up providing a more accessible understanding of Policy Governance and I was focused on a more sustainable approach to organization and volunteer leadership. The process resulting in hiring of the Rev Karen Mooney as Director of Membership and Social Justice was well underway. Anticipation of the all music Sunday lead by Vicki Hellyer was being felt by all.
And then, so it seemed, COVID 19 changed everything. Yes. And No.
It is June and, though some things have been put on hold, many have continued in a different form, thanks to the great efforts of the UCE Staff.
All that we set out to do in preparation for the settlement of the next Senior Minister remains possible. I will be with you for another year. I am grateful for all of the ways that any of you have engaged in this process and promise that there will be more opportunities beginning in July. The interim work will recede a bit in late August, September and October as the Search Committee will be ramping up its work. Throughout this time, I remain committed to nurturing the seeds that we have planted together and supporting the healthy growth that is deep in the DNA of UCE.
I look forward to another year with you all beginning July 1.
In love and gratitude,
Karen
(she, her, hers)
From the Interim: April 23, 2020
Dear ones,
Greetings from my shelter in northern Minnesota! I am still picturing many of you as I departed on February 23 in the glow of the wonderful celebration of UCE’s Mission.The power of shared stories and the music of Peter Mayer still come to mind as I wonder when the next such gathering will be possible.
Lately it has been difficult some days to remember that there are some things that, in spite of Covid19, are just continuing to happen . Babies are being born, plants are coming up out of the ground, people are falling in and out of love, children are asking questions, old people are forgetting where they put their glasses. In the river near where I live the steelhead salmon are persisting toward their spawning grounds. And in spite of the ways in which we have changed the way we do church right now, we are still planning for the future. A large part of what we are planning for is to call and settle a Senior Minister in the spring of 2021. The careful attention to how to celebrate the strengths and address the challenges at UCE continues. This is what will form the foundation of your invitation to whomever that might be.
As someone who has previously been in search, I am aware of the “old bait and switch” that can happen when the best face hides an unexamined life. No minister in search worth their salt is looking for a “perfect” congregation. They are looking for a congregation with honest self understanding and a willingness to more fully express its values and Mission.
On Wednesday you received an email inviting you to participate in a survey about where we are in the interim process. This is your chance to weigh in on UCE’s readiness to invite the next settled minister. If you haven’t already, you can take the survey here.
This survey is not perfect. More than anything else, it is an invitation to participate in helping me and your leadership to figure out how we are all doing in our efforts to leverage UCE’s strengths and understand your challenges. In the face of our limited togetherness we can still find ways in the coming months to do this.
The statements in the survey are there to encourage you to think about your church. Please think in terms of what is possible; what is measurable; what is worthy of celebration. Think of your responses as a love letter that includes both realized and tough love.
The sun is shining today where I live. The thermometer is creeping toward 40 degrees. The squirrels are eating the birdseed. Spring is not here yet and still I am grateful for the life force that reminds me that in both joy and strife, for better and for worse, “ this too shall pass”.
In love and gratitude,
Karen
(Gustafson)
September 6, 2019: Karen Gustafson
Karen Gustafson, Interim Minister
September 6, 2019
If Interim Ministry is the answer, what are the questions?
UCE will be engaging in a different model of Interim Ministry during the 2019-20 program year. For ten days each month (except December when it will be a shorter time to accommodate the winter holiday juggernaut) I will be present in Evanston. I will be available to individuals and groups engaged in the process of preparing for a new settled minister who can support and enhance the Mission and Vision of UCE into the foreseeable future.
In order to engage the Ministerial Search with integrity you need to be able to present prospective candidates with a clear and honest statement of that Mission and Vision. This statement should reflect a past that has integrated the gifts and legacies of your past ministers and a future that can fearlessly welcome new levels of creative collaboration between minister and congregation.
It is important to build the next part of your congregational history on a foundation of the best that you know of your informing values and goals (Mission) and a shared understanding of what those values and goals would look like when they are actually made manifest in your lives and the world (Vision). The alternative to this is to create a reactive profile of who you are, focused on avoiding the perceived errors of the past and the prevention of future losses.
In the time between September 5 and 15, we will be engaged in conversations that will help us to assess where you are in that process. I sense that we are all awash in questions. On Friday and Saturday, Sept 6 and 7, I will be meeting with the Leadership, Staff and Search Committee to discuss the Interim Plan. On Sunday we will have the service of Ingathering where we will celebrate connections, old and new. Following Worship you are invited to stay for a discussion of insights from the weekend and an opportunity to raise your most pressing questions. Then there will be a lovely lunch!
At each visit, I will be inviting you into conversation about an emergent issue. I am planning to begin with the “low hanging fruit”.
As I have met with your congregational leaders, the specter of ministerial attrition looms large. The departures of ministers as far back as Barbara Pescan and more recently Bret Lortie and last year’s Greg Stewart seem to have given rise to questions and feelings and incomplete conclusions that would be well laid to rest lest they become the source of the reactivity mentioned in paragraph 3 above. To this end, I will host four opportunities for conversation in the coming week. Questions and details are noted elsewhere in this edition.
I look forward to meeting with you to explore both the losses and the legacies of your past ministers and anything else that might concern you as we begin this time together.
Blessings,
Karen
August 29, 2019: Karen Gustafson
An Introduction; An Invitation
Karen Gufstafson
Interim Minister
Dear ones,
Karen Gustafson, here. I am the minister who has committed to supporting you and your church staff this year in your continuing effort to present to a prospective settled minister, a clear and honest vision of who you have been, who you are and who you want to be as a congregation.
Eileen Wiviott, as you know, has assumed the role of Acting Senior Minister. I will be with you in Evanston for ten consecutive days each month. During that time, I will be engaging you from the pulpit on two Sundays. During the week, we will interact in structured and casual opportunities to share your experience, your insights and your hopes as you bridge from your past into your future. I will synthesize my observations and mirror them back to you with praises and cautions and suggestions for change. I will be available to the staff by phone and e-mail between visits.
In preparation for this time, I have spent three days in retreat with Rev Eileen where we got to know each other and to form the kind of collegial relationship that will serve us well as leaders during this time of transition. In addition, I am reviewing reports and newsletters and sermons offered by Rev. Greg in the interest of synthesizing and building on last year’s work as much as possible.
I come to you from my “retirement” home near Duluth, Minnesota. I come as a trained interim minister with 30 years of UU parish experience in Duluth, in Madison WI and Minneapolis MN. I come most importantly, I think, as someone who loves this faith, believes in the value and integrity of congregational life and has experienced the power of shared vision and covenant both personally and in the world.
I am not a savior or a magician. My agenda is to facilitate the process of identifying and supporting the healing of hurt places; the elevating and reinforcing of strengths; the resolving of differences through the application of our shared principles; the articulation of a vision of ministry that is sustainable. This is our work together. When it is done, it will be yours.
I am pleased and honored by the trust that your Board has placed in me. This is a different model of interim work. Let’s make it happen!
In trust, Karen