Ministerial Milestones

Rev. Dr. John Young, newly settled minister and his wife, Kathleen Moran (pictured below) were welcomed into the congregation of the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Jacksonville August 15 after a cross-country move from Sacramento, California involving two people, two cars, and two cats (but that's another story). Rev. Young is filling the pulpit vacated by Dr. G. "Kim" Beach, interim minister who has moved to minister as an interim in Summit, NJ.

An energetic, community oriented existential and humanist with a background as interesting as it is varied, Dr. Young was born and raised in a small town in Kansas. He came to UUism as a college student, having begun his professional religious career as a music director in an Episcopalian church to pay for school. A political science degree at Washington University in St. Louis and graduate school during the radical 60's led to seminary at Meadville-Lombard in Chicago, where rather than being questioned, "activism was appreciated!" While at seminary, John served as youth and RE minister at a UU church in Chicago, and later as an interim minister. A grant to study Gandhi and new-Shintoism led Rev. Young to India and Japan.

Rev. Young has served the congregation in Bloomington, Indiana, six years, Paramus, New Jersey (just outside NYC) fourteen years, as a summer minister in UUA's Washington office, a Community Minister in NYC, and as minister in Sacramento, California for the past seven. Issues of gun control, affordable housing and homelessness, along with work on poverty and mental health issues have been of recent interest and importance to him. Rev. Young's activism has led to involvement with the Peace Network, and to four years as the American President of IARF.

Rev. Young has two children, Rahul, 23, and Leela, 18. Rahul works for a firm involved in "green" building in San Fransisco and Leela, after visiting Jacksonville and Epcot for a week, begins this fall as a freshman at Stanford University, "major to be decided, but something with people." Kathleen Moran, as vivacious and energetic as John himself, is a technical writer and new to Florida. Welcome! We hope the Young's will get sand in their shoes and come to love the Florida District! -KATHY CONVERSE, UUCJ

The Unitarian Universalist of Fort Lauderdale welcomes the Rev Gail Tapscott as their settled Minister. Gail most recently was a consulting Minister at UU Fellowship of Flagstaff, AZ -¾ time and Pulpit supply at West Valley UU Church, Peoria, AZ ¼ time. Before that she served an Extension Internship in Flagstaff and Phoenix, AZ congregations. She was a lay minister and religious educator at the UU Fellowship of Flagstaff, AZ. Gail also served as a leader in women's spirituality programs at the UU Society of Winchester, MA. She was a DRE at the UU Church of Marblehead, MA.

Prior to entering the ministry, Gail was the Director of major donor telephone fundraising for Greenpeace USA, in the Chicago office. Before that, she was the Director of Greenpeace national phone canvass, in Flagstaff, AZ. She was the Executive Editor of Hazard Communications Exchange (environmental trade publication), in Washington, DC. She holds a B.A. in English/Journalism from American University, an M.A. in Liberal Education from St. John's College, and an M.Div. from Harvard Divinity School.

Gail was born in Atlanta, GA, and moved to and lived in Mississippi until the age of 12. Her father was transferred to Pennsylvania where he worked as an Education Therapist with the VA. Gail is a single woman with no dependents. She has a sister and family in North Carolina. She has a very special male friend in Sweden with other friends and acquaintances scattered over the U.S. and Europe. Gail is an avid reader with special interests in mythology, depth psychology, drama, sociology, and political writing. She likes science fiction and historical novels. Gail travels alone and in groups. She enjoys live theater and foreign and art films. Gail loves reading and writing in public places while people watching. (She gets great ideas for sermons in such places!) - MARTY MCANULTY, UUCFL

Members of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Sarasota, Florida have called the Rev. Don Beaudreault to be their settled Minister. He started September 5th. The Rev. Beaudreault just finished a two year term as interim Minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He has 20 years of experience with large and small congregations. Multi-degreed in English and Religious Studies, he received his Master of Divinity from Starr King Seminary in 1975.

Beaudreault spent time in the Peace Corps prior to his ministry. He spent a year in chaplaincy counseling the elderly and the terminally ill. He is the divorced father of two teenage daughters who are the light of his life. He is active in many areas of social concern and plays concert quality New Orleans jazz piano and competes in marathon races. - LUCILLE WALLACE, UUCS