Dear Members & Friends of UUCA,
We are pleased to inform you that Rev. Dr. Terasa Cooley will be UUCA’s interim senior minister for the next year (2018-2019), with the option of another year. Rev. Terasa’s skillset and experience align well with what our church needs at this time. She brings decades of experience as minister and interim minister at churches throughout the U.S. and working at the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) as district executive, director of congregational life, and vice president of program and strategy.
The Interim Senior Minister Search Committee spoke with her and the people with whom she’s worked, and they believe Rev. Terasa has the skills and experience to continue Rev. Beth’s work of helping the congregation heal from the upheaval of our ministerial team over the past year. They also think she’ll be a good partner as we examine our governance structure, address the need to strengthen stewardship, and continue to address social justice issues such as anti-racism and anti-oppression.
Within the next few days, you’ll be hearing directly from Rev. Terasa. We are also working through the possibility of her coming to UUCA for a “meet and greet” before she begins in August so stay tuned for that information.
We would like to thank the members of the Interim Senior Minister Search Committee [Al Himes (chair of the committee), Lila Herndon Vizzard, Wendy Jessup, Hieu Nguyen, and Andrea Ryon]. They committed their time and energy into a search process that was relatively quick, while keeping the church’s interests in the forefront of their deliberations.
This group conveyed our needs to the UUA Transitions office and reviewed the list of qualified candidates given to us by UUA. Within a period of two weeks, the search committee interviewed candidates they believed were a good fit for UUCA, consulted Rev. Beth, conducted reference checks, spoke to other people who know these candidates, and worked with the UUA Transition office to secure Rev. Terasa as our interim senior minister.
We look forward to working with Rev. Terasa in the upcoming year.
--Board of Trustees
