Sermon delivered by Rev. Mark Morrison-Reed on January 22, 2017. Rev. Morrison-Reed shares a reflection on riding the Green Line as a youth from Chicago's south side in the 60s, as a seminarian, and now as a retired minister—and his awareness of the function of the church and our larger need for community.
Mark Morrison-Reed served for 26 years as co-minister with his wife, Donna, in Rochester N.Y. and Toronto, Ontario. He also served as vice-chair of the UUA Commission on Appraisal and the Ministerial Fellowship Committee. A historian of the African American experience in UUism, he is the author of Black Pioneers in a White Denomination, Darkening the Doorways: Black Trailblazers and Missed Opportunities in Unitarian Universalism and The Selma Awakening: How the Civil Rights Movement Tested and Changed Unitarian Universalism. Mark also wrote the curriculum "How Open the Door? The African-American Experience in Unitarian Universalism" and the book In Between: Memoir of an Integration Baby. A former president of the Canadian Unitarian Council, he's currently an affiliated faculty member at the Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago.
Rev. Morrison-Reed can be contacted at markmr4@excite.com.
The theme for January is what it means to be a community of prophecy. To read about our theme-based ministry, please visit http://www.unitytemple.org/faith-development/soul-connections on our website.