John L. Saxon. Ministerial Profile. Biographical Info

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1 John L. Saxon Ministerial Profile This is a much- condensed version of John s full portfolio. He has made the complete portfolio available to the congregation at the following link: Members who wish to view the full portfolio in a paper format can borrow a copy from the UUFR office. Biographical Info I am a Unitarian Universalist minister. I received my M.Div. degree from Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago in May, 2009, and was ordained to the Unitarian Universalist ministry by the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Raleigh (UUFR) on May 31, I have served as the part- time assistant minister of UUFR since September, 2010 and was the Fellowship's acting minister during the summer of 2010 when its lead minister was away on a medical leave of absence. I also served as the intern minister for UUFR from 2007 through I live near Hillsborough, NC, with my spouse of 38 years, the Rev. Miriam S. Saxon, an ordained Episcopal priest who works part- time as an associate rector at Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Raleigh and part- time as a hospice chaplain with the Duke Home Health Care and Hospice Program. Our family includes two children and two grandchildren. Our daughter Jessica, her husband Russ, and their children Liam and Amelie, live near New Bern, North Carolina. Our son Neal and his wife, Kelly, live in Durham, North Carolina. Throughout my career, I have been committed to justice and public service. From 1992 through 2010, I worked as a Professor of Public Law and Government on the faculty of the School of Government at UNC Chapel Hill. My areas of expertise at the UNC School of Government included social welfare law and policy, elder law and policy, and family law and policy. Prior to joining the UNC faculty, I practiced law for 15 years as an attorney with the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs and with the U.S. Department of the Interior s Office of the Solicitor in Washington, DC; as a legal aid lawyer in South Carolina, Virginia, and North Carolina; and with a small law firm in Durham, North Carolina. Between college and law school, I worked as a pre- school teacher with low- income African American children in rural Alabama and in Tallahassee, Florida. My work with varied public programs and institutions, such as county boards of social services and Medicaid programs, has provided me with insights into how organizations can best work to accomplish their missions. This understanding of organizations continues to help me now in my role as a minister.

2 My Call to Ministry My path into ministry was a long and, for quite some time, uncertain journey. Over the course of six years, I struggled to better understand and articulate my theology, religious beliefs, and faith. I struggled to be more open and transparent, to be less judgmental and less self- critical, and to get out of my head and into my heart. I struggled to accept and discern my call to ministry. But the path was also one of personal transformation and even salvation (in the sense of becoming more healthy and whole). And, from the experience of that journey, I have come to understand my call to ministry as a call to deepen my own spirituality, to help others grow spiritually and ethically, and to create conditions in which others can experience the sacred; a call to create, nurture, and sustain liberal religious communities, to work with others who dream of building the beloved community based on justice, peace, diversity, inclusivity, radical hospitality, and love. It is a call that I have felt in my soul. It is a call that I cannot ignore or refuse. Although I have come to ordained or professional ministry as a third or fourth career and relatively late in my life, I also come to my ministry with six decades of life experience and maturity and wisdom. I also bring to my ministry three decades of commitment to the values of Unitarian Universalism and broad experience as a member and lay leader in three UU congregations (large, mid- size, and small); the experience of having grown into the role of minister through my work, and a range of personal qualities (along with my flaws), including: intelligence, discretion, good listening skills, a sense of humor, integrity, enthusiasm, energy, vision, effective work habits; an ability to relate well to children, youth, and adults, a good sense of appropriate personal and professional boundaries, and a commitment to the work of justice and peace and the struggle against racism and all kinds of oppression. My Understanding of the Minister s Role I believe that every member of a Unitarian Universalist congregation is a minister and that the work that everyone does within and from our religious community is ministry. And because that is so, one important role of a congregation s minister is to help the members of his or her congregation discern and grow into their roles as lay ministers and to support them in doing the work of ministry within and beyond the congregation. The word minister means, to serve. The role of a settled minister is to serve the congregation to which he or she has been called. A minister serves. But a minister also leads. And I believe that a called minister should be the primary spiritual leader of the congregation he or she serves. To me, this means that a congregation s settled minister should have primary responsibility for planning, directing, and leading the congregation s ministries, including worship, religious education, pastoral care, membership development, congregational life, social action, and denominational affairs. This doesn t mean that the minister is responsible for doing it all by himself or herself or that no one else is responsible for or has authority for these aspects of congregational life. A minister should lead by example and by articulating a shared vision for the congregation s ministry. He or she should work cooperatively and collaboratively with staff, the board, committees, ministry teams, and members not unilaterally, dictatorially, heavy- handedly, or autocratically. 2

3 My Theology and Ministry I am, first and foremost, a religious liberal and, second, a Unitarian Universalist. And those words best describe both my theology and faith. If forced to accept a theological label other than or in addition to religious liberal or Unitarian Universalist, I would describe myself as a quasi theist, a small c christian, and religious naturalist. My theology and spirituality, however, is eclectic, inclusive, open, and syncretic, drawing from many sources including liberal Christianity, Judaism, religious humanism, earth- centered traditions, and other world religions, especially Buddhism, and Taoism. God is too big, I believe, to be put into anyone s box or captured in the words of any theology either mine or others. The Tao that can be told, said Lao- Tzu, is not the eternal Tao and the name that can be named is not the Eternal Name. With those caveats in mind, I agree with the Rev. Forrest Church that, God is not God s name. God is our name for that which is greater than all and yet present in each. The life force. The ground of Being. Being itself. The word God is but another signpost pointing to the heart of creation s mystery. The God in which I believe is not a supreme or supernatural being or person. The God in which I believe is, at bottom, more a verb than a noun. God is not an it or a you or thou as much as a process or lure or ineffable presence. Any theology, no matter how beautiful, noble, or true, however, is, as the Rev. William R. Jones reminds us, only as good as the fruits it bears. So to judge the truth of my theology, I must look to my own experience of myself and the world and assess both whether my theological beliefs cohere with my experience and understanding of reality and whether they serve to transform reality in ways that foster greater wholeness, harmony, connection, and good. And, doing so, I believe that I see in my liberal, naturalistic theology the seeds of personal and social transformation. I believe that a UU minister must clearly articulate and be true to his or her own theology while being open to the wide range of theological perspectives found in most UU congregations. She or he must be able to speak and listen to those whose theologies differ from his or her own theology, using a wide range of religious languages, symbols, stories, and metaphors. And that is exactly what I try to do and will continue to try to do as a UU minister. And as I do so, I will also try to help parishioners examine and reexamine their own theologies and faiths and even challenge them to do so, remembering this true story that was told about a UU minister who was asked by a congregation s ministerial search committee whether he was a theist or humanist. That depends, the minister replied. What do you mean by that? the search committee asked. Well, the minister said, if you all are humanists, then I m a theist. But if you re theists, then I m a humanist. (I don t know if the search committee called the minister to serve as the congregation s next minister, but I hope they did.) Worship, Liturgy, and Preaching In a sermon that I preached in 2010, I said that: Worship means turning our attention, in reverent contemplation, to that which we believe is of ultimate importance and worth. Worship means coming together to seek the source of truth, love, and beauty in life. Worship means opening ourselves to that which is greater than ourselves: to that which is holy or sacred. Quoting UU minister Alan Taylor, I said that worship involves letting go of what we can t control, opening our hearts to possibility remembering that there is more to our lives than our [individual] concerns, struggles, and frustrations, and offering hope of healing, hope of reconciliation, hope of transformation, hope of overcoming the brokenness in our lives. I agree with this view that worship serves to bring us together, to offer hope, and to invite transformation. And I also believe that the purpose of worship is to help us remember that we are connected with each other and part of a great, complex, and interdependent web of Being, and to affirm publicly and remind ourselves privately who we are and what we believe. 3

4 And, as a minister, I see it as my responsibility to craft worship services that will help create a sacred time and space that will, through silence, reverence, symbol, metaphor, ritual, meditation, prayer, confession, affirmation, and connection, invite those present to open themselves to the wonder and mystery of life; to open themselves to the power or spirit which can transform us and the world; to open themselves to that which is holy and makes us whole; and to inspire those present to live lives of wholeness, service, and joy. I view the sermon as an important part of worship. But I also believe that the other elements of worship call to worship, call for offering, joys and sorrows, meditation and prayer, chalice lighting, readings, children's story, music, and rituals are just as important as the sermon and therefore I put a lot of thought and effort not only into the sermon but Pastoral Care and Counseling I consider pastoral care to be one of my greatest strengths in my work as a minister thus far. Others have said, on many occasions, that I have "the heart of a pastor" and I believe that to be true. I care deeply about others and listen to them carefully and empathetically. Many people to whom I have provided pastoral care have told me that I have brought to them a sense of comfort and genuine care in times of confusion, crisis, pain, sorrow, and loss. In April, 2011, I completed the fourth and final unit of a sixteen- month CPE residency at Alamance Regional Medical Center in Burlington, NC (at the same time I was working, part- time, as UUFR's assistant minister). My experience as a hospital chaplain has enhanced my ability to provide pastoral care at UUFR. Especially in my chaplaincy work in the emergency room and critical care unit, I felt privileged to be invited into the lives of patients and families in times of crisis, uncertainty, fear, and death, to be with them, to sing to them, to pray with them, to listen to them, to hold their hands, to cry with them, and to experience God the holy, the sacred, the divine within them, within me, and between us. And this experience has served me well recently as I cared for two members of UUFR and their families who died just this past summer (one unexpectedly and one after a long illness). At the hospital, I was called on to provide care to people whose religious beliefs, culture, race and ethnicity, gender, politics, and socioeconomic status were almost always very different from my own. I was able to provide pastoral care to them, bridging the gaps of race, gender, religion, and class while being aware of those gaps and differences and using their theological language and religious beliefs while remaining authentic to my own values and beliefs. Reflections on The Minister as Prophet A parish minister needs to be involved in the larger community and cannot practice his or her ministry only within the walls of the congregation. A minister should be involved in the community both personally and individually and in conjunction and cooperation with the congregation's members and committees. The focus of this prophetic ministry by the minister and congregation should be working for justice, peace, and social change in the larger community, standing with the oppressed and marginalized, speaking prophetically to the powers that be, building bridges to people of other faiths, races, ethnicities, and classes, working with interfaith and community groups, caring for the environment, and being visible and involved in the social and political life of the community. And a minister must speak prophetically to his or her congregation from the pulpit (but without ever suggesting that his or her views are the only politically or religiously correct views) on issues related to social, political, and economic injustice, racism, homophobia, war, environmental destruction, poverty, privilege, and power even when doing so is risky or uncomfortable. 4

5 Reflections on Antiracism, Anti- Oppression, Multiculturalism, and My Ministry My understanding of race and my response to racism (and, indirectly, other forms of oppression) is and always will be colored, for better or worse, by my experience growing up as a white child in a socially, politically, and religiously conservative family and culture in Alabama during the civil rights struggles of the 1960s. Over the years, I ve learned a lot about race, racism, sexism, heterosexism, diversity, multiculturalism, injustice, and oppression. I ve learned that whether or not I choose to call myself a white racist, I am deeply implicated in white racism (and in sexism, heterosexism, and other forms of oppression) and that I am responsible for doing something about it. I ve learned that, as a white, middle class, married, heterosexual male, I enjoy countless privileges simply because of my racial identity, skin color, gender, sexual orientation, and class. I ve learned that as much as I d like to believe that I m not racially prejudiced, prejudice often lurks in the darker corners of my soul. I ve learned that oppression hurts, and can destroy, the oppressor as well as the oppressed. I ve learned that fighting oppression is hard and messy work. I ve learned that respect and appreciation of diversity and difference, not color blindness, is what s important. I ve learned that anti- oppression work needs to focus on structural, institutional, and systemic oppression and social transformation as well as personal prejudice and transformation. I ve learned that I still have a lot to learn. And I ve learned that I still have a lot of work that I need to do. Religious Education, Faith Development, and Small Group Ministry Over the years, I ve learned that liberal religious education is not simply about education, teaching, or learning in classrooms on Sunday mornings. And while it certainly involves the transmission of information, knowledge, or values, it should not be only or primarily about banking or increasing one s store of knowledge. Instead, it is about developing critical thinking skills, encouraging the theological and moral imaginations of children, youth, and adults. As Judith Frediani puts it, it should be about developing both roots and wings. In my view, liberal religious education is about educating for faith. It should be about faith development, spiritual and ethical growth and development, and practicing the living of our ethical and religious values and our faith. It should be about helping people of all ages, not just children, develop, clarify, and sustain their religious identities. It should be about growing as a person. It should be about becoming more whole, more authentic, more compassionate, more just, and more connected. I believe that a parish minister should be involved, along with the congregation's director of religious education and other staff and lay leaders, in planning, developing, and administering the congregation's faith development religious education program for children, youth, and adults. As a minister, I will be intentional and proactive about finding and creating opportunities to teach, lead, and minister to the children, youth, and adults in my congregation and to foster intergenerational and multigenerational learning in a broad range of congregational activities. I will encourage, support, and work collaboratively with the congregation s DRE and religious education program. And I hope that my ministry will provide tangible evidence that children and youth are a valuable and integral part of the congregation, that religious education is not just about children and youth, that religious education is not just about what we teach, that religious education is not just about classes on Sunday mornings, and that everything we do in our liberal religious communities has something to do with educating for faith. 5

6 Reflections on the Minister s Role in Congregational Organization, Administration, and Development In large, multi- staffed congregations, the lead minister must serve not only as the congregation s spiritual leader but also as its chief executive officer, chief of staff, and director of ministry. That means that the minister must devote a fair amount of his or her time to managerial or administrative responsibilities rather than ministerial. And that means that a minister must be skilled at supervision, leadership development, management, administration, and conflict management as well as preaching, worship, pastoral care, teaching, and prophetic witness. A minister must act as a strong, visible, dynamic, and visionary leader but also recognize that leadership in UU congregations is shared by the minister and the congregation s lay leaders, and does not reside in the minister alone. The leadership in UU congregations is and should be shared among the minister, staff, ministry teams, the board and others. The minister, board, staff, and ministry teams should work together as partners. I like Dan Hotchkiss book on Governance and Ministry and agree in large part with his view that, in UU congregations, the board is primarily responsible for the congregation s governance, mission, vision, and direction, while the minister, staff, and ministry teams are responsible for carrying out the congregation s mission and ministry while recognizing that there is often no clear distinction between governance and ministry and, in fact, many instances where the two overlap. Organizational, Administrative, and Leadership Skills and Experience I bring to my ministry a long history of involvement as a lay leader in two UU congregations, including experience with congregational organization and governance, long- range planning, finance and budget, stewardship, leadership development, and board- minister relationships. And, over the past two years, I have supplemented my experience as a lay leader with additional ministerial experience in the areas of membership development, stewardship, congregational organization, and administration. I am diligent and conscientious about my work and ministry. I respond to questions, requests, phone calls, and s from others promptly. I work hard and am extremely productive. I manage my time well and have been successful in not working too much or too long or too hard in a position that is nominally a half- time position with limited responsibility. I am able to see the big picture but also pay attention to necessary details. My leadership style is primarily collaborative and cooperative. I try to lead by example when possible and to exercise my leadership quietly and gently. I believe that I work cooperatively, amicably, productively, and well with others (my supervising minister, other staff, lay leaders, committees, etc.). I generally perform well under stress, and I only rarely lose my cool. I m generally calm and in control of my feelings. I have a good sense of humor. I am enthusiastic about my work and ministry and inspire others with my personal commitment, energy, and enthusiasm. I have, in the past, been overly conflict- avoidant, but I have become much more willing to deal with conflict head- on and in good and constructive ways. I gained some administrative, supervisory, and leadership experience as UUFR's acting minister during the summer of 2010 while the congregation's lead minister was away on a medical leave of absence. I believe that in that role and in my work as UUFR's assistant minister, I have very good working relationships with UUFR's staff. I trust them and I know that they trust me. I make it a point to frequently and consistently express my genuine appreciation to other staff members for the work that they do. 6