Unitarian Universalist
CHURCH OF SPARTANBURG
CHURCH OF SPARTANBURG
Sunday Service at 11:00
Vespers Wednesday at 6:30
Vespers Wednesday at 6:30
Our New Interim Minister
Our Ministers
The Rev. Linda Bunyard
THE REVEREND LINDA BUNYARD
Interim MInister
Interim MInister
I count it an act of amazing grace that I was called to the Unitarian Universalist ministry and a privilege that I get to do all the things I love and use my talents in my “day job.” I first felt the call to ministry as a teenager in the pew of my Southern Baptist church in the steelmill town of Pueblo, Colorado. I inquired about seminary back then but the Southern Baptists weren’t admitting “girls” in the 1960s. It wasn’t until I found All Souls Unitarian Church in Colorado Springs in 1983 that I found a church that would accept me “just as I am” with all my doubts, my varied theological and spiritual interests, and a strong dose of feminism. I experienced my first General Assembly in 1986 in Rochester, New York. It was that year that I applied to Starr King School for the Ministry, at the Graduate Theological Union, in Berkeley, California.
In addition to the Universalist Unitarian Church of Joliet, I have served these congregations: Eau Claire, Wisconsin; Laramie and Cheyenne, Wyoming; Phoenix, Glendale, Chandler, and Green Valley, Arizona; Spokane, Washington; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Savannah, Georgia. I do not enjoy packing to move each summer but I use it as an opportunity to review my work and prepare for a new relationship with another congregation. Somewhere in the process I get my hands on most of the books in my library, all of them chosen for a specific reason. (Sometimes I even take the time to read them.) And as I gently wrap every item from my kitchen and take down the pictures from my wall, I remember my family and friends and the many UUs who keep me company in my portable nest. The move is always jarring and exhausting from the physical and psychic labor. But just as a woman who has just birthed a child may forget the pain of transition, I am happy as soon as my house is once again in order and I have told the people I love where to find me.
Someone asked me to name my favorite place out of all these churches I have served and these towns in which I have lived. I could mention some great points about many of them, but I am most excited about the place where I am right now. I am happy to be in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and I look forward to all that I can learn and all that I can share with you this year.
Rev. Linda
In addition to the Universalist Unitarian Church of Joliet, I have served these congregations: Eau Claire, Wisconsin; Laramie and Cheyenne, Wyoming; Phoenix, Glendale, Chandler, and Green Valley, Arizona; Spokane, Washington; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Savannah, Georgia. I do not enjoy packing to move each summer but I use it as an opportunity to review my work and prepare for a new relationship with another congregation. Somewhere in the process I get my hands on most of the books in my library, all of them chosen for a specific reason. (Sometimes I even take the time to read them.) And as I gently wrap every item from my kitchen and take down the pictures from my wall, I remember my family and friends and the many UUs who keep me company in my portable nest. The move is always jarring and exhausting from the physical and psychic labor. But just as a woman who has just birthed a child may forget the pain of transition, I am happy as soon as my house is once again in order and I have told the people I love where to find me.
Someone asked me to name my favorite place out of all these churches I have served and these towns in which I have lived. I could mention some great points about many of them, but I am most excited about the place where I am right now. I am happy to be in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and I look forward to all that I can learn and all that I can share with you this year.
Rev. Linda
This church is the thirteenth congregation I have served in the twenty years since my ordination at the Unitarian Church of Davis, California, in 1991. My very first opportunity in the parish was in 1992 at the UNIVERSALIST Unitarian Church of Joliet, Illinois. The congregation began in the 1880s and the building was over a hundred years old. I fell in love with interim work that first year, but thought I should be settled and went on to be installed at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, the next fall. Settled ministry offers the opportunity to make inroads in the community and to develop sermons and curricula and programs as the church grows. However, I am drawn to the redeeming work of transition ministry. As an interim minister I am able to (and usually given the authority to) make needed changes and teach new ways of doing church, not to mention bring a sense of love and affirmation to the congregation. Interim ministry redeems the congregation by preparing them for another longer-term relationship with a ministerial partner. It redeems the interim minister by allowing her to start over remembering to, in the words of Howard Thurman, “Keep fresh before me the moments of my High Resolve.”
210 Henry Place
P.O. Box 1942
Spartanburg, SC 29304
864-585-9230
P.O. Box 1942
Spartanburg, SC 29304
864-585-9230
Unitarian Universalist Church of Spartanburg
We are a Welcoming Congregation