Board of Trustees
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The Board of Trustees governs by using a modified Policy Governance model, outlined in the Bylaws and the Governance & Ministry Policy Manual. The Trustees are elected by the members to act on behalf of the Congregation. They do so by upholding the principles of Unitarian Universalism, by monitoring the effectiveness of the ministry, and by preserving and developing the church's assets. The Board intentionally focuses on the intended long-term Ends of the Church — its effect on members, prospective members, and the wider community. The administrative and programmatic means of achieving those effects are carried out the by Ministry Leadership Team.
Each of the following Trustees are eager to hear from members of the congregation.
Left to right: Anne Slater, Secretary; Christiane Geisler, Vice President; Mike Tomalin, Treasurer; Steven Tomcavage, Trustee; Tricia Way, Trustee; and seated Heather Speirs, President.
My name is Heather Mackenzie Speirs, and I’m delighted to be entering my second (and final) year as President of the Board. This will be my third year serving on the Board, so I speak from experience when I say that Board members are inevitably a hardworking and dedicated group. Our work is abstract—Policy Governance has us focusing on ideas and words more than on Church programming—but we support one another in the task with laughter and affirmation.
Now entering my fifth year as a Member at First U-U, I am still in the phase of falling in love with the ideals of the community, particularly the freedom of conscience, a desire to serve others and a passion to know and be known. For most of my life I was a doubting Christian, one who spoke only some of the truth as I saw it. Now one of my goals is to present the complexity of myself, in hopes that you too will feel free to bring all of yourselves to Church.
Christiane Geisler, Vice President
Christiane grew up in rural France, near Bordeaux. From the time she was a small child, she knew that she was bound for the wider world. She studied nursing at a school run by Protestant Huguenot nuns. After graduating and giving back her requisite two years of service, she took off on her own to visit Togo, West Africa. There she located a clinic which was glad to enlist her talents. While working in Togo, she met her future husband, Dan, a young engineer placed there through the American Peace Corps. Christiane and her husband joined the American diplomatic corps and were stationed in Zaire, Indonesia, Malaysia, etc. During those years, Christiane devoted herself to raising their two sons and doing volunteer work, often related to health. When they returned to the Washington, DC area following their diplomatic service, Christiane found herself in search of a religious community. She encountered the UU World at a friend’s house and discovered that the views expressed there complimented her own. She began visiting UU churches and eventually found herself most comfortable at All Souls because of its diverse urban congregation. She was an active member there for ten years before Dan’s job moved them to Philadelphia. Christiane says that she chooses to affiliate with a UU congregation because she wants to share her gratitude for a good life and find, with others, ways of giving back. She has contributed photos she has taken to our website. She is hoping to bring her knowledge and concern about HIV to our Social Justice Ministry.
Mike Tomalin, Treasurer
Bio forthcoming
Anne Slater grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with her parents and 4 younger siblings. Grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins by the dozens lived nearby and were an integral part of her childhood, as they are in her adult life. She was a fourth generation member of a big Presbyterian Church, where in 9th grade she first rebelled against the notion that what we call “God” speaks to us ONLY through the Bible. Anne had already found inspiration and “messages” in novels and in nature. Half way through college, Anne married her high school French teacher. It was he who introduced her to Unitarian Universalism. She and her (now former) husband joined First Church on April 26, 1966. Their 3 children grew up in First Church. Anne’s religious beliefs are a blend of Presbyterian straight-forwardness, Lancaster County honesty and plain speaking, the Quaker recognition of “that of God” in every person (indeed , in every aspect of the natural world), and a sense of responsibility to herself and to her community to live in harmony with whoever and whatever surrounds her. She finds inspiration in nature, especially a sense of the enduring and persistent power of the life force in the Devonian Era (~400 million years ago) fossils that she picks up on her favorite beaches of north-eastern Lake Michigan. Volunteering at and for First Church has been Anne’s social action from the time her children were very small. She was board secretary long ago, in the days before word processors and personal computers; board president twice-and-a-half, for a total of 5 years; a Sunday School teacher (not a good fit!), canvasser, and volunteer archivist.
Her reward to herself is singing in the choir.
Steven Tomcavage, Member-at-Large
Steven Tomcavage was introduced to the Unitarian faith when he was searching for a place for his wedding with Jennifer Zanck. Luckily, they found the Unitarian Church of Lancaster, PA, which welcomed them with open arms even though they were not members. The wedding ceremony was exactly what the couple was looking for, and when they moved to Philadelphia in 1996 they started attending First Unitarian. Steven and Jennifer soon moved to Georgia where they became members of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Savannah. When they moved back to Philadelphia in 2003, Steven became a member of First Unitarian Church. Steven and Jennifer now have two children, Lili and Arlo. What drew Steven back to the UU Church after his wedding was the church's commitment to being a guide for everyone on their individual spiritual journey, whether that journey was Buddhist, Christian, Pagan, Atheist, etc. The recognition that we are all on our own paths, interconnected to the web of life, is very important.
Tricia Way, Member-at-Large
I would like to begin by stating that I owe a great debt to First Church, a debt that I would like to now repay, at least in part, by serving on the board. I suppose my journey to this place began long ago, but here I will recount only my more recent history. In the fall of 2002, when I was writing my Master’s thesis on democracy--wherein I was redefining democracy as an ethical praxis for the twenty-first century (a small task!)--I had a revelation. In my thesis, I was asserting that a vital and robust democracy depends upon community-building, in people's coming together in collective, non-commodified spheres of cooperation, where we discuss and plan how to live harmoniously with one another. Yet, I found that I was merely writing words; that I was not actually, personally involved in any of these spheres of community-building to which I was referring. This dissonance did not settle well with me. Around that same time, when I had already been a wayward Roman Catholic for several years, a friend of mine told me that I was actually a Unitarian Universalist waiting to be born. I took these things into consideration, and soon walked myself down to the 2100 block of Chestnut Street to attend a service at First Church. There, I found an immediate and well-suited home. The fit was so resonant with me that I was often brought to tears during services, as the sermons, readings, music, calls to worship, and sharing of names spoke directly to my heart, mind, and soul in the early days of my attendance (they can still do this, I might add). It is for these gifts of home, inspiration, love, care, mindfulness, and collectivity that I feel a tremendous debt to this church and its community; it is in gratitude for this bounty that I would like serve on its board, that I would, indeed, feel honored to do so. I eventually completed my Master's thesis--with a bit more integrity, I can now say--and earned a Master of Arts degree in the Religion and Society program at Drew University. This degree followed a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology (with a minor in religion) from Bucknell University and five year's worth of biomedical research. While science and religion are often found to be at odds with one another in this society, I find them to be not only compatible, but often quite similar. Before continuing on with any more schooling, I taught religion courses at Rosemont College and found that my interest in the intersections of religion, politics, science and economics had not quelled. For this reason, I now find myself in a Ph.D. program in the religion department at Temple University. Primarily, I am interested in the role of religion in historical and contemporary social movements; more specifically, I am interested in the ways that religion influences movements that resist global, neoliberal economic systems. Among other reasons, I chose Temple so that I could live in the city that I love near my family, whom I love even more. My parents, brother, three sisters, and three brothers-in-law are among my closest friends and my 11 nieces and nephews are the light of my life. When I am not in attendance at a Sunday service at First Church, chances are I'm in Phoenixville (where I was born and raised) with my family, celebrating someone's birthday. When I am doing neither of these things, I am usually studying or riding my bike somewhere. I do, however, make the much-needed time to contribute to other community-building collectivities, such as Books through Bars in West Philadelphia and WinterShelter just a few blocks away on Spruce Street. Now, I am eager to make the time to give back to First Church. I am both honored and grateful for the opportunity to return, in good measure, some of the gifts that the church has lent me thus far. Thank you.
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