Good News and Update on Incoming Minister

We’re happy to share the very good news that Rev. Michael Brown is coming to serve as Transitional Lead Minister from September – December. He will focus on preaching, pastoral care and Board support. He looks forward to meeting members and friends of the congregation beginning on Sunday, September 5. After December, other transition ministers will come between January – June and your Board will keep you posted on this as we continue to work with the UUA’s Transition Office. We look forward to working with Rev. Brown and are excited about his arrival. Rev. Brown writes that he recently completed a 27-year ministry at the Universalist Unitarian Church of Peoria, a pre-civil war church with Universalist roots. During Rev. Brown’s tenure the church grew by nearly 250 adult members, built a new church home, played a leadership role in the community, and received the UUA’s Breakthrough Congregation award. Rev. Brown was a co-founder of the local Interfaith Alliance and received the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Distinguished Service Leadership Award. After retiring as Minister Emeritus, he and his spouse, lifelong UU Diane F. Brown, moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to start a new path, but that path unexpectedly led him to First UUSD for a new chapter of ministry. He joins us with a sense of excitement, appreciation of our congregation, and readiness to serve in a time of transition and new possibilities for caring, community and transforming action.

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