A message from Board of Trustees President Lisa Larson
It is with great joy that I announce that the Reverend Julie Stoneberg will be joining us in August as our much-anticipated Interim Minister. Yay!!! We are so excited!! We are fortunate to have her. She was born in Milwaukee and is coming from a long-term settled ministerial position in Canada. We know you will be anxiously awaiting her arrival. Her current ministerial position goes through the end of July and she starts with us in August. She has to find a place to live, move here, etc. Reverend Julie will present at our Aug. 14th service to meet you. I want to thank the Interim Search Committee for the very intense time period that they spent gathering information about our church, putting that information onto the required documents, reading through resumes, reference checking, and their keen focus on finding a candidate who had the experience and qualities that fit well with what our church needed after a long time minister’s retirement.
There were more churches looking for Interim Ministers than Ministers available this year. Like the rest of the country, many Ministers retired or decided to follow a different path. UUCW was fortunate that 5 Interim Ministers expressed interest in our open position. Please thank the Interim Search Committee for their good work when you see them. Committee members are Jeannie Baker, Kathy Bradshaw, David Feil, Natalie Fleury, and Board Rep. Ahmad Perry. There was never a guarantee we would find a good match; someone who wanted to be with us as well as someone that fit what we were looking for. We are blessed!!
We can’t make this announcement without acknowledging our great appreciation for all that Reverend Denise has brought to us to help us not only “hold it together” but make progress on board goals during this unprecedented 6 month gap period before an Interim Minister could join us. We look forward to continuing that partnership for the next couple of months.
Lisa Larson
UUCW Board of Trustees President
A Message from the Interim Search Committee
The Interim Search Committee is happy to tell you all that we’ve concluded our work with the selection and hiring of Rev Julie Stoneberg. We took our work seriously by participating in the extensive match process that the UUA recommends for selection of an interim minister. As Lisa described, we evaluated and interviewed a variety of candidates.
After all the dust had settled, we determined that Rev. Julie is a great match for us and came highly recommended by many different references (church members, BOT members, colleagues). She is experienced in helping congregations work through difficult issues and build strong teams. Because she has been a successful long-term minister, she understands how to help groups reach consensus for both immediate and future goals. One of her references told us that Julie “is not afraid to dream big.”
One additional thing that impressed us about Rev. Julie is that she was instrumental in developing UUA antiracism principles in Canada and working with her congregation (and other congregations) to implement this important work. We felt that she heard us and our concerns when we met with her, and we instantly felt her warmth and enthusiasm. We think you will like her as much as we did.
