Updates from Dr. Emma Farrell, January 3, 2025

 

It has been a great honor and pleasure to serve as the ministerial intern at UCE since starting in September. Through this time, I’ve gotten to know many of you and gotten to see how the congregation functions as a whole. I see how members of the congregation come together to support one another in times of crisis and in times of celebration, and it is nourishing to my spirit to witness. I’ve witnessed laughs and tears. The lamentations post-election and the laughs of working together to come up with pledge drive ideas or working together to make food to serve. It truly is a vibrant community.

I also see how much love there is for the ministers Revs Eileen and Susan, and I see how incredibly supportive you have been in my own internship development. I have to tell you – the formational process for an MDiv and a Biochemistry Ph.D. are a little different! The level of warm support I received here has just blown me away. 

The ministerial formation process is a long and integrated one, with inputs from a great many moving parts to ensure folks going into fellowship have the breadth of education, conviction about moving the needle(s) of social justice, and skills to companion folks along the many and varied parts of the journey. I am called into accountability by multiple groups of people – a chaplaincy instructor, an independent psychological evaluation, an internship committee at UCE, my supervisor, my professors at Meadville Lombard Theological School, and you! All the components of my learning are overseen by a ministerial formation committee through the Unitarian Universalist Association. A colleague of mine made a handy chart to illustrate what it takes to make a minister, so you can see the process and where I am in it:

 

Doing this formational work in the haven of UCE has been an incredible gift. I see UCE as a healthy and vibrant congregation with a culture of support, good cheer, mutual care, and often hard work. I have come to appreciate the amount of volunteer work and love that goes into making this an efficacious community of care – a place where each of us can show up authentically on our journeys, with opportunities to both support and be supported. Thank you, thank you for welcoming me into your fold.

I would be delighted to meet with any of you over Zoom or during some of my in-person time on Sundays or Wednesdays (and occasionally Thursdays). Please feel free to reach out to me for any reason – for spiritual care, to tell me about your experience at UCE, or to just get to know each other better. The relationships are the most important part of the work here – they are the work. I am honored to know some of you and look forward to knowing more.

Yours,

Emma K. Farrell, Ph.D.

Candidate for UU Ministry

efarrell@ucevanston.org