Farewell from Rev. Karen Gustafson: July 9, 2021

Dear ones,

I am coming to you this one last time from the shores of Lake Superior. This is, like the best of partings: bittersweet.

First, the sweet. Without exception, I have felt received and appreciated during every encounter of this nearly-two year interim journey with you. I have been gratified by your willingness to engage in the process of diving deep and surfacing with renewed tools and vision of what is possible when you leverage your gifts in the service of a mission that works for everybody. I reminded you. You did the work. I can only hope it was as good for you as it was for me.

And then the leaving. This is the long good-bye, for sure. My physical absence since March of 2020 created a kind of false absence masked by the miracle of Zoom. Now I am leaving with out having returned. The many messages of appreciation that I have received by e-mail, by text, by USPS and video and in the lovely book of UCE photos from my time with you, have been received as treasures, all. This has been a time of great mutual blessing. I will miss my weekly contacts with many of you – the staff, the Board, the many groups and individuals who showed up with your questions and comments and willingness to dig into the work of the Interim.

It is my hope for you that all of your ministries, past, present and future, be viewed through the lens of mutual blessing. This is the essence of truly shared ministry: to know yourselves as receivers and givers, holders and those being held, a people who serve and are served by your shared mission.

A final report of the Interim will be posted on the UCE Website later this summer. May it serve as a reminder of the best of UCE and of the possibilities for an even more promising future.

I have been asked what, for me, is next. I will not, in the foreseeable future, be doing more interim work. I will be enjoying the summer, doing a little preaching around and being a wife and a friend and a mom and a grandma and a homeowner with all that entails.

I look forward to being with you when you formally install Rev. Eileen as your Senior Minister. In the meantime, be well and be good to one another.

In love and gratitude.

Karen