February 20, 2026
From Rev. Alex McGee
I’m envisioning beautiful, dainty pinky-white cherry blossoms floating down over all of you at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Corvallis. Spring will come soon, and with it will come change. Indeed, the petals of the blossoms will float off the trees in the breeze. I envision each of them symbolizing a blessing. One of the blessings is patience. Patience to live fully in each moment without over-focusing on the outcome of the ministry search process. The other blessing is integrity. Integrity means to be integrated within yourself, with other members of the congregation, with your community, and with your vision for the future. With these two blessings of patience and integrity, I envision you having a beautiful experience in the year to come as you live into the ministry search process.
SEARCH TIMELINE:
Spring 2026: Congregation works together to elect search committee that they trust to represent their future vision to a ministerial candidate.
Summer 2026: Search committee begins working together 5 to 15 hours a week for the next nine months.
Fall 2026: Search committee gathers information to present to potential candidates.
Winter 2027: Search committee confidentially interviews a few candidates at sites outside of Corvallis.
Spring 2027: Search committee presents one final candidate. Candidate visits on site to meet congregation. Congregation votes, and candidate is only likely to come if over 90-95% of the membership vote yes. If this proces does not lead to a candidate approved by the congregation, the congregation may form a new search committee for the next year.