Subject: All Souls Unitarian Article in Wash. Post 6/27/98
Submitted by Ed Cacciapaglia:
Without knowing any of the particulars, this article seems to well document another failure of the "CEO model" in a UU Church. Here's the full "Posting" of the article which appeared yesterday:
All Souls Unitarian Church Ousts Pastor Differences Over Leadership of Historic Congregation Cited After 146-102 Vote
By Caryle Murphy
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 27, 1998; Page B09
All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, one of the District's oldest and most diverse congregations, has fired its pastor because of what a church spokeswoman and others described as differences over his leadership style.
The Rev. Daniel Webster Aldridge Jr., who came to the historic church at Harvard and 16th streets NW less than four years ago, was dismissed June 14 by a 146 to 102 vote of the congregation, which met for more than four hours on the matter.
"It's a pretty complex issue," said the Rev. Meg Riley, who worships at All Souls and is director of the Unitarian Universalist denomination's Washington lobbying office, Faith in Action.
"There were many perspectives. . . . The majority one is that it was a bad match of leadership styles."
Riley emphasized, however, that "there was certainly no grave misconduct of any kind" on Aldridge's part.
Another person in the 400-member congregation, who asked to remain anonymous, said the dismissal stemmed from a clash between All Souls' historically "strong laity leadership" and Aldridge's "strong pastoral leadership. It was about what kind of church we want."
Asked for examples of how those differences played out, neither this source nor Riley could cite one.
Riley said that "everyone acknowledges that [Aldridge] is a great preacher. . . . The church is hurting now. . . . It's painful for all of us."
Aldridge declined to comment, saying he is still negotiating a severance package with the congregation.
Aldridge, a New York native who is in his fifties, succeeded the late Rev. David H. Eaton at All Souls in the fall of 1994. He previously had led churches in Atlanta and Detroit.
Eaton, who was All Souls' pastor for 23 years and the church's first black senior pastor, was a popular community activist and once served as president of the D.C. Board of Education. He died in 1992 at age 59.
Riley said that although race is a constant factor in contemporary America, it was not an issue in the dismissal of Aldridge, who is also black.
"The vote was not along racial lines," Riley said, noting that the congregation is multiracial.
Still, "part of healing will be having some honest discussion about race," she added, without elaborating.
Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company