As your Board of Trustees, we are charged with guiding and safeguarding UUCC in the context of its mission to embody Love in Action.

The Interim Appraisal Process, with its prioritization of goals, town hall, and listening sessions, has been really helpful to us in understanding the best way to support our mission as we prepare to call a settled minister. 

In April 2025, after careful deliberation, the Board voted to extend Rev. Lisa’s term from two years to three.   

The reason for us choosing this path is to better position ourselves to hire a settled minister. To be successful, UUCC must first address three major factors: (1) financial uncertainty, (2) increased volunteer needs, and (3) the continuing impact of the national political climate.

Our deliberations have been influenced by the unusual times we are living in. Events since August when Rev. Lisa first arrived, some expected and some unexpected, have affected every aspect of our mission. As we embody love in action (for our members, our community, the country and the world), the current situation calls for extra focus on nurturing spirits within our community, the need to build community among ourselves and locally, and to act for justice while it is under deep threat. This adds to the usual work of the interim period in which we work together to know ourselves collectively as a community, to reflect on who we want to become, and what difference we want to make. 

Below, we offer details intended to provide transparency and clarity regarding the factors that led to our decision, as well as some FAQs. As always, we are available for questions and conversation. 

With gratitude, your Board of Trustees

Laurie Coltri, President 
Regina Verow, 1st Vice President 
Steve Parr, 2nd Vice President 
Meagan Lopes, Secretary 
Lorien Haavik, Treasurer 
Pamela Henry, At-Large 
Becky Reese, At-Large
Alex Horn, Youth Member At-Large 

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Detailed Rationale 

1. Financial Uncertainty 

To call a settled minister that best fits our needs, we need to strengthen our financial foundation, and project our financial stability to ministerial candidates. We cannot achieve this goal in time to call a settled minister next year.   

To better understand why, here is the timeline that would have to be followed if we were to adhere to a 2-year Interim Ministry: 

• Right now: Recruit a ministerial search committee from the congregation.  The committee would be confirmed at the June 1 annual meeting and begin its work in earnest in the summer and fall, extending through spring 2026. 
• Early next fall: Gather information, including financial information, to create a congregational profile. This profile is used by the UUA to give information to prospective candidates for settled ministry. Candidates use the information to decide whether UUCC might be a good fit. The final draft is due November 1. 
• Winter 2025-26: Prospective candidates interview and visit the congregation. The congregation pays expenses of travel for weeklong site visits for the leading candidate. 
• Early spring 2026: A candidate is selected.  Often, the candidate must relocate, and our budget for the upcoming year would also need to reflect reimbursement for costs. 

This timeline will not work for us, due to financial challenges that won’t be resolved at least until next spring 2026.

The Building Loan

We have a building loan that, in April 2026, comes due as a $1.1M balloon payment.  We’ve been paying it down at $8,200 monthly, and refinancing will likely mean bigger payments, because our original loan was made at a time of very low interest rates. The rate of inflation is an unknowable variable, but indications are that the actions of the federal government may produce additional inflation that would make the size of our loan payments even bigger. 

Rest assured, efforts to address the situation are already underway. A Balloon-Buster Task Force is being formed to recommend ways to lessen or even eliminate this loan. We expect the process of dealing with the loan to take nearly a year and require additional volunteer efforts. The outcome could mean a swing of over $100,000 annually in our pledging needs, about 16% of our current pledge base. We will not know the impact of the effort until next April.

The Restructure of the Owen Brown Interfaith Center Staff (OBIC)

OBIC is the corporation that manages our building, of which UUCC owns 90%, along with CUMC, the Methodist Congregation, which owns the other 10%.   

The OBIC board has hired an executive director. The position is new — previously there was a building manager, assistant building manager, and custodial staff. The new OBIC executive director is tasked with creating, revising, or maintaining policies/procedures, increasing rental income, handling deferred maintenance, and more. This includes understanding accountability relationships between UUCC and OBIC as well as possible recruitment of new renters and/or a third owner.  

In addition, the Cradlerock Children’s Center, OBIC’s big tenant downstairs who has been paying below-market rent, is planning to leave, possibly some time next fall. This could mean some immediate loss of rent, but the opportunity to raise revenue by right-sizing the rent. 

Right now, UUCC spends over $15,000 monthly supporting OBIC (almost 24% of our pledge base), and this figure could go up or down, depending on what happens at OBIC. 

In short, UUCC is in the midst of major financial uncertainties. Without knowing the effects of the balloon payment and the changes at OBIC, it’s impossible to predict what kind of compensation package we could offer to ministerial candidates — and our congregational profile given to the UUA would reflect uncertainties that would damage our ability to call an ideal settled minister. With the OBIC and loan situations more settled, we will be in a much better position to attract the right candidate. 

2. Increased Volunteer Needs 

This year is also not an ideal time to add a Ministerial Search Committee. The search committee will have a substantial workload. And so will the Balloon-Buster Task Force and related efforts. The Executive Director Transition was not expected as part of the interim period and has taken time and bandwidth from staff and various volunteers. Onboarding Laurice Grae will eliminate the extra load, but it will not be immediate. And another reason our volunteers will be stretched: activating and energizing the Conflict Management Ministry. 

Congregational Conflict and the Conflict Management Ministry

As many of you know, UUCC had a conflict that flared up in 2019. Similar conflicts over similar issues erupted across liberal religious congregations in the USA around the same time; and our story, while having its own flavor, is not unique. 

Our listening sessions this spring have indicated a sense of unfinished-ness with the conflict, and we want to thank those who attended these sessions for giving us this insight.   

Conflict is normal, and some conflicts don’t come to a complete end, and it’s important for the community as a whole to get to a sense of closure and of being in covenant, and of having a path back to equilibrium when conflict happens. Supporting people through a conflict is a community responsibility and needs a community effort. 

Rev. Lisa and the Board have recognized this need, recommending that we prioritize activating and breathing energy into the Conflict Management Ministry. We need time — and a strong, continuing volunteer effort — to make that happen. We believe that this will mean a more stable and invigorated congregation, and one that ministerial candidates will be more eager to partner with. 

In short, UUCC needs to pay attention to the burden being placed on its volunteers. To call a settled minister in 2026 would require the congregation to elect a search committee this coming June, which means recruiting right now. It will be a very busy group, spending lots of time and sweat equity. With the Balloon Buster and Conflict Management Ministry efforts also underway, we would be very stretched for volunteers.

3. Impact of the National Political Climate 

Even in ordinary times, it would be an uphill battle to handle all these critical actions. But in this very difficult time in the United States. Our congregants, especially those children and adults who are marginalized, are particularly vulnerable. Within our congregation, there are dozens upon dozens of people whose livelihoods are at risk. There is financial uncertainty for everyone’s savings, which is especially challenging for retirees.  

Our needs for rest, self-care, mutual support, and pastoral care are greater. We need to tap out, take breaths, pause more often, and take more time to help one another. We also have bigger responsibilities to actively work for justice, in these times when so many and so much are under threat. 

So we on the Board also see a need to slow down a little. We are a community that works to affirm and support human needs — that is, essentially, how we embody Love in Action.  We want to move steadily forward, but not overtax and deplete ourselves. Rev. Lisa has shown herself to be quite adept in this pastoral art of balancing. 

In Conclusion 

These are the reasons the Board concluded that we should extend Rev. Lisa’s term. We believe that the strength of these reasons and the quality of our deliberations make this decision an asset to our quest for a settled minister. 

We expect a variety of reactions to this decision. Some of you may feel supportive, some disappointed, and others may be indifferent. These feelings may shift as you process the information. They did for us on the Board.   

We will be available after worship at the Board corner in sanctuary B, to answer questions and talk, and you can chat us up any week after service. And we are posting this message online here too, so you can pose questions and offer your thoughts. 

It is our honor to serve you as your Board of Trustees, and to strive always to embody Love in Action. Thank you, beloved congregation, for your trust, and for all you do to support UUCC.

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