communicator theTHE NEWSLE tt ER OF UN I T ARIA N UN IVERSALIS T WOME N ’S FEDERA T IO N Summer 2010 | Vol 28, Issue 2 Margaret Fuller Memorial What Would Margaret Think? ’ve asked myself,” said Dr. Cynthia good educa- Grant Tucker, “the same question tions, our “Ithe UUWF leadership has asked me. opportuni- What would Margaret Fuller think of our ties in the status as UU women today?” workplace, the number This was the question we posed to Cynthia, of ordained this year’s recipient of UUWF’s Ministry to women Women Award. Presented during General we have Assembly most years since 1974, the award and our honors those who have ministered to women in wonderfully an outstanding manner. savvy and full-throated A two-time recipient of Margaret Fuller grants moderators, and a past member of that program’s selection a president panel, Cynthia was honored in particular for and a pro- her book Prophetic Sisterhood: Liberal Religious vost at our Dr. Cynthia Grant Tucker, recipient of this year’s Women Ministers of the Frontier, 1880-1930. theological Ministry to Women Award. This work truly is prophetic in that it looks schools and back to look forward: many of the challenges even some female faculty at Harvard. Imagine Memorial for Margaret Fuller Ossoli at Mount Auburn Cemetery (date unknown). that Cynthia identified as facing earlier women that! Photo courtesy Mount Auburn Cemetery ministers in our movement still face our Historical Collections. women clergy of today. “We’ve had sisters in top administrative posi- tions at 25 Beacon Street and Beacon Press Although Margaret Fuller died in 1850 and The award was presented to Cynthia at a tea and heading our district offices. We have a a memorial to her was erected in the Fuller honoring Margaret Fuller, and in keeping with remarkable group of stewards right here in our family plot in Mount Auburn Cemetery the spirit of Margaret’s Bicentennial year we UUWF, a sisterhood that’s still strong and re- in Cambridge, MA, there is no historical asked Cynthia for her thoughts on the question silient, fun-loving and prophetic. It’s becoming evidence that any memorial service was ever opening this article. Here’s her response: commonplace at GA to have women deliver held for her. On July 18 the Margaret Fuller the keynote addresses, and I could go on. Bicentennial Committee and the Friends “Would Margaret see the new hour that she of Mount Auburn made up for that by had envisioned embodied in us two centu- “In short, we’ve made progress. holding a service in the cemetery’s chapel, ries later?” Cynthia said. “Would she see us, followed by a procession to her memorial her younger sisters and brothers, thriving in “But while Fuller would surely be gratified, she for a wreath laying ceremony. Photo mutually beneficial, appreciative and prophetic wouldn’t be satisfied or rest easy. Here at our coverage of the event is available on Friends relationships? tea, she’d be cornering us one by one, interrupt- of Mount Auburn photo stream at www. ing our catching-up to grill us on whether our flickr.com/photos/mountauburncemetery. “Would she see the new manifestation that she outward gains have been matched by or simply had believed was at hand in the mid 1800s, distracted from a deeper systemic progress. where women are free to be a discerning intel- She’d ask us if women collaborate, if ordination Inside This Issue ligence, to live unimpeded and unfold such has opened a gulf between lay and ordained, powers as we have been given? how women in prosperous tall-steeple churches Leadership Changes at UUWF p. 2 relate to their struggling underpaid sisters do- Grant Recipients Announced p. 3 “Would she see in our institutional culture ing community ministry. and congregational lives the energy that she Matson Papers Donated to described as ‘divine’? “‘And what of our voices and words?’ she’d ask. Schlesinger Library p. 4 How many of us are still being silenced, having Thanking Congregational Donors p. 4 “Surely Fuller would have to be gratified by our our words and work co-opted, ignored, or obvious and significant gains, by our access to CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 www.uuwf.org Leadership Changes at UUWF UWF gratefully acknowledges the hard nonprofit experience work and diligent service of several to UUWF. In 1992, Advancing justice Uboard members who have left the Terry founded and board in recent months. served as CEO of a for women through $3 million regional Catherine Onymelukwe, Vice President/Devel- graphic communica- education and advocacy opment, left in April to assume the presidency tions and marketing of the UU United Nations Office. A member company whose cli- of The Unitarian Church in Westport, CT, as ents included several well as a resident of that city, Catherine first international Fortune UUWF Board of Trustees joined the board in 2006. 500 firms. She sold her firm in 2007 in President In June, both Linda Lu Burciaga, President, order to complete her Rev. Marti Keller, Decatur, GA and Luz Bravo-Gleicher, Vice President/Fund- ministerial studies [email protected] ing Programs, completed their terms on the and prepare for the board. Linda Lu was a member of the first UU ministry. Vice President/Development board to take office following UUWF’s 2004 Terry Davis, Atlanta, GA restructuring and served first as chair of the Terry has also [email protected] Equity and Justice Grants Panel. Luz followed served in a number her in that position in 2007. Linda Lu hails of leadership and Treasurer/Clerk from Newburyport, MA, and is a member of fundraising roles for Mary Mercier, Hanson, MA the First Church in Boston and the First Reli- national and local [email protected] gious Society of Newburybport. Luz’s home is nonprofit organiza- in Provicence, RI, where she is a member of the tions. She served Vice President/Funding Programs Religious Society of Bell Street Chapel. twice as co-chair of Kirstie Lewis, Ph.D., Bellevue, WA the annual Atlanta [email protected] Rev. Marti Keller, who has served as Vice fundraising din- President/Communications since 2007, is ner for the Human UUWF’s new president. Marti is a minister on Rights Campaign staff at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation (HRC), a national The Communicator is published of Atlanta, where she focuses on social justice, LGBT civil rights by the Unitarian Universalist Women’s denominational work, small group ministry, organization. The Federation and is distributed to pastoral care, lay ministry and adult education. Atlanta HRC dinner She also preaches regularly, conducts rites of From the top: Terrry members and other supporters in was attended by over Davis; Rev. Marti Keller the UU community. passage, including weddings and memorials, 1,100 members, (left) with Linda Lu and serves on the Executive Team. She has sponsors and fed- Burciaga; Kirstie Lewis, been both a parish and community minister, eral, state and local Ph.D. UUWF Office working with congregations in the Mid-South elected officials and 25 Beacon Street District for over a decade. Prior to her ordina- raised over $250,000 annually. Terry served as Boston, MA 02108 tion as a minister, she worked with several non- a communications consultant to Prevent Child profit social change organizations, including 12 Abuse Georgia and was honored as one of the 617-948-4692 – tel years as a director of public affairs, community top three volunteers in Georgia. Terry has also [email protected] – email and government relations for Planned Parent- provided marketing and communications sup- www.uuwf.org – web hood in California. port to a number of other nonprofit organiza- tions, including Hands on Atlanta, Gay & Ellen Spencer Welcoming New Board Members Lesbian Victory Fund, East Lake Foundation Executive Administrator Joining the board in June were Terry Davis, and Teach for America. [email protected] Atlanta, GA, our new Vice President/Develop- ment, and Kirstie Lewis, Ph.D., Bellevue, WA, Kirstie became a UU in 1993 and has served in Vice president/Funding Programs. a variety of capacities at her local congregation, East Shore Unitarian Church of Bellevue. She Terry was granted preliminary fellowship status has sung alto in church, school and commu- by the UUA Ministerial Fellowship Committee nity choirs since her early days as a Lutheran in March 2010 and has begun her ministerial Preacher’s Kid (PK). She became passionate settlement process. She brings over 25 years of about women’s issues about the time that she marketing, communications, fundraising and CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 communicator Summer, 2010 | Vol 28, Issue 2 THE NEWSLE tt ER OF UN I T ARIA N UN IVERSALIS T WOME N ’S FEDERA T IO N 2010 Grant Recipients Are Announced Funding bold, innovative h2 Empower Inc., Huntington Station, NY: “Blessed Spirit of My Life” and a number of Equity projects that effect positive $4,000 for “Women’s Literacy in Burundi,” other hymns and readings included in Singing and Justice change in the lives of women start-up costs for an adult education learning the Living Tradition. Grants and girls. center to teach reading, writing, and Program accounting to participants of a microloan Rev. Melissa Mummert, Charlotte, NC: $3,000 Carbondale (IL) Unitarian program in Bujumbura, Burundi. for “Creating a 21st Century Consciousness Fellowship: $5,000 for “The Raising Curriculum,” development of a Kabwe Library and Resource Center/Building Rock Women Group, Nairobi, Kenya: $1,000 program guide and website. a Legacy of Literacy” – start-up costs for this for “Kenya Child Labour Project,” support facility, which will serve the Ranchhod HIV/ for a project that addresses structural issues Alyson Gaylord-Loy, Medford, MA: $2,000 for AIDS Hospice and Orphan Care Center in keeping children in exploitive jobs.