Rev. Jonathan Rogers will be completing his tenure at NWUUC on July 31st, having served as interim minister since February of 2018.
His major change was proposing a partnership between Northwest and the Launchpad organization, which provides logistical support for UU communities. The Northwest Board approved this partnership in July of 2018, and it formally took effect in October of that year. Launchpad is a project operating out of the Oak Ridge UU Congregation, in Oak Ridge, TN. In addition to creating a new relationship with another UU organization and congregation, NWUUC’s partnership with Launchpad has offered significant opportunities to both parties for learning from each other and streamlining processes such as rentals, vendor contracts, congregational database management, and office communications. While work remains to be done, NWUUC is smoother in terms of behind-the-scenes operations.
Throughout his time at Northwest, Rev. Jonathan served and led the Anti-Racism, Anti-Oppression, Multiculturalism (ARAOMC) Committee. ARAOMC topics were frequent subjects of his sermons. Those sermons included reflections on slavery reparations, the complicated racial history of the UU movement, and how allies can best contribute to movements for justice. Rev. Jonathan took part in a direct action for immigration justice in February of 2019. In an act of civil disobedience, he and other clergy in solidarity with local undocumented students were arrested for speaking out against anti-immigrant Georgia Board of Regents policies during a Board of Regents meeting. Rev. Jonathan will be pursuing additional ways to contribute to immigration and racial justice in his post-NWUUC endeavors.
Rev. Jonathan preached his final sermon from the Northwest pulpit June 16th at our outgathering service. Along with Fathers’ Day and Juneteenth, the theme of the day was socks in honor of Jonathan’s infamous Sunday footwear. Many in the congregation chose to wear ‘crazy socks’ and the RE team presented Jonathan with a gift of official UUA socks. After the service, everyone was invited to write their memories and well wishes for Jonathan on slips of paper to fill a garland of socks. There was even a special cookie cake at the potluck decorated with a cricket wearing colorful socks, an homage to Jonathan’s sermon on entomophagy.
At the conclusion of the service, Rev. Jonathan presented the congregation with a custom community word cloud generated from the Sharing Our Stores Worship Cafe on April 7th.
Rev. Jonathan will be remembered as a beloved interim minister with a keen sense of humor, a devotion to social justice issues, his weekly whimsical socks and his warm, disarming smile. We wish him well in his next chapter of ministry.