Time Has Flown By

Kimberlee Tomczak Carlson, Intern Minister

I remember well sitting in the sanctuary during worship service right after finding out that the UUCW Board had approved my request to be your first intern minister. I wondered: who are these people, will I know them, what will I learn, and will they accept me as a minister? I was curious imagining this part of our shared journey.

Now it is two years later, and time has flown by — even in graduate school! Here I am at the end of my internship at UUCW filled with love and gratitude for all the opportunities, warm, guidance, and trust you have shared with me. I have found a sanctuary here, a place to learn and worship, a community that stands up for the common good and a people who refuse to live in fear and find strength, comfort, and wisdom in each other. I have witnessed a myriad of moments filled grace and beauty in my time here with you all. I have watched you take care of one another, stretch and educate one another and risk being truly known. You have built more than a church community, together you have built a sanctuary where reason, love, and faith coincide. It has been a privilege and honor to know you and serve you.

The next step in my ministerial journey is preparing to meet with the UUA Ministerial Fellowship Committee in September. Hopefully, they will approve me for preliminary fellowship as a Unitarian Universalist minister. I can be then be ordained and officially become a reverend! Meanwhile, as I finish with seminary and will need to repay graduate school student loans, employment opportunities have been foremost on my mind. I am pleased to announce that beginning this fall I will begin at First Milwaukee Society as the Director of Religious Education.

Even with this good news, it is bittersweet to leave you all and say goodbye. You have helped me become the minister I dreamed I might someday be.

I will always cherish and be grateful for our time together!

Blessings,

Kimberlee