Candidate 33 Additional Profile – UCC

Ministry Essays

My sense of being called to ordained ministry by God and the Church (from the “Exhibiting a Spiritual Foundation and Ongoing Spiritual Practice” section).

Joy comes when I support others in connecting to something deep within themselves, something that heals and guides. My sense of call comes from this joy of connection. Grace is the gift I hold dear in my sense of call. I believe that God cherishes our full, frail humanity. The incarnation speaks to me of the blessedness of being fully human. Grace urges my trust that whatever humble gifts I offer in life are from God. God initiates something good through me. It is my work to be available, as one mystic put it, to be “porous to Holy Spirit.” While I prepare in order to grow, ultimately it is God’s grace that equips and empowers me. I believe in God as Eternal Mystery intuited by mystics of many traditions through the ages in the immediacy and intimacy of numinous encounter. It is this God who calls me to the particularity of church’s story of the Word Incarnate Jesus. This God who, by Holy Spirit’s indwelling within us, guides us to continue the God-with-us story as we, church, become voices, hands, and feet of Christ. Because this God was rst introduced to me through church and its Bible, I have imprinted in my heart a love of church and a longing for its fullness in our era. My sense of call invokes this longing to serve God who creates and loves creation; who forms humanity in imago Dei and seeks our friendship; who hallows time; who offers insight of sacred naming to Moses; God who calls, liberates, accompanies, disappears, builds up and destroys; God who speaks through prophets urging mortals to “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly....”

This is the God I came to know in story, song, and community and is the God I seek to serve in my sense of call.

My concept of covenant and how it informs UCC history, polity, and theology (from the “Nurturing UCC Identity” section).

Covenant implies promise, commitment, community, and trust. In service to being church, the covenantal community serves love, our frail human love for one another and God’s love in Christ for the world. The latter love is the love that forms our own. Church is a congregation gathered in gratitude for God’s love for creation as revealed in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus the Christ and that seeks to follow the Jesus way. We are “Easter people in a Good Friday world.” Not all those who gather in a church are believers who hold common understandings of the divine. Dogmatic creedal systems have nothing to do with being a community of faith in covenant. Any of us may well be wise to recognize the wisdom of being agnostic in the sense that none of us knows with certainty what is true. This uncertainty does not undermine hope in God or the community’s commitment to justice and mercy, but it prompts our personal humility and willingness to live with open hearts and open minds for all peoples. This is the covenant that speaks to my heart and promises God’s grace. This covenant invites us to live our imperfect lives, giving one another space for grace, room for transformation, expansiveness for renewal, and forgiveness to begin again, always. This is the covenant that holds people together as inclusive community of grace offering the challenge to live compassionate lives of mercy, justice, and humble trust.

I am passionate about ...

I am passionate about deepening spirituality that brings us together in celebration and service. I wonder if our era is one of Holy Spirit working beyond religious dogma, calling us to be fully human, mindful that all creation is sacred. I am passionate about discerning this path within our Christian tradition. Our God-is-still-speaking-God is God who moves beyond all religion, including our own, in service to universal love. This openness to Holy Spirit in no way negates who Christ is for church. The more I have loved Jesus, the more open I am to others. I am passionate about cultivating this orientation to being church. Playfulness serves this vision. Playfulness-- a joyful, open, non-cynical improvisational approach to living creates fun that strengthens community. Playfulness is the serious business of accepting transformation as life’s aim, transformation that comes through all circumstances and moves us toward love & gratitude. It is lightness of being. Playfulness undermines self-importance. To play is to let go, to free one’s responses. Playfulness relieves the stress of seeking perfection and invites being human; it opens us to humor, releases us from rigidity. It invites curiosity. Carl Jung noted, “The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct.” A playful orientation invites congregational participation in ways connected to individual wholeness and healing. Playfulness equals eagerness to explore, willingness to discover. It is spontaneous and creative. Playfulness is the ethos I hope to stimulate among a congregation. Playfulness has the hallmark of celebration and blessing because playful hearts seek connections with others. This is church that is inclusive, eco-just, radically welcoming, and in service to the world beyond its walls, a world that is interfaith/no faith, beloved of God.

Reflect on your personal and professional formation for ministry in light of any Mark from another section.

A healthy sense of self as shaped by God, community, and personal experience. -I grew up in the fervor of a pioneer revivalism ethos that fuels Bible belt fundamentalism. I was a Southern Baptist child living among those who embraced a literal reading of Bible. My child’s faith, transformed by life, time, study, prayer, justice work, poetry, imagination, theater, encounters, & the UCC, emerges as that orientation to life that grounds and shapes me. I was baptized by immersion at age 9 on a sultry summer Sunday night in Oklahoma and easily recall how my heart pounded as I slipped into the water that seemed quite deep to me. Because my dear pastor was there with me and because a congregation of loving ones gave witness to me, I was not too much afraid. I was willing to rely on the hand that took me under the water to bring me back up again. The words I heard there about Jesus as God’s expression of divine human love lodged in my heart to inform life I’m living. This baptism moment remains a metaphor of trusting the divine paths revealed in life's unfolding. Along the way, I met God most powerfully in NYC, its subway, sidewalks, among diversity, my children playing in the parks, my studies at 3 great institutions, my ordination as a UCC clergy. While some find God most effortlessly in nature, I have found God most joyously in NYC. Faith is not certainty of creed but trust in a Loving Presence in relation to Self’s unfolding. I am no less zealous for Jesus than I was as a youth, though ever more willing to behold divine mystery with unknowing; I am no less prayerful, but joyful to listen more and speak less. I understand living the questions though there is no question in my heart that Christ weaves us into kinship of divine love beyond boundaries of any religion. This is where my Self finds home, surrender, and solace as well as challenge. I live trusting in relationship to God in Christ Jesus.

College and Graduate Education

Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion
New York City NY, US
2005-2007
Doctorate of Ministry in Pastoral Counseling

Union Theological Seminary
New York City NY, US
1991-1996
Master of Divinity

New York University (Tisch School of the Arts)
New York City NY, US
1975-1978
Master of Fine Arts

Regional Theological Educational Programs and Formative Educational Experiences

Program / Experience

End of Life Doula Certication,
University of VT
Burlington VT, US
2021-2021

Professional Development

Continuing Education

End of Life Doula Certication, University of VT, Burlington, VT, 2020. Restorative Practices Training in Circles from International Institute of Restorative Practices, Bethlehem, PA, 2011. CASAC (Certied Alcohol & Substance Abuse Counselor for NY State) Coursework Certicate of Completion - Outreach Training Institute, Brentwood, NY. CASAC - T certication, 2010-2011. Music That Makes Community—Workshop led by All Saints Company (St. Gregory’s of Nyssa). 2007 Formation Training for Centering Prayer Teachers, Contemplative Outreach Ltd. at Alta Retreat Center, 2003. Interim Ministry Training, Interim Ministry Network, 2000. Clinical Pastoral Education, 1 Unit, Long Island College Hospital, 1995-96.

Community and Wider Church Involvement

Moderator of Reformed Association, UCC in NY Conference, current. Response Team, Hudson River Presbytery 2017-2020. Adjunct Professor Hebrew Union College-Jewish Insitute of Religion 2011-2018. Board Member, Metro Association NY Conference. Stamford Interfaith Clergy Association. Volunteer at Belle Terre, Phoenix House Rehab Community Residence, summer 2011. Actress, benefit performance THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES, 2010. Susquehanna Presbytery 2005-2007. Workshop Leader, Early Ministry Institute (Presby USA, Synod NE, 2006). Advisory Board for Stamford CT Hospital Mobile Wellness Center. Andes, NY, School Board, 2006-2008. Teacher Training Workshop Leader, Andes School, 2006. Volunteer (Andes, NY) - the Roundtable Discussion Group, Andes Library, Community Women's Group, Relay for Life, Andes Fire Department Thrift Shop. Board member of the New York Congregational Home, Brooklyn, 1996-2001.

Awards, Honors, and Publications

2008 OUTLOOK Award - 'Best Straight Ally for the LGBT Community' from Outlook Magazine.

Vocational History

Old First Reformed Church
Park Slope, Brooklyn NY, US
2020-2021
Interim Pastor
Part-Time

Irvington Presbyterian Church
Irvington NY, US
2018-2020
Interim Pastor
Full-Time

All Souls Parish Presbyterian Church
Port Chester NY, US
2016-2018
Interim Pastor
Full-Time

First Congregational Church UCC
Poughkeepsie NY, US
2016-2016
Sabbatical Interim Pastor (3 Months)
Full-Time

South Presbyterian Church
Dobbs Ferry NY, US
2013-2016
Interim Pastor
Full-Time

First Congregational UCC Church of Stamford, CT
Stamford CT, US
2011-2012
Interim Pastor
Full-Time

Sayville Congregational UCC Church
Sayville NY, US
2008-2011
Interim Pastor
Full-Time

Presbyterian Church of Andes (Town)
Andes NY, US
2005-2007
Stated Pulpit Supply Pastor
Full-Time

Stanley Congregational UCC Church
Chatham NJ, US
2001-2005
Sr. Pastor
Full-Time

New York Conference, SE Region
New York City NY, US
2000-2001
Interim Regional Conference Minister
Full-Time

St. Stephen's UCC Church
Newark NJ, US
1998-2000
Interim Pastor
Part-Time

Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims (Congregational)
Brooklyn NY, US
1996-1998
Assistant Pastor
Full-Time

Key Accomplishments

Location / Setting

St. Stephen's UCC, Newark, New Jersey

Description

St. Stephen’s German/Polish neighborhood in Newark, NJ, changed.I preached, counseled, pastored & prayed the very elderly congregation of fewer than 24 to call a young Brazilian Lutheran missionary couple to co-pastor and join their storefront Spanish/Portuguese speaking congregation to St. Stephen's.The clergy pastored the elderly congregation until its end while building up the church to be vital in countless ways of mercy and justice. Long after the former congregation had died, the church continues today as St. Stephan's Grace Community with vital ministry rooted in its history.

Location / Setting

Sayville UCC, Sayville, NY

Description

2 decades of conflict plagued this congregation that was split over calling a gay pastor in the early 90's. Including that pastor, 5 pastors served the church before leaving in conflicted situations that continued to split the church. My arrival in 2008 began a long interim, 3 1/2 years, in which I aided healing, discerned core values, engaged spiritual disciplines, and guided their development. We had a joyful relationship that resulted in a "good" good-bye when I departed, an important marker in their congregational life that had seen so much turmoil. They continue well to this day.

Location / Setting

South Presbyterian Church, Dobbs Ferry, NY

Description

South mourned the retirement of a charismatic, gifted, beloved pastor of 35 years. Under his and the AP's guidance, South distinguished itself as an arts oriented social justice church, presenting a "quirky" brand of Presbyterianism. I made it my primary goal to help South avoid the kind of dysfunction than can follow a beloved pastor's departure. I encouraged continuing arts engagement and justice work, the upbuilding of a food pantry started before I arrived, and I embraced their memories of their former pastor, celebrating him with them and inviting them to be open for the future.

Closing Thoughts

I attended seminary with no intention to be a pastor. My sense of purpose was formed by opportunity. Observing churches in transition, I was moved to take interim training. Encountering dynamics of healthy and unhealthy churches, I was moved to enter the pastoral counseling D.Min. interfaith program at Hebrew Union College. As I have discerned my path, often I chose the transitional role with congregations in conflict or grief. I continue to learn and grow and value each opportunity in that light. At this point I am more interested in a settled pastorate than a transitional one.