Public ministry at DuPage Unitarian Universalist Church (DUUC) is carried out by many individuals and units of the church. The Public Ministry Committee (PMC) is a helpful mechanism to advance social witness in the name of the church as a whole. The PMC has three key responsibilities:

• To advocate for and educate the church community about public ministry.  This allows the congregation to more fully live its UUA values, giving evidence that the church has a “voice and knows how to use it” as a “beacon of liberal religious thought and practice.”
• To receive public ministry proposals from church units and individuals, and review these requests in a timely manner to determine disposition. By applying defined criteria, the proposals may be accepted, denied, or used to establish a study process that requires a congregational vote (as with Statements of Conscience expressing a position of the church as a whole).
• To review nominations of not-for-profit organizations as monthly special collection recipients. Special collections are selected once a year in May for the upcoming church year running from September to August (See special collection proposal process link below).  

To see the Special Collection recipients for the current church year (2009-10), please click below on Current Activities.

PMC will be managing the Statement of Conscience campaign from January 31 - February 28, 2010.  DUUC members who wish to see more information pertaining to this campaign must log in, go to "Administration," then "Members Only," then "Reproductive Rights."

Proposals and requests come from church units or members, and are not initiated by the PMC.  The PMC is not intended to be a sponsoring or advocacy group, but rather a facilitator, and as such it may consider action either by the PMC itself (when apt), or direct communiqués to appropriate church units for consideration (see proposal form link, and procedure and criteria link below).

The PMC is a standing committee of the church comprised of four elected members of the congregation, with a fifth member also serving as the church board’s Vice President of Outreach. The president is an ex officio member of this committee.  The minister serves as counsel to the PMC. Committee members serve for three-year staggered terms. No member may serve more than two consecutive terms. The PMC reports directly to the Board of Trustees and provides monthly activity reports to the Board and the church newsletter. The chair of the committee is internally selected.

Public Ministry proposal procedure and criteria

Public Ministry proposal form

Special collection proposal process

Special collection nomination form

Current Activities

History of Decisions