Minister· First Parish Needham Unitarian Universalist

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Rev. Katie Lee Crane

The Reverend Katie Lee Crane began her tenure at First Parish's Interim Minister in August 2012. As Intern Minister, Katie Lee will help the congregation bridge the gap from John Buehrens' departure until a new minister is settled, probably in the summer of 2014.

Katie Lee Crane is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister who retired in June 2011 after 13 years serving the congregation at First Parish in Sudbury where she now holds the title of Minister Emerita. That, she says now, was her “first retirement” because, after only four months, she accepted the invitation to serve as Consulting Minister at the Unitarian Society of Hartford (CT) for the 2011-12 program year. Rev. Crane is a graduate of Harvard Divinity School. She also holds a Masters of Arts in Liberal Studies from Dartmouth College and a B.A. from Marietta College in Marietta, Ohio. In addition, she has served congregations in Laconia, New Hampshire (interim ministry), Reading and Winchester, Massachusetts (student ministry). Rev. Crane lives in West Roxbury with her husband Jonas Barciauskas and their old dog, Milo.

Katie Lee says that some of her passions include: “amateur photography, advocacy for adoption reform, kayaking and InterPlay, a spiritual practice (for me) using movement, story, silence, music (and more) to unleash the wisdom of the body and integrate body, mind, heart, and spirit.” She also like retreating to rural areas of natural beauty, reading, music, dancing, singing and almost all creative arts: visual, aural, performance (especially theater and dance).

When asked why she’s chosen to serve as an Interim Minister (in lieu of that “second retirement”), she claims: “Doing transitional ministry has reminded me of what a fertile and exciting time "in between" times can be.” As a way of introducing herself to our Interim Search team, Katie Lee wrote this:

Living our transitions consciously is the best imaginable spiritual practice for life. It’s a lot like swinging on a trapeze, flying back and forth from holding on to the way of life where we feel most comfortable to hatching out to a way of life that asks us to stretch beyond our comfort zone. Transitional time is the place between places, a kind of "natural emergency." It can be a time full of upheaval, and it can be a time of great growth. We may feel unhinged but in some crazy way we also feel alive.

(Based on the work of Robert Kegan in The Evolving Self: Problem and Process in Human Development.)

A list of past ministers at First Parish is available in the History section of this site.

First Parish's Intern Ministry Program

Introducing an Intern Ministry Program to First Parish was one of the Reverend John Buehrens' most lasting contributions to First Parish. During his time First Parish in Needham became an established "teaching congregation," regularly training seminarians and recent seminary graduates for successful service as Unitarian Universalist ministers. Our Intern Ministers have included:

Thom Belote, now minister of the Shawnee Mission Unitarian Universalist Church of Johnson County, KS
Sarah Gibbs Millspaugh, ordained at First Parish in Needham and now co-minister of the Winchester (MA) Unitarian Society
Maria Cristina Vlassidis, now a doctoral candidate at Harvard Divinity School
Lucas Hergert, now minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Livermore, CA
Molly Housh Gordon, ordained at First Parish in Needham in May of 2011 and now the settled minister of the UU Church of Columbia, Missouri. .

Christian Schmidt (2011-13)

Christian Schmidt, our Intern Minister and Youth Advisor, brings multiple gifts to First Parish. He graduated from college in 2004 and began working as a journalist and newspaper editor in his native Texas. In his local UU congregation he taught Sunday school, advised the youth group, chaired the worship committee, and became a lay preacher and a trustee.

Christian is now a student candidate for UU ministry at Andover Newton Theological School. Christian has worked part-time as membership coordinator and youth advisor for UU congregations in the area, and for the UU World. His wife, the Rev. Kristin Grassel, was ordained to the UU ministry in the Spring of 2011 and is now assistant minister at Boston’s King’s Chapel. Christian and Kristin live in North Quincy..

With a passionate call to help people grow spiritually and to do the work of making the world a better place, Christian has a strong sense of what it takes to make multigenerational religious community thrive.