After interviewing a number of ministers on Skype (see our last newsletter article for more information about this process), we selected four ministers to become “pre-candidates,” and they all enthusiastically agreed! Kim, as our arranger, began the second series of “arrangements,” which involved hotels and/or B&B’s for the pre-candidates and the search committee members, meals, meeting locations, and transportation. The first series of arrangements included finding four neutral pulpits from which the pre-candidates would preach. Concurrently, Rajiv and Jenn began a series of calls to the pre-candidates’ references. The UUA also sent us summaries about each pre-candidate.
We’ve had two pre-candidating weekends so far, and they were both very successful. These are exciting times for the search committee!
Our “local” meals during the above process are being provided by members of our church, with the organization and delivery done by Carol Pynchon and Natalie Panshin. With two pre-candidating weekends finished as I (Theresa) write this and the meals literally under our belts, we feel very fortunate to be among such wonderful cooks! Our huge thanks for main dishes, salads, bread, and desserts so far go to Natalie Panshin, Jan DeWaters, Stefan Grimberg, Ruth Baltus, Becky Van de Water, Margaret Harloe, and Katherine Brown.
The Search Process
To see where we are in the process, you have several options: (1) you can look at the huge timeline on the wall in the Social Room at church; (2) you can check out the (slightly fancier) timeline online; (3) you can view the entire search process, which began in November 2014, here; and/or (4) you can take copies of our latest updates from the document box next to our bulletin board in the Social Room.
Please contact the Search Committee at our church email address search@uucantonny.org if you have questions.
Jon Montan (chair), Erika Barthelmess, Kim Bouchard, Rajiv Narula, Jenn Whittaker, Theresa Witmer, Pete Wyckoff