My Call to Ministry

I describe my call to ministry as a process that began at General Assembly (GA) in 2005 in Fort Worth, Texas. The back drop to my experience there was that I had been a lay leader in various congregations since 1997 and was a member of a UU Church in Marietta, Georgia, when I decided to attend the 2005 GA as a lone delegate. I had also been in discernment about returning to full time work after being a stay-at-home mom for nearly a decade. Another factor in this perfect storm of call was the fact that Fort Worth had been the epicenter of an exciting former career in bank regulation. Being at the convention center in downtown Ft. Worth created a strong sense of nostalgia that was overlaid by a deep sense of belonging and UU identity as I immersed myself in the GA experience. I remember sitting amidst the hub-bub of the convention center, flipping through the GA program book and deciding which workshops to attend. My eyes landed on a workshop titled "So You Think You Want to Be a Minister." I lingered a moment, and then thought to myself, "Nah" and moved on. Instead I made selections based on the needs of my congregation and had a great week. Then came the Sunday morning worship service...

I came into the great hall of thousands of fellow UU's. I chose not to seek out friends but to sit alone. The story for all ages was the Sufi Tale of the Stream which is a metaphorical story about personal transformation. Then the incomparable Rob Hardies delivered his sermon "Born Again and Again and Again." From the Sufi Tale to the end of the service, I was moved to tears, sobbing really, and I did not understand why until a month later when the thought bubbled up, "Maybe I do want to be a minister." I had been consulting with a career coach and I told her of my experience. She advised that I sit with the idea for a time and if the thought did not leave me alone, to let her know and we'd go from there.

The thought, of course, didn't leave me alone. I began a modified residency program at Meadville Lombard Theological School in January 2007. My path to ministry was a bit

protracted from student to ordination because my children were still fairly young and I had to pursue things at a slower pace. I served a few congregations as a student minister and I also served as a

hospital chaplain in a Clinical Pastoral Education program for 18 months. I was finally ordained in October 2016 by Emerson UU Church, Marietta, Georgia.