Dear Partners in Spirit and Ministry,
It has been an honor and joy to serve as your minister for the last 10 years. From the beginning, you took to my leadership and showed me kindness, like moving my family into our new house, even helping to replace a toilet and fell trees. Together, we have grown in spirit, advanced our values, healed broken hearts, honored and remembered our dead. So it is with gratitude and sadness that I tell you that my ministry in Canton with you will conclude at the end of July of this year. I will forever be grateful for the depth of relationship and connection we have shared.
I am being called to serve the River Road UU Congregation in Bethesda, MD, one of the first suburbs outside of Washington D.C. It is a larger congregation, with more staff, and resources. Montgomery County has excellent schools and many opportunities for my children. I look forward to lobbying and other justice work in our nation’s seat of power. At my core, I am an urban person. So this move makes a lot of sense for both me and my family.
We will have time over the next months to remember our shared ministry together, to apologize and forgive some of our mistakes (mine included), to reflect on what we have learned, to laugh, and to say goodbye. Your elected leaders on Church Council will be working with the UUA to secure an interim minister. You will continue to be well-served by your remarkable DRE, Carol Zimmerman, who has become like family to me. I hope to hire a new Congregational Administrator soon and get them settled into their position. I depart knowing you have many new visitors and members, intelligent and dedicated leadership, and a strong reputation in our community.
We have been through a lot. When I started here the U.S. President was Barack Obama. Together we supported the Women’s march, Black Lives Matter, continued to welcome the LBGTQ+ community, we survived one Trump term and a global pandemic, and we just celebrated 200 years as a congregation! You might feel gratitude, grief, concern about what’s next, or curiosity about the process ahead. We will talk more about all of this over the next few months. Right now, I am thankful, full of love, and hopeful for both my new journey and for yours ahead.
My children only know Canton, NY as their home. I grew to love the wilderness of the Adirondacks, the closeness to Canada, knowing the farmers who grew our food, playing music, biking the country roads, learning about our Universalist heritage, the stained glass windows, and the oak wainscotting, but what I will miss most is being your minister and creating beloved community together.
In gratitude,
The Rev. James Galasinski