From Rev. Karen Gustafson: January 15, 2021

Dear ones, 

The Fifth Unitarian Universalist Principle is our covenant to affirm and promote “the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large”. 

This principle is utmost in our minds and hearts as the integrity of the time honored system for choosing our nation’s leader is being challenged and tested.   

By contrast, you, the members of UCE, have been engaged in an example of what democracy looks like.  Like the process for choosing a US President, the process for calling a settled minister is imperfect. But when engaged with integrity and good faith, both have the potential for selecting  leaders who will join fully in a shared effort to serve the greater good.  

By all standards, the UCE Ministerial Search has been a process engaged with that kind of integrity and good faith. Your Search Committee was chosen by congregational nomination and vote and represented a diverse cross section of the congregation. Together they spent hundreds of hours laying a strong foundation for gathering your input through survey and focus groups and cottage meetings. These results, your input, were to become the basis for the congregational record to be reviewed by prospective candidates.  

In parallel with this process, you were invited into the work of the Interim. This was to be the work of looking deeply into the habits and systems, the hurts and healings of UCE’s past, of finding the strengths and addressing challenges that would serve as the foundation for moving boldly into the promise of “nurturing the human spirit for a world made whole”. In the fall of 2019 it became clear that this foundational work had not been adequately addressed. The Search Committee committed to an additional year for that to happen because they wanted time for you to claim and offer a fuller story to the next settled minister. 

So here you are. The surveys have been tallied. The hours of recorded conversation and feedback and cottage meetings have been sifted and winnowed. The Congregational Profile has been created and made available for review. The search Committee has with all due diligence reviewed the qualifications and interviewed the Candidate and with the utmost integrity has recommended the call.  

Two steps remain. In the coming week you will have many opportunities to engage one more time, screen to screen, to ask unanswered questions and address lingering concerns.  

The final step in this process is your vote. 

In the democratic process at its best, the vote is the capstone of a process which has invited the full participation of informed voters in the expression of their will made with the full intention to support the outcome. 

This is the privilege and the promise of our faith. 

My personal thanks to the UCE Ministerial Search Committee for their intrepid and unfailing integrity. This is what democracy looks like. 

In unfailing gratitude, 

Karen 

PS – Be assured that the work of the Interim will continue until the end of June when I will take my leave and you will be a congregation with no unfinished business…