Ministerial Search

Members of the Committee

The Ministerial Search committee consists of seven church members who were appointed at the 2024 spring annual program meeting. Each member of the committee provided a short biographical statement:

Jim Hamilton

Amy and I have been members of First Parish for around twenty-five years. We moved to Marshfield in 1993. We were both looking for a liberal religious experience that would include the whole family. I grew up Catholic, but it did not sit well with me. Our kids, Gavin and Olivia (both now adults), took part in the church’s Religious Education program, OWL, and the high school youth group. Amy and I are deeply involved in the church. She is an assistant treasurer, and I have served on the Governing Board multiple times, including two terms as president. Over the past few years I have worked with a team of folks on our annual fundraising efforts (Holiday Fair, Service Auction, and Summer Fair). I was the chair of the Envisioning the Sanctuary in 21st Century working group, which resulted in our historic tablets being moved to the choir loft. I have a BA in German and a MA in Printing Technology. I am now semi-retired from a career in market research. I am on the board of the Museum of Printing in Haverhill, MA and I donate platelets monthly at the Red Cross (which I got started on because of blood drives that the church hosted). I am an amateur historian and have written several books, including a recent one on long-fall survival that I illustrated. I feel strongly about the role that our church plays in the community as an example of a liberal religious tradition.

Alexa Howell

I am a mom to three wonderful daughters ages nine, six and two. As a family, my husband, daughters, and I enjoy spending time outside, going to the beach, and taking our annual trip to Star Island. I work as a pediatric occupational therapist, helping kids with a variety of developmental challenges achieve their full potential. I am an avid reader and have recently rediscovered my love for reading which had waned briefly during my early years as a parent. I have been part of the First Parish Church community since I was an infant and after taking a short break in young adulthood, I returned in 2016 with a toddler. I was eager to find a church home and community for her, just as I had experienced growing up. I joined the RE committee to help organize and foster the best church school learning environment I could for her and her sisters as they came along. This year I have taken a much more active role in planning and organizing the church school activities. I am interested in serving on the Ministerial Search Committee so that I can represent our young people and families as we work to select a new church leader.

Jerry Larke

I have been a member of a Unitarian Church throughout my life in West Virginia, Upstate New York and Massachusetts. I was originally raised as a Methodist but found that church experience very lacking in meaning to me. As an under graduate in West Virginia I began attending a small Unitarian Society in Morgantown, West Virginia. We initially raised our family of three children in a small, rural Unitarian/Universalist Church in Auburn, N.Y., which was a wonderful and meaningful experience for us all. We moved to Massachusetts in 1986 and joined the Duxbury First Parish Church after “trying out” several other UU churches on the south shore. Our family was attracted to the Duxbury church school program which had a wonderful and inviting experience we were all looking for. This experience seemed to help center our family in our transition to a new home in Massachusetts. As our children have moved to adulthood, they have remained involved in the Unitarian churches in their new communities where they live.

I have been active in the Duxbury UU church since. With Elizabeth Tarbox and Grace Seibert-Larke, I co-led the About Your Sexuality program, the predecessor to the OWL program, for several years. Currently I am the Chair of the Partner Church Committee which actively supports a small Unitarian church in Transylvania, Romania. I am also a member of the Safe Congregation Committee and previously the Welcoming Congregation Committee, the Ministerial Support Committee, and the Governing Board.

As a retired Clinical Psychologist, I have worked for over 44 years in hospitals, mental health centers and private practice with children, adolescents, and adults. I am also volunteering as an English language tutor at our local library.

Carol Robison

I’ve lived in many places: Georgia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania growing up; Massachusetts and Ohio as an adult; Mexico and Spain as a student. Rob and I married at the Old Ship Church in 1976. We began attending FPC 1985. In 1991, our family, which by then included son Scott and daughter Lindsey, moved to Ohio as Rob advanced in his career. When we both retired in 2015, we returned here, to the one place we’ve lived that feels like home.

I’ve spent my entire life in school in one capacity or another. I hold a BA and MA in Spanish, and was a teacher of Spanish and a university administrator.

I became UU when I couldn’t reconcile the creedal nature of my family’s faith with my life experiences. I flourished at FPC. In Ohio, we joined a fledgling UU congregation, a crash course in every aspect of church administration. Later on, with a possible career transition in mind, I attended seminary. I co-founded a youth group, and served as adviser to the UU young adult fellowship at Ohio State.

In the nine years since our return, it has been satisfying to reconnect, and to jump right back into church life and get busy: Historical Committee, Small Group, Indigenous Advocacy Team, Diverse Music Team, Envisioning the Sanctuary, Choir, Soul Singers, and more.

Donna Savicki

I’ve been a UU since 1984, after attending one of Ed Swanborn’ s Candlelight Concerts and reading the pew card describing Unitarian Universalism, which I knew nothing about, and subsequently attending a service where I was mightily impressed by the quality of Robbie Walsh’s sermon. My husband and I had one child, a son, who was about three years old at the time. Having been raised as a Catholic (and grown away from the church), I thought it was important for my son to have a sense of what religion is and Unitarian Universalism seemed the perfect vehicle. Ed’s music and the quality of Susan’s sermons remain a big draw, but perhaps more important, are the wonderful friendships I’ve made at First Parish, as well as the many opportunities to be of use, offered by the Social Justice Committee. I have been a member of the Social Justice Committee (SJC) for almost all of the past 40 years, participating in many of its programs, especially the Box Project, the (former) Brockton Soup Kitchen, and the current Tuesday lunch program, to name a few. With a fellow SJC member, I co-led the campaign that resulted in our Black Lives Matter sign outside church. I am a past member of the Governing Board. Joining the Bell Choir several years ago gave me my first opportunity to make music with others, and I love it and encourage anyone who can read music to give it a try.

PJ Simeone

I have lived in Duxbury for nine years with Emily and our two children, Johanna and Mey Mey. I am originally from Plympton, MA and moved back to the South Shore from New York City where I lived for 10 years. In addition to human family members, our family also includes three goats, two bunnies, and one cat named Henry. I work for May Institute, where I oversee rehabilitation and assistive technology services for people with developmental disabilities. I am grateful for the relationships I have made working with hundreds of children, adults, and families across MA. In my free time, I enjoy spending time with Emily and the kids at the beach or on the slopes. I am also an avid wingfoiler (a watersport) and can be found in Duxbury Bay on many a windy day.

Our family has been attending First Parish since 2017, and we became church members in 2018. I have served on the Finance Committee, Worship and Music Committee and the Transition Team, and I enjoy volunteering with the R.E. “littles” on most Sundays. I am motivated to serve on the Ministerial Search Committee because First Parish continues to be a vital source of spiritual and community connection for my family. I am inspired by the Seven Principles and the “all are welcome” ethos. I believe that First Parish has the potential to be a vehicle for change, connection, and healing in a fractured society.

Pat Slechta

My time at FPC began about 31 years ago when my children, Catie and John, were very young. They went all the way through the Religious Education Program, for which I think, they are both very grateful. My husband Marc, and I, chose FPC because he is a life-long Unitarian Universalist. The Church spoke to me immediately upon my introduction.

I arrived in Massachusetts by way of Boston University and have been here ever since. I did take a couple of post-graduate years as a ski bum in Colorado and returned to Boston thereafter to obtain an advanced degree in Geology, also at BU. My course of study led me to the South Shore where I fell head-over-heel for Duxbury and its breathtaking beach. This is home to me, and I have been a realtor in Duxbury for nearly thirty years.

I continue to attend the Church for a variety of reasons but the most important one is the ever-widening stance on inclusion. It’s also no secret that I love the church fairs, both the Summer Fair and Decemberfest! And, there are the wonderful people who serve on committees and give so much time energy, thought and emotion to keep FPC vital and thriving. I so appreciate how we take care of each other too. I consider it an honor and an affirmation of trust to be asked to serve on the Search Team.

Ministerial Search Timeline