Cottage Meetings
We’ve now finished 17 Cottage Meetings, which gave us invaluable input from 117 people in our congregation! Thank you to hosts and to all of you who gave your time and energy helping us to gather such important information. From the first meeting at Partridge Knoll to the meeting with the Youth Group, we’ve heard from a great variety of our UUs. All of the data from those meetings is “in,” and we’re currently working to format it so that we can share it with you (in January, according to that huge Timeline on the wall of the Social Room!). Perhaps we’ll be able to have a sneak preview of our findings before that date, but the detailed data from both the Cottage Meetings and the Survey (see below) will come to you in January.
Congregational Survey
Using some of the feedback from the Cottage Meetings, we’ve developed a survey that we’ll be asking you all to fill out. There will be paper copies available on Sunday, October 25, but the easiest way for us to receive and tabulate your responses is for you to take the survey online. We’ll be sending you the survey link soon!
Beyond Categorical Thinking (BCT) Workshop
We invite you to join us for the Beyond Categorical Thinking program, which is designed to promote inclusive thinking and help prevent unfair discrimination in the search process for a new minister. BCT includes a Sunday morning service a with BCT workshop facilitator followed by a three-hour workshop, during which we will all have the opportunity to:
- consider the hopes, expectations, and concerns we have for a new minister
- learn more about the ministerial search process, and
- explore how categorical thinking about people sometimes interferes with choosing the best candidate.
Will you join us? In this crucially important job of selecting a new minister, the BCT workshop presents another opportunity for everyone in our congregation to be a part of that process. This experience will provide guidance for the search committee in our work.
On the Web
We are in the process of getting the Search Committee materials ready for our new church website, and there are two exciting parts to it. The first part is for our congregation where there will be lots of helpful information and links from our Search Committee. The second part is for ministerial candidates and it will contain the all-important search packet, the congregational record, and information about our church. The recent photo session by Tara Freeman will come in very handy in helping candidates visualize how great our church and its people are.
Still don’t feel as if you really know the Search Committee members? Follow these easy steps:
- Check out our photos and brief bios in the Social Room, next to the big Timeline!
- Take a copy of our contact information from the Document Box (next to the Bulletin Board).
- Pick one (or more) of us and send an email or make a phone call to get information on the search.
- Tell the search committee member what your hopes and concerns are and ask questions if you have them.
- The next step is optional but very friendly! Invite us over to your house or to a local establishment for coffee or tea (pie is optional, but always appreciated) and we’ll talk some more!
In addition, you can contact the Search Committee at our church email address: search@uucantonny.org.
Jon Montan (chair), Erika Barthelmess, Kim Bouchard, Rajiv Narula,
Jenn Whittaker, Theresa Witmer, Pete Wyckoff