The Listening Team

Hello BUU, 

We are Jeanne Macauley, Jean Sillers, Martha House, Susan James, and Judy Harmer and we serve as the Listening Team supporting Rev. Dr. Samantha Wilson as she serves as our Restorative Practices Consultant from May-June 2025. 

We represent different parts of the congregation – we are outgoing and incoming Board members, and members of the Pastoral Care Team, Compassionate Conversations Taskforce, and Committee on Ministry. Our role on the “Listening Team” is to sit with Rev. Sam regularly to practice naming what we are experiencing in the congregation and to support her in engaging with our community well and listening deeply. 

What is Rev. Sam’s work? Why is she here? 

Our Board and minister, in consultation with members of our various committees, invited Rev. Sam to provide a short, initial phase of support for our congregation (May-June 2025). Our leadership recognized that there are varying levels of conflict and hurt in our congregation – some very recent and some much older – that impact everyone’s ability to feel heard, understood, and trusted with one another. 

We also recognized that it is hard to lead new projects or start big processes at the end of a church year – especially in Arizona. Therefore, we invited Rev. Sam to come alongside our congregation for only this initial period over Zoom to listen deeply as an outside witness. Her job is to help create clarity among leaders about the varying levels of conflict and hurt, the needs people are expressing for processes or support, and to propose some possible ways forward that we can explore with or without her in Fall 2025.

What can I expect when I meet with Rev. Sam? Is it confidential? 

Rev. Sam’s only role is to listen to and explore with you your experience of the dynamics in the congregation. 

Rev. Sam and Rev. Inge have a confidentiality agreement, which empowers and encourages Rev. Sam to meet with congregants for confidential conversations that support each of us in feeling more heard in our experience. Listening to members of BUU allows Rev. Sam to offer suggestions to the Listening Team and Board about next steps, informed by what you have explored with her. 

Rev. Sam asks each person she listens to if she can share themes or if they are comfortable with her sharing specifics, if they would like to remain anonymous or if they are comfortable having their name shared. Our Listening Team is also confidential – we have a covenant among the five of us with Rev. Sam that we are a space for talking honestly about congregational dynamics in support of designing processes or creating options that would honor the worth and dignity of the people and the congregation. Rev. Inge honors this confidentiality agreement among us and is not a member of this team.

Rev. Sam has been contracted for a limited number of hours with our congregation for this first phase. To have your experience heard, please schedule time with her soon via her online scheduling tool before June 12 (click here to schedule), or email her for a time that works better for you. She has already scheduled over 21 one-to-ones with members of our congregation. 

What can I expect at Tuesday’s Town Hall? 

BUU’s next Town Hall will take place on Tuesday, May 27, at 2PM. The Town Hall will be hosted by the members of the Listening Team, and will focus primarily on Rev. Sam’s work with us. Rev. Inge will not be present at the Town Hall.

At Town Hall, Rev. Sam will be joining us via Zoom. At that time, Rev. Sam will introduce herself, her approach to and experience with this kind of work, and offer a Q&A about the process so far and how you can participate. The Town Hall is not a conflict workshop with Rev. Sam and we will not be processing emotional information – it is just a chance to get to know Rev. Sam and understand how to engage with this process. If time remains, we may have a chance to cover other BUU topics raised by the Board. 

What are the next steps in this initial process? 

After her one-to-ones, Rev. Sam and the Listening Team will integrate the themes we heard, and present some potential pathways for working together on our conflict dynamics next year to the Board. These proposals will include options for continuing to work with Rev. Sam or for doing work on our own or with other outside support. We will work with Rev. Sam to support sharing our lessons with the congregation as well. 

In the event we choose to work with Rev. Sam or another outside consultant next year, the Board will explore different avenues to help finance that cost, including grants or a community fundraising effort.

We hope you engage in this initial phase with us and with Rev. Sam. We are grateful to grow in these ways at a time when our world needs more practice doing hard things together. We believe we can, and we will, do that together at BUU.

With care,

The Listening Team

Jeanne Macauley, Jean Sillers, Martha House, Susan James, and Judy Harmer 

Rev. Dr. Samantha Wilson (revsamanthawilson@gmail.com)