ArtVenture Chicago

My ministry  has never been about me, nor about doing things that would sound  impressive if I told people or wrote them down. My ministry is about  leaving things better for the generations that will follow us. Also, I do not expect that I will “fix” much on my own, nor in a brief period of time. I believe ministry and social work are cumulative. Our individual efforts may seem small.  But we are each contributing to a greater whole which is adding up to a more loving and enlightened world.

When I was a little girl, our next-door neighbor, an older woman named Margaret Sommers, was very kind and attentive to me, to my family, and even to our cat. Margaret let me pick flowers and climb trees in her yard, which stretched behind our house. One day I asked my mother what  Margaret did for work, since she both drove off to places in her little blue car, and worked in a study at home. My mother said that Margaret  was a Christian Science Practitioner. She explained that, when people  were ill, or troubled, they would call Margaret. She would listen to  them, and talk with them, and maybe pray with them, and read to them  from the Bible or other helpful words, in the hope that they would feel  better. I have now been a parish minister for over ten years, consecutively, successfully, and enjoyably. I would imagine that what  people will remember most about my ministry is my being loving toward children, animals, and people who are somehow on the margins; listening  to people and sharing comforting and hopeful words from many sources with them; and my meditations and prayers. Had I not known Margaret  Sommers, I may never have imagined that, as a woman, I could be a parish minister. But following in her footsteps, I have seen, by her example, which held gentleness, strength, and good humor, that there is no reason a woman cannot do this work.

Another clear memory from my childhood is the folk music of the 1960s which I  felt was calling me, and all of us, to work together to create a world  that is more peaceful, beautiful, and loving.  Also at an early age, my parents told me that I was a Unitarian Universalist, that they met at  the Arlington Street Church in Boston and were married by the Rev. Dana Greeley, and that my grandmother was a Universalist in rural Maine. I  would have said then that they raised us not to be hypocritical-- to  strive to make what we do match what we say we believe and value. I now  phrase that in a more positive way: to be Unitarian Universalists is to strive to live a life of integrity and authenticity.

As a young adult, I read Rabbi Harold Kushner’s book, When Bad Things  Happen to Good People. I was fascinated by his statements that many people have a relationship with a god they are very angry at or  unrealistically guilt-ridden in the face of, and that religion should make people feel, not worse, but better. His book showed me that conversations about that which is divine and about grief could result in people developing a spiritual outlook which is more healthy and whole.

Also as a young adult, I worked for several summers on Star Island, a UU camp and conference center off the coast of Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  The UU principles and sources were not yet written at that time. But on  Star we were living them in a covenanted UU community as we worked and  played and worshipped together.

My first sense of a calling to become a Unitarian Universalist minister  was not until after I worked for several years doing theatre, then more  years as a litigation paralegal in Portland, Maine. I became a member and a lay leader of First Parish UU of Portland; my niche became coordinating volunteers for a monthly soup kitchen. I was asked to lead a summer service. I expected doing so would feel much like giving a  secular presentation. To my surprise, I felt a profound sense that I and all of us can be a vehicle for a greater wisdom and a higher good. I began taking evening classes at Bangor Theological Seminary’s Portland campus.  Eventually, I moved to Bangor and completed my Master of Divinity
degree, internship, and chaplaincy training in May of 2001.

While taking seminary classes, I worked for an agency called Residential Resources of Maine. We assisted adults who have some disabilities, but also remarkable gifts and graces. The residents had lived in an  institution called Pineland, which was closing. We helped them move to  their own home and to have full community lives. The adults I worked  with were
blind, needed assistance walking, and did not speak in words.  That work experience taught me that, even when we cannot fix a person’s situation of hardship, we can be a helpful, supportive presence, and also learn so much from the people we serve.

After completing seminary, I began serving as the minister of the UU church  of Winchendon, Massachusetts. My early months in Winchendon were  defined by the ministry I did in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.  I spoke at a community vigil and was a chaplain on the street, as it were, listening to people’s fears, questions, and insights.  Our church hosted a monthly lecture and discussion series on issues of war and  peace, including how these issues affect children, parents, and caretakers. Though it is always uncomfortable to benefit from a tragic situation, our church received wide recognition and good will for our  strong, caring, and pluralistic response.  I am very proud of all the  ways the leadership and I worked together during my seven-year ministry  there. We made the church a stronger, healthier, more sustainable  institution.

My position here at UUCFW is my fourth Interim Ministry. I have also served as Interim Minister of the UU Church of Pittsfield, Maine (while I was in seminary), and First Unitarian Church of South Bend, Indiana, and the UU Fellowship of Fredericksburg, Virginia last year. Interim  Ministers provide all the usual parish ministry services, as well as  “hold a mirror up” to all aspects of a congregation’s life at this point in its history.  We help the congregation acknowledge and name its past griefs and conflicts; its current identity, strengths, needs, and  challenges; and prepare it for a new long-term, settled minister. I love being an Interim Minister!  It keeps my life spicy. I get to live  in fascinating lovely new places-- I get to meet new people who care  fiercely about their congregation’s past, present, and dreams for the future-- And I get to work alongside them on making sure their congregation will have a long rich life after we are gone-- for the  generations who will need our progressive values, pluralistic worship  and religious education for all ages, and our informed lively debates.