UU Women and Religion

Contact Us

info at uuwr dot org

The members of the Continental Core Group are:

The Reverend Addae Lee Watson serves as consulting minister for the First Universalist Congregation of Southold. Fondly known as Rev. Addae, she believes that service in ministry is about building bridges between the church and the community, so that pastoral care extends beyond the church walls, enhancing the vitality and growth of our congregations, as well as reinforcing our Unitarian Universalist principles as we live out our values in the world.
Rev Addae received her undergraduate degree in Organizational Behavior from the University of San Francisco, and her Masters of Divinity degree from Starr King School for the Ministry, in Berkeley, California. She was ordained in the summer of 2004 at The Community Church of New York, Unitarian Universalist, after serving as the congregation's intern, and summer minister.
She is a member of the Anti Racist/Anti Oppression and Multicultural Committee of the (UUMA) Unitarian Universalist Minister's Association, (DRUUMM) Diverse and Revolutionary Unitarian Universalist Multicultural Ministries, and (UUWF) Unitarian Universalist Women's Federation. Rev. Addae calls San Francisco home, where she is enrolled at (CIIS) California Institute of Integral Studies in pursuit of a Ph.D in Philosophy and Religion in Women's Spirituality.

Co-Convenor Laura Nagel has lived in Houston since the summer of 2000, with her husband Harry. He is an engineer with Anadarko Petroleum, and they have two daughters, Samantha, 26, who lives in Los Angeles, and Erica, 21, who lives at home and is attending the University of Houston. Laura became a Unitarian Universalist when she was 14, and has been a member of several UU churches as they have moved around the country. She served as board president for First Jefferson UU Church in Fort Worth in 1998, attended leadership school in the Southwest District, and worked for five years as a fundraising consultant for the UUA.

Laura became president of Southwest UU Women (SWUUW) in 2000 and oversaw its transition to a nonprofit and Independent Affiliate of the UUA. She is also very active with the Partner Church Council. SWUUW has been operating for 20 years in the Southwest District sponsoring an annual conference attended by several hundred women. They have had a growing desire to connect with UU women across the country and to connect with the international women’s movement. Since last year, Laura has been SWUUW’s first paid administrator. Spring 2007 they received a grant of $10,000 from the UUA Funding Panel to support planning for an International Convocation of UU Women.

Grassroots Coordinator and Joseph Priestley District rep -- Nuala Carpenter lives in St. Davids PA, attends Main Line Unitarian Church in Devon in the western suburbs of Philadelphia. She is currently a member of the Facilitators' Circle of Joseph Priestley District Women and Religion. She has been involved for 10 years or so and was been the convener from 99 to 07. She has been to several gatherings of the core group, in Boston, Chicago, St. Louis and Portland OR.

Nuala has been a UU since the 70s and has held many leadership roles in her congregation -- Main Line Unitarian Church. She was born in Ireland and lives with my Husband Mike. Their five grandchildren are the light of her life.

Secretary, UUWR Storekeeper and Grassroots co-coordinator Gretchen Ohmann, St. Joseph, MI, grew up the eldest of three girls in NW Michigan, learning Unity metaphysical teachings at home along with occasional family attendance at local protestant churches. She's been a UU since 1984, participating in her local Fellowship in SW Michigan: music, RE, board, newsletter. In 1999 she was invited to join the CMwD W&R where she served as treasurer, conference liaison, and webweaver. She continues to serve as part-time office manager, computer trainer and archivist for the CMwD W&R Committee. She is part-time Communications Coordinator for the UUA Central Midwest District, and designs web sites in her SPARE time!
Gretchen is the chair of the 2008 Winter WomanSpirit Retreat committee in the CMwD.

GA Events Coordinator Rosemary Matson lives in Carmel Valley, CA, and is a member of the UU Church of the Monterey Peninsula. In 1977 she helped passage of UUA Women and Religion Resolution and served as co-convener of the first W&R Continental Committee. Also co-convener of Pacific Central District W&R Task Force. Rosemary initiated and processed the W&R application for affiliate status with the UUA in 2001. She initiated and co-authored the Gender Knot curriculum in 2003. Currently she is writing the history of UU women and religion movement, as she experienced it.

GA Events Coordinator Rev. Shirley Ranck
A Crone of wisdom and power who has touched the lives of many women through her writing and teaching, the Reverend Dr. Shirley Ann Ranck brings both personal professional insight to her work. Trained in education, psychology and ministry, she has drawn upon all these disciplines as well as her various personal lives as wife, mother, and single parent to create the female spiritual journey contained in the feminist thealogy curriculum and book, Cakes for the Queen of Heaven.
While working full time and birthing and raising two daughters and two sons, Shirley managed to earn her Master's degree in religious education from Drew University, an M.A. in clinical psychology from City College of New York, a Ph.D. in urban school psychology from Fordham University, and her Master of Divinity from Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley. She has been an educator and a licensed psychologist in California as well as an ordained minister in the Unitarian Universalist Association. She has worked in hospitals, clinics and a county jail for women as well as in private practice. She has served as minister in several Unitarian Universalist congregations including Cincinnati Ohio, Mobile Alabama, San Rafael California, Kennebunk Maine, and Olympia Washington. She is currently serving the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Northern Nevada in Reno, and will be the featured Keynote Speaker at Central Midwest District W&R's WomanSpirit Feb 22-24, 2008.

WOMUUNWEB Editor Helen Popenoe, Bethesda, MD, has been involved in Women and Religion work since 1980 when the Joseph Priestley W&R'ers were so involved with publishing "Reaching Sideways" and the rewriting of the UUA Principles. She served on the District W&R Committee from that time till she retired in 1999(?) after four years of being District Convener. Simultaneously with her later tenure on the JPD W&R Committee, she participated as part of the Continental W&R movement, acting as Co-Convener several intermittent terms until 2004. To become a children's book author with strong female characterization is her present endeavor outside W&R.

Membership List Keeper Marnie Singer lives in Sunnyvale, CA and is an M.Div. student at Starr King School for the Ministry. Her past and present roles in W&R (both on the district and continental levels) are former Pacific Central District co-convener, co-organizer of numerous PCD W&R retreats, and keeper of the PCD and continental W&R databases.

Past Co-Convenor Rev. Dorothy Emerson, Medford, MA, is a UU community minister, focusing on economic justice and empowerment. In the mid-1980s she served as co-convener of the Mass Bay District Women & Religion Committee. She founded and directed the UU Women's Heritage Society for many years and edited a book of UU women's writings, called Standing Before Us: UU Women and Social Reform, 1776-1936. More recently she edited Glorious Women, a compilation of sermons about women that won awards from MSUU (Ministerial Sisterhood Unitarian Universalist). She has been on the Core Group since 2004 and currently serves as co-convener. She lives near Boston with her long time partner, whom she was able to marry in 2004 thanks to the establishment of marriage equality in Massachusetts. Her great joy is that she is a grandmother!

Past Treasurer Geri Kennedy, Redwood City, CA

District Representatives

Central Midwest District -- Gretchen Ohmann (see photo and bio above)

Florida -- Sarah Snyder is from Seminole, Fl, between Clearwater and St. Petersburg on the west coast. She and Carol Andros are in their second year as co-chairs for Florida Women & Religion. Sarah became active in FL W&R; in the late 80's, and have been to two GA W&R meetings (in the past), and other regional and national womens' spirituality conferences and retreats. Florida W&R continues to recruit leaders for and support two retreats a year; fall 2005 is "Laughing at Sacred Cows" about humor and spirituality. She is a consultant and trainer for non-profits and governmental organizations.

Heartland -- Misty Sheehan Empire, MI, has been a UU since her children started school many centuries ago. She served on the original Chapin-Crane Women and Religion Team in Michigan from 1978-1985. Her life took her to India and China for several years, then she was an Asian studies professor at College of DuPage in Chicago. There she joined the Central Midwest District Women and Religion Committee from 1999-2003. She joined the Continental Core Group in 2003 and became Co-Convenor for the 2005-2006 year.

Pacific Central-- Barbara Schonborn, Mountain View, CA

Joseph Priestley District -- Nuala Carpenter (see photo and bio above)

Southwest UU Women -- Elizabeth Mueller

NY Metro -- Laurie James
Laurie James Credits: Original one-woman dramas on tour: Winter Wheat, The Betrayal of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Her Woman's Bible; Men, Women, and Margaret Fuller. UU churches, theaters, festivals, UU General Assemblies; The 13th Street Theatre, NYC; The Burbage Theatre, Los Angeles; theaters in Mexico, Hong Kong, and Scotland.
Original docu-dramas, Roots of Rebellion (also WBAI featuring Gloria Steinem); Look Who's on Third!; and Sliding Home! at The Community Church of New York (CCNY); UU Congregation of Central Nassau; GA.
Plays authored/acted: O Excellent Friend! (first prize, Pen and Brush Club), the story of Margaret Fuller and Ralph Waldo Emerson, GA. Gotta Learn the Rule, second prize, Collaboraction Theatre (Chicago), produced at The Producer's Club in NYC.
TV: The Cambridge Forum, "Feminist Ahead of Her Time;" BBC-Scotland TV, Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Guest star, Trial By Jury with Raymond Burr.
Off-Off-Broadway: Gibran; Paradox; The Yellow Wallpaper.
Directed Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues (CCNY); UU Congregation at Shelter Rock.
Panel, GA: "Emerson's Circle of Women;" article with same title, Journal of UU History, edited by Dean Grodzins.
Books include Men, Women, and Margaret Fuller, a biography; Why Margaret Fuller Is Forgotten; The Wit and Wisdom of Margaret Fuller; How I Got to Harvard, Off and On Stage with Margaret Fuller; Outrageous Questions, Legacy of Bronson Alcott and America's One Room Schools. Member of CCNY Community Women; Board Member, UUWA Metro District, UU Women & Religion; The Dramatists Guild; The Actors Studio P/D Unit; The American Renaissance Theatre. You can buy some of Laurie's books in our STORE!

our mailing address is:
UUWR
c/o Gretchen Ohmann
P.O. Box 173
Benton Harbor, MI 49023-0173