Ministerial Search Committee NEWS - March 27, 2013 - More About Rev. Howard Dana
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Toby Smith Ropeik
Mar 27, 2013, 8:44:11 AM3/27/13
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REMINDER: Approaching quickly - the April 5th deadline for becoming a member of First Parish if you wish to participate in the May 5th vote to call our next Senior Minister.
To better get to know our candidate for Senior Minister, the MSC will send out information each week about a different aspect of Howard Dana’s ministry.
This week’s theme is around WRITING and PREACHING.
We collectively felt Howard’s sermons are well-written, clear, and varied in content, with a wonderful poetic feel to the way he puts words together. He is a great story-teller, mixing in personal anecdotes where appropriate, and often touches us emotionally.
The following quote is from MSC member, Terry Rothermel:
“When I went to General Assembly in 2011, my primary purpose was scouting for ministers. I was fortunate to attend one special session on activism led by what I would call "rising stars" in our faith. Howard Dana was one of those leading the session, and I gave him an A+. Little did I know what might develop two years later!
Among the words he shared that day:
‘Unitarian-Universalism saves lives. When we speak for the rights of others, we are saving lives.’
‘Our faith teaches us how to put our values to work in our world.’
‘While we are happily involved in our faith, we need to think of sharing our faith with others.’
‘Our greatest grace is when we welcome a new visitor.’
‘We are most committed when we have a sense of something larger than ourselves.’
Now that I have met Howard in person, my initial impressions have been more than confirmed. For me, his sermons carry a very personal message. He listens to you with warmth. He is a strong leader for First Parish.”
Please take some time to explore Howard’s new Web site.
To access this site, you will need to click the word “login” in the upper right of the screen.
URL: <http://rhnd.uuministerialsearch.com/>
User name: congregation
Password: fpc1636
This Web site houses the packet materials Howard provided us so that we could get to know him better during the search process. It’s a very rich site, containing text and audio of several sermons delivered in Harrisburg, sample rites of passage, information about Howard’s social justice work, children’s messages, and lots more.
In addition, we encourage you to read the five text sermons posted on the Harrisburg UU church site: http://www.harrisburguu.org/Ministry/sermons.htm
Important UPDATE: Last Sunday, we published a link to a documentary about Howard’s Harrisburg church being designated a UUA Breakthrough Congregation in 2010. Here is the link: http://www.uua.org/growth/breakthrough/167371.shtml. BUT INSTEAD of clicking in the center of the screen to see the documentary, click to the right under the heading Multimedia which includes both the video AND Howard’s introduction to the film at GA.
DON’T FORGET: Plan to spend lots of time at First Parish during Candidating Week April 28th – May 5th when you’ll have lots of opportunity to get to know Howard.
Best, Toby
--
Toby Smith Ropeik
978.369.0007
E-mail: t...@tobyasmith.com
To better get to know our candidate for Senior Minister, the MSC will send out information each week about a different aspect of Howard Dana’s ministry.
This week’s theme is around WRITING and PREACHING.
We collectively felt Howard’s sermons are well-written, clear, and varied in content, with a wonderful poetic feel to the way he puts words together. He is a great story-teller, mixing in personal anecdotes where appropriate, and often touches us emotionally.
The following quote is from MSC member, Terry Rothermel:
“When I went to General Assembly in 2011, my primary purpose was scouting for ministers. I was fortunate to attend one special session on activism led by what I would call "rising stars" in our faith. Howard Dana was one of those leading the session, and I gave him an A+. Little did I know what might develop two years later!
Among the words he shared that day:
‘Unitarian-Universalism saves lives. When we speak for the rights of others, we are saving lives.’
‘Our faith teaches us how to put our values to work in our world.’
‘While we are happily involved in our faith, we need to think of sharing our faith with others.’
‘Our greatest grace is when we welcome a new visitor.’
‘We are most committed when we have a sense of something larger than ourselves.’
Now that I have met Howard in person, my initial impressions have been more than confirmed. For me, his sermons carry a very personal message. He listens to you with warmth. He is a strong leader for First Parish.”
Please take some time to explore Howard’s new Web site.
To access this site, you will need to click the word “login” in the upper right of the screen.
URL: <http://rhnd.uuministerialsearch.com/>
User name: congregation
Password: fpc1636
This Web site houses the packet materials Howard provided us so that we could get to know him better during the search process. It’s a very rich site, containing text and audio of several sermons delivered in Harrisburg, sample rites of passage, information about Howard’s social justice work, children’s messages, and lots more.
In addition, we encourage you to read the five text sermons posted on the Harrisburg UU church site: http://www.harrisburguu.org/Ministry/sermons.htm
Important UPDATE: Last Sunday, we published a link to a documentary about Howard’s Harrisburg church being designated a UUA Breakthrough Congregation in 2010. Here is the link: http://www.uua.org/growth/breakthrough/167371.shtml. BUT INSTEAD of clicking in the center of the screen to see the documentary, click to the right under the heading Multimedia which includes both the video AND Howard’s introduction to the film at GA.
DON’T FORGET: Plan to spend lots of time at First Parish during Candidating Week April 28th – May 5th when you’ll have lots of opportunity to get to know Howard.
Best, Toby
--
Toby Smith Ropeik
978.369.0007
E-mail: t...@tobyasmith.com
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