Dear UUCPA folks,
Can you believe Rev. Cat has only been at UUCPA for two years? The stories she brings to every service, the Game Nights and Parents’ Nights Out that build community, the family chapel services, and the kind, wise presence she brings to her interactions are so interwoven into our congregational life that it doesn’t seem possible they began only two years ago.
Rev. Cat’s ministry here is such a fixture that you might not know that she is on a year-to-year contract.* That was a reasonable arrangement for both UUCPA and her when we undertook a search for a new Minister of Religious Education in the spring of 2022. Our previous MRE, Rev. Dan Harper, announced his departure in April of that year, and while we said our goodbyes, we went into a rapid search process, so that a new minister could get started before the end of the summer. It was very successful; our committee met with several strong candidates and recommended our choice to the Board. They got a YES from the one they made the offer to: Rev. Cat!
The offer was made on a “contract-to-call” basis. To understand this, you need to know a little about what UU congregations call “calling” a minister. In a call, the search committee presents their candidate to the congregation as a whole. Then the congregation members, having read up on the minister’s background, philosophy, and qualifications, spend a week getting to know them face to face, and at the end of the week, vote in a congregational meeting on whether to call them–offer them an open-ended, settled position–as the new minister. The right to call our own ministers is one we value highly. No church officials send a minister to a UU congregation, and none can take them away, as happens in some other faith traditions. It is a choice made by the minister and the congregation.
It also takes quite a long time for the search committee, typically several months of reading hundreds of pages of material, holding interviews, viewing ministers in action, etc. That is why congregations sometimes hire a minister on a contract basis first, and that’s exactly what we did. Rev. Cat has said from the start that she would like us to move on together to the call process. She knows the power of a congregation’s making that decision. To have chosen one’s minister is a powerful feeling of responsibility and care for the congregation. (Some of you will have experienced that at other congregations, or if you were here in May of 2003, you know about it from having called me.) And of course, she and the congregation have now had lots of time to get to know each other. We don’t have to start from scratch.
One thing a congregation normally does between ministers, if time allows, is take some time to reflect on the big picture: Given the mission of the congregation, what do we need for our ministry? What particular strengths do we offer, and where do we need more help from our professional religious leaders? What kind of partnership do we seek with them? These are the kinds of questions we’d like to ask ourselves—and Rev. Cat would like us to ask ourselves—before moving from contract to call.
So the Board has assembled an excellent task force that is going to invite your thoughts on where UUCPA’s ministry should be headed: especially, though not only, its educational ministry**–Children and Youth Religious Education, the Adult Learning Journey, and related programs. Beginning after the November election, they will reach out and give you multiple ways to reflect aloud and/or in writing, and weave together what they hear in order to present it to Rev. Cat, as we would have done if we’d had a year to undertake the process before meeting with candidates. If (as we hope) the match is still deemed a strong one on both sides, the congregation will vote on making her our next called, settled minister.
Edie Keating, Greg Becker, Gloria Geller, Diane Schweitzer, and Joe Bailey are our task force. Beginning after the national dust settles, please expect to hear from them about ways you can share your hopes and dreams for UUCPA.
In the meantime, Dr. Melissa James from the Pacific Western Region of the Unitarian Universalist Association (PWR-UUA), who supports UUCPA when we have questions and decisions, will lead our service next week and help us get in the frame of mind to reflect on ministry and the mission we share.
Blessings,
Amy
*In contrast to the open-ended agreement that ministers and congregations often have. The letter of agreement between me and UUCPA, for example, does not specify an end date.
**Our Minister of Religious Education does much more than lead our educational programs; they also provide pastoral care, spearhead justice work, build community, support volunteers, preach sermons, lead services and rites of passage, and offer guidance to committees and the Board, as the Parish Minister does.