The following is an early and brief report about the work of the Senior Minister Search Committee that was elected on November 8. 
 
Our committee has gathered three times so far and will resume meeting in early January.  On December 3 we met with Reverend Mike Denton, our Conference Minister and a fellow member of Plymouth Church, who will work closely with us. We are determining leaders for our committee and have begun studying the resource materials published by the national United Church of Christ to help us conduct our search. The largest task immediately before us is preparing the “Local Church Profile” that we will develop and send to potential candidates. This profile will incorporate your ideas about new pastoral leadership as you expressed in the survey that was conducted during the last few months.
 
While the work on the Local Church Profile requires the input of many in the congregation, the names of candidates are held in strict confidence within our committee; we ask you to respect the essential confidentiality of this process. We will make every effort to keep you informed—on a regular basis—about our progress. To that end, a Forum presentation is scheduled in February during which we will describe the process in more detail and will answer questions.
 
We want to express our gratitude for the trust you have placed in us. In accepting this important task, we have all acknowledged that it is a spiritual as well as a practical one. We are making prayer an important part of our group’s life: please, hold us in your prayers during the upcoming months.

Senior Minister Search Committee:
Robin Appleford, Kevin Bechtold, Jon Daniel, Phyllis Daniels, David Guthrie, Courtney Hashimoto, Bruce Lamb, Merrily Matthews, Robert Neer, Marcia Regnier, Connie Sandstrom