BRAVO, BOZEMAN!!

FROM THE THE UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST EXTENSION MANUAL

“Circuit-Rider Model”
By Mary Scriver

The circuit-riding model of extension in this case was completely idiosyncratic and not designed to be a pattern for any other situation. It arose out of two converging needs: the desire of a particular minister to return to Montana and the near extinction of several small fellowships hundreds of miles from each other or the rest of the movement. These groups had had no professional leader from the time of their founding and were still pretty much led by the same (tired) founders year after year. One group had not met for a year, another had dwindled to a half-dozen people (not enough to bring in first-class speakers) and a third was almost totally dependent on video-taped sermons for a dozen hard-core members. The fourth group did not exist, though three times (about once a decade) fellowships in that town had begun and sputtered out. None of the three existing groups qualified for extension by the stated criteria. None was in a growing population center; none had done Growth Workshops; there was no economic preparation except one pledge canvass just before the minister came (and there was normally no canvassing at all in these fellowships -- just collections for coffee and stamps), and no weekend or minister-on-loan programs had ever been attempted. Economically, the whole state was deep into recession, if not depression.

In 1981 representatives of the three groups, plus Unitarian Universalists contacted through publicity, plus the Interdistrict Representative, Russ Lockwood, met in Great Falls to do some sharing. Enough money was collected to go ahead by the next spring. By the fall of 1982 the coalition was formalized as the Unitarian Universalist Montana Ministry. Since there were (or soon would be) four fellowships and most months had four weekends, it was decided to simply rotate week by week, the minister always returning to her studio apartment (in Helena in the Parchen Building over the On Broadway restaurant), roughly equidistant among the other three fellowships, for a two-day breather.

At first the minister arrived on Thursday and stayed until Monday, expecting to do classes, calling and community contacts during that time. After the first year it was decided that people didn’t realize the minister was in town until services occurred, so the schedule was altered to begin on Saturday and go until Wednesday. This seemed to be an improvement, but still the minister was not used much outside classes or worship. In fact it slowly became evident that people were committed to work and other activities to the point of simply not being home much.

In the third year the minister arbitrarily decided that the preaching was most important and doubled the circuit schedule. Since two groups met in the morning and two met in the evening, it took no adjustment except extra driving to pair them up and travel between two locations, a drive of 200 miles one Sunday and 115 miles the next. The agreement was that with the minister doubling up, the fellowships would meet every Sunday. Three had previously met twice a month. . .

A loose steering committee for the state coalition consisted of the chairs and treasurers of all four groups. A state-wide treasurer was chosen from the four treasurers, at first without regard to location. After the first year, since so many minor problems developed from having to send money by mail, the Helena Fellowship treasurer automatically became the state treasurer. The minister received two checks, one for salary and one for expenses, and kept them in separate accounts under her own control. . .

Funding was split half and half between the four fellowships and the denomational resources. $5,000 came from the UUA, $5,000 came from Mountain Desert District. (Some of that was from MUC-MUF, which was a fund left by the Universalist denomination when it merged with the Unitarians. The Universalists were rural, thrifty, and guarded their money more carefully than the egghead Unitarians. Russ Lockwood felt they would approve of the Montana Ministry.) The rest was split among the fellowships with a disproportionate amount from Missoula, which had the most resources and was a little larger. Helena come “on line” the second year. The monthly budget, which developed from experience rather than prediction, was $400 for expenses, $300 for the minister’s rent, and $800 for the minister’s salary. The second year Helena’s contribution made it possible to allot $100 for health insurance and $100 a month for professional expenses. There was no provision for retirement. Essentially, the minister accepted a little better than half-time pay by UUMA standards. (The average Montana salary was $14,000 or about the same as the minister.) The minister’s van “home and office” while on the road was essentially paid for by a secret donor in Helena. Without this, the whole operation would have failed.

Winters were very mild turning this experiment. Temperatures occasionally hit forty below, but there was very little snow and few blizzards. From the minister’s point of view the driving and sleeping out in a van were pluses rather than deficits. Drivng was usually done in the middle of the day, so that even in the winter roads were plowed and sanded. The splendid Montana scenery, combined with a collection of Walkman cassettes, made each drive a meditation. I do remember leaving Bozeman late one night, putting “Chariots of Fire” in the Walkman (which had to be worn under my coat and fished up by the cord when the tape needed changing, because the van heater didn’t keep the van warm enough for the batteries to make electricity), and realizing too late that I was driving seventy miles an hour on black ice. Cars were in the ditch on every side. Very very carefully I slowed to reasonable progress. Luckily the road was straight and well-engineered.

One of the most important functions of the minister was access to district and denominational information. No one had the slightest notion of the larger structure of the UUA. Few had been to district or national meetings.

Complementarily, it was important to act as a researcher on behalf of the district and UUA to let them know what being a UU in Montana was all about. It is quite different from an urban, Eastern or industrial context. Montana has always been more like a colony than a state, and to many Beacon Street people the culture was as foreign as 19th century India. For instance, twenty years after being treated rather coolly at 25 Beacon Street, one Montana couple was still fuming at the lack of hospitality -- a major breach in Western terms.

When Bill Holway, the director of the Extension program, finally came to see Montana, I drove him from one fellowship to the next, going around the circumference instead of cutting across the circuit to make sure he knew it was BIG. (Bill grew up in Texas, so I thought a little extra was a good idea.) By the time we got to Bozeman and attended an evening wine-and-cheese reception, I was sagging. We were staying at the Backers. There was a snowstorm so I had trouble reading the signs and landmarks, and missed the Bear Canyon exit. For a few minutes it looked as though we’d be staying in North Dakota that night, but pretty soon I found an exit/enter loop and got us back on track. Bill loved the whole adventure and every single UU he met!

The only fellowship with a Native American connection was Billings, who had Ben Pease as a member. Marge Pease, his wife, did the research that brought the Unitarian Indian boarding school back to consciousness, a major enough coup for Big Bill Schulz himself to come to the dedication. He stepped out the door of the airplane and exclaimed, “Ohmigod! I just didn’t realize it was THIS big!”

Denominational officials and I constantly discussed which group would “catch fire” and grow enough to sustain a minister. Emil Gudmunson, who had a special Icelandic fondness for prairie, also had a soft spot for Billings. Russ Lockwood thought maybe Missoula. I voted for Great Falls, which has since died! We knew Bozeman had quality, but the estimate is that it takes 100,000 DEDICATED citizens to support a church and no city in Montana is that large.

Now, fifty years after the founding of the Bozeman UU Fellowship and twenty-eight years after the first rumbles of a circuit riding extention, Bozeman clearly has had the heart, the guts and the determination to make it happen.