Our new Acting Assistant Minister!
Dear First Church Members and Friends,
First, I cannot begin this newsletter without offering a deep sense of gratitude and humility to Reverend Jennifer Norstrom and all the members of the Acting Assistant Minister Search Team. We dove into an engaged, thorough, and fun interview process over the last many months which have led to me becoming your Acting Assistant Minister.
Being offered this position has filled me with levels of excitement and challenge that tap deeply into many areas of my Ministry and life on the shoulders of legacies that will bring us together in a few short months. First, being born in Memphis, Tennessee on April 24, 1968, to Shirley Mae Jones Long and Bang Long Jr. mere days after Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated provides some tendrils to a historical context related to the Civil Rights Movement that are calling to us all today.
In my 25 years of being a Unitarian Universalist after signing the book at James Reeb Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Madison on December 12, 1999, and in the 16 years since I was Ordained a Unitarian Universalist Minister, I have had the honor to serve as a Minister across the country. I look forward to working with Reverends Jennifer Nordstrom, Kimberlee Tomczak Carlson, the Staff, and many of you, to dream our way into what continuing to put “Love at the Center” will entail for us in downtown Milwaukee.
Please do take good care of yourselves, each other, and those who live and work at the margins of our society and could benefit from the transformative power of our living faith tradition as Unitarian Universalists, and those who are seeking community with us.
Sincerely and in HOPE,
Rev. Chris Long
Reverend Chris Long is
currently the Minister of Congregational Life for the Unitarian Church of Baton Rouge (Baton Rouge, LA). He has served there since July of 2022. Since being Ordained by the First Unitarian Church of Oakland (Oakland, CA – June 7, 2009), he has also served at James Reeb Unitarian Universalist Congregation (Madison, WI), the University of Wisconsin (Madison, WI), West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church (Rocky River, OH) and The Community Church of New York (New York City).
Throughout these Ministries, and in his many roles on denominational committees, organizations and a variety of leadership, and Staff as we begin our ministries together, with you all, in just a few short months. positions in the communities where he has lived across the country, he has aspired to live more into what it means to be a Unitarian Universalist, and a Unitarian Universalist Minister in the 21st Century. He looks forward to joining Reverends Jennifer Nordstrom, Kimberlee Tomczak Carlson.