New Time for Pancakes!

Just a quick update, the Pancake breakfast for Saturday, April 20, has been changed. Here are the updated details:

Pancake Breakfast and Meet Rev. Oscar
Saturday, April 20 | Parish Hall | Sanctuary | Online via Zoom
​Breakfast begins at 8:30 a.m. in Parish Hall (note time change from 8:00 a.m.)
Meet Rev. Oscar begins at 10:00 a.m. in the Sanctuary
This session will focus on social justice and community outreach. 

Unity Candidating Q&A Index

Hi folks! By the time this posts, it will be the first Sunday morning of candidating week at Unity Church - Unitarian. Over the last week and a half, I’ve been posting responses to common questions in video form, drawing on the material in my ministerial record. Here is an index of those videos, with links:

April 4: Intro

April 5: What is the story of your calling to ministry?

April 6: Why a Christian Seminary?

April 7: How have you seen change happen in Churches?

April 8: What are you reading these days?

April 8: What is a mistake you’ve made in ministry?

April 9: What is your experience with policy governance?

April 10: How do you approach preaching?

April 11: What is the role of music in your ministry?

April 12: What is your theology, and how do you navigate pluralistic congregations?

April 13: Tell us about your family!

If possible, I will post updates on this blog during candidating week. We’ve recieved almost 50 additional questions through the Ministerial Search Team: my hope is to get to as many of them as possible at the scheduled candidating week events (included here), and if I have some time during the week to post a few here as well.

Unity Candidating Q&A 11: Family

Tell us about your family!

Oscar (00:05):

So as a last one of these, I thought we would do some introduction to the family as a whole. So I'm actually mostly going to get out of the way. This is Stacie.

Stacie (00:17):

Hi everyone. My name is Stacie Sinclair and I am the spouse of the Reverend Dr. Oscar Sinclair. So I'm so happy and excited to meet you. Really frankly, ever since we read the packet together, I have been eager to come and learn more about the work that you're doing at Unity. I was really, really drawn to the sense of humor that was evident throughout the packet, that this is a group that seems to like each other a lot and have fun while doing the important work that you're engaged in. A little bit about me and us, as Kat mentioned during the service, Oscar and I met in our Masters of Public Policy program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County,

Oscar (01:04):

A love story for the ages. We met in a government budgeting class,

Stacie (01:08):

And so I was having a little bit of trouble with the budgeting and there was this guy who really seemed to know what he was talking about, loved spreadsheets, as I'm sure he already told you. And so I asked him for help with my homework and by the end of the semester we had become very good friends and quickly thereafter we started dating. So I finished that program. So I do have my master's in public policy and my undergraduate degree in social work. And I knew at the time that he was going to be going into seminary that he had already decided to make that pivot. So I was with him from really the beginning of that seminary journey. I myself am not Unitarian Universalist, I was raised Jewish. And so while I don't currently practice, I would still consider myself culturally Jewish. And that said, I really appreciate that this is a denomination that does not seem to have the expectations that a minister's spouse adopt.

(02:11)
That faith that I could continue doing what meant the most to me, what felt comfortable to me, but that I could still be part of the community. So while I don't have any plans to sign the book, what I know is that I made a commitment to Oscar and to myself that this is not just a job, it's a calling. It's very different. And so I wanted to be a part of that. So you will see me on Sunday mornings, you'll get to know me through the Unitarian Church of Lincoln. I've got involved in different ways. I love singing with the choir. I've sung with the band here.

Oscar (02:53):

We bring different strengths.

Stacie (02:55):

Yeah. Yes, I think Oscar's already mentioned he shouldn't be singing on a hot mic. I love to hear him sing. He's very enthusiastic, but notes are variable. I've participated in the card ministry and different opportunities here and there, so I'm looking forward to the opportunities to get involved. Otherwise, other bits about me, I am the associate Director for policy at the Center to Advance Palliative Care, which is a national healthcare nonprofit that's based in New York. And I have worked remotely since 2017. Obviously Ailish and Teddy Magoo are a big part of my time. I really do appreciate being their moms or their mom. And then other personal interests. I love musical theater, so I love dancing, I love karaoke. I will be eager to find local community theaters to get involved in. And really, that's me in a nutshell. I'm just so excited to meet you all and can't wait for the coming week.

Oscar (03:57):

We did try and do some of this with Ish this morning while she was getting ready for school. The next couple minutes may be a little bit choppy. It may need some editing, but hopefully we'll get her to say hello as well.

Oscar and Stacie (04:13):

Alright, so what do you want to say to the people in Minnesota?

Ailish (04:19):

Hi Minnesota people. I can't wait to meet you and I hope you have a great and fantastic day.

Oscar and Stacie (04:28):

Awesome. Who are you?

Ailish (04:31):

I'm Ailish.

Oscar and Stacie (04:33):

How old are you?

Ailish (04:34):

Six.

Oscar and Stacie (04:35):

Six. What grade are you in

Ailish (04:39):

First? I'm going to move to second.

(04:44)
What kind of costume are you wearing?

(04:47)
A ballet costume. I can't quite ballet. So what activities do you do? Play video games.

Oscar and Stacie (05:07):

What else do you do?

Ailish (05:08):

Ballet.

Oscar and Stacie (05:09):

Ballet. Tap, tap. Do you go ice skating?

Ailish (05:17):

Yeah. I really want to go to ice. I want to ice skate. Mom, you want to go ice skating? Yeah. Today, what is your favorite special in school? Music. And I'm going to have music today. My God, I almost forgot. Anything else you want to say? No, but I hope you have a really good day. Great. I see you

Oscar (05:58):

We're recording this on Friday morning in about three hours, four hours. I'll start towards the airport and I will be meeting with the board tomorrow morning. And then Stacy will join me Saturday night. And then we will be off to the races for Candidating in St. Paul. So we are really, really excited to see everybody. It's been fun to watch the website hits just grow over the last week. It's an exciting time. We're really, really ready to be up there. So see you all soon.

Unity Candidating Q&A 10: Pluralism

Describe your theology and the role of the minister in a congregation that has multiple theologies.

(00:05):
This question of theology in a pluralistic congregation is one that's really important for Unitarian Universalists to figure out both for us individually and for us as institutions. I come at it primarily from the lens of differentiation. That good healthy differentiation is really important. We lose this sometimes in the breadth of our understanding of Unitarian universalism, Unitarian universalisms because our capacity to navigate and live in a pluralistic context requires a clear sense of healthy differentiation. I thou relationships work when they distinguish well between the I and the thou. So my primary theological lens, my theological lens, is agnostic humanism. I tend to emphasize in my preaching that importance of this particular moment with these particular people over theological abstraction. My humanism is informed by two primary traditions, the Methodist Church of my childhood, which several members of my extended family served as clergy, and that I still have great fondness for. Even if my theology no longer fits and the Jewish tradition of my wife's family, and by extension my daughter, this matters for our collective religious life in Unitarian Universalist spaces because we are always going to be both navigating difference and avoiding appropriation. And the best way to do both of those things, I think, is to get clear on our own position and from that point of clarity, get curious about those we are in relationship with.

Unity Candidating Q&A 9: Music

How does music fit into your ministry?

(00:06):
So let's talk about music and art. This is a question that comes up a lot, especially in a congregation with as large and important a music program as unity. So to answer this question relatively directly, I was too credit shy of a music minor in undergraduate, not, it should be really clear because I have much natural affinity for playing or performing music. But because I loved it, I worked for the music program at St. Mary's College for years. I edited and cataloged audio for every concert on campus, a skill that's had surprising relevance over the last four years. I played trombone through college. I was happy to sit third chair in the jazz band, just being around folks who went on to become musical teachers and performers professionally. Critically for a church context, though I cannot sing, I've been told by colleagues, by congregants and by my spouse to stay away from hot microphones during hymns.

(01:09)
I speak for a living. I can read music and carry a tune, but for some reason, processing lyrics and a melody line at the same time often ends in disaster. I'm told that I sing loudly and joyously, but not in a way that helps those listening have a spiritual experience we'll say, which means collaboration and lots of it, right? Because music can get us to places in worship that spoken words simply cannot. You ask church folks what their favorite sermon in the last year has been and you just get a lot of blank looks. Ask those same people what their favorite hymn is and watch them just light up. So for myself, I'm a great appreciator and hopefully a collaborator for music.

Unity Candidating Q&A 8: Preaching

How do you think about preaching?

(00:06):

Reverend Galen Gingrich reminded a class that I was in 10 years ago that parish ministers should expect to preach at least 30 to 40, 20 minute sermons each year. It's the equivalent of writing a mid-size novel every 12 months. A preacher's life then he said, should reflect that reality. Preaching and worship are consistently the things that congregants say are the most important roles of a minister's job. And leading them weekly is a discipline. It's an art. It requires time and practice. So one of the things that I love about preaching in the context of a called ministry is the sense of an ongoing conversation between the preacher and the congregation that they serve. Not every sermon needs to answer every question, but can open up new themes and questions that are addressed down the road. My favorite thing in preaching is to say, “here's this really interesting thing. We don't have time for it this morning, but we're going to take it up next week.“

My own style of preaching and leading worship is informed by my underlying theology that what we do on Sunday morning is a common endeavor shared by members of a voluntary community that gather to deepen their connection to the source of meaning in their lives. And what that means in practice is that perfection is not the goal. We're humans trying to make meaning together. And if something goes wrong, the wrong hymn plays or the minister's trips in the pulpit. We laugh, we share joy at being together in the midst of our lives. And then we go on to what comes next. Meaning making is the goal.