As we begin our new church year together, I am so honored and excited to be UCG’s new Moderator. I was so fortunate to have spent this past year under the mentorship of past moderator Rebecca Beachy.  The role of the moderator, as outlined in our Bylaws, is to coordinate the overall work of the Church as a lay leader in consultation with the ministers. The moderator chairs meetings of Church Council, the Council Executive Committee and the Congregation (Fall, Winter, Spring and specially called).  I will continue to serve, as I did as Moderator-elect, as a member of the Congregational-Ministry Review Board, Council Exec and Church Council.

This past few months I participated in meetings of the Board of Business, COVID Advisory Taskforce and the Compensation Committee to ensure I was up-to-speed on their work during the church year transition. Over this next year, my goal is to attend a meeting of each UCG Board and Committee to gain more knowledge of their important ministry and mission.  Continuing with the next phase in the efforts to update our church’s official documents, including the recently revised Bylaws, Moderator-elect Barb Gibbs and I will be consulting with many UCG members and staff to review and bring up-to-date UCG’s detailed policies and procedures. Other critical projects, just to name a few, include kicking off year 2 of our 3-year plan (“Improve and Innovate under Specific Areas of our Priorities”), implementing Council’s to-be-determined process for prioritized disbursement of the PPP residual funds, and finalizing a Church-wide compensation philosophy. There are many, many more areas of routine church business and special projects that our leaders, boards and committees, and members will be working on throughout the coming months.  One particularly fun responsibility of the Moderator is to name the theme for the church year. I will be sharing more on this in next month’s Moderator’s Minute so stay tuned!