The Interim Search Committee and Board of Trustees are quite pleased to announce that the Reverend Mary Katherine Morn, who has just completed a successful ministry of seven years as Pastor of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville, Tennessee, has agreed to serve as UNMC's Interim Minister for the next year, with an option to extend for an additional year. Reverend Morn and son Caleb, 9, are joining her husband, John Rakestraw, who accepted a position at Georgetown University earlier this year.
Moderator Greg Wigle and Reverend Morn plan to finalize the Minister's Agreement upon her return to Washington after the UUA's General Assembly being held in Long Beach, California from June 24 to June 28, but the Board anticipates that her ministry will begin formally in August, with some vacation time to be taken during that month.
by Victoria Pepper,
Vice Moderator & Chair, Interim Search Committee
Reverend Morn received her Masters of Divinity in 1987 from the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Texas. She brings UNMC vast experience as a parish minister, and the Interim Search Committee found that Reverend Morn's skills and interests as a minister matched up extremely well with UNMC's current needs as well as with those ministerial skills emphasized by the congregation in response to its recent congregational survey. Reverend Morn's leadership experience includes two long-term settled ministries, during which the congregations she served each won the UUA's Picket Award for contributing to the growth of Unitarian Universalism.
The Board and Reverend Morn will send out letters to UNMC members and friends providing additional information soon, including a schedule of opportunities for the congregation to meet Reverend Morn and her family this summer. Stay tuned--as together we are about to embark upon an exciting new era in the ministry, and history, of this Church.
Posted by Kimberly Durham Bates at July 2, 2004 12:06 PMI want to congratulate you on your selection of Mary Katherine Morn as your interim minister. My wife and I were happy and active members of First UU of Nashville for four years (and might not be UUs now if MKM had not been the minister there when we first went!).
We are now members of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax and I have just begun service as the Church Administrator of River Road Unitarian Church.
You will find Mary Katherine to be warm and supportive, thoughtful and intelligent in her ministry. She is a very special person. Whatever issues you are working through, I am confident that she will listen to your needs and help you to find YOUR OWN solutions.
If any of you harbor reservations or uncertainty about her, I invite you to contact me at RRUC, bades@rruc.org or by phone 301.229-0400, ext.101.
Again, congratulations!
Bill Ades