Staff

We are lucky to have a high quality staff at our church. The only full-time position is that of the minister. We are also served by a Congregational Administrator, Director of Religious Education, Choir Director and Music Director. Our Music Director, Nelly Case, will retire this summer after 28 years of dedicated service! We contract with an outside agent for cleaning services for the building. Below, get to know a bit more about what our staff are thinking about finding a settled minister. Also follow this link to the staff page on the Church website for more information about our wonderful team. (opens in a new page)

Dear Ministerial Candidate,

I am looking forward to meeting you and working with you! I can assure you will be warmly welcomed by this congregation and community.

I am fairly new to this area myself, having moved here from Providence, RI in 2014. I will count joining the staff of this church as one of the smartest choices I’ve made. The people here are appreciative and generous. They have very high standards and inspire me on a regular basis while always treating me (and each other) with kindness and respect. I’m so happy to have joined this community and it has made my transition to living in the North Country incredibly easy.

Staff-wise, we are a pretty well-oiled machine but are always looking for ways to improve how we accomplish the administrative work of the church. We are currently busy laying the groundwork for a smooth transition and eagerly await your leadership!

I'm excited to witness the process of choosing a new minister for this wonderful congregation and look forward to getting to know you when the time comes.

Sincerely,

Gwen Cunningham
Congregational Administrator

As the Director of Religious Education, I am very excited to work with our new settled minister. I am looking forward to the potential new energy and ideas they will bring to our congregation as well as to the RE program. I will enjoy collaboratively creating our ministerial team to best serve our congregation. I will also look forward to co-creating our intergenerational services and would value input on the current structure of the RE program.

Our church’s RE committee is a very committed group of individuals. Their creativity and passion for the program is inspirational. I also enjoy working with other church leadership. They deeply care about our church and the rural, large geographical community which we serve. They are open to new ideas and deeply value the RE program. Our children and youth inspire me on a weekly basis. They too are creative and passionate about living our UU values in their everyday lives. Just recently members of our youth group were instrumental in changing the local school districts plans to perform the the musical Kismet. They got a copy of the script and were somewhat horrified by some of its racist attitudes and insensitive jokes about middle eastern people. The youth expressed their concerns to the directors and were told the musical was selected because it would give Canton exposure to another culture. So the youth spent an evening going through the script, listing all the sections that were offensive, insensitive, and inappropriate. After reviewing our youths' concerns about the script, the directors told them the high school would not perform Kismet. Inspirational indeed!

In 2016, I am looking forward to continuing to grow as the Director of Religious Education. I am looking forward to the multi-site ministry programming we are creating with the Plattsburgh and Saranac Lake churches especially in regards to religious education. Personally, I will continue to enjoy attending the Church of the Larger Fellowship for my personal spiritual growth and will be considering the process of becoming a Credentialed Religious Educator.

The opportunity to continue our strong, vibrant religious education under the co-leadership of a new minister is both exciting and inspiring. Looking forward to meeting you.

Welcome from the Choir!

Our choir is a small (8-15) but talented and dedicated group of people who like to sing. We enjoy all kinds of music and are up to the challenge of learning difficult 4-part harmony, simple hymns or folk songs. We do not shy away from foreign languages, incorporating percussion, clapping, or movement - whatever suits the occasion, season, holiday or message of our Sunday services.

We are a fun-loving and flexible bunch and look forward to collaborating with a new minister and incorporating his or her perspective on music in worship. We believe music is important to our congregation and an integral part of the Sunday morning service, helping to set a tone and inspiring with relevant texts.

Here are a few examples of pieces we have performed in recent years.

In Silent Night, Suabian folk song harmonized by Brahms for women's ensemble
Draw the Circle by Mark Miller
Can You Hear Me by Bob Chilcott with our youth members signing the words along with the choir (Listen to a rehearsal excerpt here)
Sing Me to Heaven by Daniel Gawthrop
I'll Make the Difference by Moses Hogan
Gabi Gabi , South African folk song

To the next settled minister:

As music director at the Canton UU Church for the past 27 years, I have been blessed by the many other church members who either are gifted and well trained musicians themselves or at the very least truly appreciate the characteristically high level of our music program, as reflected concretely in the amount of sustained financial support for staff salaries, professional development funding, and tuning and maintenance of our two pianos and historic pipe organ, not to mention our three-octave set of handbells.

After I retire this coming summer and leave Canton, I will surely miss that wonderfully positive atmosphere, based as it is on mutual regard for good music by congregation and participants alike, as well as the ready cooperation among staff members and church leadership. My one hope for the future is that the rich array of musical resources at our church, both human and mechanical, will not fall silent, including in particular the Andrews pipe organ which has stood at the center of the sanctuary at least since 1897 and at the heart of this beloved community since 1869. In any case the long tradition of good music at our church offers the sort of direct pathway to the spirit that many people value deeply and have come to expect here.

Nelly Maude Case