We concluded candidating week joyously today, by unanimously voting to call the Rev. Allison Palm to be our next settled minister. She enthusiastically accepted.

After a prophetic service on how UUs live our salvation, Jed escorted Allison and Tristan across the street to Nancy's Diner, to await the outcome of the vote.

Harry Purkhiser, president of the congregation, convened the congregational meeting, the search committee presented the motion to call Allison, the congregation voted by secret ballot, and everyone impatiently awaited the count.

When Harry received the tally from Mary Licking, church clerk, he said he was stunned, which prompted a collective gasp from the crowd. However, it was the thought of a group of UUs doing anything unanimously that prompted Harry's surprise, and when the congregation understood the source of Harry's confusion, the initial panic turned immediately to joy and celebration.

After a call to the diner, Allison was escorted back to the church, finding the congregation on the steps and lawn, applauding and singing “ there is more love right here.” What a sight for anyone driving by! Everyone returned to the sanctuary, where Allison accepted the congregation's call and we made history. Fitting then, that we adjourned to the dining room for cake and coffee.

Report and Motion

Speaking for the search committee, Gary Lerude gave the following report and motion at the congregational meeting to call the Reverend Allison Palm to be the next settled minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashua.

This has been a joyous week, and we want to begin by thanking you for being so gracious. You have turned out and helped out, warmly welcoming Allison and Tristan. You have asked many interesting questions, and we have not heard of any major concerns. If anything did trouble you during the week, we hope you have taken advantage of the many opportunities to raise and address your concern and have thoughtfully considered your responsibility to the other members of this community.

Your presence and collective efforts since last Sunday have shown Allison the potential of this congregation. We hope you have seen that potential as well — the potential that our energy, our love, our financial commitment, mixed with a very special minister will help us to become a more beloved community, with a deeper spirituality and greater service to those outside these walls.

The decision we make this morning is so clear and compelling to the search committee. From our experience this past week, Allison is even better than we thought she was.

Before we make the motion to call her to be our next settled minister, we should remind you why we chose her. For the record. That's the accountability we owe you and congregants who may read of this event decades from now.

You told us that the worship service is where you are grounded, renewed, inspired, challenged. You told us you want sermons with depth, sermons that make you think, sermons that touch the heart. You've now experienced two of Allison's sermons. Last week's was what she describes as pastoral; today's was prophetic. Both were deeply moving.

You told us you want a minister whose theology is compatible with ours, a minister who honors our humanists and welcomes those who have a stronger connection with divinity. As you've heard, Allison grew up Unitarian Universalist. She is centered in our faith tradition and does not define herself in comparison with another faith. Her roots are in humanism, and that has evolved into a theology inspired by nature, with room for the mystery of life and centered in love.

You told us you want a minister who has a pastoral presence and can comfort people in times of need. Fortunately, we didn't have any pastoral emergencies this week to demonstrate that. However, if you are on the Pastoral Care team, you heard her discuss pastoral care and her intent to be very involved. If you have spoken with her or seen her interact with a small group, you have seen her ability to be present, to listen, to engage with warmth and compassion.

You told us that our next minister should have a strong commitment to religious education. Before becoming a minister, Allison worked in various religious education roles in the Belmont, Massachusetts congregation, a church with 200 children and youth — more than twice our size. She comes to us with practical, hands-on experience, and she loves kids. And adult religious education is an area she wishes to emphasize in her ministry.

You told us that retaining our youth and attracting young adults are important to sustaining and enriching the life of our congregation. Allison has participated in and led young adult groups and campus ministries. If you've heard her speak on this topic, you know she has clear and thoughtful strategies to achieve this goal.

You told us that our next minister should embrace our tradition of social justice and be a witness for our faith and principles in the larger community. Allison is inspired by our outreach collections, our community dinners, our work to end homelessness and hunger, our decades of engagement in Nashua and New Hampshire, which align with her interests in social justice. Today's sermon gave you a good sense of that. And from her week with us, you can tell that she will be an excellent spokesperson for this church and our UU values.

You told us that our next minister should know about our governance model and be willing to be the executive. Allison has served in various administrative leadership roles and is comfortable with management responsibility. She has experience with policy-based governance, at congregations and the UU Minister's Association. She's seen firsthand where it works well, and she's seen the challenges. She believes in the core principles while embracing the flexibility to mold and evolve the implementation to best serve the church.

You expressed a concern that a new minister might be too directive, taking charge and making changes unilaterally. Allison's leadership style is very collaborative. She will no doubt make some changes as her ministry develops here — but will do so in consultation and collaboration with the stakeholders.

Since we announced Allison as our candidate, one comment the search committee has heard quite frequently is how young Allison is. Some of you have asked us her age. I honestly don't know. Following the philosophy of our Beyond Categorical Thinking workshop, which many of you attended, we evaluated potential ministers on the characteristics I've just discussed — not their sexual orientation, gender identity, color, or age.

While Allison is in the early stages of her ministry, we have been impressed by her maturity and wisdom and see such potential for her ministry to bloom with us. She has a depth informed by volunteering and working in various UU roles, as well as growing up a Unitarian Universalist. From her work with the UU Minister's Association, her network is enviable: it includes virtually every minister in the UUA. When she wants help, it won't be far away.

If you think back, a year ago at this time we were resigning ourselves to another year of search and interim ministry — what Janet Newman euphemistically called a bonus year. As Carol Houde said at one of our gatherings this week, this bonus year has been a real blessing. We're a stronger congregation today than we were a year ago.

And the Reverend Allison Palm was worth waiting for.

Mr. President and members of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashua, the Search Committee moves that we call the Reverend Allison Palm to be our next settled minister.

The Rev. Allison Palm and church president Harry Purkhiser sign the ministerial agreement, formally documenting the ministerial call and acceptance.