Looking at how the Unitarian Universalist women ministers of the Prophetic Sisterhood made their ways into ministry, and made their congregations places of sanctuary over 100 years ago, we too can use the spirit of that example to make our congregations today places of radical welcome and sanctuary. The ways we go about doing that are different, as 2018 is a different time than the one that the Sisterhood operated in but yet the spirit of what they did still applies today.

Denise Cawley is part-time intern minister for at Bradford Community Church Unitarian Universalist in Kenosha, WI. She is a Unitarian Universalist seminarian at Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago. She provides spiritual and emotional care in her chaplaincy role at Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, where she has volunteers at one of the two locations in the state of Wisconsin that perform in-clinic abortions. Denise has long been a pivotal player in Milwaukee and Door counties working on diversity, inclusion, marriage equality and voting rights. (You might know her as one of the co-founders of LGBT Door County.) Denise and her family live in Milwaukee. Denise’s family, including her wife and son, have been members of First Unitarian Society in Milwaukee for about 20 years.

Music: Beth Coleman
Service Leader: Carrie Link