UUA Transitions Team Your Partners During Endings, Search, and Beginnings

The UUA has a mighty network of care for congregations and ministers in transition! The UUA Transitions Team and Congregational Life staff group provide most direct support to ministers, boards, and search teams, but we also have an in-house developer for our search system and staff and volunteers to help with compensation and benefits concerns. Please reach out any time we can help.

Please include your full name, your congregation’s full name (no acronyms), city, and state in all correspondence with the UUA Transitions Team and regional staff.

Meet Our Transitions Staff!

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Administrator

Amy Szen sends communications from the UUA Transitions Team, and manages incoming communications and search-related records.

She helps search teams use and troubleshoot issues with congregational records in the MinistrySearch system.

Headshot of Christine Purcell

Congregational Transitions Director

Christine Purcell is your congregation’s main contact to guide your leaders through the search process. She holds the ministerial transitions portfolio for the Congregational Life staff group, is main contact for search teams and boards in search, and manages search team retreat leaders. She is also a member of the Congregational Life Leadership Team.

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Transformational Interim Ministries Director

Rev. Patrice Curtis works with transitional ministers to support them in their role as change agents. They are the main contact for ministers in transitional ministry searches, and provide support for inclusion work throughout the search process. They manage the minister’s transitions Year-long Transitions Ministry Training program.

Patrice also manages the Break Barriers, Build Beliefs (B4), a program that asks the congregation to consider what biases it has (both conscious and unconscious) around identities that their potential minister may hold.

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Interim Settled Ministries Director

Rev. Eric Kaminetzky is the main contact for ministers in settled and contract-to-call ministry searches.

He is acting in an interim role to support needed evaluation and change for the search process.