Notes from the Executive Team

Two Services Developments

Thank you to all who participated in the February 11 Forum on Two Services  following our month-long exploration in January and to all who completed the survey to share your feedback. The Executive Team has carefully considered the best path forward to support our congregation’s mission and the need to address the growth in our worship attendance. We have considered the thoughts of UCM staff members, committee input, feedback from individuals in the congregation, volunteer and staff capacity, and financial capacity, alongside the challenge of “welcoming all” with a crowded sanctuary on Sunday mornings.

The Executive Team has decided to make it a goal to expand to two Sunday morning services next church year (September 2018). We are glad to have the support of the Membership, Religious Education, and Worship & Arts Committees, as well a the support of the Committee on Ministry and Governing Board. As with all ministry priorities, we will need to await the outcome of our annual pledge drive before finalizing the budget and ministry and program plans for next year.

Please feel free to share any feedback or questions with Rev. Joan or any member of the Executive Team (Jeanne Richardson, Paul Wallace-Brodeur, and Ron Cameron).

RE Envisioning and Staffing Update

During the month of January, an ad hoc group, comprised of members of the Executive Team, Board, Religious Education Committee, and Adult Religious Education Committee, met to further develop long-term goals for religious education at UCM and also to discern the best configuration of staff and volunteers to support our goals. They identified new language to identify this area of ministry focused on the lifelong learning, exploration of spiritual practices, and development of Unitarian Universalist values, and they developed a vision statement for “Lifespan Spiritual Exploration” at UCM. Based on this vision, the ad hoc group identified the ideal staffing scenario to support this vision deciding that a full-time position and additional support staffing is needed to achieve our goals. They developed a description of a “Director of Lifespan Spiritual Exploration” position.

We are so pleased to announce that our current Acting Director of Religious Exploration has accepted the offer to serve in this role beginning in July. We will share more news about this transition, including what it means to transition from “religious education” to “spiritual exploration” as our focus, in the coming months.

Please feel free to share any feedback or questions with Rev. Joan, Liza, or any member of the Executive Team (Jeanne Richardson, Paul Wallace-Brodeur, and Ron Cameron).