Interim Minister Announcement

We have the honor and pleasure of announcing that the incredibly hard work of our Interim Search Committee has culminated in the Call of Reverend Meredith Jeffers as our Interim Minister.

Before we give you a brief introduction to Rev. Jeffers, we need to take a moment to offer gratitude. On behalf of Church Council and the Congregation, we offer our deep and sincere gratitude to the members of the Interim Search Committee, including Greg Whitehouse as committee chair, and committee members Heidi Bonassar, Jessie DePonte, Kathy Filkins, and John Perkowski. Thank you for the time, thoughtfulness, and insight that you devoted to searching for and calling Rev. Jeffers as our interim minister. The words "thank you" are truly insufficient.

On November 7, 2022 the Interim Search Committee presented to the Church Council their unanimous recommendation to call Rev. Jeffers as our interim minister. The members of Council had an opportunity to meet Rev. Jeffers that night and voted to accept the Interim Committee's recommendation. We are pleased to announce that as of November 26, 2022, the process of calling Rev. Jeffers has been completed, and she has formally accepted the Call. She will begin her interim ministry with us on December 1, 2022.

You will obviously be learning more about her in the days and weeks to come, but we want to mention briefly that Rev. Jeffers was ordained in 1987 and served at several churches as a full-time senior pastor, one of them being the Congregational Church in Meriden where she served from 1994 to 2000. Soon after that she served as an interim minister in Madison, Connecticut, and then several other locations. Her most recent interim position was completed this past summer at a congregation in Scarsdale, New York. She currently resides in Meriden.

In the coming weeks, Rev. Jeffers will be orienting and getting to know us, starting with meeting senior leadership and board and committee chairs. Please watch for additional introductions and opportunities to get to know her.

As we move into this next phase of our church life, we, on behalf of Church Council and all other church leaders, ask all members and friends to support Rev. Jeffers in her purpose here at First Congregational Church. She will be here to help us use our Vision and Mission to move forward and plan for the future. She will help us to identify the areas that we need to address, to prioritize them, and then to put plans in place to move those areas forward in a thoughtful and purposeful manner. The focus will be to help right size our church as we go forward into the future, and this will require much consideration and planning about ministerial staffing, office staffing, the organization of boards and committees, the involvement of church members in support of our programs, and the use of our facilities. She will help us to determine when we are ready to begin the process of searching for and calling a new senior settled minister.

These are not small tasks, but God gives us faith that she and we are up to the tasks. In the weeks to come, we ask you as members and friends of this congregation to prayerfully reflect on how you can offer her welcome, support, and partnership to do the interim work before us.

With the hope, joy, peace, and love that this season inspires,
Lori Folk-Barron and Steve Knight, Co-Moderators




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