The Ministerial Search Team formed in March of 2023 to commence a search for a half time minister. 

At that time, Reverend Crystal had been with us in a quarter time capacity. The GC decided to expand the role of the minister in our congregation to a half time position and fill that position for the 2023–2024 year. Soon after, Rev. Crystal’s situation changed and she became available for our 1/2 time position. We were thrilled to offer Rev. Crystal the half time position for 2023–2024, and she accepted. However, as you all know, Rev. Crystal needed to take care of her health, which unfortunately meant leaving INUUC in February. 

At that time, the Ministerial Search Team re-engaged to fill the half time position. We diligently created the job listing for the UUA website, and that position announcement was posted in early March.

We received one application for the position, a wonderfully qualified UU minister. However, her home was in the eastern/southern region of the country, and due to child sharing responsibilities, she needed to stay where she was. She was very willing to come to Spokane as often as monthly; however, this would entail expenses of travel and local lodging, which would be costly to our small congregation.

The Minister Search Team, which included our GC president Scott Fitzgerald, spent many hours discussing the pros and cons of minister-led vs. lay-led, a traveling minister vs. a local minister, overall needs of the congregation, financial capacity to support a half time minister, and congregation priorities for our limited money. 

As a result, we decided the wisest course of action is to temporarily suspend the search for a minister and engage in a full survey of all our program priorities to see where the best use of our money, time, and volunteer hours lies.   

In the fall the GC will begin the survey process, including survey design, collection of the data, and analysis of the data. They will make decisions based upon the survey results. We want to honor everyone’s contributions to INUUC by ensuring that the money will support the congregation’s objectives in the best way possible, with input from everyone.

Our Ministerial Search Team will go dormant, until such time as it is needed again.

Team members are Nancy Freitag, Patty Bedalov, Ann-Scott Ettinger, Scott Fitzgerald, and Dale Morris.