Janet Newman: A career Interim Minister
in the Unitarian Universalist Church
in the Unitarian Universalist Church
Rev. Janet Newman : Biography
My love for the ministry has been with me nearly my entire life, I suppose, including those years before I realized I had an opportunity to put my call into practice.
My parents were similar to many of their generation in that they began a “baby book” for me soon after I was born. As a child, I was fascinated by their entries in the book (birth weight, first word, first toy, etc.) and wished to add my own entries. On the page titled “Ambitions,” I printed, “I want to be a missionery (sic).” Later, I penciled, “a veterinarian,” or some spelling close to it. Clearly, the ambition to help people and animals was close to my heart from the beginning.
I grew up in northern Ohio, in a small town on the shore of Lake Erie, west of Cleveland. During the two years when I lived and served congregations in Ontario, I admitted that I grew up “on the South shore of Lake Erie.” I am the eldest of three children and the only female. My family was loosely associated with the Episcopal Church, and I became very much interested in religion during my adolescent years. It was the era of Vatican Two, and I made a point of visiting every congregation where I had friends in order to learn more about their faiths. I still kept up with the Episcopal Church as much as I could. In addition, my peers and I conducted our debates about religion in the reading room of the local public library, often “taking it outside” at the request of the librarians.
I did my undergraduate work at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts. I was privileged to study in Spain during 1965-66 on the Smith College Junior Year Abroad program. I traveled in Europe during the following summer with a group of Latin American tourists and greatly improved my Spanish. In 1967 I graduated with an AB in Hispanic Studies.
During my undergraduate years I was exposed to many questions about my place in the world, as is to be expected in education. I realize now that my existential questions were leading me toward liberal religion and social responsibility even though I wasn’t sure of the language of these impulses. I attended the College Chapel Services on Sundays and found a spiritual outlet in singing in the College Choirs and Glee Club. In addition, I worked on a project called “Smith for Mississippi” which provided resources for volunteers in the South as they sought to register local persons to vote. In Northampton, I tutored a middle-aged woman in Spanish that she needed for her job as a social worker.
Upon graduation, I moved to Washington, DC, and began my first profession as a computer programmer/analyst/teacher for the next eleven years. I also became very active as a volunteer in the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, Virginia, serving on the Board of Trustees and almost every committee of the church as well as in the choir. It was there that I was married, and together we found a spiritual home among Unitarian Universalists.
After my husband’s death in a car accident in 1978, I could no longer resist the call to the ministry that I had felt years before. I left my work in computers with the Federal Reserve System and began full-time study at Wesley Theological Seminary, United Methodist, in Washington, DC. I was for a year the only UU on campus, and I relished the opportunities to explain my faith.
Instead of continuing at Wesley until graduation, I transferred to Meadville Lombard Theological School at the University of Chicago.
I earned my MA from the Divinity School of the University of Chicago in 1982 and my Doctor of Ministry from Meadville Lombard in 1983. While in Chicago, I was an active volunteer at the First Unitarian Church, (except for the time of my parish internship at the North Shore UU Society in Plandome, NY, now the UU Congregation at Shelter Rock).
During the fall quarter of 1991, I returned to Meadville Lombard Theological School, serving as Acting Associate Dean, Assistant Professor of Ministry, and Minister in Residence. It was wonderful to be back in Chicago but with different roles: To be considered one of the faculty and to engage the students in their spiritual discernment activities.
Before entering the interim ministry, I served two congregations as a called minister. My most recent called position was as Associate Minister of All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, OK, at that time the largest congregation in North America.
Before that, however, I served a small congregation, the UU Fellowship of Fayetteville, AR. I was their first called minister in their 32 years of existence. We all learned a great deal about establishing a professional ministry.
In spite of the appeal of the life of a called minister, however, I have committed myself to the specialty of Interim Ministry, where I feel my skills are most needed and my abilities find their full expression. In 1989 I earned my UUA credentials as an Accredited Interim Minister.
I have been honored, since 1987, to serve as Interim Minister to eighteen wonderful congregations: in Florida (Orlando, Jacksonville, West Palm Beach, and Vero Beach); in Virginia (Norfolk); in Maryland (Baltimore); and in Delaware (Wilmington). I then served The First Parish in Milton, Massachusetts, and The First Parish in Needham, Massachusetts. In 1998-99 I was back in Florida, serving the UU Church of Sarasota.
In January, 2000, I was called out of my sabbatical to serve as the Interim Minister of the Unitarian Society of Northampton, MA. Then I served the UU Church of Fort Myers, FL; the First Universalist Church of Denver, CO; the UU Church of Charlotte, NC; the Williamsburg UU’s, Williamsburg, VA; and the UU Fellowship of Raleigh, NC. After a fall-winter sabbatical, I served in Sarasota, FL, in a short-term Interim Ministry. Then I returned to my Canadian roots to serve the First Unitarian Congregation of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 2006-07, and the next year the First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa, Ontario, the largest congregation in Canada, in the capital city.
I am currently serving the Birmingham Unitarian Church located in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. (www.bucmi.org) This congregation will greatly benefit from another year of Interim Ministry with another Interim Minister. Each of these experiences was a unique joy and challenge. As you can see, in my considerable experience, I have served congregations large and small, urban and rural. Some have been in affluent communities and some in dire straits. I have moved all over this great continent to be of help.
As a part of my calling, I am a builder of consensus even amidst contention. I assist congregations rediscover their own confidence and unity when they find themselves drifting away from their cohesive roots. My specialty is not to serve as a temporary caretaker while a congregation goes on about its business, but to lend a highly-trained, authoritative, guiding hand when such is needed to preserve a congregation’s success. My love of the ministry, especially as I practice it in congregations that are in challenging situations, is evident in all that I do.
I have had a rich and rewarding life of service in this special role. I look forward to conversations with you about my background and other areas of my ministry.
Best wishes,
Janet E. Newman, Accredited Interim Minister
My love for the ministry has been with me nearly my entire life, I suppose, including those years before I realized I had an opportunity to put my call into practice.
My parents were similar to many of their generation in that they began a “baby book” for me soon after I was born. As a child, I was fascinated by their entries in the book (birth weight, first word, first toy, etc.) and wished to add my own entries. On the page titled “Ambitions,” I printed, “I want to be a missionery (sic).” Later, I penciled, “a veterinarian,” or some spelling close to it. Clearly, the ambition to help people and animals was close to my heart from the beginning.
I grew up in northern Ohio, in a small town on the shore of Lake Erie, west of Cleveland. During the two years when I lived and served congregations in Ontario, I admitted that I grew up “on the South shore of Lake Erie.” I am the eldest of three children and the only female. My family was loosely associated with the Episcopal Church, and I became very much interested in religion during my adolescent years. It was the era of Vatican Two, and I made a point of visiting every congregation where I had friends in order to learn more about their faiths. I still kept up with the Episcopal Church as much as I could. In addition, my peers and I conducted our debates about religion in the reading room of the local public library, often “taking it outside” at the request of the librarians.
I did my undergraduate work at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts. I was privileged to study in Spain during 1965-66 on the Smith College Junior Year Abroad program. I traveled in Europe during the following summer with a group of Latin American tourists and greatly improved my Spanish. In 1967 I graduated with an AB in Hispanic Studies.
During my undergraduate years I was exposed to many questions about my place in the world, as is to be expected in education. I realize now that my existential questions were leading me toward liberal religion and social responsibility even though I wasn’t sure of the language of these impulses. I attended the College Chapel Services on Sundays and found a spiritual outlet in singing in the College Choirs and Glee Club. In addition, I worked on a project called “Smith for Mississippi” which provided resources for volunteers in the South as they sought to register local persons to vote. In Northampton, I tutored a middle-aged woman in Spanish that she needed for her job as a social worker.
Upon graduation, I moved to Washington, DC, and began my first profession as a computer programmer/analyst/teacher for the next eleven years. I also became very active as a volunteer in the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, Virginia, serving on the Board of Trustees and almost every committee of the church as well as in the choir. It was there that I was married, and together we found a spiritual home among Unitarian Universalists.
After my husband’s death in a car accident in 1978, I could no longer resist the call to the ministry that I had felt years before. I left my work in computers with the Federal Reserve System and began full-time study at Wesley Theological Seminary, United Methodist, in Washington, DC. I was for a year the only UU on campus, and I relished the opportunities to explain my faith.
Instead of continuing at Wesley until graduation, I transferred to Meadville Lombard Theological School at the University of Chicago.
I earned my MA from the Divinity School of the University of Chicago in 1982 and my Doctor of Ministry from Meadville Lombard in 1983. While in Chicago, I was an active volunteer at the First Unitarian Church, (except for the time of my parish internship at the North Shore UU Society in Plandome, NY, now the UU Congregation at Shelter Rock).
During the fall quarter of 1991, I returned to Meadville Lombard Theological School, serving as Acting Associate Dean, Assistant Professor of Ministry, and Minister in Residence. It was wonderful to be back in Chicago but with different roles: To be considered one of the faculty and to engage the students in their spiritual discernment activities.
Before entering the interim ministry, I served two congregations as a called minister. My most recent called position was as Associate Minister of All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, OK, at that time the largest congregation in North America.
Before that, however, I served a small congregation, the UU Fellowship of Fayetteville, AR. I was their first called minister in their 32 years of existence. We all learned a great deal about establishing a professional ministry.
In spite of the appeal of the life of a called minister, however, I have committed myself to the specialty of Interim Ministry, where I feel my skills are most needed and my abilities find their full expression. In 1989 I earned my UUA credentials as an Accredited Interim Minister.
I have been honored, since 1987, to serve as Interim Minister to eighteen wonderful congregations: in Florida (Orlando, Jacksonville, West Palm Beach, and Vero Beach); in Virginia (Norfolk); in Maryland (Baltimore); and in Delaware (Wilmington). I then served The First Parish in Milton, Massachusetts, and The First Parish in Needham, Massachusetts. In 1998-99 I was back in Florida, serving the UU Church of Sarasota.
In January, 2000, I was called out of my sabbatical to serve as the Interim Minister of the Unitarian Society of Northampton, MA. Then I served the UU Church of Fort Myers, FL; the First Universalist Church of Denver, CO; the UU Church of Charlotte, NC; the Williamsburg UU’s, Williamsburg, VA; and the UU Fellowship of Raleigh, NC. After a fall-winter sabbatical, I served in Sarasota, FL, in a short-term Interim Ministry. Then I returned to my Canadian roots to serve the First Unitarian Congregation of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 2006-07, and the next year the First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa, Ontario, the largest congregation in Canada, in the capital city.
I am currently serving the Birmingham Unitarian Church located in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. (www.bucmi.org) This congregation will greatly benefit from another year of Interim Ministry with another Interim Minister. Each of these experiences was a unique joy and challenge. As you can see, in my considerable experience, I have served congregations large and small, urban and rural. Some have been in affluent communities and some in dire straits. I have moved all over this great continent to be of help.
As a part of my calling, I am a builder of consensus even amidst contention. I assist congregations rediscover their own confidence and unity when they find themselves drifting away from their cohesive roots. My specialty is not to serve as a temporary caretaker while a congregation goes on about its business, but to lend a highly-trained, authoritative, guiding hand when such is needed to preserve a congregation’s success. My love of the ministry, especially as I practice it in congregations that are in challenging situations, is evident in all that I do.
I have had a rich and rewarding life of service in this special role. I look forward to conversations with you about my background and other areas of my ministry.
Best wishes,
Janet E. Newman, Accredited Interim Minister
