Greg WarD

Hello!!

My name is Greg Ward and I'm so excited to be introducing myself as MPUUC's candidate for settled ministry!!! (PRESS HERE FOR CELEBRATION VIDEO)

It's my hope that by providing some background this website will help begin the process of connecting us more deeply. But before I start telling you about myself, it's important to take a moment to thank your Ministerial Search Team. DeAnna, Ilze, Tiffany, Annette, Stephen and Don all did such a fantastic job representing you. Through sharing information about MPUUC and engaging conversation, they helped me see that your history and hopes are a good fit for my history and hopes. Steve and Melissa were both wise and creative in putting together a contract with everyone's best interests at heart and the board moved everything forward quickly. You deserve to be proud of everyone's work in bringing us to this wonderful moment.

I am a life long UU, born shortly after the Unitarians and Universalists merged. I was raised by the good people at Neighborhood UU Church in Pasadena - a place I remember affectionately as a crossroads for reason, tolerance, care and kindness. I came of age - and came to life - at DeBenneville Pines UU Conference Center with people who offered courageous examples of selflessness, integrity and generosity of spirit. It was through my UU connections I found solace and courage when the orthodox world of easy answers didn't resonate with the questions I carried in my head. I tried the counter culture, but that was just a different set of norms that didn't fit. Finally, while searching for self understanding and acceptance in college, I came across the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson: "To be yourself when the whole world is trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."

I tried on a whole lot of things looking for the right fit. In doing so, I found work as a cook, a clown, a baseball player, a waiter, an elevator operator an aerobics instructor and a teacher. I loved each of them. And took a piece of each with me as I looked further.

When I graduated with a degree in Biochemistry and Biophysics from UC San Diego, I worked for a while in environmental science and then pharmaceutical engineering. I loved making sense of the world, figuring out how things work. But after a while, I realized it wasn't really things I wanted to know, it was people. To understand human beings is to understand our great capacity for both kindness and callousness - THAT felt compelling. Specifically, I wanted to know how people come together to build community and take care of one another.

I knew then that, if there was anything that could call me to my best self, I would find it working with people who covenanted to help each other. That led to enrolling in seminary (Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA).

I'm in my 23rd year in ministry now. The first few years I spent training (at our UU Churches in Oakland and Berkeley and interning at First Toronto with Mark Morrison Reed) followed by 14 years as Settled Minister (Atlanta, GA and Monterey, CA). These places taught me a great deal about ministry with liberal, progressive people working for pluralism and inclusivity. I learned about what we lean into, shy away from, how we grow and why. I learned skills, stories and the art of loving people toward their better selves. It was a humbling privilege to walk-in-step with those who grew as people, partners, parents and community.

Since 2012, I've worked as an AIM (Accredited Interim Minister). I've studied best practices for communities in a variety of organizational systems, governance styles, staff and programming structures; I've learned about community goal-setting, family systems, effective strategies to manage conflict, and how to understand systems of privilege and oppression and work toward justice and equality for all.

Never have I found the work to be obvious, simple or easy. But neither has it failed to provide generous helpings of humility, compassion and worthwhile challenges.

I've worked mostly in mid-size to large congregations (between 200-400 members). Most recently I served as the Sr. Developmental Minister at the UU Community Church of Santa Monica. I resigned that position to marry Lucy Ruszel, the person who has been my partner for the last six years.

I developed a speciality in helping congregations move past old conflicts and commit together to build a compelling and worthwhile vision toward which everyone could contribute. I am hoping to do that here at MPUUC in such a way that I spend more time teaching and connecting with people rather than supporting large staff systems.

I look around the world and see such polarizationam and paralyzation - at the very time when complex issues need people to work together. I'm convinced that what communities of intentional people do in the next ten year will determine the degree to which Love and Justice can supplant distance, distrust and loneliness. I think people are tired of seeing fear, greed, corruption, competition, addictions and isolation determining our future and want a new way. I consider these to be the times we were made for.

For the last ten years, I've been working to re-organize and re-tool our denomination's structures such as the UUMA (MInister's Association) and the Ministerial Fellowship Committee as we look at our power and potential to make a difference. It's time for our congregations to be stations of social reform. Our contributions to the greater good will not come at the expense of personal power or meaning. Rather, we will gain power by investing in each other; grow in love by cultivating empathy and compassion and building community that thrives in shared ministry.

I believe I can help the Mission Peak Unitarian Universalist Congregation grow stronger by cultivating the care, wisdom, grace, laughter, joy and power you already have within and around you. In the last few years, I've noticed that Fremont, CA has been ranked as one of the greenest, most inclusive, happiest and best places to raise a family. That tells me that you are exactly the kind of community I want to work with. Together, I think we can make a difference for love and justice for ourselves and our neighbors.

Finally, in this time of 'shelter in place,' I send out a special prayer for all of us to remember what scientific data has been telling us for years: we are biologically hardwired for connection. None of us can do all that is being asked of us alone. Look after one another. For those who are blessed with all they need, share with others. Reach out and trust the ties that bind you. I am ready to be with you and hope you all stay safe until we can be together.