News: April 3, 2026
Dear Members and Friends:
Last week’s departure of Kinsey Shackelford as Director of Religious Exploration has left our community feeling unsettled. In talking with some of you, I have heard concerns for her, concerns for the future of our religious exploration program, and concerns for the congregation as a whole.
A sudden departure like this leaves a number of unanswered and unanswerable questions. It prevents a sense of closure, especially for the children who will not get the opportunity to say goodbye to someone many of them have developed a close bond with.
This Sunday and next we will be offering the children the opportunity to have as much closure as we can by inviting them to make cards to send to Kinsey and wish her well. This will take place between the services and following the 11:30 a.m. service in the Fireside room. Our minister emeritus, the Rev. Dr. Dan King, will be present for the card making and to offer pastoral care to parents and children during this time.
Wednesday evening at 7:00 p.m. we will provide parents with the chance to process the sudden departure as well. Alongside Board President Ruth Hoffman-Lach, the Rev. Dr. King, and I will be hosting an online Zoom listening session so that the congregation’s lay leadership and I can hear parent concerns, which we take very seriously. We are waiting to constitute a search team for our next Director of Religious Exploration until we have had a chance to listen. I encourage you to send any questions you have to me in advance so that we can be better prepared to answer them.
In the meantime, please know that the Transitioning Religious Exploration Knowledge team that Carol Burrus worked hard to put together is working with me to ensure that we continue to offer quality religious exploration. This weekend’s Easter egg hunt and Emergency Aid Coalition parade will go ahead as planned. The fact that it will, leads me to express my gratitude to Carol for her thoughtful efforts in preparing a full year of religious exploration programming. And I am grateful for our incredible team of volunteers as well. If you have the opportunity to do so, please share some appreciation with them.
One question that many of you have is about the timeline for hiring our next Director of Religious Exploration. Because we want to be thoughtful about receiving member input, the process will take us approximately three months. We hope to finish recruiting the search team by the end of April, after which we will post the position for approximately a month before beginning to interview candidates. Our target start date is July 13th.
I know that this is a longer than desired time to go without a Director of Religious Exploration. I also know that we will get through it. We have a wonderful community. It has been through unexpected changes before. I have no doubt that we will we emerge from this one strong and capable of widening love’s circle. If you have any questions or concerns please bring them to me.
love,
Colin
Last week’s departure of Kinsey Shackelford as Director of Religious Exploration has left our community feeling unsettled. In talking with some of you, I have heard concerns for her, concerns for the future of our religious exploration program, and concerns for the congregation as a whole.
A sudden departure like this leaves a number of unanswered and unanswerable questions. It prevents a sense of closure, especially for the children who will not get the opportunity to say goodbye to someone many of them have developed a close bond with.
This Sunday and next we will be offering the children the opportunity to have as much closure as we can by inviting them to make cards to send to Kinsey and wish her well. This will take place between the services and following the 11:30 a.m. service in the Fireside room. Our minister emeritus, the Rev. Dr. Dan King, will be present for the card making and to offer pastoral care to parents and children during this time.
Wednesday evening at 7:00 p.m. we will provide parents with the chance to process the sudden departure as well. Alongside Board President Ruth Hoffman-Lach, the Rev. Dr. King, and I will be hosting an online Zoom listening session so that the congregation’s lay leadership and I can hear parent concerns, which we take very seriously. We are waiting to constitute a search team for our next Director of Religious Exploration until we have had a chance to listen. I encourage you to send any questions you have to me in advance so that we can be better prepared to answer them.
In the meantime, please know that the Transitioning Religious Exploration Knowledge team that Carol Burrus worked hard to put together is working with me to ensure that we continue to offer quality religious exploration. This weekend’s Easter egg hunt and Emergency Aid Coalition parade will go ahead as planned. The fact that it will, leads me to express my gratitude to Carol for her thoughtful efforts in preparing a full year of religious exploration programming. And I am grateful for our incredible team of volunteers as well. If you have the opportunity to do so, please share some appreciation with them.
One question that many of you have is about the timeline for hiring our next Director of Religious Exploration. Because we want to be thoughtful about receiving member input, the process will take us approximately three months. We hope to finish recruiting the search team by the end of April, after which we will post the position for approximately a month before beginning to interview candidates. Our target start date is July 13th.
I know that this is a longer than desired time to go without a Director of Religious Exploration. I also know that we will get through it. We have a wonderful community. It has been through unexpected changes before. I have no doubt that we will we emerge from this one strong and capable of widening love’s circle. If you have any questions or concerns please bring them to me.
love,
Colin
