As we begin 2026, your Ministerial Search Team offers deep gratitude for the extraordinary care, time, and participation that have gone into our shared search for our next settled minister.

Over the past months, we have engaged in a meaningful process of listening and reflection with one another—sharing our hopes, our concerns, and our visions for the future. This is only possible through the collective commitment of a congregation willing to participate with honesty, care, and openness. We are grateful for your presence and your thoughtful engagement.

Listening to the Congregation

One of the first milestones in our search process was the Congregational Survey. We invited congregants to participate through conversations at coffee hour, announcements from the pulpit, notes in the Gateway enewsletter, and personal encouragement across our community. You met that invitation with openness and trust, offering perspectives that helped shape the next steps of our work.

In total, 259 people completed the survey, providing valuable insights into our strengths, our challenges, and our aspirations for ministry.

Listening Sessions: Stories, Voices, and Connection

Building on the survey, we hosted Listening Sessions (small-group gatherings designed to go deeper). The Search Team facilitated more than   25 Listening Sessions at UUC, on Zoom, and at Horizon House and Hearthstone.

Almost 200 people participated  across all generations, sharing their time, stories, perspectives, and dreams for the future. Search Team members spent many hours reflecting on themes that emerged across and within generations and experiences. Your responses became a cornerstone of our work, grounding the search process in the lived experiences of our community.

Deepening the Work: B4 Workshop and Survey

In early December, more than 60 congregants took part in the Break Barriers, Build Beliefs (B4) Workshop, led by UUA’s Interim Settled Ministries Director, Rev. Eric Kaminetzky. Many more participated in the accompanying B4 survey. The workshop invited us to reflect on our identities, unconscious bias, and the ways these dynamics can shape a ministerial search.

This work encourages us to open our imaginations to the unique gifts, callings, and identities our next minister might bring. It also demonstrates to potential candidates that UUC is committed to fairness, inclusion, and self-reflection as we seek a new senior minister.

Bringing It All Together: The Congregational Record

All of this listening, reflection, and participation culminated in the creation of our Congregational Record in early December. This is the document ministerial candidates read to discern whether UUC might be a good match for their gifts and call.

The Search Team spent many hours synthesizing survey results and Listening Session themes into a record that is honest, nuanced, and truly reflective of who we are. Because of the time and care the congregation put into this process, the record tells a story that is rich, authentic, and grounded in shared experience.

We submitted the Congregational Record to the UUA in November, and it was officially published for candidates to review in early December.

Looking Ahead with Hope

The Search Team began learning the names of ministers who have expressed interest in UUC on Friday, January 2. A key agreement within the search process is confidentiality. We will interview and evaluate applicants over the coming months, but we cannot divulge any details about them. We will present our final selected candidate to the congregation during Candidating Week (tentatively scheduled for April 12-19). In March we will release the schedule of events for Candidating Week, including opportunities for you to meet the final candidate and hear them speak at our Sunday services.

The Search Team is grateful to every person who filled out a survey, attended a Listening Session, participated in the B4 workshop, shared their thoughts, asked hard questions, and trusted the process. This has truly been congregational work, and we are deeply grateful to be doing it together.

To learn more about what we heard, you can read our summaries of the Congregational Survey and Listening Sessions and see the slides presented by the Search Team during the January 4, 2026 worship service. You can view a video (below) of that January 4 presentation. (These resources are also available on our Ministerial Search page for future reference.)

With gratitude and anticipation,

~UUC Ministerial Search Team