MINISTER

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OUR MINISTER
When the Reverend Nancy Haley came to our pulpit in 1997 after serving as interim minister at the Third Unitarian Church of Chicago, she brought three university degrees and a variety of special skills on which to draw in fulfilling her new position.

Minister’s Column July 2008

I have a story of deep gratitude to tell.  I am so impressed by all of the loving kindness of people in Iowa City helping all those who are displaced from their homes, including me.  On Monday and Tuesday, June 9 and 10 congregation members came in and packed up my household.  They took my things to storage in garages north of Iowa City while I officiated at a memorial service. 

On Wednesday I returned to my condo, cleared out the trash, some boxes on the floor of the garage and the packing remnants.  My neighbor swept out my garage and then I decided to participate in an act of hope and closure by vacuuming the floor- a kind of "sacrament for a soon to be sick house." Then, I tripped off the circuit breakers, said good-by and drove away, feeling I had left on my own terms.

This is not the good-bye we had anticipated.  Our hearts are flood weary and saying a "good-bye" now seems far into the past with the here and now filled with the aching of muscles filling sandbags and the reality of the flood. It feels difficult to leave you at this moment when you need pastoral presence and I know you so well as a community, but it is time for me to go and it is less difficult for me to leave knowing that I leave you in the good hands of my colleague Benjamin Maucere as he arrives in August to begin his interim ministry.  He will walk with you during this time of transition and support the healing of this community.

As we conclude our journey together,

May we be enriched by the shared stories of our lives.

As we conclude our journey together,

May our mutual ministries wherever we are bring love and kindness to a needing world

As we conclude our journey together,

May our covenant encourage us to open our hearts

to cross the borders of human encounters

to transform indifference into compassion,

intolerance into understanding,

violence into peace,

and despair into hope.

 

Rev. Nancy Haley

 

 

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