Unitarian Universalist Association
Application Portal

Teaching Congregations Fiscal Year 2025

Ministerial Credentialing Office

mco@uua.org

Click here to go back to the internship list.

Name of Site Unitarian Universalist Churches of Rochester, NY
Rochester, NY
Address 150 S. Clinton Ave.
Rochester, NY 14604  
Phone (585) 546-2826 
Fax  
Website http://uuroc.org or https://rochesterunitarian.org 
Site E-mail Address  
Size of Congregation 865 
Supervisor Name Rev. Lane Campbell and Rev. Shari Halliday-Quan 
Supervisor Phone (860) 389-4697 
Supervisor E-mail minister@uuroc.org 
Informational Contact Name Rev. Lane Campbell 
Informational Contact Phone (860) 389-4697 
Informational Contact E-mail minister@uuroc.org 
Focus Parish Ministry 
Fulltime/Parttime Full Time 
Compensation $2,000 / month 
Other Benefits $2,000 moving expenses $2,000 professional expenses Health insurance Provided housing optional 
Number of Months 10 
Start Date/End Date September 1, 2022  June 30, 2023 
Site Description First Universalist Church of Rochester and First Unitarian Church of Rochester are two historic congregations in the City of Rochester offering a joint parish ministry internship. As an internship site and as the major hubs of Unitarian Universalism here, we are two distinct congregations, each with our own culture and context, entering into a new age of collaboration. First Universalist is a 165-member congregation located in the heart of downtown with a vibrant music program and a heart for justice. First Unitarian is a 700-adult congregation with a robust children’s ministry, a focus on small group ministry, and talented staff and lay leaders, located on 7-acres of beautiful grounds at the edge of the city, straddling the boundary line of two zip codes that represent one of the highest disparities in child poverty rates in the country. Wrestling with this last truth informs our identity, our justice work, and our questions. Rochester is on the ancestral land of the Seneca people, keepers of the Western Door and part of the Haudenoshaunee. Our mid-sized city is full of music and art and because we are where the Erie Canal meets the Genesee River and flows into Lake Ontario, we are surrounded by water and nature. Rochester residents are 40% Black/African-American and 48% white with the remainder primarily Latinx/o/a/e and Asian, but this racial diversity is partially obscured by a history of redlining that has kept neighborhoods largely segregated as evidenced by our wider Monroe County being 78% white and 16% Black or African American. Yes, it snows a lot here, but it’s pretty, prepared for, and people ski or stay home in front of the fire–or live their lives and take the bus to work because that has to be done in January too. Culturally, it’s half NYC and half midwest, so people return your tupperware and sometimes use the F word in meetings. Like our congregations and our faith, our hometown is not perfect by any means, but it is exciting, loving, and worth investing in. It is a great place to live and minister, in our opinion. After establishing the new tradition of a joint annual justice-based service, we extended this collaboration in a time of Covid and held outdoor, multi-platform worship for seven weeks together in the fall. Rev. Shari Halliday-Quan and Rev. Lane Campbell have a good working relationship, there are growing opportunities for lay folks to work and serve together between our congregations, and we are excited to combine forces to support an intern minister and our wider Unitarian Universalism.. It is our hope that this internship will be both a rich learning experience for the intern minister and an opportunity for us all to build on the emerging partnership within Unitarian Universalism here in Rochester already underway. Just as we expect the intern to grow and be shaped by our congregations, we expect that we will be different for having welcomed you to journey with us. Both congregations have not hosted an intern minister in quite some time. This provides an opportunity for an intern minister to really come in and make this internship their own. This is not a place where we would like to host an intern for some extra labor or for some sort of pet project of the congregation. With attention to the health and sustainability of the intern and our institutions, the intern minister will be encouraged to build relationships, participate in and contribute to the full ministry of the church, select or initiate a focus project, and help these churches learn how to be teaching congregations.  
Job Description In collaboration and with support, the intern minister will lead or co-lead worship and adult faith formation, provide pastoral care, be involved in social justice, and gain experience in governance and administration in both congregations. Based on the learning needs of the intern minister and cognizant that one person cannot do everything in two places, the intern may focus on one key area of ministry in each of the congregations while having the opportunity to experience the broad range of ministry in two distinct contexts. Gratefully, there will be plenty of options between the two congregations for worship, rites of passage, administrative ministry, and leading our shared faith into the future. These are both exciting and challenging times to be serving a church. As a dual-site, collaborative internship, the intern minister would have the benefit of serving both a small, pastoral-size urban church as well as a large multi-minister congregation in a more suburban setting. Having experiences with both sizes of church would give the intern space to learn how to navigate different governance systems, different staff configurations, and different relationships to the people they serve. It’s an ideal learning opportunity for someone exploring parish ministry and discerning what size congregation best fits their ministry gifts and style.  
Site Accessibility mixed access 
Application Procedure Please send the following materials to Rev. Lane Campbell at minister@uuroc.org: One-page letter of interest describing yourself, your ministerial journey, and why you think this site might be a good fit for your internship; One sermon (link to a video or text) A prayer or meditation Resume or CV Contact information for three references Final candidates will have a Zoom Interview with the two ministers and one or two lay leaders.  
Additional Notes  
Application Deadline February 23, 2022 
Selection Date Mach 30, 2022