The Eliot Church of Newton

474 Centre Street, Newton MA  02458

617-244-3639

The Columns

Welcome back to Eliot! I hope you all had a restful and enjoyable summer. Much has been going on, and we have much more planned for this fall that I cannot summarize completely for you here, but I do wish to take a moment just to get you all up to speed on three important developments:

First of all, we were very fortunate to be able to hire Liliane Aislyn as our new office administrator! Liliane comes to us with a rich experience in tenant relations and facilities maintenance, as well as a range of software and administrative skills. We feel blessed to have found Liliane, whose sunny countenance and caring spirit is a perfect fit for Eliot. Liliane will be a very important team member as we journey forward. Please be sure to stop by and introduce yourself to Liliane sometime. Big kudos go out to Lisa Hines and the Parish Staff Relations Committee (especially Lisa, Susan Nason, Barbara Oppenheimer, Pastor Debbi and Pastor Karla) for their hard work in conducting a careful search and making this wonderful hire on behalf of our congregation.

Second, our pastoral search committee has been working intensively over the summer to complete our local church profile. This has been an enormous undertaking for which the Eliot community is deeply indebted to co-chairs Cathleen Finn, Susan Nason, and the entire search committee. These diligent volunteers have been working all summer long on this project, so if you have the chance reach out and say thank you to Kathleen, Susan, Jonathan Bassett, Michael Benn, Joe Holt, Liz Flanagan, Barbara Oppenheimer, Doug Stuart and Jan Paul von Wendt. This critical piece of work is the necessary predicate and functional springboard, for our pastoral search. Thank you search committee!!

Third, in order to implement the new lay leadership model that we approved at the May 20 annual meeting, I have established a nominations review committee. This committee will receive nominations for the new Leadership Council, evaluate candidates who are willing to serve in this capacity during the two-year experimental trial that we voted, and make a recommendation for a slate upon which the full congregation can vote at a congregational meeting to be held on September 30th. The process we will follow will be the same process that we used to recruit our pastoral search committee and nominations from congregation members may be given to nominating committee members directly or may be placed in the nominations "box" in the church hallway. You will be hearing more about this process during the month of September.

So welcome back! This promises to be another exciting, action-packed year at Eliot! I am looking forward to worshiping with you all again and continuing our important work together.

Kevin Curtin

Eliot Church Moderator

The Search Committee is thankful for the active participation of so many from the congregation as we completed surveys and shared our thoughts in discussions earlier this year. The pace of the developments and decisions being made by the Search Committee is accelerating. With the near completion of the official Eliot Church Profile, the first step in the Eliot's search for a new Senior Pastor, we wanted share with you a few interesting highlights from the profile and let you know what will happen next.

The 4 Most Important Faith Events in the History of Eliot Church

The profile form asks churches to identify the most important faith experiences or events in the history of our church. The Committee identified the following:

* Support for the Anti-Slavery Abolitionist Movement

The church was founded in 1845. The undertaking was spearheaded by William Jackson who was well known for his activism against slavery. His views and those of the other founders established Eliot as a socio-politically active congregation. The church was named in honor of John Eliot, a Puritan minister whose missionary work touched the lives of the Native Americans living in the area. The name Eliot is a reminder of what the founders and those who have been members since then wanted the church to stand for.

* The Rebuilding of the Church

Tragic fires destroyed the facilities in 1887 and in 1956. Each time the congregation regrouped and recommitted to rebuilding and carrying on the life of the church. There has thus been an Eliot Church on this site for 167 years.

* Anti-Viet Nam War Activism

The Vietnam War period painfully divided the congregation just as it did much of the country. Eliot Church members, like the rest of America held conflicting views about the war. At Eliot the deep passions led to frequent protests, and some members leaving the church. The prevailing atmosphere also contributed to the failure of Eliot Church to merge with other UCC churches in Newton. The collective memory of this period helped the congregation to develop more positive processes to deal with issues later encountered that could have been polarizing.

* Declaration of Eliot as an Open and Affirming (ONA) Church

The official church profile guidelines requested a listing of the three most important faith events. However, the Search Committee felt that a fourth event was merited. Hence, we submit that the 1999-2001 unanimous congregational vote to become Open and Affirming rated among the most important faith events in the life of Eliot Church.

The Top Quality of the Ideal Next Senior Pastor

The Search Committee surveyed the congregation to discern its opinions on the characteristics it finds most desirable in a senior pastor. As designed by the UCC, the survey instrument listed 45 possible characteristics, and each person was allowed to select 12 out of these 45.

By an overwhelming margin, the Eliot congregation wanted a senior pastor who "is an effective preacher/speaker". Therefore, preaching style and ability will be one of the most important criteria that the Search Committee will use to evaluate potential candidates.

Next Steps:

The final draft of the Eliot Church Profile was distributed to the congregation via e-mail on August 28. Hard copies were mailed to members who do not have e-mail. Copies are also in binders in the hallway. The congregation is invited to provide comments on the church profile to any Search Committee member by September 5.

The Search Committee met with Wendy Vander Hart, the Massachusetts Conference Associate Pastor liaison for the search process at the end of August to finalize the church profile and discuss next steps. We plan to have the position posted on the UCC employment website no later than mid-September. After that we anticipate that we will begin to receive and review applications from interested candidates.

The Committee appreciates the support we have received from the pastoral and lay leadership as well as the entire congregation. Questions or comments can be directed to any member of the Committee. The Search Committee members include: Cathleen Finn and Susan Nason, co-chairs; Jonathan Bassett, Michael Benn, Joe Holt, Barbara Oppenheimer and Doug Stuart. Ex-officio members include Interim Senior Pastor Debbi Carter and Moderator Kevin Curtin.

Elizabeth Flanagan and Jan Paul von Wendt have withdrawn from the Search Committee for personal reasons.  We offer our sincere thanks for their contributions to the work of the committee.

Eliot Church is planning to recognize the long term members of the church on Sunday, October 7, 2012. We will be sending out letters to our long-term members to specifically invite them to church on that Sunday, but please, save the date: October 7, 2012.