Rev. Carolyn Colbert
On August 15th, Rogue Valley UU Fellowship welcomed its new Interim Minister: Rev. Carolyn Colbert. Rev. Carolyn comes from the UU Church in Livermore, California where she has just finished a one-year interim commitment. It had been her intention to retire after her year in Livermore. But when she received a SOS from Ashland, she put aside her retirement plans to spend a year with us.
Rev. Carolyn was the Interim Minister at the UU Church at Washington Crossing in New Jersey, when Maria Geigel and Steve Weyer were members there. Their glowing recommendation introduced the Interim Ministerial Search Committee to the possibility that she might be a good candidate for us. When we mentioned her name to Heather Lynn, she told us that she and Carolyn had been friends and colleagues for years, and the Carolyn was, in her words, “a gem.”
During her career, she has served as an “on call” minister, an “extension” minister, and a “consulting” minister. She has served two churches as a called Parish minister, and five churches as their Interim minister.
As an example of what she brings to us, Rev. Carolyn served as settled minister at the UU church in Eugene. Beginning her ministry there in 1998, she followed two fine interim ministers (one of them, Heather Lynn) who had worked with the congregation to move through an unsettled history of difficult relationships with former ministers. Rev. Carolyn helped them grow from a pastoral church of 150 members, to a program-sized church with 350 members, 170 registered children and youth, 3 adult choirs and a kid’s choir. Under her guidance, their operating budget tripled. In 2006, at the end of her tenure there, the congregation honored her service by naming her Minister Emerita.
We think the RVUUF is indeed fortunate that Rev. Carolyn is willing to spend the coming year with us. We will welcome into our midst a minister with an amazing resume that shows clearly that she is a woman who has spent her life in service to the Unitarian Universalist movement.