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REVERIE OF AN ACCIDENTAL MINISTER
PUUF
Something about Astoria, Oregon, had always called to me. When my family would visit Cannon Beach, some
30 miles south of Astoria, for a week at the Cannon Beach Bible Conference in
my childhood, I always hoped we’d go up to Astoria and explore. This Victorian city on a hill, with its
towering column atop the aptly named Coxcomb Hill, represented its significance
to me and I wanted to know more.
We always went to Tillamook to the cheese factory and
Astoria wasn’t that much farther, but we rarely went north on our brief
expeditions, so my hopes were mostly unfulfilled. I had to wait till I was independent and
traveling on my own to explore the far North Coast more thoroughly.
All that was years ago, when I was an entirely different
person, with a different world view, with a different set of values, and now I
explore with a new awareness of my ageing self and my life’s purpose.
In the fall of 2012, a bit vague about what I would do
with my retirement freedom after leaving Whidbey Island, where I had served
UUCWI for 9 years, I rented a little house in Gearhart OR and installed my two
cats, my belongings, and my more mature personhood, wondering how this new life
would all shake out. I was 70 years old
and had been working fulltime since 1964—48 years! I was ready for a break.
I’d chosen the North Coast for my retirement because of
my longtime sense of connection to the area and I’d checked out some of the
volunteer activities available there.
But mostly I wanted big water, the familiar water---the ocean, the
river, the small creeks---of my early life.
Puget Sound just didn’t cut it for me.
The waves were too little, I thought.
Give me big breakers and sandy beaches, I thought.
I also wanted a church home and there was a small UU
congregation in Astoria where I had been a guest preacher several times, so I
knew I would have that connection to the religious home I craved. I’d been a Unitarian Universalist since about
1976 and an ordained UU minister since 1999; yes, a church lady from away back!
So I settled into Gearhart, which was several miles from
Astoria, made friends there, and explored a few options for volunteering,
choosing to get more deeply connected to the North Coast Land Conservancy,
where some friends volunteered, the local senior activities group called
ENCORE, and sniffed around a few others. But I attended church at the Pacific UU
Fellowship in Astoria regularly; I hardly missed a Sunday service.
As I observed the Fellowship, I watched the same people
doing everything on Sunday morning, with an occasional guest minister, enjoying
each other but clearly tired and struggling to stay afloat as a
congregation. They were on life support,
with a membership of about 20 people and attendance on Sundays of about 15-20,
according to one of those tired members.
There were clear pastoral needs in the congregation as
well, two people with terminal illnesses, at least one person with memory
issues, and little energy for investing in social justice work or programming.
One day I offered to help with pastoral care, which
quickly developed into an occasional sermon (with honorarium), then to a
monthly sermon and a contract. A year
after I began attending, they started referring to me as their quarter-time
minister, though our contract was more limited initially.
Attending PUUF meant driving up to Astoria at least once
a week for the service, plus ENCORE activities were mostly in Astoria. I was doing a lot of driving from Gearhart
north. After three years of living in my
cozy little place in Gearhart, I made the decision to move north to Astoria,
and after the move I realized I had found my true home.
Of course, the move also made it possible to get even
more deeply involved with PUUF, which led to raises in pay, increased activity
on my part, and a sense of excitement among all of us as PUUF began to grow and
grow. We had started with 20 members and
within a couple of years of steady growth, we knew we needed to find a larger
space than the tiny Congregational chapel on the south slope.
After many months of working with a facilities committee,
the decision came down to “stay and work with the space we’ve got” or “move to
the Performing Arts Center downtown”.
The vote was decisive and we got ready to move.
The PAC has many good features but it hasn’t been
perfect. Nevertheless, we have
instituted some work-arounds to help with the cramped social hour and RE spaces
in the lower level. Potlucks are held
across the street in the Masonic Temple, and other functions require rented
halls as well. Set-up for services has
led to the development of a sexton team to help lug the worship items onto the
stage, a greeter team to prepare the foyer for visitors and members alike, and
a hospitality team to setup and put away social hour items.
We pay quite a low rent at the PAC and, as a requirement
of our status as a Partner for the PAC, we organize two fundraising events per
year. So far we have contributed a lot
of energy and cash to the treasury of the Partners and feel we’ve upheld our
end of the bargain!
I took a look at what I have contributed to the life and
health of the Fellowship and made this list of programming developed during my
ministry here:
Satellite groups: Nehalem,
Astoria, Long Beach peninsula, South County (these are coffee groups—or happy
hour, in the case of Astoria—that meet monthly on Saturday mornings---or 2nd
Thursday evening for happy hour. These
are strictly social gatherings for an hour or two, but I always attend and have
a chance to learn about people’s lives.
Growth: from 20
members to 50-60
Facility: moving to the
Performing Arts Center, becoming a Partner for the PAC
Improved worship
experience: introducing enhanced experience and cohesion
Teams: sextons,
greeters, hospitality, potluck set-up in tandem with hospitality
PRIDE involvement: annual Pride
service as part of the weekend festivities
Fundraising events: Skamokawa
Swamp Opera, MJ New Quartet, Pete Seeger
concert
Public face of PUUF: entries and
stories in the Daily Astorian, Chinook Observer, and Facebook
Pastoral Care: several
memorial services, visitations in hospital, nursing homes
Sense of continuity and
cohesion in the congregation
Preparing PUUF for the
date of my retirement, working with
UUA staff to smooth the transition.
UU 101 class as a requirement for membership
Renewed and upgraded
Canvass process
Organized a local
clergywomen’s support group
There are a few
congregational areas that need to be addressed, primarily in the social justice
arena; though individuals are involved locally in a variety of social outreach
efforts, there is little congregational focus.
Bylaws are sketchy in places and reflect the mom and pop atmosphere of
their earlier years. I have not tried to
stay active with UUA and regional programming; I’ve had a few health issues
that made it hard to travel the 2 hour one-way commute to Portland or other
urban centers for meetings, etc.
WHY DID MY SERVING PUUF
WORK SO WELL?
I think the success of my
time here has been largely because I could afford to live here in Clatsop
County; I had a moderate pension that has been my main source of income. The $$ from the congregation augmented that
to a very comfortable level. I hope that
the minister who follows me will have a similar financial situation and will be
able to live in the community. I have
been active in community affairs and have given PUUF a public face through
writing occasionally for the Daily Astorian and participating in local efforts
like Indivisible and PRIDE, as well as organizations like the Lower Columbia
Diversity Coalition, North Coast Land Conservancy, and ENCORE, a senior
citizens’ continuing education group. I
have performed weddings and memorial services for locals and others who were
not part of PUUF and have acted as an informal chaplain for ENCORE and NCLC.
PUUF had two experiences with
ministers in the past ten years which were unsuccessful, largely because of
personal issues in those two ministers’ lives:
poor health ended one ministry and the other minister was deeply
grieving the loss of her spouse. The
PNWD helped to the extent they could, but it was disappointing to the PUUF
leaders and members. When I retired to
the North Coast, it felt like a miracle to them that I was willing to
help. And it was a blessing to me to be
able to be helpful.
WHAT IS IT ABOUT ASTORIA
THAT IS SO WONDERFUL?
Yes, it rains in the winter,
but not every day. And the days when
it’s not raining are glorious. Even the
storms are interesting and, of course, the green slopes and meadows alongside
the several rivers are the reward.
Astoria is a unique blend of
old and new, with a history that goes back to Lewis and Clark Expedition days
and looks forward progressively. This is
a city whose infrastructure is solid, progressive (mostly), and humane. There is an ongoing effort in the leadership
of the city to examine its history, to build upon its strengths, and to try not
to repeat old mistakes.
I have felt very much at home
here from the first day. There is a
strong Scandinavian thread which I enjoy, but there are numerous others---fishing
and logging were historical pursuits which are morphing into more sustainable
occupations.
There is strong interest in
preserving the environment; an effort to build a liquid natural gas plant was
defeated roundly, though Walmart crept in almost unnoticed. But it fills a need.
There are enough big-box
outlets to serve commercial needs as well as small businesses of all
types. Restaurants all up and down the
“elegance” spectrum serve all kinds of needs.
Cannabis is legal in OR, so several outlets have sprung up in the city
and enhance the local economy.
A strong Q community has just
put on their 3rd (now annual) Pride weekend, in which PUUF has
participated each year, with events day and night for two solid days in
June. Other social justice arenas are
Immigration (local farmers and small businesses have lost many Latinx workers
to ICE), Homelessness (because of its mild winters and cool summers, the coast
attracts many house-less campers), and Environmental issues (forestry issues in
particular).
But why do I love Astoria so
much? Partly because of its beauty and
its history, partly because of the welcome I’ve found here, not only at PUUF
but also in the larger community, partly because of the expansive vistas of
water and Coast Range, partly because of the friendliness of my neighbors and
other local friends.
I do plan to stay in the
community, as it is my home. I do commit
to creating a covenant with my incoming colleague, so that my presence in the
community does not adversely affect their relationship with the Fellowship.
