Hello, Trinity!

Once again, we are honored and blessed to serve you as your Transition Team. Our work this spring is to select an interim minister to serve Trinity after Sid’s retirement on July 1.

We are pleased to announce that Trinity’s interim job listing went live on the United Church of Christ Ministry Opportunities website in early January. All candidates for the position will submit their applications directly to the South Central Conference of the UCC. We will be receiving applications for at least the next two months before finalizing a group of candidates to interview. After the interview process is complete, the five of us will present our recommended candidate to the Leadership Council for a vote.

As you may recall, Trinity is using the United Church of Christ’s Search and Call process to choose an interim minister, who will serve with us for 12-18 months—a relatively short period of time. We will be looking for different strengths in an interim minister than we would in a settled, or permanent, minister. Following UCC guidelines, we are not permitted to hire the minister who serves as our interim as our settled minister. 

The interim minister has a very specific, sacred role: to guide us through a transitional time. They will help our congregation work on past and present issues so that we can prepare for the future and the arrival of the settled minister. This will be an in-between time of grieving, seeking, and healing. We will come out of this time with a stronger sense of who we are as a congregation and a clear vision of who we want to call as our next minister.

We are so grateful for the Trinity members who have already written to us with their ideas and concerns for Trinity’s long-term ministry. We’ll be collecting feedback like this throughout the time of transition, both before and after the arrival of the interim. All of us on the Transition Team share your hopes and your concerns about the changes that will come with Sid’s retirement, and we’re glad to know we have each other and that we will have a good transitional leader for support.

As we move through the interim selection process, we as the Transition Team will continue to communicate regularly with both the Leadership Council and the congregation. If you have questions about our work or need some support during this time, please feel free to reach out to the five members of the Transition Team via email at transition@trinitychurchofaustin.org.

Warmly,

Jessica Rush Dugan, co-leader

Brandon Wollerson, co-leader

Jolene Carlson

Rolando Perez

Christine Major