UPDATE: Dear Beloved East Shore Community,
On December 2nd we published our 70+ page Congregational Record to the congregation, and on December 4th the Search Committee joined the Board Listening Meeting to hear members’ thoughts. While we were gratified to hear so many folks share their general appreciation for the Record, we were also grateful for those who shared their reactions to the specific responses. One response in particular struck several of those who came as having an inaccurate and biased narrative about a past event at East Shore. This was on page 52 of the Record in response to the question “Ways the congregation handles conflicted situations”. Those same folks also expressed being hurt by reading this part of the Report.
The Search Committee met and determined that the passage in question was problematic. Specifically, we agreed that it had a factual error. In addition, on rereading the passage with new perspective, we agreed that it should have been written in a more representative and neutral manner. We decided that the passage needn’t have been so specific in the first place.
Here is the corrected version (now on pages 53-54) in the Congregational Record.
While we remain confident of the Congregational Record as a whole, the Search Committee regrets publishing our original response to that question, and we apologize for the hurt that it caused some of our members. We have retracted the original response and improved the Congregational Record to more truly represent East Shore. We wish to thank the Right Relations facilitators who have supported us and some of the aggrieved to stay in community and hear each other’s truths.
We, as a Search Committee, remain as excited as ever about the future that lays ahead. In January we will be reviewing applicants and beginning the three-month selection process for our hoped-for future settled minister. As always, you are welcome to email us at [email protected] .
Sincerely, East Shore Ministerial Search Committee: Dave Baumgart, Martin Cox, Leta Hamilton, Julie Heise, Connie Hirnle, Ann Fletcher, David Langrock.
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On December 2nd, the UUA (UUA is Unitarian Universalist Association, a support organization which all recognized UU congregations belong to) approved our Congregational Record. It is a report that every congregation seeking a new settled Minister must build. The record is based on over 60 prompts provided by the UUA. Among these prompts, some required straight-forward responses, such as the names and positions of our staff and board. However, most of them required a great deal of research, compilation and editing.
And so, the team spent many dozens of hours in November to put it together. In some cases, we solicited input on historical and operational areas from the board and staff. But in the majority of the cases we summarized specific aspects of what we learned about the congregation. Specifically, our aspirations, accomplishments, joys, concerns, needs, reasons for being here and desires for growth. For these, we consulted all of our findings from the Congregational Survey, the Cottage Meetings, the Beyond Categorical Thinking workshops, and Focus Groups.
In the end, the completed Congregational Record is roughly 70 pages long! We submitted it to the UUA during Thanksgiving week and we have the pleasure now to share it with you.
On December 4 at 10am, many members of the Ministerial Search Committee will be on hand at the Monthly Board Listening Session to hear your thoughts feedback on the Congregational Record. You can find the zoom link for that meeting on Members Portal page.