The First Unitarian Society of Ithaca

Dear Unitarian Universalists of Ithaca,

I consider myself a very fortunate minister to have been asked to introduce myself to you today… and to come to Ithaca to meet you in person in just a few short weeks! To say that I am beside myself with joy is putting it mildly.

You have my beloved partner Pamela Grimm to thank, in part. A native of Sweden who spent most of her growing-up years in a Unitarian household in the Hudson Valley, Pamela was the dear soul from whom I first learned that there was such a thing as the liberal religious movement known as Unitarian Universalism. I was a religious free thinker who had grown up in a conservative Christian family in southern California. And although I understood very well the value of religious community, I was without one at the time I met Pamela in New York simply because every religious community I had ever known was too dogmatic and not open-minded enough for me.

Well, the rest is history. Among Unitarian Universalists I found my community of kindred spirits at long last and within a few short years I decided to leave my career in hotel management behind and to take up my long-set-aside dream of the ministry-now that I had found the religious community within which I truly belonged.

After getting my undergraduate degree at Fordham University, I did my graduate work in theology at Union Seminary in New York City, did ministry as a student at Community Church of New York and Fourth Universalist Society, completed my internship at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Northern Westchester, and was ordained by the Unitarian Church of Staten Island. Since that time, it has been my great blessing and privilege to serve UU congregations in other parts of the country: ministering in Wisconsin, in Kansas and now in New Mexico.

Many thanks to all the members of Ithaca's Settled Minister Search Committee for all that they have done to make this upcoming candidating week a reality.

The three of us (Pamela, our daughter Hannah, and I) eagerly look forward to our journey to the east and to our meeting you at long last.

Until then, brightest blessings to you, one and all.

Sincerely yours,
David Grimm