Welcome, Rev. Lisa Bovee Kemper!
The Board of Trustees and the Interim Minister Search Committee are pleased to announce that Rev. Lisa Bovee Kemper (she/her/hers) will be joining us on August 1, 2024 to serve as our Interim Minister.
Some key characteristics that attracted us to Rev. Lisa are her enthusiasm, collaborative approach, and embodying pastoral ministry with a social justice and interpersonal lens. She has chosen Interim Ministry as her primary calling, having experienced both settled and transitional ministry. She enjoys observing and learning about a congregation’s systems and then “unraveling the yarn” of its governance processes, addressing the underlying emotional experience at play in conflicts, and emphasizing transparency and communication in supporting the congregation to do the work of delivering on its mission. She’s enthusiastic about our interfaith center and initiatives as well.
We are excited for you to get to know her as well. Here is a video message from her to us.
Rev. Lisa’s Bio
Rev. Lisa holds a BA in history from Oberlin College and a Master of Divinity from the Andover Newton Theological School, which is now part of the Yale School of Divinity in New Haven, CT. Before beginning her study for the ministry, she worked as a costume designer and wardrobe supervisor for theatre, dance, and opera productions, most notably at the Juilliard School. She is thus an artist and an activist, a pastor and a preacher. She is skilled in organizational assessment, and she approaches complex problems with curiosity. She is passionate about creating meaningful, collaborative worship services and empowering congregations to identify and live into their mission. She has been active in social justice movements ranging from LGBTQIA+ inclusion to immigration rights to reproductive justice. In 2014 she was a founding member of the steering committee of the Mountain People’s Assembly, after participating in Moral Monday actions in Raleigh. For the past two years, she has been the Interim Lead Minister of the UU Community of Charlotte, NC, and prior to that she served congregations in Greenville, SC, Asheville, NC, Leesburg, VA and as a hospital chaplain.
In her free time, Rev. Lisa enjoys knitting, cooking and baking, swimming, and spending time with her family. Her wife, Cindy, is ordained in the United Church of Christ and is trained as a hospital chaplain. Lisa and Cindy have two children, Harley (11) and Elijah (aged 9). All four of them are, in Lisa’s words, “owned by two cats,” an orange tiger named PJ and a tuxedo named Basil (after the herb).
Video Transcript
Greetings to all of you at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Columbia, I am the Reverend Lisa Bovee Kemper, my pronouns are she/her. I am looking forward to joining you on August 1st as your interim minister. I’ll begin this brief introduction by expressing my gratitude to the interim search committee who did such a wonderful job of introducing me to y’all as a congregation.
I grew up just one county over in Rockville, MD and my family joined the UU Congregation of Rockville 38 years ago. I have lived many different places and done many things since I left there in 1994, including working as a costume designer and wardrobe supervisor, a bartender, and a substitute teacher. Thirteen years ago I moved South, serving UU congregations in North and South Carolina – the last six of those as a transitional minister. I am looking forward to re-discovering Maryland as an adult, especially with my family.
In next month or so, you will celebrate the wonderful ministry of Rev. Paige and say goodbye. My wife Cindy, my daughter Harley – who is eleven, my son Elijah – who is nine, our two cats and my sourdough starter will arrive in Columbia toward the end of July, after we have wrapped things up here in Charlotte, and I look forward to meeting you all in August.
That is when our journey together will truly begin, this journey that will be rooted in our Unitarian Universalist faith, in the relational promises that we make to one another and to people we have never met: our ancestors, the cloud of witnesses that went before us – and the next one hundred people who come through your doors or view your livestream – the generations of people who will inhabit this place after we are all gone.
It is our sacred practice to live together in community, to honor our interdependence, to run toward the unknown, to embrace change as we risk collective liberation and transformation. I will come to you with a spirit of curiosity and an eye toward assessing systems looking at what’s working for you, and what might come next. I will listen to hear who you are, what you are feeling, and where you as a community want to go in your next phase together.
I look forward to getting to know you and moving through this liminal time together.
See you soon!