This is your notice of a special Congregational Meeting of UUCMP –  Sunday, August 20, 2023 at 12 noon, in person and via Zoom, following the service at 10:30 a.m.  (Click here to join by Zoom, or just stay on after the service.)
 
We’ll be voting on being one of three UU congregations to ordain Susan Panttaja into the UU ministry.
Our bylaws require a quorum of 20% of our membership, and that 2/3 of those present vote yes.  So – please plan to attend!

More information:
Susan Panttaja served as Intern minister at UUCMP from August 2020 to June 2021, and Sabbatical Minister from August 2021 through January 2022.  She is requesting that UUCMP serve as one of three congregations that will jointly ordain her into UU ministry, the others being the Napa Valley UU congregation where she is currently serving as their part-time minister, and the UU Congregation of Santa Rosa, her home congregation.  UUCSR would host the event, on Saturday October 28, 2023.
 
A Service of Ordination centers around a spoken ritual in which the members of one or more congregations recognize a person as a minister called to serve, and confers ministerial authority. 
 
According to our bylaws—
4.07  Ordination to the ministry by the congregation will be considered if the candidate has completed theological training in a certified program of study and has been accepted into preliminary fellowship by the Ministerial Fellowship Committee of the Unitarian Universalist Association. In the following situations ordination can be approved by a vote of the congregation with the basic quorum and voting rules for congregational meetings as contained in Article 5.05: 

A. The candidate has been called by the congregation to be its minister. 
B. The candidate is settled in a community ministry in this community and will be associated with this congregation as a member. 
C. The candidate is a “child of the church,” has an extensive history of relationship to this church, and is about to begin a ministry the congregation wishes to support. 

Ordination of other candidates can be approved by the same voting rules which are required for calling a minister as contained in Article 5.05. 

…
5.05  A quorum shall consist of 20% of voting members. For all matters not stipulated elsewhere in the bylaws, a simple majority is required to approve. 
A. A vote of 2/3 of those present is required to: 
– Call or dismiss a minister 
– Approve resolutions of public witness on behalf of the congregation. 
– Approve capital expenditures proposed to exceed twenty-five percent of the total operating budget for the current fiscal year. 
B. Members currently residing at a distance greater than fifty miles from the church shall not be included in the calculation of a quorum unless they are present to vote.