In Memory of Ellen Brandenburg (February 10, 1945 – September 4, 2020)

We offer our condolences to the family and colleagues of the Rev. Ellen Brandenburg, who died on September 4, 2020 at the age of 75.

Ellen Louise Boyd was the third child of Philip Gerald Boyd and Dorotha Ellen Young, born on February 10, 1945 in Washington, D.C. She was raised in the Chicago suburb of Wilmette, IL. After graduating from New Trier High School in 1963, Ellen entered Wheaton College, remaining there for two years. She transferred to Boston University in 1965 when she married George Brandenburg, a student at Harvard. Ellen graduated from Boston University in 1967.

After living for a time in Germany, and then in Menlo Park, CA, Ellen and George moved to Lexington, MA, where they lived for 32 years. By the time their first child was just entering school, around 1975, Ellen recalls that while she had attended a Congregational church as a child, as an adult she “had hardly entered a church.” She and George decided that the Unitarian Universalist church “could offer us the kind of religious fellowship we had come to realize we wanted for our family.”

When they began attending First Parish in Lexington, Ellen and George encountered, and were then pulled into, a leadership vacuum. Ellen quickly found herself chairing the Religious Education Committee, and then attending the RE week on Star Island in the Isles of Shoals in New Hampshire. She loved the experience so much that she brought her family—George, Peter, and Anna—back to the island. Spending a week on Star Island each year became a cherished family tradition.

Her first year at Star Island also firmed Ellen’s resolve to remain part of the UU religious education experience. She became a leader in Star Island’s RE Week and was part of its executive staff for five years. In the Lexington congregation, Ellen was invited to assist the Director of Religious Education—and then, in 1978, she moved into the DRE position.

While DRE, Ellen developed the goal of including children more fully in the wider congregation, in particular by creating an all-congregation worship opening with words of welcome, an opening hymn, a Unison Affirmation (which the congregation still uses today), a brief story or presentation, and a musical exit for the children and youth to their classes. The experiment was successful, and some of the adults were surprised and pleased by how much they enjoyed the story as an insight into the service topic.

All of these leadership experiences satisfied Ellen’s growing commitment to Unitarian Universalism, as well as to helping others enrich their lives in the process of liberal religious education. They also led her to the UUA’s Independent Study Program, which was designed to prepare candidates for Certification as a DRE. Ellen took on additional course requirements to qualify as a Minister of Religious Education. Not only did Ellen continue to serve the Lexington church throughout the entire period of her MRE education, but during a period in which the Lexington congregation had no minister, she was also recognized for having played a “vital role” in keeping the church alive and well.

Ellen completed her comprehensive exam and was ordained by First Parish Lexington on October 17, 1982. Weeks later, she made the difficult decision not to ask to be considered for that congregation’s called Minister of Religious Education position. Instead, she served as Interim Minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Marblehead (1983-1984).

By this time, Rev. Brandenburg’s service and ministry were expanding—and Ellen brought her strength of character, her caring, her ability to focus, and her wide-ranging skills into every setting she served. She served on the General Assembly Planning Committee from 1983 to 1985, and in 1984 was hired as the Acting Consultant on Youth Programs—a position that shifted, within a couple of years, to that of Youth Programs Director.

In 1989, Rev. Brandenburg entered the longest role of her career—and perhaps the one through which she affected the most people—as the UUA’s Director of Ministerial Education. This new role drew upon even more of her skills. She had the ability to deliver critical feedback to the ministerial students she worked with in a manner that was graceful and personable. Sometimes she had to give the very bad news to a person that they were not suited for ministry, but she could do this with empathy and concern that upheld the worth and dignity of the candidate. In teaching her colleagues how to be clear yet caring, Ellen modeled that important truth-telling part of ministry.

Rev. Brandenburg moved on from this role in 2002, when she served a final interim ministry in Keene, NH. During that year, she demonstrated the same caring spirit, diplomatic nature, and deft handling of sensitive issues that characterized her overall ministry.

Two events in her personal life interrupted Ellen’s formal ministry: a cancer diagnosis led to surgery and recovery, and her husband’s career took Ellen and George to Geneva, Switzerland, where George worked on the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The couple lived in the French foothills for two years, where every day Ellen would walk up the mountain, and walk a little further each day.

In 2006, Ellen and George moved to Salem, MA. Ellen began volunteering at the Peabody Essex Museum, and both became active members at First Church Unitarian Universalist. They continued to travel, for several years enjoying flying to favorite locations in their plane, which George piloted, until they found a new love in sailing together. The couple maintained their strong connection to Star Island, attending the International Affairs Conference every summer. Ellen continued her docent work at PEM, made wonderful new friends, and became involved in numerous organizations, including the UU Retired Ministers Association, Voices Against Injustice, two book clubs, a Dream Group, and a dinner club.

After George died following a short illness in 2013, Ellen’s gracious spirit and sparkling smile kept her longtime friendships close and won her an ever-expanding circle of new friends. In 2014, Ellen was overjoyed to become a grandmother, “Gigi” to Ivy, who inherited her dimples. Anna and Ivy lived next door to Ellen, and they all ate dinner together on most nights.

Ellen once again went through cancer treatment in 2018 and 2019, and learned of a recurrence in March 2020. The following months became an intense time in the country for many reasons, including the upcoming election—news that Ellen followed closely. Simultaneously, her personal experience became deeply powerful and bittersweet. Though her friends and extended family couldn’t visit her, Ellen faced her final illness with courage and acceptance, helped by her devoted and beloved close family, and died surrounded by love and admiration.

Rev. Brandenburg was blessed with a lively intellect and an avid curiosity about the world and its people. She had the ability to light up a room with her presence. Her friends and family will always remember her keen ability to listen closely, her loving nature, her generosity, her sense of humor, her courage, her wonderful cooking, and her adventurousness.

A small memorial service was held for family and close friends at a park on September 11, 2020. Her ashes were mixed with George’s and scattered in the ocean. Their family hopes to hold a larger memorial service in the future.

Ellen is survived by her older siblings Peter Boyd, Mary Davis, and stepsister Sue Oates. She also leaves her daughter Anna and granddaughter Ivy Brandenburg, her son Peter Brandenburg, and his wife Krisztina Holly. She also leaves behind a wide circle of loving and beloved family members, friends, and colleagues all over the country, and the world.