From the Desk of Rev. Karen Gustafson
October 3, 2019: Karen Gustafson
Dear ones, The Interim Report based on September’s visit has been reviewed and reformatted and attached to this article. The input was gathered in the following ways: Board of Trustees Weekend Retreat Day Long Staff Start-up Elected Leaders Retreat - Friday evening, September 6; all day, Saturday, September 7 After service forum on September 8 with approximately 100 members and friends attending Meeting with Covenant Group Leaders Three “Brown Bag” sessions involving approximately 30 participants Meeting with Membership Engagement Council Several extended e-mail responses Meetings requested by individual congregants Invitations to Brown Bag groups and to contact me directly appeared in newsletters and were announced at the September newsletters and announced at the September meeting. Every response may not be represented here, though I did make a concerted effort to include them all, at least thematically. I identified nine areas of strength which are labeled “Assets” in the report. For each asset, I identified challenges. These are based on clusters of responses which, not addressed intentionally either individually or institutionally or culturally, will, over time, diminish the asset. For each set of challenges, I suggested some possible strategies - many of them involving education, self-reflection, policy changes, or creating formal and informal structures. This part of the report will be fleshed out in greater detail as we, you, I, the Staff and Transition and Leadership, consider priorities and planning for the rest of the interim time. If there are some that I missed, we will add them. And finally, I attached each of these pieces to one of the five Interim Tasks. I am being as transparent in this process as I can while respecting confidentiality and relating to both the impact of history and the need and desire to move forward in a healthy and life-giving way. During my October visit, there will be three Brown Bag sessions (see schedule), opportunities for casual conversation, meetings of many kinds and Sunday services, where your questions will be heard and honored. Here is what I ask: Read the whole report. Engage it with an open mind and an open heart. This means engaging your interest and your curiosity and suspending judgment and resisting reactivity. Try not to react or draw or share conclusions for at least 24 hours. Read it again. Write down your questions. When you decide to talk about it with others, try to begin at least two sentences with, “I wonder…” Consider this a gift from me to you. Hold it gently and when I am with you, let’s consider its value as a basis for a new beginning. Everything changes. In love and gratitude, Karen PS - Plan to attend the Beyond Categorical Thinking worship and Workshop on October 12. There will be much there that could inform our journey together. Click here to download the September Interim Report September Interim Report UCE has a number of Core Assets. Core of dedicated and resilient leaders. This was evident in the overall [...]
September 15, 2019
“Transition: A Challenge to our Better Selves”- Rev. Karen Gustafson Change happens. We all know that. Transition is the emotional and psychological aspect of change. Change can be engaged and understood with our minds. Transition is experienced through our feelings and reactions and sometimes breaks open our hearts. Change redefines our circumstances. Transition is an unfolding process of coming to terms with the realities of change. Change is often external, a namable result. Transition is a process of facing ambiguity and discomfort and unfamiliarity. It challenges us to deeper reflection and calls us to be accountable for the ways in which our short term reactivity can lead to long term consequence. UCE is a community awash in change. How might you engage the process of transition in a way that will bring about a more fulfilling future?
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
