Committee Enthusiastically Names Erin Splaine

March 27, 2010

Dear Members and Friends of FUSN:

A little over a year ago, we, the members of the Ministerial Search Committee, stood before the congregation and covenanted that we would present FUSN with a candidate to serve as our next settled minister only if we were enthusiastic about that candidate. We then spent the next several months getting to know each other, and getting to know what the congregation wanted in our next minister. We held dinners last summer that were attended by over 100 people at which we asked FUSNites what their priorities were in a new minister. We also held meetings in September with many congregants who were unable to attend the summer dinners. We conducted a formal on-line survey of FUSN members and friends, and made the results of that survey available on the FUSN website. In October, we wrote our congregational record, a statement about who we are and what we wanted in a minister, because while there are many wonderful ministers in our denomination, we wanted someone who was a good fit for us. We also assembled a packet of information about FUSN that many congregants have read on the FUSN website.

We devoted from November through early March reviewing expressions of interest in our Society from over thirty ministers from around the country. After reviewing the records of these ministers, we decided to exchange packets–more materials–with sixteen of them whom we wanted to learn more about. Based on our review of those packets, we narrowed the field further and conducted hour-plus long telephone interviews with nine ministers. From among those nine, we decided to spend several week-ends from 6:00 p.m. on Friday until 1:30 p.m. on Sunday getting to know four individuals—no, we didn’t have them all together at once—and hearing them preach at a UU church in the Boston area. We called over twenty-five references on our finalists. During this process, we consulted regularly with our Interim Minister, John Nichols, and with the Director of Transitions at the UUA--who formerly attended FUSN--both of whom have assisted congregations in ministerial search many times and were an incredible help. It was an exhaustive, exhausting, and wonderful process. Throughout, we kept wondering, will we find a candidate about whom we are enthusiastic? Will we find someone whom we can present to the congregation believing deeply that this is the right person for us?

We knew, and our Interim Minister John Nichols told us in his sermon last September 27th, that as much as we might like it, no one person can be all things to all people. At that service, John said:

UUs want everything. They want a great preacher. They want a person of solid intellect, considerable passion and commensurate speaking ability. But this person must be comfortable speaking to and satisfying a congregation of humanists, pagans, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews and Christians, Sikhs, Druids as well as those who have no use for religion but attend for the coffee.

I’m sorry to disappoint those congregants who want a minister who walks on water, but the person we are recommending is a human being. Frankly, if some congregants want someone who walks on water, let me suggest that they are probably in the wrong denomination. But let me tell you something, our candidate can swim with the best of them.

The Reverend Erin Splaine was born in 1960 in the granite state of New Hampshire. I make that reference to granite because she is one solid human being. She graduated from Manhattanville College in 1984, and spent several years working on Capitol Hill. After leaving the hill and spending some time on a journey for personal truth and meaning, she began her studies for the Master of Divinity degree at Harvard Divinity School, from which she graduated in 1998.

After graduation, she was called to the UU church in Northampton/Florence, Massachusetts, as an Assistant Minister. Shortly thereafter, the Minister left, and Erin was asked to serve as the Minister. After a number of years in that position, she was called to serve as the Associate Minister in Wayland, Massachusetts, where she has served for the past eight years. Two years ago, Wayland removed the word “Associate” from her title, such that she is now their “Minister.” A few years ago, a well-regarded congregation in New England offered Erin the position as their Minister, but she did not believe it was the right fit, and did not accept the position. She has, however, agreed to be the candidate to be our next Minister, with both we and Erin believing we are the right fit for each other.

Erin wrote in her materials that the ministry she was seeking could best be described in one word: “vibrant.” She said, “I love the orchestrated chaos of an active, engaged, and thriving community of faith. More often than not, my favorite time of the week is the hour or so before the service begins on Sunday when everyone arrives with whatever energy or need they might have at the time and are greeted by others who are as happy to see them as they are to be seen.”

A minister of more than three decades who has known Erin for more than ten years said to us, “If we decide what we are getting in Erin is a mature, highly thoughtful, experienced person with an admirable take on life, who is going to enrich the experience of the people in the pews over time as she preaches her way through life, we should go with her.”

We, the members of the Ministerial Search Committee, decided that that was what we were getting with Erin, and more. She became our unanimous first choice. We therefore enthusiastically recommend the Reverend Erin Splaine to be our candidate to serve as the next settled minister of FUSN.

Let me outline the next steps in the process. Erin will candidate at FUSN from May 8-16, 2010. That means she will attend committee meetings and social events, and conduct services on Sundays May 9 and 16. All members and friends will have multiple opportunities to meet her and get to know her during candidating week; I encourage you to do so. The second week-end, that of May 15-16, will be a celebration week-end in the life of our community. Saturday, May 15th, there will be two coming of age services in which John will participate and Erin will attend. We encourage you to attend them as well. On Sunday, May 16th, Erin will conduct her second service. After that service, we will have a congregational meeting where members will vote on whether to call Erin as our minister. The vote is an up or down vote. There will be no other candidates on the ballot–that is what the UUA recommends. While our by-laws require a two-thirds vote to call a minister, John Nichols and the UUA have told us that ministers will accept a call to serve only if they get a favorable vote of 90-95% of the members who vote.

I cannot put into words how excited we, as a committee, are to be able to recommend Erin to the congregation. Each time we met with her, the fit felt better and better.

We believe Erin is the person to lead this congregation into the next phase of its life, and hope that you too, will, over time, be as excited about Erin as we are. More information about Erin appears in a letter from her that is attached. We look forward to your participation in candidating week.

With sincere enthusiasm,

The Ministerial Search Committee

Tom Bean, Chair

Jacqui James, Vice-Chair

Brian Burba

Margaret Costello

Kate Mason

Carl Metzger

Margaret Ruttenberg