All Souls UU in DC - why did Rev. Susan leave?
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Anonymous
Anonymous
it also seems that rev. parker has benefitted financially from all of this....after two years as an "interim" minister (no congregational input) her spouse appeared on the church payroll around the same time as rev. susan's troubles. puzzling is one word for it. |
Anonymous
Anonymous
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Congregants continue to make ugly posts about Rev. Susan - a recent one suggests (sarcastically) the church "hold a bake sale" to provide her an appropriate severance package. Between the way she was treated, continues to be treated, and the way the congregants have gone after each other on social media -- veering between thanking one another for beautiful dialogue, swapping insults, and overall showing scant interest to look at the issue through the perspective of a person of color, we are done. Some of these problems might be addressed if the current Rev. moves on, but the well is so badly poisoned it is hard to say.
I'm amazed this has not made the Washington Post. |
Anonymous
| A reporter did attend a meeting of the congregation, so a story may be in the works. The UU church in Arlington recently lost both of its ministers. Not sure what congregations offer diversity and more stable dynamics? |
Anonymous
| I tried to watch the video and am still super confused. Did the UCC action against Rev. Susan have anything to do with this sermon that she says offended some random congregant at All Souls? It seems like it didn't. How is anyone supposed to have an opinion about this one way or another without knowing what complaint the UCC was investigating? |
Anonymous
| What a mess! Why did they let it reach this point? I miss her sermons too... |
Anonymous
ASC is a tremendous force for good in the DMV. I attend not for the clergy but for the congregation and especially for the music, which is my balm in troubled times. I doubt that I can find another church with a vibrant, genuinely multi ethnic congregation that is any less flawed than ASC, so I would rather stay and be part of the solution . |
Anonymous
Me too! |
Anonymous
Also me! - woman of color |
Anonymous
| The attitude of other congregants online about this situation says a lot. I can't imagine worshipping side by side with these people after seeing their true colors. |
Anonymous
The thing is, you can say this about hard-line people on either side. This doesn’t serve the church and the respective ministers very well. Nor does it help serve the people and causes that depend on All Souls. Now more than ever, we need institutions like All Souls — imperfect, messy, and also transformative and brave. Let’s not tear it down. Let’s work together to make it better. |
Anonymous
You really can't say this about hard-line people on either side, since the people on one side have said some pretty racist stuff (one white male compared a light-skinned POC to Elizabeth Warren - who knew there were Trump supporters at that church?) and been super dismissive when Black women have taken the mic at community meetings to talk about racism. A former staff member said in public that it would be racist NOT to fire Black staff if they had performance issues. (What a coincidence that all three staff that Rob Hardies fired, or attempted to, in the past few years for "performance" issues were Black!) City Paper article is poorly researched - attendance IS down (when the choir gets up from the pews to sing, the church is half empty) and I was told by multiple people involved in the weekly offertory count that the amount of money collected at services was way down. Congregants are withdrawing pledges left and right. |
Anonymous
There absolutely has been ugly behavior on both sides. One of Rev Susan's supporters has been comparing black board members to Ben Carson. |