From the UUC Ministerial Search Team

After nearly a year of discernment—including dialogue with the UUC community about our needs, hopes, and aspirations, preparation of a comprehensive UUC search package, and review of twenty ministerial applicants—your UUC Ministerial Search Team enthusiastically recommends that the Reverend Jeremiah Kalendae, M. Div. be called as our next Senior Minister!

For the past seven years, Rev. Jeremiah Kalendae has been the lead minister  at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Santa Monica (UUSM), where they were  called to do a 5 year developmental ministry and then asked to stay an extra 2 years. They were responsible for worship, spiritual leadership, pastoral care, congregational programs, and social justice activism, guiding the community through a transformative period of developmental ministry. Rev. Jeremiah also serves in the greater Los Angeles area as Vice President of the Santa Monica Area Interfaith Council and as a member of the UCLA Medical Center’s Ethics Committee.  

Prior to Rev. Jeremiah’s ministry at UUSM, they have been a parish and community minister in the San Francisco Bay area. They were also an adjunct faculty member at the Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley, where they taught courses on transreligious theology and philosophy as well as anti-racist and counter-oppressive social change.

Rev. Jeremiah’s educational accomplishments include:  they received their Master of Divinity degree in theology and philosophy from the Starr King School for the Ministry; their Master of Science in Social Administration (Social Work; Mandel Scholar, 2004) degree with a concentration in Nonprofit Management from Case Western Reserve University, and a Bachelor of Science degree (magna cum laude), from Baldwin-Wallace University.

Reverend Jeremiah completed an advanced Clinical Residency in Spiritual Care at the Cleveland Clinic, a Parish Internship at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, and a Killam Fellowship at the First Unitarian Church of Cleveland.

Your ministerial search team is so excited for you to meet the Rev. Jeremiah, a candidate whom we have already grown to love as we have experienced and envisioned the many ways in which they may partner with us in our future ministry at University Unitarian Church.  UUC members told us that a few characteristics were particularly important in our next senior minister—let us share a few highlights from our discernment which has led us to wholeheartedly recommend the Rev. Jeremiah.

An inspiring and collaborative worship leader. Your search team has experienced the Rev. Jeremiah as a minister of tremendous spiritual depth, attuned to—and fluent in—the wisdom of the myriad faiths represented within our church community and in the broader Seattle community. His preaching has inspired us, touched our hearts, and stretched our minds, as we have listened to many worship services and sermons online and experienced hours of conversation and an in-person Vespers service during our weekend together six weeks ago. Besides inspiring preaching, it is clear to us that Rev. Jeremiah is committed to a worship and music experience which is relevant to the moment, accessible to everyone in the community, and born from the joyful collaborative efforts of many ministerial and lay leaders.

A minister who can help us become the UU social justice leaders we aspire to be.  Rev. Jeremiah is committed to a model for social justice action which is informed by our UU values—and our reality—as a religious community, among many other religious communities, within a larger secular (not always religious) city and regional community. Rev. Jeremiah sees the power, and commits their energy, to building relationships in the community—particularly interfaith relationships—so that we UUs may influence the direction of social justice in our community, make influential public witness, multiply our moral authority, and benefit from the wisdom, energy, and experience of our siblings in faith. Note again Rev. Jeremiah’s current role as a vice president of the interfaith council in southern California.

A grounded, skilled, and collaborative administrative leader.  Rev. Jeremiah’s most recent ministry—a developmental ministry—has required a wide variety of organizational and administrative skills:  staff hiring and leadership, Board navigation and collaboration, and lay leadership development to name just a few. These talents have been particularly important in the developmental ministry setting: their congregation established a comprehensive set (i.e., long list!) of ministry goals in order to resolve some important challenges. With Rev. Jeremiah’s collaborative leadership those goals were met. Your search team has come to see the tremendous value that Rev. Jeremiah’s developmental ministry experience may have for us as our community discerns our current priorities and how to move forward with purpose into our next chapter of shared ministry.

A minister able to connect with, inspire and energize, and care for our intergenerational community. Rev. Jeremiah has shown particular care for the inevitable variety of needs which church members have as they navigate life’s ages and stages. Rev. Jeremiah not only has broad parish ministry experience, but also specific experience in member care and religious education for members of all ages. His current parishioners, and we ourselves in the weekend we shared with him, have found Rev. Jeremiah to be a sensitive and caring listener, a deep—yet accessible—thinker, a wise teacher, a clear communicator, and a collaborative spirit. One of the members of the search team commented: “not only can I see Rev. Jeremiah as my senior minister, but I can see them as my personal spiritual advisor.”

Your search team could say so much more, but instead we will pause, and invite you to come and meet Rev. Jeremiah for yourselves during Candidating Week at UUC, which is coming up April 19-26. Rev. Jeremiah will lead worship on both Sunday, April 19 and Sunday April 26 (note, just one 10 a.m. service on the 26th, as we will have an important—voting—congregational meeting following that service!), and there will be several meetings and forums throughout the week for all members to participate in, including a potluck dinner Friday evening.

Your ministerial search team—and Rev. Jeremiah himself—are so excited to see you during Candidating Week as we look forward to an exciting new time of ministry together!

Your UUC Ministerial Search Team

Steve Carlson, Sallie Dacey, Rosemary Daszkiewicz, Greta Essig, Laurie Mann, Roberta Ray, and Michelle Vaughan

If you have additional questions, please send an email to ministerialsearchteam@uuchurch.org, ask a search team member when you see them, or reach out to Morgan Sherwood, our Member Engagement Coordinator, in the UUC church office.