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| Leadership | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
This section presents our leadership, administrative and program staff, various administrative and operational policies, and forms. |
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I was born in Washington, D.C., where my father was assigned during World War II. After the war, my family settled in Walla Walla, WA, where I grew up with one brother in a comfortable, middle-class household. The family regularly attended St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Starting at age 15, I was employed driving agricultural equipment (tractors and wheat combines) during harvests near Walla Walla and used the earnings to pay for college and law school. |
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Rev. Bill Graves joins TUUC by
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I graduated from the University of Washington and University of Oregon School of Law where I was Editor-in-Chief Law Review. I started legal career as a civil rights attorney for the U.S. Justice Department in the 1970’s (mainly involved in school desegregation in Alabama, and some cases of national import at the appellate level). The second phase of my legal career was intentionally devoted primarily to family law in a small law partnership in Redmond, WA. I was able to take periodic leave of absences from my law firm that allowed me to take annual bicycle road trips, the longest of which was a three-month cycle from London to Jerusalem. I taught nature guide skills and English in Mexico (twice), Honduras and Guatemala. I have also served as a kayak tour guide and advocate for the preservation of the Hanford Reach area of the Columbia River. As a child and an adult, I have enjoyed playing or watching many baseball games. I became a member of East Shore Unitarian Church in 1978. I quickly found a larger calling and joy in centering my lifearound a spiritual community and in the opportunities for service, celebration and meaning I found there and later as a founding member of the Woodinville church and at our Whidbey Island congregation. I ended 34 years as a practicing attorney and commenced attending Seattle University School of Theology and Ministry in the fall of 2004. For several years I alternated my study of theology with Spanish language immersion experiences. In 2007, I shifted to full-time pursuit of the ministerial formation track. |
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I served a year as a chaplain intern at Island Hospital in Anacortes and two years as half-time intern minister at Skagit UU in Mount Vernon. I received a Masters of Divinity from Seattle U School of Theology and Ministry in June 2010 and was granted fellowship as a UU minister on Sept. 26, 2010 by the UU Ministers Association. I will be ordained on Whidbey Island on Jan. 22, 2011 and then and all are invited! At our home on Whidbey Island, my spouse, Frances and I raise chickens, grow many of our own vegetables, and have a small vineyard (“Papa Gravey” is our wine label). I am also an avid birdwatcher, and cook (Mexican cuisine the specialty). Major thrusts of my ministry are converging upon several areas: Fostering deeper spiritual and sacramental practices in our worship services and lives, and prophetically advocating commitment towards social justice. I will also advocate stronger inter-faith ties believing there are many things we can respect and learn from other faith communities. I enjoy planning creative worship service that experiment with unusual forms. I especially value new and different ways of incorporating music, prayer, poetry, communion-like rites and other elements into services that appeal to the heart and/or right brain. And, I will always strongly advocate and support religious education for children and youth, as well as inter-generational worship. |
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The bylaws were revised in 2011 and approved by congregational vote in December 2011. Click here to read. |
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