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There’s turmoil at the Woodside Village Church. Interim Pastor Ama Zenya, presiding since March 2015, is both loved and under fire, and perspective is everything in trying to determine whether she’ll be staying or going.
She has been terminated as an “authorized minister” in the Northern California Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ, an action that is under appeal.
Her most recent six-month contract as interim pastor expired at the end of September, but a key member of the Woodside Village Church council, the governing body for the local church, noted that she remains interim pastor and that she will continue in that role and be essential to the congregation’s search for a permanent pastor.
“We will renew it,” Mark Dickey, a Woodside resident, council member and congregation member since childhood, said of the contract. “Pastor Ama is very much our pastor. She’s very much engaged, and I can just tell you … that she is incredibly highly thought of. … The fact that she has embraced this church and gotten it back on its feet to the point where we can conduct a meaningful search and attract a very qualified candidate is amazing.”
Council member and Woodside resident Susannah Wright said she is “just so thankful and appreciative for all of the work that Ama has done. She helps us continue to grow and thrive and be a vibrant part of the community. … It is such a wonderful place to be. It has had such a positive impact on the community.”
Church council member Iris Hecker said the regional authorities’ action is a result of a few longtime members of the Village Church complaining. “The community loves her,” she said.
The community’s views are significant. In the United Church of Christ, Ms. Zenya said, decisions are made by the local church congregation when possible, and not by authorities such as bishops. “A local church can decide who its pastor is,” she said.
The Rev. Diane Weible of the Northern California Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ confirmed that statement. “All employment decisions are between a minister and her or his congregation,” she said in an email.
The complaints against Ms. Zenya came from “at least six” members who’ve been with the church for more than 25 years, said Marsha Campbell, a former Woodside resident (she now lives in Menlo Park), longtime church member and former church council member. While Ms. Campbell is a critic of Ms. Zenya, she did not include herself among those six.
Church council members interviewed for this story say there were three complaints. Mr. Dickey, when asked to estimate the number of the pastor’s critics in a congregation of between 60 and 70, replied: “Way less than 10.”
The complaints were forwarded to an ethics committee associated with the regional conference. In a July 21 letter to Ms. Zenya, the Rev. Weible and two colleagues wrote that her standing as a minister in the Northern California Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ has been terminated as a result of a recent fitness review, and that she was “unlikely to become fit for ministry in and on behalf of the United Church of Christ.”
Ms. Zenya is appealing the process that led to the decision.
Public censure
The ethics committee of the Northern California Nevada Conference alleged that Ms. Zenya inappropriately called for “public censure” of the congregation’s elected representative to the Woodside Village Church council, Ms. Campbell.
Ms. Campbell, Ms. Zenya said, had been unwilling to meet with her for months, and had avoided worship services and meeting new members. Ms. Zenya recalled her message to the congregation: “If you believe that your elected leader should come to worship and get to know the new members and be willing to meet with me, then please call her and tell her.”
“I was kind of feeling at my wit’s end,” she said, adding that she later apologized for her statement to the congregation, acknowledging that it had been inappropriate.
Asked about all this, Ms. Campbell said she had decided not to meet with Ms. Zenya unless someone else was present to validate the exchange, and that her absence at services had been because she was teaching Sunday school.
As for not meeting new members: “Totally not true,” Ms. Campbell said. “I have a great regard for the new members and the young people.”
Ms. Zenya noted that while the Sunday school teachers are not at the entire service, they do attend the first 10 minutes before adjourning with the children.
Staying put?
The ethics committee alleged that Ms. Zenya “intentionally interfered” with the church’s progress in choosing a permanent minister.
Ms. Zenya was hired because the church had become stagnant with no new members, Ms. Hecker said. Things were so bad, she said, that church leaders were considering joining with another church.
“The church needed to get itself right-sided,” Mr. Dickey said. “As an interim pastor, doing a turnaround is not easy.” The council had to find someone willing to step into a temporary job and commit to several years of work, he said.
“She has re-energized the possibility of what the church can be in this community,” Mr. Dickey said. “I, for one, am excited. I know I speak for the vast majority of the congregation.”
The pastor “made it very clear that she is the interim,” Ms. Wright said. “That perception that she wants to stay permanently, I don’t know where that comes from,” she said. The point is to move forward in the “best possible manner that will lead to the vibrant future for the church,” she said. “We should be able to attract a really outstanding permanent pastor.”
“I just have to so sing her praises,” said Dr. Eric Weiss, a physician in town whose main concern was community vitality. The Hub, a church and community gathering program, recently launched after 12 months of setup time, he said.
Among The Hub’s community-oriented activities: Seder dinners, Buddhist studies, community acupuncture, arts and crafts fairs and “Curious minds,” a Friday morning get-together.
“We’ve really tried to create a place where people can come and participate in what is of interest to them,” he said. “Without her and her energy and her commitment, none of that would be possible.”
Church attendance rose sharply – to 73 from 29 – after Ms. Zenya’s became interim pastor in March 2015, averaged 57 for the rest of the year, and has fluctuated since, according to a spreadsheet Ms. Zenya provided.
As interim pastor, Ms. Zenya “has brought probably about 20 new families to the church,” a congregation member who preferred anonymity told the Almanac. “We had no kids when she came and now we have a whole bunch. The young families feel very supported by Ama.”
Ms. Campbell did not entirely disagree with the praise. “Ama is trying very hard to change the culture of the congregation from pessimism to optimism and has succeeded,” she said in an email. “Unfortunately, it has been done at the expense of some of the long-term members who are not included and have no voice.”
She continued: “I believe that delaying the search process was intended to give her more time in Woodside,” she said. Ms. Zenya wanted to become the “settled pastor,” Ms. Campbell said, evidenced in part by not referring to herself as an interim pastor.
“Suffice it to say that those who oppose her actively encounter a determination to maintain control that is in direct contrast to her public persona,” Ms. Campbell said.
In searching for a permanent pastor, it’s key to involve young families, Ms. Zenya said. “(Engaging) five or six 70- and 80-year-olds to pick a pastor who would resonate with younger families did not seem like a reasonable idea,” she said.
One person’s charisma
The ethics committee alleged that Ms. Zenya “seem(s) to believe that the most important role of the church leadership is to protect the pastor instead of to determine what is best for the life of the church.”
Ms. Zenya is “endowed as a religious leader,” and has used her endowment to violate an ethics contract that said that “she would not use her personal power,” Ms. Campbell said. “She is a wonderful person. She is charismatic. She is outgoing and friendly. … She is very smart and she has many many gifts, but she is probably not in the right position now.”
It’s a gender thing, Ms. Hecker said. The regional church administration wants female pastors “to be very subdued,” she said. “They don’t encourage women to be strong as pastors, saying that the congregation should lead. That doesn’t work. The council is the one that governs and the pastor is supposed to lead.”
“I can’t say anything negative about Pastor Ama,” she added. “She’s used to being in charge and making decisions.”
In her appeal, Ms. Zenya asked the committee to re-examine the process that led to the termination letter to determine if it was done “fairly, transparently and thoroughly,” she said. “It wasn’t any of those, and I think they saw that,” she said.
The church council gave the appeal its unanimous support, Ms. Hecker said. “We feel that she’s done nothing wrong and has only done good things for the church. She ruffled a few feathers.”
Asked to comment on the appeal, the Rev. Weible replied via email. “The Committee on Ministry takes ethical issues very seriously and has a process for addressing issues brought before the Committee,” she wrote. “The process was followed in (this) instance … Our prayers are with Ama during this difficult time.”
While the conference cannot remove Ms. Zenya as interim pastor, the effect is “that she is no longer authorized to serve as a minister in and on behalf of the United Church of Christ,” the Rev. Weible said.
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I am not a member of this church and have no dog in this fight,
But reading this article makes me think of the battles between Mozart and Salieri.
I love Mozart.
Woodside Village Church hasn’t been this active and involved in the community for years, largely due to Ama’s influence. I think the United Church of Christ has made a big mistake!
I am not a member of the church but I do visit the Village Hub frequently and I have spoken with Ama many times in the courtyard. I also appreciate her outreach in NextDoor. In my opinion, it would be difficult to find a more caring, optimistic or involved person. The church is LUCKY to have her.
I can’t top the Mozart comment above, so I will simply say that as an outsider of the church but very much a member of this community, and as someone who has engaged and worked with Ama, I can’t speak more highly of her. Through her energy and enthusiasm, she has truly anchored this town with the Hub and its multiple ways of reaching out to all members of the community, whatever their religion, ethnicity or situation in life. When I learned that she was only here on an interim basis, I was broken hearted. She brought life to the center of town that wasn’t here before and I can’t imagine this town without her. She should be nothing but applauded and thanked for all that she has done for this community. Ethics committee??? Termination??? I still don’t get it….
My husband and I are not members of the church. We have had many enjoyable conversations and interactions with Ama at the Village Hub. We have participated at an event at the church mainly because of Ama. What a gift she is to the community. She is smart, professional, and caring. We find it shameful the charges brought against a women who has dedicated her life to giving. In comment to the ethic charges, she apologized, what ever happened to forgiveness?