“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” ~ Annie Dillard
Discover Our Committees
Our committees are the lifeblood of our congregation. We believe that no one person should do all the work. From singing in our choir to working on finance or hospitality, there are activities and functions that will appeal to persons with a wide range of skills and interests.
We highly encourage new members to join at least one committee. In addition to getting enjoyment out of serving, it is the best way to get to know fellow members and to form real friendships. Our goal is to have all members involved in at least one committee.
Building and Grounds
The objective of the Building and Grounds Committee is to maintain our facility and maximize its usefulness in support of our worship services and Religious Education Program, as well as social and community activities.
Primary Responsibilities:
- To supervise interior and exterior maintenance and upkeep for the building.
- To develop and maintain necessary records of real property ownership.
- To prepare and maintain an inventory of furniture and equipment.
- To establish records of property insurance, service contracts, and a list of repair contractors.
Functions of the Committee:
- Oversee the work of the cleaning crew.
- Monitor the building for needed repairs, maintenance, and/or improvements and either perform the tasks identified or contract for the services needed.
- Support the work of the landscape director, the kitchen committee, the set-up team, etc.
- Maintain supplies for the kitchen, restrooms, and general upkeep.
Pastoral Care
Our Caring Team is made up of volunteers who keep up with the special needs and special events in the lives of members of UUCG. When there is illness, death, injury, or just plain need of assistance, we try to offer assistance.
- Assistance may be in the form of a phone call, a visit, a card, or an email. On occasion, someone needs transportation to the doctor, the hospital, or the airport. We try to meet these needs.
- There may be times when a birthday, anniversary, illness, or death is acknowledged with a card or flowers from the Caring Team.
- This group of volunteers represents the concern, the compassion, and love of our entire congregation.
Finance
The Finance Committee consists of a team leader, a treasurer, leaders of the annual pledge drive, and others who have a financial background. As with all committees, the president and the pastor are always invited to participate in meetings. Financial support is a necessary fact of life.
- The operating fund is our basic account through which we process all deposits and pay all bills. We are fortunate that our mortgage is paid and that we own our church building outright.
- We conduct a pledge drive for the operating fund in the fall of each year. We strive to strike the right balance: not offending people by emphasizing money excessively, while also helping all members, including new members, understand our financial framework and obligations.
- In addition to the usual expenses needed to operate a church (i.e., salaries, utilities, insurance, cleaning, lawn care, etc.), we pay our fair share of annual dues to the UUA each year.
Communication
The mission of the Communication Committee is to increase the size of the congregation by attracting prospective members, ensuring that they are properly welcomed when they visit UUCG, and providing information about Unitarian Universalism and UUCG. In addition to greeting visitors, we encourage them to visit our web page. When our longtime minister retired, the story of her ministry and of our church was featured in The Brunswick News, our local newspaper.
The UUCG Website:
Our website can be found at uuacg.org. The site contains information and pictures of our congregation’s activities, including a calendar of upcoming events and details on how to reach congregational leaders. Selected sermons and the current newsletter are also included on our site, as well as links to related sites.
The UUCG Newsletter:
The Voice is the newsletter of the Unitarian Universalists of Coastal Georgia. It provides a comprehensive accounting of events and issues involving our congregation and is published monthly. It is sent by e-mail to members and to friends who request it.
Thursday “Blast”:
On Thursday of each week, information about the coming Sunday service and other events is sent to those who receive the UUCG Newsletter. This informal reminder helps members and friends stay up to date and connected with what is happening.
Membership
The Membership Committee is responsible for:
- Greeting visitors to our services.
- Keeping appropriate records in a sign-in book.
- Helping newcomers understand our denomination and our church.
- Hosting informational sessions for prospective new members so that they will be fully informed when they make the decision to join UUCG.
A Letter from the Board of Trustees
Greetings from the Unitarian Universalists of Coastal Georgia!
The Board of Trustees of UUCG welcomes the opportunity to engage with you in this search process. Our congregation of about 75 members is deeply committed to the search for a new spiritual leader.
We’re fortunate to be located in the Golden Isles, which is an area popular with vacationers and retirees and known for our beautiful barrier islands. During the winter months, our congregation expands with visitors and “snowbirds” who come to the area to escape the cold. This annual influx brings variety and spice to our community.
Our congregation is intellectually active and curious. We enjoy exploring diverse wisdom traditions and ways of thinking. Monthly forum and book club meetings are among the ways that we “seek knowledge in freedom” to live this covenantal value.
UUCG has a history of social justice involvement and activism. We support Manna House, Sparrow’s Nest, and other food ministries, along with The Well, which is a resource and day hospitality center for the unhoused. Our members have been active in the Glynn Environmental Coalition, the Robert S. Abbott Race Unity Institute, Women’s Voices of Glynn County, the Brunswick NAACP, and many other groups. Community outreach is core to our identity.
The UUCG Religious Education program serves children of members and children from the community. A small food pantry provides take-home food packages for families. This program has grown with the support of numerous dedicated volunteers. The entire congregation enjoys the spark and excitement of the children and the chance to provide a safe, nurturing space.
We consider ourselves to be a loving, welcoming, and committed community. We value compassion and empathy in ourselves and our leadership. We’re looking for a minister who can challenge us with substantive and inspiring worship services while supporting our commitment to social justice. We want someone who can balance our desire for strong pastoral care with the expectations of a part-time ministry. And we want to partner to embrace the challenge of membership growth and continue to strengthen the community that we have built.
We look forward to discussing this opportunity and learning more about you!
Brian Merck
President, UUCG Board of Trustees
Ministerial Search Committee
Shortly after our longtime minister announced that she would be retiring a year early, the Ministerial Search Committee began work on producing a Congregational Survey to give them direction. A sub-committee was formed to develop an online survey based on a model from UUA. Once completed, congregants were asked to complete the survey, and the preliminary results were shared at a luncheon. At the luncheon, members of the Search and Survey Committees served as facilitators, seeking direct input from those in attendance and answering questions about the search process. Additional small group discussions were also held to ensure that everyone felt heard. The results of this information-gathering process resulted in a description of the minister who would best meet our needs and a description of who we are as a congregation. The Ministerial Packet was compiled in a website format, while the Congregational Record was compiled for online posting. At the conclusion of the search, the committee will recommend a candidate to the Board.
The Ministerial Search Team members are:
Brian Merck
Brian is currently the President of the Board of Trustees and Chair of the Building and Grounds Committee. He became a Unitarian Universalist in 2023 when he joined UUCG. He is a retired chemical engineer and was the R&D manager for Pinova Chemical Company (formerly Hercules), which produced rosins and polyterpene resins from pine chemicals.
rbmerck@gmail.com
912.399.0933
Judith Longfield, Chair
Judith has been a Unitarian Universalist for 30 years and a member of this congregation since 2015. She is currently a member of the Board, a past President of UUCG, sings in the choir, and has served on numerous committees. Before moving to Brunswick, she taught for 45 years—27 years in K-12 schools and 18 years at the university level.
jlongfie@gmail.com
404.545.2787
John Stevenson, Co-Chair
John has been a Unitarian Universalist for more than 45 years, including 30 years as a member of UUCA in Atlanta and the past seven years with UUCG. He recently joined the Board of Trustees after retiring from a career as a statistician with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He values the sense of community and the family-size scale at UUCG, lifelong learning, and commitment to the equity, justice, pluralism, and interdependence that Unitarian Universalism fosters.
jxs2778@gmail.com
912.223.9236
Phyllis Frey
Phyllis has been a Unitarian Universalist for 40 years. She became a member of UUCG in 2018. She lives part-time in Jekyll Island and part-time in Gainesville, GA, where she attends the Georgia Mountain Unitarian Universalist church in Dahlonega. Phyllis is on the Care Committee at UUCG. She retired from AT&T 18 years ago, where she was a System Designer.
zfrey@bellsouth.com
770.827.9519
Abby Osgood
Abby joined UUCG in 2025. Originally from upstate New York, she moved to Coastal Georgia with her family almost five years ago. Abby is an attorney licensed in New York and Georgia and currently works for the Georgia Heirs Property Law Center, a not-for-profit law firm committed to building intergenerational wealth, economic value, and community stability for low-income Georgians.
Abbyoesq@gmail.com
845.750.1024
Sally Revoile
Sally is a retired research scientist/professor of hearing and speech. She and her husband moved to the Golden Isles from Maryland in 1998. She is a master gardener and enjoys golf, birding, and sewing. She has served on the Membership and Landscaping committees.
chazsal@bellsouth.net
912.399.7011
Beth Sutton
Beth is a monthly lay worship leader at UUCG and works full-time with the non-profit environmental organization One Hundred Miles. She has served on the Board of Trustees, as the Treasurer, and on the Finance Committee. Beth is currently our bookkeeper.
yourmemoriessimplified@gmail.com
912.399.2087
Worship
The purpose of the Worship Committee is to provide all the facets that make an interesting service, including music, hospitality, and RE. Volunteers serve refreshments following the service and do the clean-up necessary to put the kitchen back in order.
Our Worship Coordinator secures volunteers to assist in the planning and presentation of Sunday Services. The Worship Coordinator is also responsible for organizing lay presenters and assisting guest speakers when called upon.
A volunteer Choir Director works with the weekly service presenter to select appropriate music and works with choir members to ensure they are comfortable singing the selected songs.
Religious Education
Adult Education:
There is a monthly Adult Forum where interested congregants and friends gather to discuss relevant topics before the service. In some months, there is a specific topic and leader, while in other months folks gather to share “What’s on your mind.”
There is also a monthly online Book Club facilitated by one of our members. Book titles are announced in the monthly UUCG Newsletter, and interested members meet online for lively discussions.
Children’s Religious Education (RE):
UUCG is proud to offer a religious education program for children aged 4-13. Our core RE class occurs during the Sunday services. This class is facilitated by our RE Coordinator and Lead Teacher, assisted by adult volunteers from the congregation, all of whom have had background checks. Children are offered a snack before the service begins, then join the congregation for the opening of the service, exiting after leading the congregation in the Children’s Affirmation. The curriculum for this class is drawn from several sources, including the UUA curriculum and various other books and resources. The class focuses on learning what it means to be a person who loves others and the environment. In addition to learning about UU principles, children learn from the wisdom of different religions around the world. Some classes feature an art project, and, in good weather, the children enjoy playing on the equipment in our fenced playground. Some food-insecure children leave church with a small bag of food to share with their families.
Social Justice
FaithWorks is a local nonprofit organization that focuses its ministry on meeting the needs of those who are homeless or in need in the Brunswick community. Among FaithWorks’ many outreach programs, The Well is a day shelter for homeless men and women and provides showers, laundry services, phone/internet access, and a mailing address. Members of the UU community donate food and clothing to The Well and also provide coffee supplies for guests. Once a month, volunteers pack lunches for the homeless as part of the St. James Lutheran Church feeding ministry. Sparrow’s Nest is another outreach of Faith Works. It is a food pantry, and congregants donate food.
Manna House is another organization that members of the congregation support. Daily, it provides lunches for those in need. A team of UU volunteers meets monthly to pack and distribute lunches.
Community Resource Directory is a guide to community services for those who may need support. Not only do we use it to direct those in need to available support services, but we also share it with others who can use it.
UUCG is active in community events like the MLK Day Parade and LGBTQ+ Pride Day. Members of the congregation march in the MLK Day Parade annually, and UUCG sponsors a booth at the LGBTQ+ Pride celebration.