November, 2020
This communication is intended to keep you informed about the work of our Interim Ministry Transition Team (IMTT) which was established in July 2020 to help facilitate the tasks that the Congregation has undertaken during this interim period. Its members, Bob Burns, Rhonda Kessler, Steve Pock and Amy Stauber, were appointed by the Board of Trustees to serve with Reverend Ed Proulx as a means of helping him integrate into the life of 1stUUPB. The IMTT serves as a resource and mentorship group for Rev. Ed. The team meets on a monthly basis. Here is a glimpse of what the team has been working on since our last reporting:

The 1stUUPB History Project has been launched, under the leadership of Bob Burns and Rhonda Kessler, as assistant! This massive project is expected to take a few years in its entirety to complete and entails a review of old documents, minutes, photo archives, and interviews and recollections from members of our Congregation who have joined at different periods of time. Rev. Ed will obtain the history from his South Carolina church as a guide. Materials for the project already includes the PowerPoint our former intern minister Rev. Claudia Jimenez created for us, documents collected by Larry Stauber, and the pictures currently in the Ross Room. Bob Burns has looked over the minutes that date back to 1952, and from years later when the sanctuary was being constructed! He discovered that the founding members were “like giants” in their vision and breadth of ideas in laying the groundwork for our Congregation’s future development. They were really “hands on” in their design for the new building.

There are gaps, however, in our knowledge of different periods of Congregational history. This is our challenge! We rely on you, as members of the Congregation, to assist us in this worthy project. We will be doing videos and collecting recorded interviews from anyone willing to participate. The attempt will be to develop a historical framework and then to fill in the gaps. A history section of the 1stUUPB website will be created to capture the narrative.

Please contact Rhonda at rkesslerlcsw@gmail.com to offer your unique experiences and memories to help enrich our interim task of honoring our Congregation’s unique and rich history.

The Transition Team also serves in an advisory capacity concerning communications between the minister and the Congregation. Rev. Ed has made great efforts to get to know members and encourage dialogue. He has been present following services to field questions and encourage discussions. He also does Tea-Ology on Tuesday mornings, the Work of Byron Katie Working Group on Wednesdays, Lunch Bunch and Theology on tap, on Thursdays, and The Work of Byron Katie Working Group on Fridays.

A behavioral covenant was created by the Ministerial Transition Team at our October meeting, using our Small Group Ministry’s Covenant and several examples from the UUA as models. The UUA supports developing a “Covenant of Right Relations” as a way of clarifying group expectations and ensuring how members conduct themselves with one another. This effort has been an impetus for the 1stUUPB Board of Trustees to begin developing a behavioral covenant of its own at its annual retreat.
The IMTT Behavioral Covenant can be found at the following link: https://1stuupb.org/1stuupb-transition-team-behavioral-covenant/

The Transition Team will be evaluating the overall progress/success of the 1stUUPB interim ministry on an ongoing basis by completing the UUA Transitions Office Interim Ministry Appraisal Form every six months and by completing the evaluations required by the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association each year as part of Rev. Ed’s fellowshipping process.

Submitted by Rhonda Kessler, member