Many thanks to all who attended Sunday’s meeting. Thanks to those who wrote to share concerns, appreciation, hopes, ideas, and questions about our recently announced music ministry leadership transition. Change is hard, even when necessary. We want to make space for your grief or whatever you are feeling at this moment. We know some are feeling surprised and upset, in part, because they don’t have all the facts.

We will continue to make space for an open exchange of information and to give you all the accurate details that we can. If we don’t know something, we’ll tell you. If we can’t share something, we’ll tell you why. All of this is part of navigating conflict in productive ways.

We’re working towards a church where its programs and ministries – and staff – all work together to serve the church’s mission and vision. This includes a multi-generational music ministry that serves the choir community and the congregation as a whole. In a healthy church, its programs and ministries work towards common goals and the common good.

In a Unitarian Universalist congregation, leadership is shared between ministers who are called by the congregation and members of the board who are elected by the congregation. Mindful of our shared authority and responsibility, the Executive Team is regularly in consultation with the Board about significant decisions. Occasionally, our policies and bylaws require the Board’s authorization for the Executive Team to act in major decisions.

The recent decision that it was time for a change in the leadership of our music program was not made in haste or in isolation. Members of the Board have heard updates, provided counsel, and considered and supported a broad range of interventions to promote resolution in this specific matter, over several years and involving multiple ministers. The Board respects and authorized the decision.

We have collectively held a great deal of uncertainty and change over the last several years. And very candidly, the strain of that has highlighted some of our historical institutional weaknesses, especially when it comes to supporting trusting, supportive, and transparent relationships among our staff and professional and lay leaders. Many of those challenges exist within patterns of distrust and division that have been decades in the making.

Anyone entering this space as our senior minister two years ago was inheriting this challenge already underway. The senior minister and the whole executive team have been working with our leaders here and with outside professional resources to see if we could find a way forward. This has included working with the Rev. Carlton Elliot Smith, our UUA western regional lead, and Annie Scott, our local UUA regional staff support. We’ve consulted a range of support professionals and explored and offered numerous avenues for restoration and resolution.

These consultations and other deliberative processes that were undertaken led to findings and recommendations that have been and will be closely followed, including taking certain steps and engaging with learning and development goals for all of us — from the senior minister and executive team to the full staff, and from the Board of Trustees to other groups of lay leaders. Among these goals, we want you to know that we, the Board and the Executive Team, have heard clearly the need to help support restoration, repair, and resolution for these strains within our staff system and within our broader congregational community.

We sought to begin that collective work of healing and repair with last Sunday’s listening session, and will continue that work with intention and additional supporting resources throughout this summer.

We invite everyone into this work – challenging and difficult, but ultimately hopeful – of healing and holding together as a faith community grounded in love. We believe and trust that what we learn will ultimately lead to a stronger foundation for all our shared programs and ministries to be able to thrive.

In faith,

Ryan Deibert, Moderator of the Board of Trustees
Rev. Alison Miller, Senior Minister
Rev. Tom Disrud, Associate Minister