FUUNO Sponsorship: Julia Hamilton, candidate for UU Ministry

The board agreed that our congregation would sponsor Julia Hamilton, as a candidate for UU Ministry. Julia is well know by a number of our congregation as she and her family were a part of our family. This sponsorship indicates confidence in the candidate's potential and suitability for UU ministry.

For more information concerning the sponsorship process: http://www.uua.org/

You may contact Julia via the church office. The Letter from Julia is posted below:
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September 25, 2008


Dear Friends at The First Unitarian Church of New Orleans,

It’s hard for me to know where to start this letter, except to say that you are never very far from my heart these days, as you face challenges I can only imagine in rebuilding the community that nurtured and supported me for so much of my life. As I work toward ordination as a Unitarian Universalist minister, I have come to discover how much my formative years at First Church have contributed to the person I am - and the minister I hope to be. I am writing to re-introduce myself to you and to ask that you consider co-sponsoring me as a Candidate for the ministry. I know of no better way to honor the contribution that this congregation has made to my ongoing formation.

I started seminary in 2005, moving to Boston from New York City to attend Harvard Divinity School. I was packing my apartment as Katrina hit, and New Orleans was still underwater on the first day of classes. I wondered if I should drop everything and return to my former hometown, but I stayed and went on to graduate this past June. Being from New Orleans these past few years has been an eye-opening experience. Through all of this, I realized that I had taken for granted all of the things that I had learned at First Church: How to sing with all my heart, how to feed a hundred people, how to love humanity and the whole “interdependent web” in all its glory, craziness and beauty.

Some of you may remember me as a small child, running around between people’s knees at potlucks. Some of you may remember me as a youth, standing up proudly to talk about the coming-of-age experience that our small-but-dedicated youth group undertook. Many of you have never met me, and I hope that you will understand the connection that I still feel to this congregation, and that you will get to know me over the years. I have returned to New Orleans twice since the storm, and I am planning to lead a trip in April with my internship congregation from Summit, New Jersey. During my first trip back, after working in the still-unoccupied church all week, I shared a Sunday with you and Rev. Marta Valentin out at the temporary location in Jefferson Parish. On my second trip I sat once again in the sanctuary on Claiborne, tearfully singing “May I Who Live” with Rev. Melanie Morel-Ensminger. Melanie has known me and my family for a very long time, and I was so happy to see her in the pulpit on that Easter Sunday.

I have preached about New Orleans and the need for ongoing support in several pulpits, and I will continue to preach it for as long as there is a need. I have attended several other UU churches since living in New Orleans, and I will also be sponsored at the Fourth Universalist Society of New York where I worked and attended before starting seminary, but FUUNO is the place where my UU identity was first shaped and nurtured. It is for this reason that I ask you to consider this request. Congregational Sponsorship does not require any money, or even a whole lot of time, but it identifies FUUNO as a congregation that supports my call to ministry, and it holds me accountable to the community that raised me. ... If you have any questions about this process, please let me know.

With all my love and regard,

Julia Hamilton
Candidate for Ministry