 How
have I participated as a member of First UU?
(415) 731-1691
cconnell@fm.ucsf.edu
• Canvass Committee
• Capital Fund Drive Committee
• Nominating Committee
• Denominational Affairs Committee
• Recorder for the Secretary of the Board of Trustees
• Personnel Committee
• PCD Compensation Consultant; working with district
churches which are in search for new Ministers or
Religious Education Directors.
• PCD Delegate
• PCD Leadership School Graduate
• Youth/Adult Committee (YAC)
• YRUU Youth Advisor
• Children’s Religious Education Committee (3 years as
Chair)
• Sunday School Curriculum Committee
• Sunday School Teacher
• Pagan Interest Circle Steering Committee (Founding
Member)
• Retreat Committee
• David Pettee’s Ministerial Relations Committee
• Worship Associate
Some other activities and initiatives to which I have
contributed include work on the
o Anti-Death Penalty Conference hosted by First
UU, the Faithful Fools’
o Social Justice Celebration, and traditional
storytelling at the annual
o December Sundays presented to all the children
of our church each year, as well as planning and
organizing
o Betsy Darr’s Retirement Celebration. I was
flattered and gratified several years ago to share with
Fran Chan one of the first
o Anne Dillon Awards given by the church and,
like practically everyone here (until my twins were born
almost 3 years ago), I enjoyed serving the
o Winter Shelter meals. (one of the very best
opportunities to create relationships with other church
members!)
Who Am I?
I was raised by Irish-American parents who left their
respective Christian churches when they married (one
Protestant, the other Catholic). By the time I was born
they were living and working in a two-teacher school in
a village on an American Indian reservation. The
household I was born into consisted of my parents, two
Hopi brothers, and an Irish-American sister. My brothers
had relatives who were not my relatives; we all had
several names, given by people who established various
relationships to us when we were born; and I was
half-way through elementary school before I became aware
of the racial differences between us. “Normal” is what
you know. The religious rituals I grew up with were
quiet, elegant, deep, and musical. They were not
theistic, but rather about the power and beauty of
nature and the ways that human beings fit into the
weaving of life on the earth. Though we moved to
California when I was young, my early connections to the
reservation and the people there were maintained by
frequent and regular visits, and by obligations to
ritual relationships formed there. My consciousness and
life experience, as a middle-class white American, are
significantly colored by those connections and
relationships.
In California, my father taught at San Francisco
State University, and my mother at several elementary
schools in the area. We grew up in peace marches and
civil rights demonstrations; hosting
protestor-gatherings in our living room, and rising
early to get good seats for the Gay Freedom Day Parade.
I saw my father cry for the first time the night Martin
Luther King, Jr. was killed, and I sat with him in
stunned silence when the Dan White verdict was read. But
always, we were taught that, no matter what evil was
loose in the world, if enough people worked hard enough,
it could be turned to good. Despite the selfishness of
eighties, and the dazed denial of the nineties, there is
a tough little core in my heart that continues to
believe that. Though I did not come to First UU looking
for ways to contribute to that positive force, it is
part of what I have found here. The opportunity to
contribute; to shore up the lagging hope for a caring
and responsible American society, has renewed the faith
I was raised with.
What is my relationship with
First UU of San Francisco?
One of the ways my upbringing colored my life
experience was my fear of churches. When someone
suggested that a UU church could be a place for me to
find spiritual community outside of main-stream,
monotheistic religions, I was wary. The word “church”
conjured up stories of missions and torture; of the
stealing of people’s souls and the destruction of a
culture’s spiritual core. It took me almost two years to
venture into this church. When I did, I spent the first
year scurrying in just as the service started, and
slipping out just as it ended, deathly afraid someone
would speak to me. That was almost twelve years ago.
After a year of covert attendance, I finally got drawn
in by an Adult RE class flyer and, after another year of
“dipping my toe in the water,” a minister said something
to which I took such exception that I wanted to speak to
him. I felt a moral obligation to be a pledging member
before I engaged in debating statements I heard from the
pulpit, so I joined.
I think things through thoroughly before acting but,
once I have made a commitment, I am committed fully. So
it was in my relationship with First UU. By the time I
had been here five years I was concurrently working on
eight committees, while working full time and going to
college half time. While I have cut back considerably
since then, the relationships I form working with other
members of this congregation continue to be the ties
that keep me grounded. I have always found that the best
way to create relationships is by working together. This
church has given me the opportunity to connect in that
way, and there are more people here with whom I want to
have deeper relationships than there is time in our
lives. It is one of the great riches to be found here.
What can I bring to the Search
Committee?
Management Vision; I have the ability to keep
the big picture in mind, while still seeing the small
details that need to be addressed to smooth the way to
the goal.
Organization; In my work life I have been,
among other things, a cost-accountant, a shop manager
and a secretary. Mundane as they may be, I have found
administrative skills and focus useful in my church
committee work, if only to ensure that conversations
about “what should be done” do not end until it is clear
who is going to do what, and by when, to ensure things
actually happen.
Communication and interpersonal skills; The
first ten years of my work life were spent scratching
out a living on stage in several small theaters in
California. I understand that communication is not
something that happens on the stage, nor in the
audience, but somewhere over the “orchestra pit” where
the hearts and minds of both meet. So it is between the
pulpit and the pews. My current job includes a
significant percentage of time spent bridging the
communication gap between hands-on workers and academic
intellectuals. Managing customer service and quality
assurance for a facilities maintenance organization in
an academic research environment requires the ability to
respectfully interact with a diverse constituency.
Commitment and relationship; I am deeply
invested in this church. It is my village. Having some
experience of village life, I know how a village
sustains the people it holds, and I also know how much
work sustaining the village can take. I believe strongly
in the interdependence that makes up such a community;
in the good that can come from it and the empowerment it
offers to spread that good beyond its borders, and I
want to do the work required to keep ours strong and
healthy.
My vision for our church
I would like to see this community become a place
where we are empowered by our unity; where we have the
trust and respect for each other that allows us to be
guided by the vision of our youth and the wisdom of our
elders. Where those newer to this earth have the respect
to look for guidance from the knowledge and experience
of those who have been here longer, fighting the battles
for right and justice that have already been fought; and
where those who did that work have the openness and
trust to allow themselves to be rejuvenated by the
unfettered vision and fiery passion of those whose
energy is fresh and strong.
I want to see us take responsibility for our
community; to respectfully take care of each other when
we are vulnerable, either because of our youth, our age,
or the circumstances of our lives. I want to see us take
on the work required to address how we will manage our
money, our society, and our commitments pragmatically
and compassionately. I want to see us led by a ministry
whose primary passion is ministry itself; working with
us to identify the causes we are moved to champion, and
leading us in doing the work those causes require.
I want my children – all of our children – to grow up
surrounded by adults who teach them, teenagers who play
with them, and peers who stretch their growing
abilities. I want them to feel loved and held by this
community, and to learn to be responsible for the other
people in it. I want the sense of interdependence with a
healthy, thriving community of people who try to work
the seven principles in our daily lives, to be a
defining part of who they are. I want this for all of
us.
Carlowe Connelly |
The
Flame