May 31, 2022

Dear ORUUCians,

On behalf of your Board of Trustees and the Interim Search Committee, it is our pleasure to announce that, after a thoughtful and thorough process, we will have a contract signed this week with the Reverend Lisa Schwartz to serve as our Interim Minister, starting on August 1.

The Unitarian Universalist Association has an established practice for facilitating a match between an Interim Minister and a Congregation. Since July, the Board has been in communication with the UUA; earlier this spring, we submitted our Congregational Profile (information about us) to prospective Interim Ministers. From that Profile, Our Board-appointed Search Committee interviewed four candidates who selected ORUUC in the UUA's matching system. After interviewing these four candidates and discussing them with the whole Board, we communicated our preferences to the UUA. The whole process went smoothly, just as designed. We believe we are very well-matched with Rev. Schwartz, who will take up this important Interim Ministry with us.

You're probably interested to learn more about Rev. Schwartz. Rev. Schwartz is an accredited Interim Minister and has most recently served for 2 years as the Interim Minister for the UU Fellowship of Athens.  Prior to that, Reverend Schwartz was Minister at UU Fellowship of Winston-Salem and at the UU Fellowship of Topeka. In the interview, we were especially struck by Rev. Schwartz's commitment to and knowledge of the Interim process, study of and experience in congregational leadership development, and obvious love and enthusiasm for her work.  Rev. Schwartz was especially interested in ORUUC because of its reputation as an outstanding congregation, and like many of us, Rev. Schwartz looks forward to being within a convenient drive to family and loved ones, including a granddaughter. Rev. Schwartz has a website (https://lisaromantumschwartz.com/), where you can learn more about her. We will also post information about Rev. Schwartz on the ORUUC website.

Until June 30, we'll continue to say goodbye to Jake and Tandy, our long-time ministers. Please don't contact Rev. Schwartz, for now. There will be plenty of time for that when they arrive on August 1. But you can rest assured that Rev. Schwartz will be happy to get to know us as individuals and as a congregation, in August.

Many thanks to the Board and the Interim Search Committee that worked hard to successfully complete this part of the transition process. Our church is in good hands, and we are moving forward together, as one.

In Blessed Community,
Jim Nutaro, Michele Thornton, Val Herd
ORUUC President's Council