I am pleased to announce that Macey’s title is changing from Children’s Faith Development Director to Director of Lifespan Faith Formation, effective immediately. This title change reflects the fact that Macey’s portfolio has grown to include ministry to young adults, as well as the fact that she continues to offer multigenerational activities.

Just as a few examples of this expanded portfolio, she has been hosting book discussion groups, and recently hosted a chili lunch for young adults, including those who grew up in our congregation, whether or not they have recently been attending worship or other events. It was a delight for me to meet these young adults, who I know many of you remember and love.

This title change does not impact Macey’s salary or schedule of working 25 hours a week; the expanded duties are part of what we envisioned when we increased her from 20 to 25 hours a week this fiscal year, with the appropriate pay increase. The title is just catching up to the excellent work she has been doing already!

Macey and I worked together to find the title that best reflects her job as it now exists. Here is a statement from her about that choice:

(The Latin root, formationem, means “a shaping.” Definitions of formation. the act of forming or establishing something.)

While expanding my role this church year in a way that strives to best serve our congregation’s population, including children, youth, and young adult programming, as well as intergenerational connection, it has been decided that a more suitable title for the work I am doing is Director of Lifespan Faith Formation.

While development and formation hold similar meaning, I found the word formation more suitable to the personal nature of the work that individual Unitarian Universalists are tasked with. As a staff person, I am not developing congregants’ faith. Rather, I am supporting them in their own formation. Each person who walks through the doors of our church comes with their own background, ideas, visions, fears, and challenges, and I am committed to meeting each whole, complex, unique being in the most tender, inclusive, curious, and thoughtful ways I possibly can.

While I hope folks learn from me in our space, I know that I, too, am consistently learning and growing from the multitude of beliefs and identities that inhabit the space we share in together. I believe that the title Rev. Diana and I have landed on for this role accurately reflects the ways that we strive to guide with openness and humility, in honor of our value of pluralism, this community’s relative diversity, and life’s unfolding mysteries.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me or Macey—and I also invite you to join me in thanking her for the excellent faith formation work she is doing here at UUFM. All of us, of all ages, are the beneficiaries of her passion and dedication.

 

In gratitude,

Rev. Diana