Towards a Welcoming and Inclusive Church
IWR Staff
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THE REV. REBECCA VOELKEL Rev. Rebecca Voelkel, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, is the Institute for Welcoming Resources and Faith Work Director for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Before coming to the Task Force, she served as Interim National Coordinator for the United Church of Christ Coalition for LGBT Concerns, as pastor of Spirit of the Lakes United Church of Christ and as Program Staff for the Center for the Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence. Rev. Voelkel is the author of Preventing Sexual Abuse: A Course of Study for Teenagers (Pilgrim Press, 1996) as well as numerous articles and sermons which have appeared in such journals as Spirit Currents, The Journal of Religion and Abuse, Creating Change and Parenting for Peace and Justice. She is a faith-based community organizing trainer as well as workshop presenter on a wide variety of faith-based justice issues. She is a graduate of Earlham College and Yale Divinity School and is currently working towards a Doctor of Ministry at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. Rev. Voelkel is a theologian, pastor and organizer and has devoted her life’s ministry to following Jesus’ command to minister in partnership with “the least of these,” ones whom society has deemed outcast, unclean or unworthy. This commitment constantly challenges her to ground her thinking and her acting in real-life situations that make real-life differences. As a way to balance her spiritual life, Rebecca is also a runner, hiker, biker and avid community-builder, spending time with friends and family as often as she can. She and her partner, Maggie, are parents of Shannon MacKenzie, their one year-old daughter. |
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DAVID LOHMAN David serves as IWR & Faith Work Coordinator for the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force’s Institute for Welcoming Resources, and oversees the Shower of Stoles Project. Also a musical theatre conductor and pianist, David spent 3½ years as associate conductor for the first national company of The Phantom of the Opera. Benefit concerts, which he conducted with the Phantom cast, raised over $400,000 for AIDS, breast cancer, and mental health. Since returning to the Twin Cities, he has music directed shows at the Guthrie Theater and the Ordway Center, and appeared onstage and in the pit for numerous productions at the Chanhassen Dinner Theatres. The award-nominated Beyond the Rainbow, a biographical musical about Judy Garland which he co-wrote for the History Theatre in St. Paul, is being produced around the country. He serves as music director for the annual Ivey Awards – the awards for Twin Cities theater. A published arranger, his arrangements include “Shenandoah/They Call the Wind Maria” and “O, Holy Night,” written for TV specials starring figure skater Brian Boitano. He serves as Director of Music at Spirit of the Lakes United Church of Christ. David holds a B.A. in acting, and did his graduate work in conducting at Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music. |
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BARBARA SATIN Barbara Satin is a transgender activist involved with both the local and national gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities. Besides serving on a number of local GLBT boards, she is a founder of GLBT Generations, a group that works to educate people about the needs of LGBT persons as they grow old. Nationally, Barbara serves on the Executive Council of the United Church of Christ, the first transgender woman to have a national leadership role in that denomination. She is also an adviser to the Civil Marriage Collaborative. Barbara served as Interim Program Director for the Institute of Welcoming Resources during the first half of 2007 and stayed on as IWR & Faith Work Consultant working on special projects. She is also a member of the Spirit of the Lakes United Church of Christ in Minneapolis, where she is involved in developing and marketing a 41 unit senior housing cooperative. |
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KATHLEEN CAMPISANO Senior Field Organizer, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, based in Los Angeles Office. Curiosity, the south, racial justice, unpacking homophobia. First Job: at her Italian family’s grocery at age 6. Organizing Passions: building relationships across lines of race, age, economics, sexuality; having hard conversations, curiosity, and getting people to ask for help. An almost 60 year old, southern white woman of color living in post-partum Prop 8 Los Angeles, working like crazy for liberation for everybody. Mentored by some outstanding white anti-racist activists, “standing with” and supporting leaders of color is her through line. Volunteer coordinator at Louisville Kentucky’s Fairness Campaign; raised my son, Arthur to be our straight-spokesperson at 9 years old; and, wondered why everyone wasn’t at rallies for police profiling or a living wage.” Kathleen proposes that if we were all much more curious about each other, we would feel connected to everyone struggling for freedom. She loves kayaking, asking everybody for money, walking fast & hiking slow, seeing movie stars and building a team for collective action. Kathleen especially loves being a mom (to 21 year old son, Arthur) and being a wife to Sarah! |
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AMANDA HUNTER Amanda McElray Hunter is a visual artist, and social advocate. She designs and produces large scale, vividly colored installations for community spaces, religious congregations, protest marches, and non-profit organizations. In May 2010, she received her Master of Theology and the Arts degree at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. Previously, she received a BFA in Design from The University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and studied at Pratt Institute and the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Over the past few years, large concentrations of her commissioned artistic projects have been liturgical/worship oriented and done in collaboration with religious congregations. Often, these projects explore the intersections between spirituality and the arts through the creation of modern iconography depicting the being humans refer to as “God”. Ms. Hunter’s works advocate for justice and restoration to vulnerable and forgotten people, endangered animals and our fragile earth. Her view is that art by nature is prophetic and a vehicle for God to speak through. Ms. Hunter’s work has led her to collaborate with artists in religious institutions as well as the greater arts community. She works with a variety of mediums including: oil, watercolor, acrylic, fibers, silk paints, and found objects (in the creation of sculpture). She also works regularly with the History Theatre in downtown Saint Paul as a costume designer. She is excited to add Coordinator of the Shower of Stoles Project to her roles as artist, spouse to Matt and mom to Sigourney. |
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ORELIA BUSCH Orelia Busch grew up in Madison, Wisconsin where she attended the University of Wisconsin and graduated with degrees in Human Development and Family Studies, Psychology and Women's Studies. She is an organizer and activist who is learning and growing every day, and she is elated to join the staff at the Institute for Welcoming Resources as the faith organizing consultant. Orelia was a Peace Corps volunteer in Burkina Faso from 2006-2008. In 2009, she moved to Washington, DC to work as a Legislative Assistant for the Unitarian Universalist Association and discovered a passion for getting to know and organizing with pro-LGBT people of faith. Orelia loves belonging to and building religious and spiritual communities that let everyone bring and become their whole, beautiful selves and hopes that our movement keeps getting louder and prouder. Orelia also enjoys cooking with her housemates, taking meditative hikes through Rock Creek Park and discovering DC and its environs from the vantage point of her bicycle seat. |
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MEREDITH BISCHOFF Meredith Bischoff works hard as a free-lance webmaster with IWR as one of her busiest clients. In addition, she is also an ordained elder and coPastor of Basileia: An Open Door Community of Christ, an open and affirming Community of Christ congregation. Meredith is currently serving as President of Board of Directors for Welcoming Community Network. Meredith holds a Masters degree in Education from California State University Fullerton, and has completed post-graduate studies in Educational Psychology, Instructional Technology and Communications Management at the University of Southern California and the Annenberg School of Communications. |
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SARA BOESSER Sara is the author of Silent Lives: How High a Price? This work combines autobiographical sources, personal interviews, and questions for reflection to explore issues relevant to everyone's sexual orientation and gender status, be they heterosexual, or gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or intersexual. More information is available at: www.SilentLives.com She is a human rights advocate who has received numerous awards for her work for equal rights for all regardless of sexual orientation and for equal access for people who experience disabilities (including a patent for a method of making small boat harbors wheelchair accessible). Sara Boesser grew up and still lives in Juneau Alaska and is a graduate of the University of Washington with a degree in Anthropology. |
