The Central East Region is pleased to announce that Lenore Bajare-Dukes will be our new congregational life staff person to replace Patricia Infante when she retires. Lenore will begin March 6 and work part-time with Patricia for the month of March before joining the team full-time in April. We’re both sad to say goodbye to Patricia in April and excited to have Lenore join our team. See why we’re excited below!

Lenore Bajare-Dukes (she/her) is a facilitator, storyteller, and passionate lifelong Unitarian Universalist. She has spent the past five years serving as a lifespan religious educator in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and learned to value vibrant UU congregational life from an early age, growing up in the UU congregation in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Lenore holds a Master’s in Conflict Transformation from the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (Eastern Mennonite University). Throughout her work in Tunisia, France, online networks, Richmond VA, central PA, and elsewhere, she focuses on designing and hosting spaces for people to gather in community to share their stories and worldviews, grapple with complex truths, and imagine vibrant, inclusive futures.

Lenore's favorite spiritual practice is Playback Theatre: accompanying individuals and communities in sharing stories and witnessing as they are "played back" in ritual, song, and story. Lenore's prior experience includes co-teaching courses on truth-telling, racial healing, and restorative justice, and serving as a collaborating producer with the award-winning documentary radio project "Two Years: Diaries of a Divided Nation." She loves baking bread, re-learning how to play with her young child, and learning languages.

We look forward to Lenore joining the CER team this spring.

And just a reminder that the UUA is closed from 2 pm on Monday Dec 19 through January 3. The Better Together blog will be back on Janaury 9th.