North East Leadership School

Developing UU Leaders With Vision!

This summer (2008) will be my first "hands on" experience at NELS. Both as a lay leader and as a minister, I have had the benefit and pleasure of working with NELS grads for nearly two decades. The congregation I now serve makes it a priority to include in their budget the funds to send two fellowship members to NELS annually, and there is little doubt in my mind that we are stronger for it. I feel honored and delighted to be a part of the NELS staff!

I came to NELS in part because I was infatuated with the thought of being in retreat on Cape Cod with a bunch of interesting people for a week in the summer, and NELS more than lived up to my expectations. There is something both enlightening and invigorating about being in community for a whole week with a group that shares your values and is committed to the same principles for living as you are. I had been to many leadership training programs before NELS, and discovered that at NELS one moves leadership from head to heart. I learned again that no task is more important than the people involved and no result is ever more important than the process. NELS gives you time and space to embrace these ideas. And then there's time for thinking and talking about a personal creed in Credo Group. It's like writing your own prayer for living. What could be better than that??

I am grateful to have been a member of NELS class of 2007. It was a very moving and transformational experience. It helped me to find the continuity between the spiritual and secular parts of my life. I've been able to apply the spiritual leadership practices to all aspects of my life.

I'm thrilled to be a part of the staff this year, and I am looking forward to working with the new students as they venture on the journey.

I knew that attending NELS 2007 would be emotionally, spiritually and physically intense, and it did not disappoint. What amazed me was the wide variety of issues that rose and were resolved in each session and by each group. I came to NELS hoping to develop a wider network of fellow Unitarian Universalists, and left with a new branch of my spiritual family. The experience of learning in a community of diverse and yet like minds was both life changing and affirming, and I eagerly anticipate the class of 2008!