Serving Congregations & Ministers

December 2024

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

Important Reminder: UUA Winter Break

The UUA will close for the winter holiday break in the afternoon on 20 December and reopen on 06 January. Settled search applicant names will be released on 02 January, as scheduled.

Welcome Rev. Eric Kaminetzky To Our Team!

Eric Kaminetzky has joined the Transitions Office as the Interim Settled Ministries Director!

He is a graduate of the Meadville Lombard Theological School and has served congregations in North Carolina and Washington State, most recently concluding 14 years serving as the Senior Minister of the Edmonds Unitarian Universalist Congregation.

Eric is a married father of young adult sons who are out in the world, and he and his wife make their home in the Greater Seattle Metro area where they care for their little dogs.

Eric is an occasional musician, playing guitar and violin, and singing when the mood strikes.

He has demonstrated his commitment to Unitarian Universalism and to the Religious Professionals who help bring it to life over the course of decades, and he is excited to help steward the Settled Ministry process of the Transitions Office of the Unitarian Universalist Association as it moves toward new horizons of service and support.

Eric is eager to participate in this year’s search and settlement process, getting to know better the congregations and the ministers who serve them.

For ALL Search Teams

During the fall season, we ask congregations in search to participate in the UUA’s Break Barriers, Build Beliefs (B4) workshop. In that workshop, those who attended learned that the human brain uses bias to simplify life and how we can create harm when we reduce others to a single story. We faced the truth: bias creates barriers between people. We acknowledged that bias can hinder finding a minister with the gifts, skills, and strong interests who will create a beautiful song of shared ministry with you.

We know we cannot unpack our biases through a single workshop. So we must commit to caring and, in so doing, create a place where ministers want to be. Snapping my fingers to the rockin’ version of "Building A New Way” by UUSGU's Virtual Choir* (wow, and play it now!), starting with love as the seed (see the third verse!), here are a few ideas for you:

Use practices that ensure everyone on the Search Team is deeply listened to, knowing everyone brings a depth of experience to serve your congregation in this way.
Ground your team as a team: begin your meetings with seven shared breaths, with eyes closed or simply unfocused, concentrating on hearing your neighbors. Use this with your chalice lighting.
Acknowledge differences of opinion transparently and when they arise, take your time navigating through them.
Each member of the Search Team must remind themself that the gifts and skills your congregation seeks may be held by a minister who does not conform to the story you have about the identity(ies) of a minister. Keep working to free your mind from bias.

Finally, bring your congregation along with you in breaking bias. You might use your Search Update web page and newsletter to write a quick note encouraging members to learn new stories from one another. It will be good practice for listening closely to ministerial candidates and honoring their gifts, skills and interests. Listening to stories also helps prepare congregants for the new stories that will bloom with a new minister.

Blessings during this season. May it be filled with good friends, loving family, tasty food.

*Hymn 1017 is in the teal hymnal. Thank you for sharing your talents, UUSGU musicians - what a great version! UUSGU is the Unitarian Universalist Society of Grafton and Upton, MA.

For CONTRACT Ministry Search Teams

While the deadlines of the settled ministry search process do not apply to you, it is a good idea to approximate the flow of the settled search process as closely as possible.
Remember to indicate if your congregation is offering a multi-year employment agreement in the Position Basics section of your search profile. The default choice in the search system is one year with an option to renew. Most ministers will not relocate for a one-year position, so the flexibility to offer a longer initial term and relocation expense reimbursement can broaden your search beyond local ministers.
Share view-only, working links which do not require access authorization to your draft agreement and change log in the Compensation and Benefits section. These are required for publication.
Once your profile is published, you will receive applications as they come in (except during the UUA holiday break); there is no set time for a batch release of applicant names in the contract search. Please review pages 60-67 in the Transitional Ministry Handbook so you will be ready to receive your applicants and move forward into mutual consideration. Item 22 in the contract ministry search process was added as an update last week to help you decide how to time an offer.
Whenever you could use some support, you may schedule an appointment with Christine Purcell, Congregational Transitions Director, or drop into her Tuesday open office hours from 3:00-5:00 PM Eastern.

For SETTLED Ministry Search Teams

Rest well in December, teams! You've done so much good work to get to this point, and January will bring a flurry of excitement and activity.

Please remember:

Before 19 December, send a link to your search team’s documents packet to Christine Purcell, Congregational Transitions Director: cpurcell@uua.org. This is a requirement for having applicant names released to your team.
You will receive your applicant names on 02 January! Each search team member will receive an automated notification from the search system once the names have been released. Once you have the applicant names and ministerial records, please send an acknowledgement email to each applicant which includes a link to your documents packet.
Whenever you could use some support with your search support, you may schedule an appointment with Christine Purcell or drop into her Thursday open office hours from 3:00-5:00 PM Eastern.

For MINISTERS Who Are Considering Search

The UUA Transitions Team is with you in excitement about the 2025 search cycle! As you update your ministerial record, gather some links to sermons you want to share with search teams, or update your website, here is some information for you to keep in mind:

If you and your household would feel safe in doing do, please think expansively about the geographical possibilities in this search cycle. Good ministry is needed--and happening--in states where our UU shared values do not align with those who prevail in the legislature. Please read as many search profiles as you can and keep an open mind!
We will have 13 congregations in settled ministry search and five congregations in developmental ministry search this search cycle. Search profiles for settled ministries will be published on 02 December. Developmental search profiles will be opened for search teams on or after 01 December, which will cause a placeholder to appear on our jobs board, and will be published on 31 January.
We expect 25+ contract ministry search profiles to be published in December or January, and more, of course, as we enter the season of ministry departure announcements (January to April). Several of the contract search positions will be for multi-year ministries with developmental-style ministry goals or with the hope to move into a call process.
Once you submit your ministerial record to apply for a ministry opportunity, your name and ministerial record will be released to contract search teams within a weekday of your application (except during the UUA holiday break) and to settled search teams on 02 January.
You may contact the UUA Transitions Team for information and support during your search process: transitions@uua.org.

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Transitions Office

24 Farnsworth St, Boston, MA, 02210

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