Serving Congregations & Ministers

October 2025

The UUA Transitions Team is a partnership between Ministries & Faith Development and Congregational Life staff, supporting good matches between congregations and ministers.

In this issue we have news for...

Ministers considering a search
All search teams
Contract search teams with searches that are still open from the 2025 search cycle
Settled search teams
2026 Primetime contract search teams
- INVITATION: Improve your Contract Search Process

Welcome to the first newsletter for the 2026 search cycle! We will send out a newsletter at least once a month, with more and sometimes focused editions before significant deadlines. Our team is eager to help as you prepare for the faithful and exciting work ahead.

Amy Szen, Transitions Administrator: communications, record-keeping, technical assistance
Christine Purcell, Congregational Transitions Director: main support for congregational leaders and search teams
Rev. Eric Kaminetzky, Interim Settled Ministries Director: main support for ministers considering settled or contract-to-call ministry positions
Rev. Patrice Curtis, Transformational Interim Ministries Director: main support for ministers considering or serving in transitional ministries, administers the Break Barriers, Build Beliefs program

If you’re not sure whom to ask for help, you can reach our whole team by emailing transitions@uua.org.

For ministers considering a search:

The seasons turn and it is time to update your Ministerial Record. Even if you went through it last year it would be good to take a moment and think through all that has happened since then. The world is different, and perhaps you are too. Search teams will want to know who you are now and how you are ready to serve at this most important time. To be sure, congregations’ search teams are doing something similar to create their search profiles for you. If you have questions about search, please feel free to reach out to Transitions Team staff. We are here to support you in finding your right next place.

Some tips:

Please plan to join the UUA Transitions Team for our annual search presentation for ministers on 12 December. Check the UUMA newsletter for information and registration.
Please check out the new section of the Ministry Search Handbook for ministers in search (starts on page 24)

For all search teams:

You may have learned that there is a new ministerial agreement available. It is based on the 2025 employment agreement template for settled ministry, but it will work for any type of ministry partnership. Don’t panic! You do not need to use it (though you may) if your negotiating team is working with the ministry template which was available before mid-October. The main difference is that the updated, unified agreement includes a provision for ministers to have two days off per week. Your negotiating team should include this proviso, as ministers are aware that this is the new standard.

The UUA will receive the data we need to provide updated salary guidance for the 2026-2027 church year in the coming days or weeks. We will post updated guidance on the salary guidance web page as soon as we have complete information. If your board or negotiating team is working with 2025-2026 numbers as you plan ahead, you may want to factor in a cost-of-living adjustment to get ahead of the update. Again, don’t panic! Do your sustainable best. If some support or guidance would be useful, don’t hesitate to reach out to our compensation team, comp@uua.org.

Finally, as you work on your compensation package, please be sure to use the compensation worksheet (link to download). The recent news about insurance premium increases will make a difference in your benefits calculations for 2026-2027.

For contract search teams with searches that are still open from the 2025 search cycle:

If your search team has already hired someone, please let us know so we can archive your search and update our records. Even if UUA Transitions Team staff know about possible offers or impending negotiations, we need to receive the following to archive the search and update a congregation’s and minister’s UUA records:

a request to archive the search
the notice of hire form

If your congregation is still seeking a minister for the 2025-2026 congregational year, please keep the start-date in your search profile in the future. You may update the start date in the “Position Basics” section of your search profile. We want to make sure any remaining ministers in search know which positions are still open. Ministers tend to search between December and May for positions which will begin on 01 August, but a few ministers search throughout the church year. We will have the search system archive out-of-date profiles at least once a month between now and the start of the 2026 search cycle in December. An archived search can be reopened at any time by request from the congregation.

We will archive the contract ministry searches from 2025 in December to prepare for the 2026 search cycle. Please see the contract ministry search section of the Ministry Search Handbook (starting on page 70) to learn about the timing of the contract search in 2026. The process and timing have changed to promote greater clarity and an increased number of matches.

If you would like to list a short-term ministry search for a minister to help out for the remainder of the 2025-2026 church year while you are in the 2026 search cycle, please email Christine Purcell.

If you plan to list a contract ministry position in the 2026 Primetime search, please complete this form, if you have not done so already. We can shift your 2025 responses to a 2026 profile so your search team will need to do only light updates before publication in December.

For settled search teams

This is a busy month for you! You are likely sorting through survey responses, hosting congregational listening sessions, and preparing for the B4. Your negotiating team and board are preparing the draft employment agreement. You’ll soon shift from the listening work of the fall to completing the search profile with all you have learned. Once the search profile is complete, in mid-late November, you will share it with your transitional minister and UUA regional staff contact for feedback prior to publication on 02 December.

Here is the settled search calendar to help you keep track of what’s ahead. If you plan well, you will be able to take most of the month of December off as a hard-earned break! Remember to plan for interview times and meetings in January and assemble your documents packet.

Christine Purcell’s open office hours for the settled search are on Thursdays from 3:00-5:00 ET (Zoom link: https://uua.zoom.us/j/91354359680). You may schedule an optional session with her in December, if you like, to prepare for the shift from all the listening and reporting to interaction with applicants and discernment. You may use this link to schedule a December check-in.

For 2026 Primetime contract search teams

Welcome to the first-ever, true search cycle for contract ministry partnerships! Since 2018, we have had an always-open search for contract ministries. With an increasing number of congregations choosing the contract search process as their path to ministry partnership, it is time to introduce more clarity and alignment between the types of search. We received feedback from ministers and search teams alike last cycle who said that a true search cycle for contract ministry would have given them more clarity about when to make or accept offers. We hope that providing a timeline and a ranking/matching process for the contract search will yield more and better matches between congregations and ministers this cycle.

If your congregation is hoping for a contract-to-call ministry, as your search teams and boards create a draft employment agreement this fall, please be sure to discuss the possible timing for exploring a call. Your board and eventual candidate will be able to negotiate the timing for exploring a call as part of finalizing the employment agreement together in April. For example, while the UUA has generally recommended taking a year or two as a purposeful time to be in ministry partnership together before initiating the call process during a contract ministry, a congregation which participated in the settled search last year without finding a match is likely close to ready to call their next minister. It would be good for your search team to be able to discuss the possible timing of exploring a call with top applicants this winter.

INVITATION: Improve your Contract Search Process

Each search cycle, the UUA provides engaging anti-bias training for congregations in settled search. This year, a modified version of the Break Barriers, Build Beliefs training is open to congregations in the contract search!

If you are in contract search, you are invited to attend the online Break Barriers, Build Beliefs (B4) workshop online with other congregations. The workshop asks congregations to consider what biases it has (both conscious and unconscious) around identities that their potential minister may hold. The B4 Workshop incorporates wisdom in the call of the UUA’s report, Widening the Circle of Concern.

The Board, search team and church leadership are strongly invited to attend.

Congregations will have the opportunity to complete the B4 Beliefs survey prior to the workshop and receive results from their congregants. The online link will be sent four weeks prior to Dec.13 at 9am PT/12pm ET, along with text to publicize the link in your newsletter.

Pre-register by 01 November! For more information about this program, please contact Rev. Patrice Curtis.

Resources and support:

Here is the search calendar for the contract search.
You can find detailed process guidance in the Ministry Search Handbook, beginning on page 70.
Christine Purcell’s open office hours for transitional ministry searches are on Tuesdays from 3:00-5:00 ET (Zoom link: https://uua.zoom.us/j/95425414067)