Summary information about Reverend Stephen M. Shick, ministerial candidate for the Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson Candidating week - Sunday, March 25 through Sunday, April 1, 2007 Congregational vote to be held following service on April 1 Employment background: Present position: Interim Minister, First Parish, Portland, Maine -- since 8/15/2006 Before going to Portland, Reverend Shick served the Universalist Unitarian Church of Haverhill (Mass.) as its minister for nine years. During that time the congregation moved through many transitions as it grew its membership number from 95 members to 145 (a 66% increase), saw a 30% increase in Sunday service attendance, completed major renovations to its building - including a major capital campaign with $250,000 pledged - and established new and nationally recognized programs of community service and spiritual development. In Haverhill, Reverend Shick helped found the Center for Spiritual Development, a network of adult RE courses at the Haverhill church that serves the greater community as well as church members. He also helped establish a food pantry in the church as well as the Cornucopia Project, which grows an acre of sweet corn for area food pantries each summer. Reverend Shick also has an unusual style of delivering his sermons - he does so without notes, while walking around the front of the church and talking to the congregation. He also plays the guitar and sings during service on occasion. Before entering parish ministry in Haverhill, Reverend Shick served with distinction in the national social-justice movement. He founded the SANE Education Fund of Pennsylvania and Consider the Alternatives, a national radio program about foreign and domestic policy issues, intended to help end the Vietnam War and establish alternative national spending priorities. His radio show was broadcast regularly on over 400 commercial and noncommercial radio stations. In 1984, Rev. Shick became the founding director of the Unitarian Universalist Peace Network. This work involved designing and implementing programs; writing, producing and distributing materials including religious education curricula and worship resources; conducting trainings and worship services and recruiting and working with volunteers involved in service, education and advocacy at the local level. In 1989 Reverend Shick joined the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC), where he established and directed the UUSC’s successful "Just Works" and "Promise the Children" programs, and did other senior-level work at the UUSC. In 1995, Reverend Shick answered his call to parish ministry and became minister of the Haverhill church. Date of preliminary UU fellowship: 5/15/1985 Ordination: Unitarian Society of Germantown, Philadelphia 11/24/85 Personal and family situation: Stephen is married to Jo Ann Mulready-Shick, who is the Undergraduate Program Director of the nursing program at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. Together they make their home in Lexington, Mass. They have three grown or college-age children: Dora, Michael, and Sarah. Stephen's mother, 93, lives at the Dana Home in Lexington, Mass. Education and certification:

Degree	College/University/Seminary	Area of Concentration	Date (mm/yy)
M.Div.	Crozer-Colgate Rochester Theological Seminary	History & Old Testament Studies	June 1969 (Honors Graduate)
none	New School of Social Research	Sociology of Religion,Ph.D. Program	June 1971
B.S.	Western Michigan University	Religion,Sociology Majors	June 1966
Urban Ministry Fellow	Harvard Divinity School	Urban Ministry	June 2003
completion	UUA-DEPARTMENT OF MINISTRY	Interim Ministry Training	July 2006
completion	UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS, BOSTON	Mediation/Negotiation	June 2006

Awards and honors: Award for Civic & Religious Leadership, Presented by the Mayor of Haverhill, MA, April 2006. Selected as Harvard Divinity School Urban Fellow 2000-2003. Honored by the Board of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee for Creative Service 1996. Chosen dais honoree, Children’s Defense Fund, National Mobilization in Washington, D.C. 1996. Awarded a 1979 National Endowment for the Humanities Radio Production Grant, "Shadows of the Nuclear Age": A series on the social, religious, cultural and artist impact of the Bomb aired on 800 commercial and non commercial radio stations. Awarded 1979 Distinguished Service Award, SANE (Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy). Awarded 1978 Distinguished Service Award, SANE Education Fund of Pennsylvania. Publications Book commissioned by Skinner Books October 2006: Engaging the Spirit: A Journey toward Peace and Justice will be a collection of one hundred and fifty to two hundred original poems, meditations, and readings designed to awaken the longing for peace and justice and provide inspiration for action. “At the Margins,” in Quest, Volume LXI, No. 7, July/August 2006. “Arrival of Hope,” in Bless This Child, a Treasury of Poems, Quotations and Readings to Celebrate Birth, Collected by Edward Searl, Skinner Books, 2006. "The Great Blue," in For All That is our Life, a Meditation Anthology, Skinner Books 2005. Consider the Lilies, A Meditation Manual, Skinner Books, 2004. “Rest in Me” and “A Solstice Reflection” meditations in How We Are Called, a Meditation Anthology , Skinner Books, 2003. Public Radio International Interview on Humankind (August 2000), a production of Human Media Foundation. Subject: Publication of Just Congregations. Rebroadcast on “Best of Humankind.” 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005. Just Congregations, a public ministry and congregational growth publication of the UUA, Department of Faith in Action 1999. Denominational activities: (UUA is the Unitarian Universalist Association) Served on District Executive Search Committee for the UUA's Massachusetts Bay District, 2005 Elected President, Berkshire Study Group (UU ministers group) 2004 to 2006 Represented UUA President William Sinkford at Boston Dialogue Foundation’s Iftar (Breaking of Ramadan Fast), November 2003 Appointed by UUA Board to serve on UU Funding Programs’ Just Society panel, 2003 to present Participated in MBD/UUMA Chapter, Study Group on Family Systems, 2003-05 Invited by UUA President to a National Consultation on Public Witness, December 2002 Served as member of Mass Bay District Board, 1999-2000 Appointed member of UUA Council on Church Staff Finance, 1996-97 Served as member of UUA Consultation on Community Ministry, convened by the UUA Board to develop recommendations for implementation and integration of Community Ministers into the life of Unitarian Universalism, 1996 Appointed member & facilitator, Mass Bay District Board Subcommittee to Study Community Ministers, 1996 Served as founding member of The Tuckerman Coalition, a group of Boston Area clergy, laity and representatives of the UU Urban Ministry and UUSC focusing on public and legislative policy issues which effect the urban poor, especially children, 1995. Served as founding member of the Society for the Larger Ministry, a national organization of UU laity and clergy committed to promoting a broad spectrum of healing and social justice ministries. Steering Committee (three years) and Chair, Ministerial Fellowship Subcommittee, which contributed significantly to the '92 General Assembly establishing the fellowship category of Community Ministry. Served as Worship Committee member, Youth Group Advisor, and COA Mentor, First Parish, Lexington Mass., 1991-96. Serve as Unitarian Universalist Ministers' Association mentor to many community and parish ministers accepted into Preliminary Fellowship, 1989 to present. Helped develop educational curricula for congregations including Peace Experiments and Starting Small Served as lay leader (Board Member, Finance Committee, Canvass Committee, Ministerial Relations Committee) at Unitarian Society of Germantown (Philadelphia, 1979-89) Community activities Mayor-appointed member and elected President, Haverhill Affordable Resident Trust, 2001-2006 Mayor-appointed member of the Haverhill Housing Partnership, 2000 Founding member and chairman of the Haverhill Interfaith Housing Association, 2000 Appointed member, Haverhill Civil Rights Commission, 1999 to 2005 Elected president of Haverhill Clergy Association, 1998-99, 2004-2006 Served on Council on Aging Advisory Council for RUAH, a spiritual education program, 1999 to 2005 Founding member and chairman of Haverhill Hunger Roundtable, 1998-99 Appointed as board member, Woburn Social Concerns, Inc., 1996-1997