Our Minister
Rev. Kimberley joined us as our contract minister in August 2024, bringing her passion for Unitarian Universalism to Cedarhurst.
Ordained in 2017, Rev. Kimberley has previously served One Island Family UU Congregation in Key West, Florida, the First Universalist Church of Southold, New York, and most recently on the interim team at Community UU Congregation in White Plains, New York. She has also served as sabbatical minister in a variety of locations, including Kennebunk, Maine; Nantucket, Massachusetts; Oneonta, New York; White Plains, New York; Manassas, Virginia; and most recently in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Much of Rev. Kimberley’s ministry has focused on developing small and large-scale worship throughout the Association and leading countless workshops and retreats for worship teams, membership committees, boards, and religious professionals. She has written and taught classes for UU Wellspring Spiritual Deepening Program and the UUA’s Music Leaders Credentialing Program, and she has previously served as Nurture Staff Director at the Southeast UU Summer Institute and is currently chair of the UUA’s Appointments Committee. While she serves us on a half-time basis, Rev. Kimberley will also continue to consult with congregations and religious professionals throughout and beyond Unitarian Universalism.
Rev. Kimberley was raised by Unitarian parents and returned Unitarian Universalism in the 1990s during her years as an activist in North Carolina’s LGBTQ community. Rev. Kimberley has been known to burst out in song and will wax poetic about British panel shows, mysteries, trivia, and The West Wing. A native New Yorker, she makes her home in Takoma Park, MD, with her three tabby cats.
Approach to Ministry
Rev. Kimberley’s ministry is the inescapable consequence of the life she has lived; she comes from a family for whom the arts are an essential part of our lives. She has always sung, often been on stage, and always dabbled in some sort of visual art. As a young adult, she was continually drawn to the arts as her avocation, and theater became an essential core of her undergraduate experience. Through her 30s and 40s, the arts – writing, acting, singing, even arts management – were central to her life.
As the choir director at the UU Congregation of Saratoga Springs, she got her first taste of liturgical arts and became the worship coordinator for our local cluster’s joint services. Soon after, she recognized the call to ministry, and that Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York would provide grounding in theology and the arts.
While at Union, she had the opportunity to learn from a variety of artists, and for two years co-created Broadway revues that explored Biblical texts through the lens of musical theater. Her thesis project further explored the intersection of art and worship, exploring the stories of unnamed women in the Old Testament as a way to understand the deleterious effects of othering and disenfranchisement.
Rev. Kimberley is now pursuing a Doctor of Ministry at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC, in the ‘Curating Community through the Arts’ program, which she hopes will help her continue to deepen and share the richness of the arts as spiritual deepening, connection, and social action.
Rev. Kimberley’s approach is one of love-driven optimism, vibrancy, and engagement with our faith through creativity, deep listening, and rituals that help us heal our brokenness and remind us to keep Love at the center.
Contact Rev. Kimberley
Email her at minister@cedarhurstuu.org