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Our Interim Minister: Rev. Don Vaugn-Foerster
The Rev. Don Vaughn-Foerster and his wife, Peggy, will be with us during the coming two years in which Don will be our interim minister as we prepare to seek a new settled minister. They eagerly left the heat and humidity of Newport News, Virginia on the first of August last year (2009), and with their faithful canine companion, Dewey (a loving though slightly frenetic combination of Lhasa Apso and Wheaton Terrier), and their condescendingly companionable abut somewhat staid cat, Kali, drove the distance from the southeast coast of the United States to Victoria, British Columbia where they spent the last year. Falling in love with this part of the continent, they found it most fortuitous to come to Bremerton, Washington and not have to return to the southeastern (hot) part of the United States. Besides, the variegated theological and philosophical character of KUUF, along with its assertive diversity, are qualities Don has always appreciated and has tried to promote in the congregations he has served. For him, the circumstances here were too interesting to pass up.
Don took his Master of Divinity degree at the Perkins School of Theology of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He was the first acknowledged Unitarian to graduate from that seminary, at which he had daily occasions to explain the merits of liberal religion to many conservative and orthodox classmates. This experience has stood him in good stead as he has worked in various ways with different groups in the larger community.
Don comes to the Kitsap Unitarian Universalist Fellowship as Interim Minister after 45 years in the ministry. During this time he has served as the settled minister of five Unitarian Universalist churches and as interim minister of nine (two in the 1980s and seven since 2001.) The membership of these churches has ranged in size from 88 persons to 500. While he has always pursued the full range of the ministerial responsibilities of preaching, pastoral care, education, and administration, he has also been deeply committed to the issues of social responsibility and has served on boards such as Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union. When he was a settled minister he worked often worked as a volunteer hospital chaplain. Also, along with Peggy, not only has he been involved in the Green movement, but with her he was extensively involved in HIV/AIDS work during his last settled ministry in the Houston, Texas area. Don was the organizing president of the Northwoods AIDS Coalition and Peggy became its executive director. Don and Peggy will celebrate their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary while in Bremerton and are looking forward to an enjoyable two years with this congragation.
Check out Reverend Don's monthly Transistional Thoughts.