Meet
Our Ministers
Janet E. Newman and Mark
David Evens
Rev. Janet E. Newman,
Interim Senior Minister
Dear Friends,
I’m glad to have this opportunity of introducing myself to you – I’m your new Interim Minister for 2008-09. I’m very grateful to your Interim Search Committee for selecting me for the position.
This year I’m serving the First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa, Ontario, which is a little smaller than BUC, but is the largest UU congregation in Canada and in the nation’s capital to boot. We’ve had a good year, and next year they will be served by another Interim Minister in order to maximize their exposure to a variety of ministerial styles and talents.
I grew up in Ohio, on the south shore of Lake Erie. My dad was raised in Windsor, ON, and my mother not far from Ottawa. As children, my brothers and I enjoyed driving over to Detroit to visit my grandma Newman. We especially enjoyed raiding her sour cherry tree in the back yard.
I was fortunate to have a fine education at Smith College and a first career in computers. I became active in the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, VA, and it was there I was married and there where my husband had his memorial service nine years later. I became interested in the UU ministry in my early 30’s, and my husband’s death propelled me toward theological school. I graduated from Meadville/Lombard with a D. Min., served two congregations as a Called Minister, and then went into the Interim Ministry – my specialty since 1987! Sometime I’ll list all the cities and states where I have served UU congregations.
I’m very much looking forward to meeting you and serving your excellent congregation. I expect to visit for a few days in late May and begin work in August. In the meantime, you have important farewells to participate in and many memories to celebrate.
I wish you all the best for your leave-taking with your present ministers and staff and I wish us all the best for our new ministry together.
Sincerely,
Janet Newman
Accredited Interim Minister, First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa, ON
Greetings. I am Rev. Mark Evens, associate minister at BUC since September 1, 2006.
My parents raised me Catholic in Royal Oak and West Bloomfield, Michigan, but as a teen I “converted” to agnosticism. From Roeper School in Bloomfield Hills I went to Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island where I studied liberal arts and neuroscience. For two years after graduating, I stayed in Providence working in a medical research laboratory. Then, after studying Spanish in Cuernavaca, Mexico for two months, I relocated to California to volunteer at the Berkeley Free Clinic.
While working in the software industry as a technical writer, I came to Unitarian Universalism at the First Unitarian Church of Oakland the Sunday after Easter 1989. I quickly became deeply involved in many areas of the church, including choir, helping to revive the men’s fellowship, organizing church participation in the Gay Pride parade, and serving as a worship associate. In the process of helping to craft worship, of working to distill from my own experiences that which would be useful to share with other spiritual seekers, I felt a call to ministry. My minister said, “Mark, if there is anything else you can do instead, do that.” I held out for ten years.
In 2000, after ten years of active service as a lay leader in many capacities I enrolled in Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley. My ministerial internship was with the First Unitarian Church of Dallas. In May of 2005 completed my Masters of Divinity degree.
I served as interim minister at Unitarian Universalist Community Church in Sacramento, California for a year, and then was called to serve here, back in Michigan, where I started. On Sunday October 29th 2006, I was ordained to Unitarian Universalist ministry and installed as BUC’s second associate minister.
The ending of Rev. Doug Gallager’s twenty-two-year ministry at BUC in June of 2008 presents a unique challenge and opportunity for the church. After long and careful consideration, I announced my resignation on April 14th 2008. I feel that my departure, effective August 17th, 2008, will afford the church the best possibility of an effective interim period before the selection and arrival of the next senior minister.
My wife Jennifer and I will be moving to Ann Arbor, Michigan in the next few months where I will begin a ministry as Acting Associate Minister with the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ann Arbor.
Congratulations to the Rev. Dr. Douglas W. Gallager, Minister Emeritus and the Rev. Celia Thurston, Affiliate Minister Emerita, awarded by the congregation of Birmingham Unitarian Church on June 8, 2008.