UUA Transitions Team
Newsletter
Serving Congregations & Ministers
November 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...
- All search teams
- Extending "Break Barriers, Build Beliefs"
- Ministers considering or deciding to search in this season
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For all search teams:
With the first day of search profile publication coming up on 02 December, most of you must be so busy! Regional staff and Christine Purcell, the Congregational Transitions Director, have begun receiving search profiles for review. So far, we’ve been deeply impressed with the work that has gone into these profiles!
Here are the main considerations at this busy time in the search cycle:
- Complete your search profile in the MinistrySearch system.
- Make sure to include the link to your board-approved draft employment agreement with changes tracked or with a separate change log in the benefits and compensation section of your search profile.
- Ask your primary contact on regional staff and your current minister for feedback on the profile
- To share your profile with a minister, click “complete record,” click “preview,” then use the print options to generate a PDF
- Regional staff can access the profile in the search system after you click “complete record” and submit the record for publication. They may have some suggestions for you, or they may let you know that the profile reflects their understanding of your ministry and does a good job explaining who your congregation is and the kind of partner you’re seeking.
- If you need a bit more time to put the finishing touches on your search profile, it’s okay! Settled search profiles published in the first week of December and contract search profiles published by February will be available to potential applicants in plenty of time.
- Work on your supplemental documents packet for required and optional items which you will begin sharing with applicants on and after 02 January. Please share a link to this folder with Christine Purcell (cpurcell@uua.org), even if the folder is not yet complete.
- Plan for meetings and reserve times for interviews in January. Those in contract searches may have new applicants into February and March, but settled search teams will receive all of their applications in early January and will need to move quickly in the first three weeks of the new year.
- You may download some sample interview questions HERE.
- Your transitional minister would be a great partner for a mock interview!
- Settled search teams may schedule an optional Zoom session with Christine Purcell in December to review the discernment phase of the search process: https://calendly.com/uua-cpurcell/search-committee-check-ins
May you all have some quality down-time in December before the excitement of interacting with applicants begins in January! |
Extending "Break Barriers, Build Beliefs:
If your congregation hosted a B4 workshop and you had congregants who did not attend, they are invited to join members from other congregations for a 2.5 hour version on Dec.13 at 9am PT/12pm ET. Register by Monday, December 8. Promotional materials are available HERE. |
For Ministers considering or deciding to search this season:
- Please review and complete your Ministerial Record (MR)
- If you have not been in search since 2017 you will find that the MR is different and more comprehensive. Please set aside time to fill it out and/or update your MR
- Please review the latest version of the Ministry Search Handbook, updated in June of 2025 - https://www.uua.org/files/2025-06/Ministry_Search_Handbook.pdf. There is a section just for searching ministers which begins on page 24.
- Please plan to participate in the annual overview of the search process hosted by the UUMA and presented by the UUA Transitions Team, with special guest speakers who searched in the 2025 cycle. Registration is in the UUMA newsletter and on the events calendar.
- Please feel free to reach out to the Transitions Team for questions, concerns, and a listening ear as you consider your ministerial future. You can reach us all at transitions@uua.org
- Patrice Curtis, Transformational Interim Ministries Director
- Christine Purcell, Congregational Transitions Director
- Eric Kaminetzky, Interim Settled Ministries Director
- Amy Szen, Transitions Office Administrator
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With you all the way,
Transformational Interim Ministries Director
Interim Settled Ministry Director
Congregational Transitions Director
Transitions Administrator |
Transitions Office
24 Farnsworth St, Boston, MA, 02210 |
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