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In late December, Rev. Nathan Ryan formed a search committee with six members of the congregation: Cynthia Bryant, Dawn Collins, E. Hughes, Megan Sheehan-Dean, Leslie Taylor Groover, and Angus Woodward. This group brings multiple perspectives to the process, and takes seriously the charge to find a Minister of Congregational Life who will be the best fit for UCBR at this stage in our congregation’s life.

As of January 8, 2025 the team has met several times to learn about the process, discuss goals, and begin to review the ministerial records of prospective candidates.

Dear UCBR Congregation,

We have exciting news! The Senior Minister Search Committee has named the Rev. Nathan Ryan as our candidate to be our new Senior Minister. The Committee came to its decision after careful discernment of the surveys, cottage meetings, focus groups, and the two-part interview conducted with Rev. Ryan.

Reverend Ryan is a life-long Unitarian Universalist from south Louisiana. He first attended UCBR while a student at LSU. He graduated from Meadville-Lombard Theological School in Chicago. After serving in various positions at UU churches in Texas and Maryland, he returned to UCBR as our Assistant Minister in 2012. Rev. Ryan was ordained by our congregation on February 24, 2013.

The next step in the process will be candidating week, which will be held November 15th through November 22. Reverend Ryan will lead worship on both the 15th and the 22nd. During the week, there will be opportunities to meet with Rev. Ryan via Zoom to share ideas and to ask questions. Once finalized, the schedule of these meetings will be included in the church announcements.

On November 22, plan to attend the congregational meeting that will be held directly after the Sunday Service. At this meeting, church members will have the opportunity to vote in favor of calling the Reverend Nathan Ryan to serve as our next Senior Minister. Look for a formal announcement about the meeting from the Board of Directors.

The Search Committee recognizes that this has been a long road. We are grateful to the congregation for its support. Thanks to your participation and the depth of the feedback we received, we confidently and proudly present the Reverend Nathan Ryan as our candidate for Senior Minister.

In faith,
Audrey Alem, Cynthia Bryant, Melanie Mayeux, Vicky Smith, Phil Stouffer, Bobby Thompson, Jason Wesley

P.S. – We’ve said it before but THANK YOU to everyone who was able to participate in filling out surveys and attend meetings. We would not have been able to complete this process without you.

If you would like to see the results of the hard work you’ve done, explore the Documents section (<–click)!

Here is a snippet of some of the work we will be doing this weekend at the Beyond Categorical Thinking workshop. It is not required reading, but it is definitely interesting!

Have fun!

The UCBR ministerial search committee thanks you for all of the time and input you have given to us so far. Know you are appreciated.

We would now like to invite all of our members and congregational leaders, to participate in this workshop – Beyond Categorical Thinking. It is an opportunity to give your input into the next phase of the search process, and this experience will provide guidance for the search committee in our work.

The program is designed to promote inclusive thinking and prevent unfair discrimination during a congregation’s search for a settled minister.

The workshop is approximately 3 hours long and will be presented in two 90-minute sessions. They are scheduled for Friday, August 7^th from 7 – 8:30 pm and Saturday, August 8th from 10 – 11:30 am. We will reflect on and consider the hopes, expectations, and concerns you may have for a new minister. You will learn more about the ministerial search process, and explore how thinking categorically about people sometimes interferes with choosing the best candidate. 

The workshop is adapted to address the concerns raised by our congregation. It utilizes conversations and case studies of actual events from other Unitarian Universalist (UU) congregations. 

The BCT will be done remotely by trained UUA facilitators. The dates and times again are Friday, August 7^th 7 – 8:30pm and Saturday August 8^th, 10 – 11:30am.  Be on the lookout for the Zoom meeting link! It will be posted here, the newsletter, Facebook, and Instagram @unitarianchurchbr.

Thank you again for donating your time to this process.