A Life-Long Journey
to Ministry
A Complex Call
As a kid, I put on puppet shows in the backyard and held worship services in the garage. (The puppet shows were more popular.) Those dueling childhood interests represent a single call that has unfolded across the decades. As a writer of plays and essays and documentaries, I urged people toward a deeper experience of life. As an educator, I drew on my love of literature to help my students expand their experience of the world, entering into the lives of characters both familiar and challenging. My call to parish ministry was a coalescing of those experiences. In the pulpit, in counseling sessions, in Adult Spiritual Formation classes, and Coming of Age pilgrimages, I have the opportunity to continue the work of carrying people forward into a deeper, more resonant, more fully aware experience of life - of the miracle of existence itself.
A Call to Parent
I grew up with a loving family who prepared me for a life of meaning and purpose. I feel the loss of my parents and sister every day, and am grateful to draw upon the lessons I learned from them as I tend to the people I love. My partner Gary and I are now empty nesters but our sons Isaac and Alex are central to our lives, each of them dealing with their unique gifts and challenges. I’m especially blessed to be part of Gary’s large and loving family who have welcomed me as one of their own. Their presence at my ordination was an honor I cherish.
A Call to Teach
My work as an educator has ranged from formal classroom instruction to founding a theatre outreach program to creating curriculum for the Kennedy Center and mentoring their young playwrights. That work is largely inspired by my mother, who taught third grade and remedial reading, and who introduced my sister and me to a panoply of opportunities that allowed us to discover our own passions. Before entering seminary, I worked as a consultant for the Center for Inspired Teaching in Washington, DC. As a mentor and coach to first-year teachers in the public schools, I had the chance to bring my years of experience - and the wisdom of my own mentors - to the work of educators just starting out on their careers. It was a wonderful way to pay forward all that I had learned.
A Call to Write
My decade as a professional playwright brought me into relationship with theatres ranging from the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, to the experimental Mladinsko in Ljubljana, and the Karlin Music Theatre in Prague. Along the way, I learned the art of collaboration, which is essential to success in ministry. My writing also encompasses documentaries for PBS, and essays for publications like the Washington Post, Smithsonian Magazine, and many others. For more, visit www.norman-allen.com.
A Call to Learn
I take my own education very seriously. In recent years this has included courses on The Quran as Literature, W.E.B. DuBois’s “The Souls of Black Folks,” and Poetry & Prayer for Preachers. A recent trip to England gave me the opportunity to explore the life of Victorian novelist Elizabeth Gaskell and her husband, Unitarian minister Rev. William Gaskell. I’m also committed to my personal growth in the realm of anti-racism and anti-oppression. That work has included a Critical Race Theory Teach-In, the New Day Rising conference, and a recent workshop on providing pastoral care in the post-Roe era.
A Call to Ministry
Running alongside the experiences named above has been my personal faith journey. That journey was shaped by my family’s early rejection of a “fire and brimstone” preacher and their simultaneous encouragement of my continuing interest in religion. I stumbled upon Unitarian Universalism as a young adult living on Cape Cod, where I witnessed the Provincetown congregation respond with active compassion to the AIDS crisis.
I found my personal theology reflected in the works of Thoreau and Emerson, and in their less famous contemporaries, people like William Ellery Channing, Margaret Fuller, and Theodore Parker. Like them, I see the spark of the Divine in all people, and in all of creation.
Later, I would encounter the work of such powerful Unitarian and Universalist forebears as Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Fanny Barrier Williams, and Olympia Brown. Remarkably, I would eventually be mentored by two of our most inspirational leaders today: Rev. Dr. Rebecca Parker and Rev. Dr. Abhi Janamanchi.
It was during a silent retreat at the Abbey of Gethsemane that I heard the clear call to parish ministry and all that it entails. (I wrote about that experience for Yes! magazine HERE.) That call has been honed and strengthened through my internship at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church, my work as Minister for Adult Spiritual Development at All Souls Church Unitarian, and nearly six years in service to Davies Unitarian Universalist Congregation. Throughout the process, I’ve been blessed by the loving support of congregants and colleagues, friends and family. In gratitude to all my companions on the journey, I look forward to the next chapter in this ever-surprising, always-challenging, and deeply rewarding call.