Rev. Nicoline is offering her final Minister’s Report to the congregation. With a mix of sadness and deep gratitude, she shares her thoughts here:
Final Report to the Congregation
Rev. Nicoline Guerrier
June 8, 2025
With love in my heart, deep appreciation, and no small amount of sadness, I offer this final report to you, at what will be my last congregational meeting. Although I have had the privilege of serving as your minister for the past seven years, some of you will remember we actually met eight years ago, on a sunny weekend in May, when I made my first visit across the Canada-US border to meet you.
I remember being so excited to meet this community of strong lay leaders, known for your innovation, your willingness to roll up your sleeves, your enthusiastic embrace of families and children, and for your many justice initiatives. I remember also being intrigued by the clarity with which you described some of your challenges.
You knew that in order to partner well with a professional minister – something that had not always been easy in the past – you would need to lean into change. Also, after decades as an informally-run, family-style congregation, you wanted to put in place clearer systems and professional standards.
The Rev. Evin Carvill-Ziemer, your UUA Primary Contact, suggested you add two more challenges to your list. The first: to learn what it truly means to have a minister – not just on Sundays, but as a trusted ministry partner over time. Rev. Evin also urged us to reflect together about how authority is exercised here, in order to better be able to answer the all-important question: “who decides?”
So much has happened since then.
You have become expert at offering high-quality, dual-platform worship services with spiritual practice at their heart. Your trademark “wave goodbye” at the end of each service sums up how you value and promote the belonging and relationships with all who attend – both in person and online. In my experience, there are few congregations who have figured out how to do this as well as you do.
You turned the main floor of your building into a fully accessible space, with a parking pad – wow!
Your “meeting culture” is rich and nourishing. You begin with a check-in, an invitation to bring your whole selves into the room. You depart with a check-out, an important chance to name things that might otherwise have remained unsaid. And you’ve become skilled at the art of “rounds” – a practice that draws on group wisdom to move people with diverse viewpoints in the direction of better decision-making.
If you’ve been part of the Worship Team, you’ll know that services are now developed collaboratively – and that most of us find that being a team of co-creators is deeply satisfying and fun!
And thanks to Kris Lutters, Jo El Miano, the RE staff and volunteers plus the Connect in Community team (who organize the fabulous connection-building Sundays for folks of all ages once a month), this space is now buzzing with the voices and energy of children and families once again.
You have made significant headway toward your goal of clarifying systems and meeting professional standards. You take your responsibilities as an employer seriously. As your staff team has grown, you’ve systematized practices like making sure job descriptions are up-to-date, compensation is reviewed annually, minister and staff both receive and offer regular feedback, and state safety requirements are met. To me, these are not extras: they mean you are an organization that takes integrity, and accountability, seriously.
Huge thanks are due to Dorothy Latta, your one-person HR team, and to Lisa Bulriss, whose comprehensive master calendar keeps all of us (me, the board, and staff) on track and able to address our many recurring tasks and deadlines.
Although your operating expenses have more than doubled over the past eight years, astonishingly, your financial contributions have doubled as well. You are a deeply generous people.
Like many over these last years, you have been invited to do the deep and difficult work of exploring how systemic oppression and othering have shaped your organizational culture. Some of the people of color among you have generously shared from their lived experiences, lifting up times when you did not live up to your values, leading to experiences of racism here at the congregation.
But, drawing on the commitment you made when you voted to uphold the UU 8th principle, and in partnership with the SUNY Plattsburgh DEI office, you have begun exploring areas for change. You made the brave decision, still uncomfortable for some, to replace the Sunday open mic with other practices – both on Sundays and throughout the week – to reduce the chances of harm.
And, now that some of you have become trained facilitators, I hope you will follow through with offering Truth, Healing, and Racial Transformation circles in the coming year.
What will I remember especially?
Times when we got to linger outside, especially when we first emerged from pandemic isolation. Remember Breakfast for Dinner at the Beach? Or Water Communion outdoors on Palmer Street, where together we shared blessings and greetings with a random collection of neighbors and dog-walkers? And our long-ago leadership retreat at Twin Valleys? I thank you for these times of fun and celebration.
I’ll also remember the many small group conversations, like Starting Point, What Matters Now?, Think Tank, the Facilitators’ Group, Sacred Words, and On Repentance and Repair. Many of those conversations continued one-on-one with me when your lives became difficult, as life inevitably does. I thank you for your trust.
I won’t forget the privilege of getting to witness the wisdom and maturity of your amazing youth when I co-facilitated the HAWK sexuality education program.
I won’t forget the honor of being able to represent you and our beloved faith tradition at community events like MLK Day, Pride, and the SUNY Plattsburgh Day of Racial Healing.
I won’t forget the fabulous installation ceremony you organized at Temple Beth Israel, with UU colleagues, visiting dignitaries, live music, crafts, and the fabulous post-installation feast you put together. I thank you for your willingness to take the risk of entering into a longer-term partnership.
On a sadder note, as always happens, there were a number of elders from this community who died during my tenure. Like you, I think of them still.
I’m also grateful that being part of a religious community like this one offers us all the opportunity to accompany, celebrate, remember, and carry forth the legacy of people we have loved who are no longer physically among us. I thank you for the honor of having been able to accompany you through times of transition and loss.
One note on sacred objects. One of the unwritten rules of ministry is to never give the congregation gifts some among you will feel obligated to hang onto forever. I broke this rule when I gave you a small ceramic chalice, which you’re now displaying on the chancel table, despite my intention that it be used only occasionally, at meetings. So please, please do not turn this into a sacred object, and allow its purpose to be transformed when the time is right!
There is one object I do hope you will keep sacred, however. Some of you will have recently heard that one member of this community is in a relationship – dare I say a sacred relationship – with the rocking chair that we brought up to the sanctuary a couple of years back. I charge you to keep this chair in its special spot, for any and all who feel the need to be rocked during their time among you!
I want to close by thanking everyone who has served on the Committee on Ministry, all the board members who have offered their service from 2017 to now, every staff member (virtual and in-person), the dedicated Commissioned Lay Ministers, past and present, and all of you who have trusted me to enter your congregational system, to enter your lives, and to serve as minister. I have not been able to name everyone. Please know that our connections have been precious.
Have we figured out all the ways to answer, “Who decides?” I’m not sure.
Have you learned what it is to have a minister? I think the answer might be “Yes.”
Speaking for myself, I certainly know I have learned, and will never forget, what an honor it has been to be your minister. My heart and my life will remain forever transformed by the relationships we have built over these past years. I thank you for the many gifts – too many to fully name – of this rich and unforgettable time together.
Respectfully submitted,
Rev. Nicoline Guerrier