Ministerial Record

Tell a story which embodies your ministry.

The sign said, “The reverend is IN,” and I sat behind it at a small table at the end of the hall. This was a church craft fair, only a month into my new ministry at the UU Church of Utica. Church members came to my table to laugh at the sign and say hello. Community members sheepishly started conversations with me, curious that this young-looking woman is the new minister of this church. And, I welcomed them all with a smile and shared laughter.

I spent much of that day walking around the fair, talking with the exhibitors and attendees, having a few deep conversations with community members, and dancing to the live music with the children and my spouse, who was on stilts. Mine is a ministry of presence, of inviting everyone in to whatever space I hold with care, and love. The reverend is IN.

Why are you seeking ministry now?

I took some time to discern the direction of my call after leaving my first ministry settlement. I learned much about who I am, my call to ministry, and how I can best show up for those I serve. I was expecting to wait until January to go into search again, but Rev. Dr. Gibbons reached out to me, asking whether I would consider working with her in this new role at All Souls, KC. It sounded like an amazing opportunity that I could not pass up, so I have prepared these materials for you, to see if we might have a fruitful ministry together.

What ministry do you hope is ahead for you?

I love that you have developed this new role to create a space of focus for younger adults, teens, and the parents of young families, to serve the next generations of Unitarian Universalists. I was raised UU, and I am among the mere minority of UUs who remain so into adulthood. I’ve thought extensively on why I never left and how my identity has kept me connected to congregational life and leadership. I’ve studied the challenge of the upstairs/downstairs dynamic of religious education. I’ve led a young adult group and taught young adult OWL.

Most importantly, I am excited to serve a congregation that is looking to the future - its own and that of our faith. We have all lived into tremendous, sudden change over the last few years, without choice. It’s been hard beyond description, and yet a richness is coming forth through that change. And, you have taken this opportunity to look forward, to see the places that are underserved, and you are willing to invest in that future. I’m excited by this. I’m excited to serve a vibrant congregation in Kansas City, to work with Rev. Dr. Gibbons again, and to live into the space of imagination, of what may be possible, to create generational diversity in the congregation and meet the needs of younger Unitarian Universalists and those who have not yet found us.

Describe your call to ministry. What life events have led you to this moment?

The UU Church of Rockford, IL, where I grew up, was my safe place. I was loved unconditionally by the adults, accepted by my peers, and felt free to be myself while exploring our shared values and commitment to one another and the world. A large piece of my call and ministry is to create that feeling of inclusion in our faith for everyone who needs it.

My active call to ministry came in college. It was not a dramatic event of hearing a voice or suddenly realizing an unacknowledged truth. It emerged out of my experiences, passions, and joy. I was studying Religious Studies as my major, and in my free time I was involved with the programming from the Chaplain’s Office and leading the Unitarian Universalist student group. I created informal UU worship experiences most Sunday mornings. And, out of that, I saw that my sense of home in my faith connected to a sense of call to professional ministry. Who I am, my love and commitment to those around me, and my passion for making meaning simply clicked together, and I applied to seminary.

My path since then has taken time. I took five years off from seminary after completing one year at Meadville Lombard Theological School. I worked as a legal secretary and was involved in local congregations. That sense of call dogged me the whole time, knowing that I would return to training as a minister and would serve UU congregations. So, I transferred to a liberal Christian seminary in the Twin Cities, Minnesota where I was living, and I completed my degree and internships and a Clinical Pastoral Care Residency. I have learned that I am a minister wherever I am and whatever I am doing with my time. It is time again for that ministry to be with a congregation, for us to do the work of our faith together. We will create the relationships and live into covenant to be the inclusive, safe place for exploration, challenge, and growth that are at the core of our shared values.

Share your ministerial presence and leadership style.

My energy is big, yet my physical frame is small. I am easily excited and quick to express joy. I will sit with sadness, acknowledge anger, and feed the fires of passion for justice. Do not expect from me, however, a calm, serene demeanor of quiet reflection. Subtlety is not in my nature. My ministry envelopes and holds with presence and energy.

My leadership style is evolving over time, as is the truth of everything about how we show up, and I am developing a leadership based in curiosity. Questions speak so much louder than answers, I am learning, and that is the energy I want to bring to my work. Who are we together? How can we become who we are capable of becoming, individually, as a congregation? What is working? What has changed so that it has ceased to work, or has stopped being relevant?

Share your ministerial presence and leadership style.

My energy is big, yet my physical frame is small. I am easily excited and quick to express joy. I will sit with sadness, acknowledge anger, and feed the fires of passion for justice. Do not expect from me, however, a calm, serene demeanor of quiet reflection. Subtlety is not in my nature. My ministry envelopes and holds with presence and energy.

My leadership style is evolving over time, as is the truth of everything about how we show up, and I am developing a leadership based in curiosity. Questions speak so much louder than answers, I am learning, and that is the energy I want to bring to my work. Who are we together? How can we become who we are capable of becoming, individually, as a congregation? What is working? What has changed so that it has ceased to work, or has stopped being relevant?

How do you function with church staff? What are your thoughts on staff relations and supervision?

Staff systems need to be based in relationship and appreciation. I believe strongly in compensating staff appropriately as a way of demonstrating that they are valued, and relationship is key to the work of the congregation and providing a place people want to work. I’ve spent time in the last couple of years working in staff roles with a couple of congregations, so I bring to my ministry the insights of what it is like to work as staff.

I believe strongly in clear expectations of one another, not only of staff but what the staff expect from me. I come into relationship with staff assuming that they are doing their jobs well and then adjust my supervision to how things are working. I appreciate regular staff meetings to encourage collaboration and keep a cohesion not only among the people but among the various aspects of the work of the congregation.

Regarding shared ministry, what do you see as your work as a minister? What do you see doing in partnership with the congregation? What do you see as the work of the congregation?

I am excited to work with the members, leaders, and senior minister of the congregation to determine where my leadership and ministry will best fit into the work that the congregation is already doing. Coming into your congregation with your well-established and beloved minister currently on medical leave but previously planning to step back her role and hours, I bring no expectations of what will belong to me, to her, or to the congregation. We will need to figure that out as we go.

As a minister, I see my role as serving the spiritual needs of the congregation, whether through direct pastoral care, leading worship, or helping leaders reconnect their work back to its grounding in the mission of the congregation and their own spiritual understanding. We are here to make meaning together.

What role would you see yourself playing in the larger community?

This, too, is something that we will need to determine over time. I am happy to become a presence in the larger community as it will best serve my role.

How have you seen change happen in a congregation or community? What role would you see yourself playing in congregational change?

Change seems to happen when there are members who want it to happen and are willing to invest themselves into making it happen. While I was serving UU Utica, I was blessed to help members change the congregation’s relationship to inclusion of LGBTQ+ people.

Having become a Welcoming Congregation in 1995, the members assumed that work around including LGBTQ+ people was done. They were proud to be welcoming. Yet, four people came into the congregation who were Trans or NonBinary, and they experienced resistance to their presence through microaggressions. One of these new members brought up wanting an LGBTQ+ group. So, I reached out to every member or friend of the congregation I was aware of as LGBTQ+, along with a few solid straight allies, to attend a meeting. We used circle process to share about how a group could meet one another’s needs.

The group continued to meet every two weeks, even after the pandemic began, simply shifting to Zoom. Together, they found support. They also decided to take on an education campaign in the congregation, sharing their vulnerable stories in their own worship service and making public service announcements in the newsletter. Through their efforts, the congregation renewed its Welcoming Congregation for the first time. And, eventually the Board decided to hang a Pride banner on the building, which is still there.

I heard from members that they learned a lot from the LGBTQ+ group, and the members of the group gained so much in their time and work together. Most wonderfully, they caused change in the congregation. I found that my role in making this happen was mostly to create the space and provide the support through which the effort could emerge.

Describe how you handle being in a conflicted situation.

The most important part of conflict for me is to be in direct communication and relationship. It is not possible to heal relationship or address conflict when it happens through anonymous feedback or triangulation. I seek clarity to understand what needs are truly at root in the conflict and to find the ways in which it is possible to meet them. I acknowledge that this is not always possible, but I will do my best to remain present, to slow down, to listen.

Sometimes, I need help navigating the conflict from a colleague, mentor, or regional staff. I am thankful to have assistance and support available because conflict is inherently challenging.

Tell a story that deepened your understanding of what ministry is.

There is a lot of pressure on a minister to seem perfect, unflappable, and always held together, as though they have all of the answers. Or, at least that’s what I used to think. I did my best to put forth such a persona, keeping secret the reality of my life, that things are hard, that I experience deep sadness, that I struggle. My ministry was a performance - a mask.

In the congregation I served, there was an amazing youth. He found the congregation while I was the minister, so I got to watch him find his place in the congregation and grow in his confidence. One Sunday after the service, he shared that he was finding it difficult to manage so much of his life. He named that he was working with a therapist, which was helping, but that he struggled because of so much trauma he had already experienced. In my listening, I decided to drop my mask in front of him. I told him that I have extensive trauma, too. I told him that I struggle sometimes to do things that other people might find easy. I told him that I lock up with fear and panic.

His eyes widened and he told me that he couldn’t believe that his beloved minister, the person he wanted to grow up to be like, struggles in the same ways that he does. My truth, who I am without the mask, set him free in that brief moment. He taught me that ministry is about actual authenticity, not a performance of it.

I have since decided that my ministry will include the joy and the sorrow. The capability, and the struggle. The fullness of my humanity contributes to my ministry, and I will not hide it again.

Tell about a mistake you've made in ministry and what you learned from this.

There was a Sunday when we sang “Answering the Call to Love,” which is the rewording of a beloved hymn by Jason Shelton printed in the Singing the Journey supplemental hymnal. Rev. Shelton had heard the request of disabled people to remove the word “standing,” and changed the lyrics. When I introduced the hymn, with the printed words in the hymnal outdated and inappropriate, I instructed the congregation to sing the “answering the call” instead. Then, I proceeded to lead the singing with the old words.

A member got up and whispered to me that I had done this, and I was shocked and embarrassed. I said from the pulpit, “I got so wrapped up in the music and habit, I sang the wrong words.”

A few days later, the same member who had corrected me told me that they were hurt that I had not actually apologized. I told them that they were right, and I apologized to them in that moment for this whole series of fumbles.

They taught me that day a lesson that I’ve needed to be taught and reminded over and over again - what an actual apology is. It’s not making an excuse, which is what I learned to do for so long. It is saying “I apologize.” It is naming that I caused harm. It is declaring that I will change my behavior in the future, and then actually making that change to the best of my ability. It is finding out if there is more I can do to heal the harm caused and the break in the relationship.

I make mistakes, and I have learned to actually own them. If I were to sing the wrong lyrics again today, I would say from the pulpit, “I need to apologize. I sang the wrong words, which caused harm to those in this room and beyond these walls for whom the previous words are hurtful. I did this even after telling you what the correct words are. I am sorry. I hope that you will forgive me, and that you will join me in taking a pencil to our hymnals, crossing out the wrong words, and writing in the right ones. Let’s sing the first verse together one more time right now, with the right words, to practice.”

What needs do you have to strengthen your ministry and how might a congregation assist you in this?

It is my goal to lean into curiosity in my ministry. I hope to ask more questions than I provide answers, to keep my heart open to learning wonderful new things from the members, staff, and ministers around me. With this curiosity, I also seek to devote more of my time to study and learning opportunities, allowing me to hone skills and learn new ones.

The congregation could assist me in this work by working collaboratively in ways that encourage not only my curiosity, but curiosity all around. And, the time and space for study, reflection, and grounding. Through these things, I can see my heart remaining open and my mind present to the current needs. Through these things, my ministry will deepen.

Describe briefly your ministerial approach to each of the following:

Worship and preaching

I take great joy in the times when I am able to carefully craft worship. I seek to create a worship experience that holds together as a single experience, melding standard liturgical elements with music and readings and reflections. When it works, the synergy is palpable.

As a minister with only a few years of experience, my preaching voice is still in development. Sometimes a topic asks for a standard 20-minute sermon with heavy intellectual elements. Others, a series of short reflections and meditations. Yet other times, my tone becomes conversational and informal. I hope for the opportunity to experiment and explore these various forms, following where the moment calls.

Pastoral care/spiritual guidance/counseling/visitation

So much of pastoral care in a congregational setting is informal. A conversation during coffee hour or in the receiving line after the service. Staying late at the end of a meeting to provide support for a member who shared something during check-in. There is also plenty of space for setting up more formal sessions for counseling and care.

I recognize the great power of showing up when a member is in the hospital or otherwise struggling, and I am happy to make these visits, especially if invited. The most important piece is that the member in some way lets me know that they would appreciate my presence. I prefer pastoral care to remain a portion of my duties, not my primary duty.

Children’s RE

The question was first raised more than two decades ago whether the upstairs/downstairs dynamic of UU congregations best serves our young people when religious educators came together to produce the Essex Conversations series of essays. I am aware that multiple congregations have made attempts to re-envision what Children’s RE could be with varying success. There are ways in which the standard model works, creating children who have a strong knowledge base and a connection to our UU values. At the same time, in my 20s, I knew a man my age who had been raised UU and told me, “The nice thing about being UU is you don’t have to be part of a church.” I can’t help but feel that the RE program in which he was raised failed him and our faith.

I don’t know what the answers are in this area as we even struggle to keep families connected to our congregations at all given the myriad other pressures on their lives that make a congregation a non-priority. This struggle only increased with the pandemic. While I acknowledge that this role is designed for me to focus on the parents of young children and not the Children’s RE program, know that I am dedicated to finding ways to serve families in meaningful ways that help their children feel connected to their faith and congregations throughout their lives.

Youth Work

According to the Congregational Record, All Souls already provides youth the ability to choose their curriculum and which Sundays to attend the full Celebration of Life service. This is wonderful. Youth work must be empowering of the youth, trusting them to make many of their own decisions as they stretch toward adulthood.

A portion of the ministerial role you are creating at this time is to help shape a youth program that forms lasting bonds to Unitarian Universalism and the congregation. We want youth to know that their congregation is a home at which they are always welcome, and we seek for them to keep their UU values and identities with them into the world. From my own experience as a UU youth, it was relationship with adults in the congregation that most contributed to my ongoing connection to my faith. When I graduated and went to college, if I was home visiting, I was always welcome back into the adult choir in which I had been raised and singing from the age of eight. I had strong, long-term relationships with adults in the congregation. Even if my youth group friends weren’t there, I had people who cared about me to see on Sunday.

It is my hope to work with the youth and adults of the congregation to create a program that allows these connections to form. I have ideas of what this may look like, and the best ministry happens in context with the congregation, so I look forward to learning what ideas are already present if not implemented and where everyone’s imaginations might lead this vital ministry.

Adult RE

On a certain level, everything that is a congregation is Adult RE. Even in committee meetings, we are learning how to show up for one another and live out our faith. Formal Religious Education for adults can often be a welcome method of going deeper and creating connections. I aspire for my teaching style to include space for personal reflection, small conversations, and activities that are able to reach the largest scope of learning styles and needs.

Less formal Adult RE can include small groups, affinity groups, Celebration of Life services, and completely informal gatherings. It is in my nature to educate, so I find myself educating others in every setting, even whenever I go to a zoo because I was a volunteer zoo docent at one time. So, if I’m attending a fiber arts circle (I crochet), a group session with parents of young children, or a lunch gathering, there will be deeper conversation about our experiences and the world that serve as religious education. We are creatures who are always learning, and I seek to take that learning in the direction of making meaning whenever possible.

Incorporating music, arts, creativity

I was raised in the arts, beginning cello at the age of three, singing in the adult church choir, and attending arts-heavy schools 4th through 12th grades. I’ve done music, theater, dance, aerial circus, and currently practice both crochet and dip-pen calligraphy. Knowing that All Souls is located near an arts school and has its own art gallery feels like a good fit for the kind of creative ministry I love to do.

Ministry is a creative art. A rich congregational life includes the arts. I thrive when I have the opportunity to creatively shape my work. I look forward to working with Anthony Edwards to truly sculpt worship experiences through words, music, and sometimes even theater and movement.

Congregational community building/facilitation/coffee hour/social times

Much of our work of being religious community is based in the building of community. I appreciate both informal and formal opportunities to do this work. Situations like coffee hour have the joy of the informality, yet is rarely where the deep work of community building is able to happen. For that, I appreciate more explicit, smaller gatherings, including small groups, to form the more meaningful bonds, especially with those who may fit into a different social circle. In particular, I appreciate the use of circle process where each person is given an opportunity to speak openly without interruption or judgment.

Committee/task force work

I take joy in working with committees to do the work of the congregation. It is where mission meets action. I see my role as helping the committee or task force to find its direction and consider steps with which to get there. I trust that the wonderful volunteers will be able to make amazing things happen.

Leadership development

Our leaders are tired. Leaders were tired before the pandemic, and now they are exhausted, across our congregations. Part of the work ahead of us is to help new leaders emerge through their interests and joy, even when it may not fit the comfortable models. The other part is imagining new ways of being a congregation that allows leadership to be life-giving.

Long range planning/mission/vision/covenant

Mission, visioning, and covenant are central pieces of a congregation’s identity and purpose, not just pretty words. When doing this deep work, I seek to involve as much of the membership as possible to find what is truly in everyone’s hearts and then get that onto paper.

Long range planning is a challenge because, as we have all experienced, our plans can so easily be torn asunder by outside forces. It is imperative to look to the future with a strong sense of imagination and to do things now that will lead forward. And, plans with strong annual goals over five and ten years feel less relevant.

Membership and membership growth

While I appreciate growth in number of members (UU Utica grew by 10% in my time there), growth in member involvement and dedication to the congregation, along with deepening in faith, matters much more to me. How are we living into our values as a community, and how are the structures of the church helping or hindering that work?

Anti-oppression work

As I know that the members of All Souls KC are already learning, our anti-oppression work begins within. Within each of our hearts and minds to learn truths that are difficult to accept. Within each congregation to identify and shift patterns that inadvertently cause marginalized people to feel excluded or unwelcome in leadership. Within our greater UU faith to change larger systems to bring forth true inclusion and equity. And, in our greater society. It is challenging to feel like the inner personal work and congregational work makes a difference, and yet it is the groundwork from which the best work outside of our walls may emerge.

Social Justice

I believe strongly in utilizing an action/reflection model of doing Social Justice work. It asks us to learn something about what we want to address, to do something, to reflect on how it went and why, to learn more, and to do something again out of our greater understanding. I find in myself, and commonly UU congregations, it is easy to get stuck in the first step, learning and analyzing to such an extent that nothing ever happens. I also get stuck again, similar to many UU congregations, on the step of doing something. I never stop for the reflection and learning step. I forget to ask, “How is this going? Is this action the right action? Is something else needed in this time?” These are the steps where we grow as people and in our faith. We do and then we reflect. These are the challenging steps because they ask us to acknowledge that our efforts might be off, or may not have gone well. And, there, however, we find the deepest meaning and spiritual growth.

Interfaith/community work

I cannot imagine living our values to their fullest without forming interfaith connections. I took on a leadership role with the local Interfaith Matters clergy group while serving UU Utica. Within that context, I spearheaded an effort to hold a Pride event for the first time in more than a decade. The festival was small, but interest in holding Pride events has continued, and there was another event this year. That this effort started through interfaith work spoke strongly of faith community support for Pride.

Denominational activities

Remaining connected to what is happening on a denominational level, both through the UUA and the UUMA, is important to me as a minister. I do not see myself serving on a national level at this time in a formal way, but if I can be of use on a regional or chapter level, I will.

Stewardship

I am proud of the ways in which I helped to guide Stewardship at UU Utica. We increased the pledge income by 10% my first year. I believe strongly in actually talking about money, about what the congregation can do with its budget, and the meaning of pledging. Only by talking openly about scarcity and abundance mindsets and how they reflect our values will we find the deep generosity that can best fund the congregation.

Finances

I enjoy a good spreadsheet and find that budgets and financial statements tell us much about the congregation. Finance is a balancing act between planning for the future through fiscal conservatism and spending now to support what is possible in the moment. There are times when a minister’s presence with the Finance Committee to consider how the budget reflects the congregation’s mission can be so fruitful.

Technology

It has become abundantly clear over the last couple of years that technology is a vital part of our congregations. I embrace this fully. At the same time that there is spiritual connectedness that can best be formed in-person, we can do so much to connect with one another virtually. Especially with the task to integrate younger adults and teens into the life of the congregation, technology and social media must play a significant role in the work. This is how younger people function at this time, and I am dedicated to continuing to expand my already strong skills in this area to meet the needs of those we seek to reach. And, I am thankful for how many older adults feel more comfortable attending meetings over Zoom without needing to drive at night or in inclement weather. This shift is groundbreaking in its ability to include more members and potential UUs.

How do you build trust with a congregation and individuals?

In her talk “The Anatomy of Trust,” Brene Brown says, “Trust is built in very small moments.” It is built bit by bit over time, and I have learned through experience that a minister cannot assume that there is inherently trust in the relationship between a congregation and its ministers. In the same talk, Brown explains that trust is “BRAVING” vulnerability with another. Boundaries, Reliability, Accountability, Vault (confidentiality), Integrity, Non-Judgment, and Generosity. There is a lot involved in this work of trust building, and I believe that Accountability is key when any of us makes mistakes, which are bound to happen.

But, the how of trust is in the little moments in social hour, that quick email, text message, or phone call checking in. In being reliable, holding confidences, and living our shared values. I seek to attend to these little things, practicing being trustworthy in the smallest ways, so that when a member needs to risk vulnerability, they will see me as trustworthy. So that the congregation as a whole will trust my leadership because I have attended to the little things, shown up, and proven myself reliable. (https://brenebrown.com/videos/anatomy-trust-video/)

Describe your theology and the role of the minister in a congregation that has multiple theologies.

I was raised in the Unitarian Universalist Church of Rockford, Illinois, which had a strongly humanist minister at the time. Over the years, I have studied world religions and Christian theology, and my understandings have broadened, changed, shaped, and reshaped.

I have found, though, that in the times of great personal struggle, my root remains humanist; my comfort remains in that which I knew from my earliest times. I rest in the confidence that people are overall good, that it is in our nature to care for one another, and that what we need can be found within ourselves and one another as humans. And, some days I cry out to the divine; I pray to the Goddess; and the rich metaphors of our religious siblings hit home with tremendous truth. It will always be true for me that God is Love. Love, the hard wrestling kind that is rarely saccharin, is at the center of human experience. It is what binds us.

I believe that my studies over time, my connections with my liberal Christian classmates in seminary, with interfaith colleagues, and with the members of the congregations I have served, have all contributed to my valuing a diversity of religious thought. This allows me to minister with congregants from a variety of backgrounds, and our faith’s diversity is a strength. The deepest truth has many faces.

What questions do you hope our congregations are asking themselves and discussing?

What does “inclusion” really mean? Who do we include? How do we help more people feel that they are included in our community?
What does this moment call our faith to be? What does this moment call our congregation to be?
How can we explore “accountability”?
How do we partner with those already doing the justice work we seek to do? How can we learn from them, and allow them to take the lead?
What will our faith and our congregation look like in 20 years? 50? How do we plant the seeds now for that time?
Are we willing to change ourselves, our congregation, our faith? Really?

How do you give and receive feedback?

I take great care to consistently praise staff and members for who they are and what they do along with providing constructive feedback in a kind way. I acknowledge, however, that sometimes my direct nature causes others to receive feedback more harshly than I intend.

I prefer that feedback be provided clearly through direct communication. It has happened that members have tried to provide me with feedback, but been indirect about it or unclear, and I have missed their meaning entirely. I acknowledge that I have become defensive more than once, and it is something on which I am actively working. Just as I love to be effusive about praise of others, I uplift that ministers are rarely told when we are doing a good job.

It is imperative that I receive feedback from the person who has something to share of how they have experienced me. Anonymous feedback is not helpful. Nor is it helpful for someone to tell me about someone else’s experience of me. If I am going to serve well, I must be in relationship with those who have difficulty with my ministry in order to truly understand their needs and repair any harm.

How do you suggest your ministry with the congregation is evaluated?

I appreciate the rubric set forth in Fulfilling the Call: A Model for Unitarian Universalist Ministry in the 21st Century. It provides categories and descriptions of varying levels of competency that can serve as an excellent guide for the congregational leaders involved in formal evaluation.

Many ministers at this time recognize that congregational surveys are a problematic way to evaluate a minister, particularly those that allow respondents to remain anonymous. Ours is a covenanting faith, and remaining in relationship with one another, even through challenging conversations, is key to everyone’s growth in an evaluation process, both for the minister and the members.

I would also hope that the congregation will take time to evaluate itself from time to time, as considering the overall health and wellbeing of the congregation is directly connected to the work of professional ministry.

What do you hope for the future of UUism?

I hope for a faith tradition that is thriving, providing fully inclusive space for the deep spiritual work of making meaning of our lives and our world and engaging in the work of justice and equity in our society when I reach retirement age. None of us knows at this time what that will actually look like. I believe that many in our faith recognize that we are called to find new ways of connecting, of being together, and of doing the work of our faith to meet the needs of this moment and the future. This is the work of imagination of asking “what if” without shutting down ideas. I look to what’s possible with tremendous hope and wonder.

What else would you like to say about your ministry and ministry skills?

I actively enjoy administration. There is nothing flashy about digging into spreadsheets and database software, but these are skills and interests that can notably benefit the congregation.

What should a congregation know about your family situation?

My spouse, Neil Holley, and I have been together for 15 years and married for nearly nine years. He is a software engineer, works remotely, and has a quiet presence. We currently live in Utica, NY with a rescue cat, Theo.

What should a congregation know about your health?

I am autistic. I have always been autistic but only recently put the word to my experience through diagnosis. Most people who know me are surprised to learn of my autism, as its effects on my life are subtle and largely hidden.

It is my goal to be among a growing few UU ministers serving a congregation while being open about our neurodivergence. To do this, the congregation will need to be flexible and open to learning about neurodiversity. I will be finding, likely with the help of a professional coach, what accommodations may be helpful toward thriving while serving a congregation. It is possible I will require flexibility around my work hours and from where I work. It is my hope that you and the congregation will be understanding that I communicate rather directly and could miss subtle forms of communication.

Being wired somewhat differently from most people has its real struggles, and it comes with its own advantages. I process information quickly, and I’m able to organize things with ease. I care deeply and bring forth an effervescent energy. Connection is core to my being, which allows me to show up with my fullness for those I serve.

Receiving a diagnosis has helped me better understand myself and my needs. It also allows me to better serve and connect with neurodivergent members and the families of neurodivergent people.

How do you take care of yourself so that the congregation does not have to?

My first touch-point is having a therapist to help me remain clear how I am relating to myself, my ministry, and the world. There is no shame for me in maintaining professional help. My second touch-point is with colleagues through Facebook groups, closer relationships with individuals, and attending UUMA gatherings. These connections provide the space to work through challenges and to never feel alone. Third, I explore spiritual practices along with breathing and energy exercises to ground me. And, finally, I pursue hobbies, as they are available where I am living. Hobbies I enjoy expand as necessary and include: crochet, dip-pen calligraphy, playing cello in symphonies and pit orchestras, singing in choirs, aerial circus classes, swimming laps, and dance classes.

How long do you hope your next ministry lasts? What’s the minimum commitment you would make?

Recognizing that this is a contract position, I would be happy to renew annually as the congregation offers renewals up to and potentially beyond the anticipated three years.