Welcome to Milton 

We on the Ministerial Search Committee have been charged with an awesome responsibility, and we have been working hard to open our hearts and minds to discern the path to a settled minister with whom we can do great things. Perhaps it will be you. With this packet we invite you in a little closer and look forward to getting to know you and letting you get to know us.

We come to you with a long and proud history, and our members are deeply embedded in the life of the communities that surround us. First Parish has become a haven for many of us. We treasure the strong sense of fellowship here, and we hope for a minister that will help us nurture and deepen our connectedness to one another. At the same time we wrestle with how to carry the power of that connectedness out into the larger world. So we
also look for a minister who will help us to better focus our energies outward to deliver a unified message of hope and caring.

The Committee has been very encouraged by our membership’s enthusiastic response to our congregational survey, as well as their participation in our Beyond Categorical Thinking Workshop and our Cottage Meetings. We sense a readiness to grow and engage here, and we invite you to be curious about us and to perhaps find here your spiritual home for years to come. Welcome!

With enthusiasm,

The Ministerial Search Committee for First Parish Milton

Debbie Alsebai
Charlie Franich
Franc Graham
Elise Henricks
Jim May
Brigitte Miller
Tracey Robinsonn 



Our Covenant

In devotion to truth,
searching along many spiritual paths,
We honor the living legacy of our faith 
in the human potential for goodness 
and in the God of limitless love,
in whom we are one.

We unite in faith,
To celebrate the sacred as it reveals itself within and among us;
To promote spiritual growth and to care for those in need;
To honor and protect the natural world, which inspires wonder and sustains life;
To walk together in peace, committed to justice and compassion in our world.


​Ministerial Search Committee

​Debbie Alsebai came to First Parish 
over 10 years ago in search of a 
Religious Education program for her 
two daughters that would teach to 
her mixed faith background of Catholic, 
Protestant, Jewish and Muslim. 
Originally from Ohio, Deb has lived 
in Milton over 20 years. She discovered
the UU faith after college and has visited many churches throughout the USA. She has fun being a kids cooking teacher and theater ticket arranger. Her daughters are now teens and are very active in the youth group. Debbie has been on YAC for many years and often teaches RE classes. She is interested in Social Action activities and has led the youth on many social action ventures. Debbie serves as the Arranger and Survey Coordinator for MSC.

Charlie Franich is the Committee’s chair.
After growing up Catholic in California 
and for a time studying for the Catholic
priesthood, he migrated east, where he 
had a 40-year career as a social worker 
and family therapist before retiring in 
2013. Married with two grown children 
and a member of First Parish for 27 years, 
Charlie has chaired the Worship, Membership and  Finance Committees and has twice served on the Parish Committee. He is particularly dedicated to growing our congregation and helping it achieve a firmer financial footing.

Franc Graham, an artist, musician and 
editor, was drawn to First Parish five 
years ago, finding a connection to its 
spirited, progressive congregation. 
The choir welcomed her joyfully and 
she soon found a strong community. 
Franc came to Boston for school 20 
some years ago from rural 
Pennsylvania. She is married with an eight-year old son who enjoys the fun and community of the RE program – maybe not yet realizing its life-long gifts. She serves as the Congregational Packet editor for the Committee.

Elise Henricks joined First Parish in 
search of a place to do social justice 
work while being in community with 
others. She has raised two teen sons 
here from Spirit Play to Coming of Age,
 and attends church with her husband. 
She works as a family physician at a
 community health center in nearby 
Dorchester, and has been on the Social Action and Worship Committees. She loves to think “outside the box” about church and is serving as the MSC's treasurer.

Jim May came to First Parish over 
20 years ago on the pretext that 
he and his wife needed an open 
minded, socially conscious 
community in which they could 
raise their two children responsibly. 
It has become increasingly clear, 
especially since the children are 
no longer at home, that he needed the community for himself as well. He was born and raised in Alabama, a Southern Baptist, and thought for a time that he had been called to the Gospel Ministry. It’s possible that he was right, but that he misunderstood what it meant. He has served on most committees, spent six years as Treasurer, and three as chair or co-chair of the Finance Committee. Jim is Director of Development at a non-profit that helps homeless and at-risk survivors of domestic violence and related trauma achieve greater safety and stability. He was responsible for the Congressional Record on the MSC. 

Brigitte Miller, the MSC's secretary, 
originally hails from Quebec. She has
 lived in Milton for eight years and is 
married with three pre-teen children. 
She has been a member of First Parish 
for six years, has acted as a Greeter 
and been active in RE on on the RE 
Committee for four years. She works
 in biotech with oncology drugs, and is passionate about better connecting First Parish to the greater community that it serves.

Tracey Robinson joined the First 
Parish community when she and her 
family moved to Milton over 17 
years ago. Raised in a liberal, 
Presbyterian church outside 
Philadelphia, First Parish felt both 
new and familiar. Here she found 
a community of friends who are 
willing to speak their minds, who do not always agree, but who strive to listen to each other and who, in their hearts, minds, and souls share a deep interest in social action, strong community and a desire to live our faith - even as we seek to figure out what “living our faith” means. Tracey brings her experience on the Parish Committee and the Personnel Committee to serving on the Negotiating Team of the MSC. In her “day job” Tracey manages technology for the Harvard University Library in Cambridge.


First Parish Milton, 535 Canton Avenue, Milton, Massachusetts 02186 ~ Email: office@fpmilton.org ~ P:617.698.6329 ~ http://fpmilton.org/