Thank You

How can I thank you all for your well wishes, your kind words, your presence, your good food and all of your contributions to my 25^th year celebration at North Parish?! The party on Saturday and the service on Sunday were a wonderful celebration and I do truly feel honored, humbled, happy and loved. It takes two to tango, so much appreciation flows from me back to all of you- for ALL you have done, sacrificed and created over the past 25 years- for North Parish and also for my ability to stay here for a quarter century.  Long term ministries aren’t always the right thing for a congregation, but they do lend a certain stability which I believe allows a congregation to take more risks in other ways. They can offer historical knowledge, a long term vision and a deepening trust that can support a congregation taking its next steps on the path of love.

There are so many stories packed into 25 years. This past weekend, I shared a few about those very first days; for those of you who were away, here they are:

• My strategizing to convince the UUA Settlement Office to even put my name on the list of “potentials” for North Parish; my name was added- the very last one.
• The fact that my phone interview from Michigan wasn’t so great, but since I was coming out east to do a wedding anyway, the Search Committee agreed to meet with me.
• Lois Fisher, like a true New Englander, telling the waitress to put her dinner leftovers “in the soup” at the first meal the Search Committee and I had together.
• The junior youth group kids screaming in the background during my fall interview because they were rehearsing the Haunted House- and how familiar and reassuring that was to me.
• Later, a young Ned Toomey leading RE kids in a protest march about the grown-ups “firing” the interim minister and bringing me in. A good sign!
• A young Kayla Villalobos and her mom dropping by chocolate chip cookies during my candidating week. Another good sign!
• Dana Fisher leading me all the way up the steeple even though I had high heels on for the interview, and my gratitude for passing that “test”.
• Again, Lois Fisher, likely in her 80’s, doing tai chi in front of the whole congregation to gather up positive energy before the vote to call me as minister.
• The people, not the impressive Meeting House, convincing me that if I came, I wouldn’t have to be a “picture perfect” minister but just a human one. (And that we would laugh!)

Kathy Stevens reminded me this weekend that the vote was unanimous, although I recall there were two dissenting votes that were sent in or something. Kathy said that, at the time, “We told you it was unanimous, and you said, ‘Well that’s unrealistic.’”  Some things about our personalities don’t change much!

I was 31 and single when I arrived, the first female minister in 354 years. In that first decade, my wedding and two kids’ dedications would be held in the Meeting House. I would later go through a divorce and end up raising my kids as a co-parent, a future I certainly had not wanted or foreseen. The congregation did not pry. Back in 1999, the UUA experts had told the Search Committee that mine would likely be a 6 to 8 year ministry. But since no one had told me that, I just kept going.

I suspect there is still some small part of me that wants to believe I have some control over what happens in my life and in the life of the congregation. This sabbatical will be a good exercise in letting go of that delusion! While I believe strongly in human agency and do not believe in predestination, there is so much that is out of our control, as I say to parents during a child dedication. I tell them, “To become a parent requires a great leap of faith and love…”  The same is true for congregations who call ministers, and the ministers who respond to those calls.

Thank you for leaping with me!
Yours, Rev. Lee