Rev. Paul Sprecher

27 Grove St., Scituate, MA  02066

781 210-2016

PSprecher@uuma.org

 

Career Highlights

Through a series of careers, I have developed a broad range of skills in leading both in business and in congregations, applying technical skills to a range of projects, and teaching and preaching passionately.

 Work Experience

2014                        UU MEETING HOUSE IN CHATHAM, MA

                                   I am serving as Sabbatical Minister for Rev. Edmund Robinson while he is on sabbatical from January to June.

2006-2013                SECOND PARISH IN HINGHAM, MA

I was installed as the 40^th minister of Second Parish in the fall of 2006.  You will find details of my ministry there in the middle column of the front page of the website.

2005-2006                ARLINGTON STREET CHURCH &
            CHURCH OF THE LARGER FELLOWSHIP (CLF)

Served as ministerial intern, working half time for each organization.   At Arlington Street Church, in addition to preaching, teaching and participating in other congregational activities, accomplishments included:

-                Launching a Small Group Ministries program that continues to the present, and

-                Organizing and leading a trip with a volunteer group to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina; we participated in rehabilitating the First Unitarian Church in New Orleans so that it could be used as a base for volunteers as well as in a series of neighborhood home rehabilitation projects.

At the Church of the Larger Fellowship, in addition to participating in the usual work of the organization, I also

-                Helping to launch podcasting the sermons we included in Quest each month, and

-                Researching the archives  at Harvard Divinity School and the UUA to identify the Fellowships started with CLF and UUA support in the 1950’s and 1960’s to start a program we launched asking congregations to help support the CLF on their 50^th anniversaries; putting the results of the research online on the CLF web site, and contacting leaders of those congregations that were approaching their half-century anniversaries.

 

SECURITIES INDUSTRY AUTOMATION CORPORATION (SIAC )

1994-2005                Vice President, Amex Services Responsible for a staff of up to 35 servicing the American Stock Exchange in the areas of Quality Assurance, Architecture, Capacity Management, Data Base, Order Processing, Comparison and Post Trade, and Surveillance and Regulation.  Accomplishments have included the development of a comprehensive Software Architecture Plan to guide software development for the American Stock Exchange over the next three years, development of a data warehouse for the Amex, and deployment of Equity and Option Specialist Books to the trading floor.

1985-1994                Consultant and Managing Director, Amex Services Responsible for a staff of up to 20 serving the needs of the American Stock Exchange in the areas of Order Processing and After Hours processing.  Significant accomplishments included deployment of a major new order processing system for the Amex and specialist trading automation.

1983-1985                INDEPENDENT COMPUTER CONSULTANT

                                    Worked for a variety of small businesses to provide automation of functions such as Point of Sale/Inventory Management, Real Estate Listing Services, automated telephone response systems, resource planning for store window displays, and ski lift ticket automation using database software.

1973-1983                THE COLLEGIATE SCHOOL FOR BOYS, NEW YORK, NY

                                    Teacher  Taught 7^th grade U.S. History 1860-Present and homeroom, and 8^th grade English.  Significant accomplishments included: developing curricula for classes; leading the students in selecting a design for and painting the back wall of the school, thus averting graffiti and vandalism; and leading the students in the development and production of their own musical dramas as part of their 8^th grade English classes after first leading them in a production of “Joseph and His Multi-Colored Dream Coat.”

While continuing to teach most of my classes, I was asked to assume responsibility for the new computer center in 1980 and developed a program including classes on the use and programming of computers as well as organizing the students to monitor the use of the room and the computer equipment.  I also participated in the beginnings of automation of business functions for the school’s administration.

Education

M.Div.,  New York Theological Seminary, 2005

MS, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education, 1976 

A.B., Harvard College,  Social Relations  1972 

Awards, honors, and published writings:

-                Graduated with Honors from the University of Wisconsin

-                Graduated Summa Cum Laude from Harvard College

-                Member, Phi Beta Kappa

-                'James Agee: Now More Than Ever,' in Agee Agonistes: Essays on the Life, Legend, and Works of James Agee, University of Tennessee Press, 2006.

-                Trustee, The James Agee Trust

-                Biography of John Haynes Holmes for the "Dictionary of Unitarian Universalist Biography,"

-                http://www.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/johnhaynesholmes.html