Thank You Don Miller & Heidi Hawkinson-Penny

Don Miller has ended his service as interim at Community United Church of Christ in Carbondale. Finishing his ministry at Carbondale ended a period of four years of ministry serving as interim in 3 different congregations. Interim Ministry is a special gift as it requires pastors to quickly establish relationships and work with the leadership to ask the questions that assist the congregation in making crucial decisions about the future. While they ask sometimes challenging questions about the future, they also provide much needed stability, pastoral care, spiritual support and reassurance for the day to day ministry of the congregation. It’s a difficult balance, and Don has done it well for Evangelical UCC in Marysville, Midland UCC in Sterling, as well as Community UCC in Carbondale. Don made the decision to end this crucial ministry as an interim as his wife Jean’s health continues to decline. If you know Jean, then you know she has been his colleague and ministry partner; a fierce advocate for justice, who is deeply committed to the United Church of Christ. Jean has dementia and is very open about this reality in her life.  Don’s energy is now appropriately focused primarily on caring and supporting Jean.

Don continues to serve as the Disaster Ministry Coordinator for the Conference.  We give thanks for the many lives he touched during the years he served as an interim minister. He ended his ministry at Community UCC on January 10th.

Heidi Hawkinson-Penny has been serving at Community UCC as a Licensed Minister. Having expressed an interest in becoming a teaching congregation and after working closely with the Committee on Ministry, the Church Council, with the support of Don Miller called Heidi as their part time licensed minister.  Having served at First Congregational Church in Topeka,  Heidi had experience but felt there was much more she needed to learn and she had also accepted a full-time teaching position at the Middle School in Mayetta. This was an opportunity to fill a need at a congregation and support the development and growth of a pastor. Heidi is bi-vocational and from all we knew this was going to work well. And then the pandemic hit and that changed everything. Teaching is always challenging; but teaching during a pandemic has put enormous pressures on teachers. Heidi notified the Council at Carbondale that serving the church in addition to her full-time job as had simply become too much for her and her family. Her last Sunday at Community UCC will be Sunday January 31st.  Both Heidi and Community UCC in Carbondale wish the circumstances were different, but Heidi has much to offer a congregation and we look forward to what may be possible in the future.