Betty Stapleford The Rev. Dr. Betty Stapleford is retiring after 12 years as minister of the Conejo Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, a tenure during which membership doubled.

In 2008, Stapleford helped guide the fellowship into its own home with sanctuary, fellowship hall, classrooms and offices in the Songbird Office Park in Newbury Park after many years of renting spaces for services and events.

She officiated her last Sunday service June 20.

She made many contributions to the life of the fellowship, including the training of lay ministers from the congregation to help with Sunday services and tend to the needs of members. She also established covenant groups (facilitated discussion groups) and neighborhood networks throughout the Conejo Valley to help members connect with and support each other.

Stapleford also introduced the Chalice Players, who presented dramatic readings quarterly at Sunday services.

Stapleford, in reflecting on her time as minister, said, “I enjoyed working with people to find out what it is we can do both to enrich our spiritual lives and also to serve the larger world.”

In retirement, Stapleford will serve as a part-time minister to the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Verdugo Hills in La Crescenta, Calif.

The Rev. Helen Carroll, who has been minister of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of San Luis Obispo County for the past nine years, will serve as an interim minister. A search committee will evaluate candidates during the next year and recommend a permanent minister.

Stapleford is known in the community for her work as coconvener of the Conejo Valley Interfaith Association, where she arranged for guest speakers and facilitated the monthly meetings. She continues to serve as chair of Ventura Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice.

Stapleford grew up in Atlanta as a Methodist and became connected with Unitarian Universalism through her involvement in the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

She received a bachelor’s degree from Oglethorpe University and a master’s degree in English from the University of Illinois. She spent 28 years as a high school English and theater teacher in Delaware.

She and her husband, Tom, moved to Southern California, and she entered the Claremont School of Theology in 1995.

She graduated in 1998 and was ordained as a Unitarian Universalist minister in her sponsoring congregation in Wilmington, Del.

She began her tenure as the first full-time minister of the Conejo Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in August 1998.

Stapleford earned a doctorate in pastoral care and counseling and ethics from Claremont School of Theology in 2005.

In marking Stapleford’s retirement, the congregation bestowed on her the title of minister emerita in honor of her contributions.