Welcome Rev. Lara Cowtan
My career in nursing taught me the value and power of empathy and making human connections, about prioritizing and about healing, and about how things sometimes don’t heal, and then to move forward. I learned how, in spite of loss, people may find a new way of being and living in the world. I have come to understand how being in community with ourselves and others despite one's brokenness, and even maybe because of it, allows us to simply "be" in a different way.
Unity Church-Unitarian is pleased to welcome Rev. Lara Cowtan as our new Minister of Congregational Care. Rev. Lara comes to Unity Church from serving as the Transitional Senior Minister for three years with the Vancouver Unitarian Church in British Columbia, one of the largest churches in Canada. Prior to her ministry in Vancouver, Rev. Lara was involved in international partnerships with European Unitarian Universalists and the International Council of Unitarian Universalists where she built deep and lasting international relationships. In addition to her role as senior minister, she has worked as a registered nurse, a hospice and hospital chaplain, most recently during the height of the Covid-19 epidemic.
As a life long Unitarian Universalist, and a preacher's kid (her mother is a retired Unitarian Universalist minister), Rev. Lara brings a wealth of experience and a ministry shaped by a pastoral presence, caring, healing and resilience. She writes, "My journey has been laced with tremendous challenges and personal loss which have made me sensitive to the harder realities of life and about resiliency. I have always been able to find a source of hope, a spark of light. Sometimes in nature, in spiritual practice, in other people, in music or words, but most often deep within myself, that place that only knows how to go on being." Her ministry at Unity Church will be focused on providing pastoral care, offering rites of passage, supporting existing congregational care programs, and creating opportunities for members to minister to one another. Rev. Lara will be in the pulpit approximately once a month and will be teaching and leading programs throughout the year related to the ministry of congregational care. For more information about Rev. Lara's ministry, please visit her website. We could not be more delighted to welcome Rev. Lara to Unity Church and look forward to our shared ministry together. Lara can be reached at lara@unityunitarian.org or 651-228-1456 x114 |
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