In the Interim – Settled Minister Search

As a 12-year FP member, I’ve contributed to the Giving First committee, Harvest Moon Festival, Ferry Beach, and a covenant group. I’ve steadily participated in RE, moving from teacher to RE Committee to RE Committee chair. My roles as spouse and mother contribute to my engagement with FP and its meaning to me. Professionally, I’m a systems thinker, skilled facilitator, and team player. I hope to assist the community in this role and approach this collaborative and deliberative work with curiosity and a desire to bring all voices into the conversation.

I have been a member of First Parish since 2016, drawn in by the warmth and depth of this community. Over the years, I have found my home here through Covenant Groups, the music program, and community gatherings — from Harvest Moon Fair and stewardship lunches to potluck dinners and board game afternoons. Organized and thoughtful by nature, I bring strong facilitation skills and a genuine care for First Parish’s future to this role. I am honored to be considered for the Search Committee and committed to helping this congregation find the right settled minister for the next chapter of our shared journey.

I have attended First Parish with my husband, John, and our children, Megan and Conard, since 2010. I have taught religious education classes, convened a covenant group, served as a worship associate, worked with the Racial Justice Coordinating Committee and the Reckoning & Repair Working Group, and served on and chaired the Membership Committee. I believe in the beloved community we at First Parish aspire to build here and in our larger world. I believe in the love at the center of our shared lives;  I seek to ground our work in that love.

I want to serve on the Settled Minister Search Committee because First Parish is central to my life and spirit. I hope to help find a minister who can support our spiritual lives and weave together our wonderfully diverse community. I arrived in 2007 during a difficult chapter and found a place where doubt is welcomed, faith is explored, and connection truly matters. Over the years, I’ve chaired the Parish Committee, lay ministry, and stewardship, and washed windows, pulled weeds, and chopped onions. I’m nourished by our music, Lectio Divina, and lives shared. I listen deeply and ask grounded questions, and bring humility and a long-term view to this search.

First Parish has been at the center of my family’s life since my wife, Sara, and I started attending with our two daughters more than 30 years ago. I’ve sung in the choir, played violin in the sanctuary and the courtyard, led the Harvest Moon Fair sanctuary cleanup crew, taught OWL, and served on many committees—recently, worship associates and Rev. Erica’s search committee. As an author and journalist, my work involved interviewing people, gauging credentials, studying documents and communicating what I learned; I also moderated panels and facilitated public conversations. I’m excited to be retiring this summer, and looking forward, if elected, to committing wholeheartedly to the joyful task of helping choose our next minister!

I came to First Parish in 2011 as an RE second grader. When I became a member at seventeen, I was chaplain of FP’s youth group and served on the UUA Board of Trustees as a representative of our faith’s vibrant youth communities. Now I teach RE, recently graduated with a religious studies bachelors, and I’m starting at Harvard Divinity School in the fall. I want to give back to this community, which helped raise me. If elected, I’d bring the perspective of a former FP RE student and a current UU seminarian to the committee, along with a deep investment in the futures of First Parish and our larger faith.

I am excited to be considered for the Settled Minister Search Committee. If elected, I believe I would bring insight into our community’s needs, inquisitiveness about potential candidates, a spirit of collaboration and a willingness to listen. Over 10 years at First Parish, my experience has touched many parts of our community. Some highlights: singing in the choir, speaking from the pulpit, leading the time for all ages, teaching RE, and serving on the ministerial intern search and advisory committees. I look forward to a new settled minister guiding us through the next chapter in First Parish’s long history.