Fairlawn Welcomes Rev. Dr. Cameron Watts
At our AGM on May 28, Fairlawners unanimously voted to extend a call to the Rev. Dr. David Cameron Watts, believing Cameron to be especially well suited to join, and to lead, Fairlawn on the next stage of our faith journey.
Our search for a new minister began when the congregation voted to approve our Community of Faith profile on October 2, 2022.
Subsequently, the position description for a new minister was posted on ChurchHub. This online platform allows ministers looking for a new position to confidentially identify congregations searching for a new minister, and vice versa.
Members of the Search Committee were Jim Barr, Maureen Davey, Sandy Giles Byrne, Jill Klaehn, Susan Vincent, Derek Wishart, and Doug Crozier (Chair). Will Haughton was our Shining Waters Regional liaison.
We received a total of 32 applications between October 2022 and February 2023.
The team created a rubric or criteria guide to help us to evaluate each candidate’s skills and strengths against our needs as articulated in the Position Description. These evaluations provided a comprehensive analysis of each applicant’s abilities to meet our needs.
We conducted four first interviews via Zoom, and three second in-person interviews. We viewed multiple services and/or sermons delivered by our top four candidates and others. Two Committee members conducted reference checks by phone, and shared results with the team.
From this process, one candidate emerged as having the passion, leadership, caring and warmth to help Fairlawn achieve its desired future:
• Cameron is a strategic and innovative leader who challenges the status quo, takes risks to find creative solutions and encourages these behaviours in others.
• He is an effective consensus builder who seeks and respects diverse viewpoints.
• Cameron is an ardent advocate for the marginalized and Co-Chair of the interfaith Faith in the City organization.
• Cameron earned his Doctor of Ministry in 1992 at the Toronto School of Theology, with a focus on Adult Education, Organizational Culture, Development and Change.
• He has served as a United Church minister in a Toronto congregation for the past 6 years. Prior to that he was a Baptist pastor for more than 30 years, eventually deciding that the inclusiveness of the United Church was a better fit for him.
• He truly demonstrates curiousity, courage, creativity, and a capacity to seek and find joy amidst life’s challenges and complexities.
• In addition to all these gifts, he is an avid cyclist, dog lover and lifelong learner.
We asked Cameron, why Fairlawn? He said:
“I think [Fairlawn] is on the edge of something pretty incredible. I’m a pretty confident, relaxed, optimistic person about getting the incredible done. It would be pretty amazing to step into a place that had some pretty good ideas about what it wanted to do next and was looking for somebody who had that kind of joy, and being part of that.”
Cameron will begin his role as our new Minister of Pastoral Care, Word, and Sacrament on September 5, 2023.
Mark your calendars for a welcome and welcome back barbecue on Sunday, September 10, where we can welcome Cam in true Fairlawn tradition. A covenanting service will follow in the autumn.
Doug Crozier, Chair, Ministerial Search Committee
