Something for the Journey
Denise Cawley, Membership Administrator
It is with love and gratitude that I write to let you know I am being called to a new chapter. Coming to work at the UUMA, I realized experiences I thought were mine alone are incredibly common. Hearing your stories has given me wider perspective and deeper gratitude for our ministers. Whether at a patient’s bedside, in a board meeting, or guiding a family through a trauma, we are often the only minister in the room, leading to us feeling alone. We preach the wonders of community to our people yet wonder how to find our own. The UUMA provides that collegiality — if we dive in and put ourselves out there, we find how similar our struggles are — and access the spiritual balm of UUMA Community, together. Working here has given me perspectives I treasure, both with our institutions and our members.
As the walls of fascism grow higher, I feel called to bring my skills in organizing, pastoral care, and justice to help others act in love and courage. My favorite parts of this role have been supporting members at Institute and helping with the Community Ministers Retreat. The trust staff and members extended to me — sharing their stories, inviting me into stewardship and fundraising work, and collaborating with open hearts — has been a profound gift. When an opportunity arose that called for exactly those gifts, I applied.
Alongside my work at the UUMA, I’ve been serving as an on-call chaplain and completing my fourth Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) unit and working toward becoming a Certified Chaplain and Pastoral Counselor, and a Kintsugi Practitioner in Trauma and Pain Resiliency. I hope one day to open a CPE Center, teaching CPE, helping ministers heal their own pain and guide others through that process.
If you ever feel called to explore aspects of your own brokenness or feel the pressure of being the one others turn to for help growing too heavy to carry alone, ask me how you can get into one of my Kintsugi groups. I had dreamed of finding a way to bring these gifts more fully into my work here at the UUMA, but when this interim congregational position came up unexpectedly, it felt like a healthy match — one that will let me deepen that pastoral work and accompany a congregation in discerning its justice role in the world we now face.
I love the UUMA and I respect its staff and members deeply. This is not goodbye — I look forward to many years of collaborating. Thank you, Janette, Melissa, Michelle, Julica, and Hannah, for the heart you give this association. Unitarian Universalism is better for your energy, love, and work. I send you so many blessings.
With love and kindness,
Denise
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