Diversity of Ministry Initiative Settles Two New Ministers
This fall, as new ministries begin throughout the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), two are of particular interest. These two ministries are distinctive because they blaze a new trail in settling clergy of color in congregations that seek to grow in diversity and spiritual depth, embracing multiculturalism, antiracism, and anti-oppression as part of their intrinsic values and their commitment to Unitarian Universalism (UU).
Since 2006, the Unitarian Universalist Association has had a Diversity of Ministry Team (DOMT), which has worked to develop healthy, sustainable ministries with ministers of color, Latina/Latino Hispanic, and multiracial clergy. The effort, known informally as the DOMT initiative, has also focused on offering support to seminarians as they follow the path to professional ministry.
UUA President Peter Morales recently said, “America’s future is a multicultural, multiracial, multiethnic future. Our faith must learn to express itself in new ways. If we are to be a vital religious movement, we must develop a multicultural and multiracial ministry. The work we do today to nurture diversity in our ministry is essential.”
Responding to the challenge, the First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh, PA, was the first congregation to apply for participation in the DOMT initiative. Senior Minister David Herndon recalls, “We didn’t have quite enough staff to keep the people who were coming into the church, and not quite enough people to keep the level of staffing we thought we needed (425 adult members, with a $556,000 annual budget). In January 2007, it was suggested to us that we might want to become involved in the DOMT program—and I was eager to do that.” The congregation applied for the program, organized a ministerial search process, and in early June, extended an invitation to Rev. Alma Faith Crawford to candidate between May 30 and June 7. Herndon recalls, with excitement, “Our vote was 99 percent in favor of calling Alma, and she began her ministry with us on August 15 of this year.”
One week after Rev. Crawford began her ministry in Pittsburgh, Rev. John Crestwell, who had revitalized Davies Memorial UU Church in Camp Springs, MD, and built a successful multiracial multicultural ministry there, began his new ministry at the UU Church of Annapolis, MD.
Senior minister Fred Muir reflects, “In many respects, John Crestwell represents the vision and the future that this 53-year-old congregation wants.” The Annapolis congregation started as a small fellowship and now has 536 adult members. “This new ministry helps the congregation grow into a vision of itself,” Rev. Muir says.
Crestwell is pragmatic about the challenges that lie ahead in Annapolis: “Davies was in an African American community which is 70 percent black. Putting a minister of color in that church was a no brainer in some sense. [But] is it possible to take a church in a mostly white community, that believes in multiculturalism, and over a period of years, create a multicultural congregation? The [Annapolis congregation’s] leadership has made it clear that it is not my job to do that, but the congregation’s—a way of deepening their spiritual commitment. As spiritual life deepens, multiculturalism grows. That is the hope.”
The Annapolis and Pittsburgh congregations engaged in much work around multiculturalism and anti-oppression before Revs. Crawford and Crestwell were called. Both congregations worked with Paula Cole Jones through the UUA’s JUUST Change consultancy. Work was also done at the church leadership level and within every part of the congregation. Rev. Alicia Forde, UUA Program Coordinator for Multicultural Congregations says, “Both congregations have committed to deepening their multicultural ministry and, in addition to ongoing antiracism, anti-oppression, and multicultural education within the community, each congregation has also committed to diversifying its ministerial staff as a step to fulfilling its larger vision.”
Source: www.uua.org
