The Healthy Congregation Committee (HCC) is a standing committee with year-round responsibilities.  The HCC helps resolve disputes and other forms of interpersonal conflict according to policies.

They develop year-round programs to improve our ability to deal with interpersonal conflicts and concerns. The committee is encouraged to be as welcoming and available to members and friends of ERUUF as possible, to promote communication around issues before they escalate.

HCC Guiding Principles

In all the work we do and service we provide in support of our Beloved Community here at ERUUF, the HCC will always do our best to:

  • hold the health and wholeness of our beloved community as a priority above all individual or group interests;

  • keep equity at the center of our work with the intention of creating balance in power, privilege, and authority dynamics; 

  • create proactive opportunities to build a healthy congregation and the individual skills needed to manage conflict at lower levels whenever possible;

  • and, accompany as a spiritual companion those in need of support, listening, or guidance in moments of conflict. 

 

For more details, view the HCC job description.

 

Committee Members

The current members serving on the HCC are Ellen Fenster-Kuehl (chair), Susan Green, Claudia Kaplan, and Rev. Jacqueline Brett (member ex officio). To contact the HCC, you can email the entire committee at . Alternatively, you may choose to contact any member via the email or phone contact provided in your membership directory.

Ellen Fenster-Kuehl - Following my daughters, I moved to North Carolina from New Jersey in 2019, joining ERUUF that October with just enough pre-pandemic time to meet members, make a few friends, and join the Pastoral Care Team. My older daughter Rachel, a North Carolinian since college, is a reference librarian in Goldsboro. My younger daughter, Gwen, a biochemist with Pfizer, moved to Durham in 2017.  

In NJ, I was a member of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair, serving as Board trustee for three years during a robust two-year transition; a leader of our participation in Montclair’s Emergency Services for the Homeless, a consortium of faith congregations providing evening meals; a facilitator of Harvest the Power, our leadership development program; a member of the Undoing Racism Committee, an occasional usher, and happy participant in auctions and other social activities. I believe in the transformational nature of our relationships within UU congregations, informed by our UU principles. 

For eighteen years, I worked in various positions for the Social Security Administration, meeting people whose situations were very different from my own and learning the great value of pro-social government programs. I then returned to school and earned a PH.D. in clinical psychology, working for SUNY in New York City and the University of Medicine and Dentistry in Newark, NJ, and developing a private practice that included forensic work on behalf of learning-disabled children and their families. I retired in 2019.  

I love to walk in the woods, am a compulsive reader of both fiction and non-fiction, and am using my pandemic time to regain some proficiency in French.

Susan Green

Susan Green joined ERUUF when she and her husband, Steve Hall, moved to Chapel Hill in 2013 after meeting and marrying in 2012. They have 4 sons scattered around the country from Sacramento, CA, to Decatur, GA, to Detroit, MI, to Wellesley, MA.

At ERUUF Susan has served on, and co-chaired, both the Nominating Committee and the Steering Team for Chalice Circles/Covenant Groups. She has participated in numerous ERUUF programs including Dismantling Racism, Conflict Resolution, and Trans Inclusion in Congregations to name a few.

Susan began her career as a professor of social psychology for 10 years at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., an experience that informed her subsequent work in applying social psychology in schools. She then served 10 years as a school psychologist in Oregon and South Carolina, leading interdisciplinary teams focused on instructional and behavioral interventions. The capstone of her career was serving as professor of educational psychology at Winthrop University in South Carolina where she taught and trained future teachers for 13 years. She mentored them in the areas of classroom assessment, student motivation and behavior management. She particularly enjoyed the opportunity to collaborate with local public school teachers and administrators on teams developing intervention plans for students with special needs. Based on those experiences, Susan wrote a widely used textbook on equity in classroom assessment. She published numerous articles collaborating with public school teachers and administrators and with university colleagues from a variety of departments (e.g., drama, music, dance, biology, business).

Susan hopes to contribute to HCC’s collaborative efforts to promote healthy communication in our congregation.

Claudia Kaplan

Claudia Kaplan - I began to attend ERUUF with my husband Simon in 2007 or so when we moved to Durham from Chatham County. Simon was raised Jewish, and my father was a Methodist minister; together we had found meaning in A Course in Miracles and were members of Unity Center of Peace in Chapel Hill. But we sought a welcoming spiritual community closer to us, one that not only made space for myriad beliefs, but also emphasized justice & equity action. We also wanted a strong Religious Education program for our now grown children, Mia & Jonah. It’s safe to say we call ourselves UUs now!

I jumped into the music program right away, singing with Eno River Singers & LUUX, performing at Café ERUUF, and sometimes singing solos or duets at services. This is still my first love and my favorite way to serve, as well as to feed my own soul. I am now a member of the Music Committee. Over the years I’ve participated in several Chalice Circles, Racial Equity workshops & study groups, served as a Worship Associate, and volunteered at Urban Ministries as well as with the Lakewood Bag Pack program. In 2021 I co-chaired the Pledge Campaign. I was very active with the 2500 Hours of Love initiative—serving at the Lakewood Food Pantry run by Catholic Charities, transcribing old documents and voice recordings for Stagville Plantation, and helping with the three Afghan refugee families, with the special honor & challenge of being the birth doula for a young Afghan mother in 2022!

I retired in 2020 from my work as the Administrator at Hope Creek Academy, a private, non-profit K-12 school in Durham for kids with special needs. Before that I did a wide variety of jobs, many of them administrative/secretarial at non-profits. This supplemented my self-employment as a conscious connected breathing coach & healthy relationships seminar facilitator back in the 80s & 90s, and later as a birth doula for 12 years.

I love ERUUF with its many options, circles of involvement, and fascinating, congenial people. I look forward to serving in a new capacity. 

Documents

Charge to the Healthy Congregation Committee

C.III Conflict Mediation Policy

C.IV Complaint and Grievance Policy

C.V Disruptive Behavior Policy

Contact Person: Ellen Fenster-Kuehl
Role: Chair
Email: