Minister
On Monday September 21st the Negotiating Team met with Rev John McCarthy to sign a contract employing him as HUUC's part-time consulting minister for the next two years beginning October 18th. Rev McCarthy will commute to Muskegon to serve us by presenting two sermons a month on consecutive Sundays, and will attend to our ministerial needs between the two Sundays. He will continue to reside with his wife of 15 years, Anita, who is a social worker and play therapist, and his children, Grace (11), Andrew (9) and Sara (7) in Pittsford NY, outside of Rochester. He will be available to us for consultation throughout the month by phone and by e-mail.
Rev McCarthy was awarded a Master of Divinity in June 2008 from Harvard Divinity School where he wrote his senior paper on the topic of Forgiveness. He received the Billings Prize for Excellence in The Liturgical Reading of Scripture in 2007. He did his ministerial internship at Unitarian Universalist Church of Roanoke VA from November 2008 to April 2009, and served as a ministerial intern for the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee from 2007-2008, participating in Civil Rights Just Journeys in June 2008. Other significant service includes serving with the Christian Peacemaker Team as a Middle East Peace Delegate to Israel and Palestine in July-August 2006, and with Habitat for Humanity in Csurgo, Hungary in August 2007.
Before being called to the ministry, he attended St Basil's, a small, conservative boys private school, which operated under the authority of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Stamford CT, and was attached to a seminary that trained priests and monks in the Order of St Basil the Great. Although he enjoyed and excelled in the theological courses, and understood that to be an early indication of his call to the ministry, he knew that whatever form his call might take, it would include neither the Ukrainian Catholic Church nor the priesthood.
At Skidmore College his spiritual needs were further nurtured. His social awareness developed through protest marches in DC advocating for better treatment of Jews in the Soviet Union, and summer trips to do volunteer work in the Appalachian parts of Ohio and Kentucky. After graduating with a BA in English Literature in 1990, he entered the corporate world where he gained a wealth of experiences with Xerox, PTC and IBM. At PTC, a global software company, he was asked to take a senior management position in Scandinavia where he implemented organizational changes. He has also worked as a member of transition teams to manage the restructuring of sales and technical operations for software companies in Canada and Israel.
His "conversion" to Unitarian Universalist occurred after his wife Anita "dragged" him to a drum concert at South Church in Portsmouth NH. While waiting for the concert to begin, he opened the songbook and read the page about the Unitarian Universalists' covenant to affirm and promote their principles and purposes. They attended the worship service the next day and "have never looked back." After a few years of attending South Church, he "found the courage" and had the opportunity to reconsider his call to the ministry, and entered Harvard Divinity School. He will be ordained at South Church on Saturday October 3rd.
He describes himself as a religious humanist/theist who strives to find common ground in our shared commitment to religious and spiritual pluralism through clarity in communication and action.
The strengths he brings to us include his ability to listen to and understand people, his pulpit presence, and his understanding of organizational and multicultural dynamics. He describes his leadership style as collaborative and consultative, and he welcomes congregational “talk back” following his sermons.
His nonprofessional interests include golf, tennis, sailing and cycling. He will be bringing his standard poodle Mason with him to Muskegon as a canine companion and ambassador to welcome all members, friends and visitors who enter our building!
