The Rev. Dr. Kharma Amos serves as the Minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Brunswick, a certified Welcoming Congregation (the UUA designation for congregations committed to LGBTQ inclusion and liberation).  Kharma was first ordained in Metropolitan Community Churches and spent her first 20 years in ministry serving primarily queer congregations.  The UU faith affirms and supports the inherent worth and dignity of every person, and so our commitment to LGBTQ equity and justice is thoroughly rooted in our values (i.e. Love, Justice, Equity, Interdependence, Generosity, Pluralism, and Transformation).  We worship on Sundays at 10 and have many other types of programming, from educational opportunities for children and adults to musical groups and beyond. 

My name is Rev. Tara (they/them pronouns) and I am a Unitarian Universalist minister called to the journey of working together in community to cultivate trust, faith and our capacity for collective transformation. 

I am a graduate of Yale Divinity School (MDiv) and hold Certificates in Congregational Leadership from Andover Newton Seminary and Transitional Ministry from the Interim Ministry Network. I currently serve as the Developmental Minister at Allen Avenue Unitarian Universalist Church in Portland, Maine (2022-current). Outside of congregational life, I am in training to become a certified practitioner of Reflective Pastoral Supervision through the Centre for Creative Supervision. 

Francesco serves FPC as the First Parish Church’s Associate Pastor in Brunswick. Francesco was born in northeastern Ohio. Beginning a career as an elementary school teacher, Francesco taught for 12 years, ending his teaching career in the high school classroom. During his teaching career, he majored in language arts, theological studies, speech, and drama. After attending seminary in San Antonio, TX; Francesco added spiritual care chaplaincy to his resume. Completing two Residencies in Clinical Pastoral Education; Francesco worked 13 years as a chaplain. Francesco’s last spiritual care assignment was in Seattle working with the residents of Horizon House, a multi-level assisted living facility founded by the United Church of Christ.

Marvin Ellison, an ordained Presbyterian minister, is a scholar-activist and educator for justice. After completing doctoral studies at Union Theological Seminary in New York, he relocated to Maine in the early 1980s to teach Christian ethics at Bangor Theological Seminary. His numerous publications include The Center Cannot Hold: The Search for a Global Economy of Justice; Erotic Justice: A Liberating Ethic of Sexuality; Sexuality and the Sacred: Theological Resources; Same-Sex Marriage? A Christian Ethical Analysis; and Making Love Just: Sexual Ethics for Perplexing Times. He founded Maine’s Religious Coalition Against Discrimination as well as the Maine Interfaith Council for Reproductive Choices.  In 2009 and again in 2012, he helped organized people of faith throughout Maine in support of marriage equality. He also developed a voluntary chaplaincy service for Planned Parenthood and has been active with Maine Death with Dignity. Along with Tamara Torres McGovern, he hosted “Queer Spirit,” a series of interviews with LBGTQ+ faith leaders originally broadcast on WMPG and WERU community radio and now archived at the LBGTQ Religious Archives Network. Currently, he is involved with the Wabanaki Alliance Coalition in advocating for recognition of Indigenous sovereignty rights. He lives in Portland with his husband Franklin Brooks and stays connected with his daughter Beverly who lives too far away in California.

“Queer Spirit,” a podcast about queer life and the power of the Sacred, was a project developed and co-hosted by Marvin Ellison and Tamara Torres McGovern which originally aired on WMPG and WERU community radio stations in Maine. This series of half-hour conversations, now available at the LBGTQ Religious Archives Network, highlights a diverse array of voices at the intersection of queer life and spirituality. Too often, Tamara and Marvin have observed, LGBTQ+ people have been forced to choose between their communities of faith and authentically inhabiting their gender and sexuality. The result has been that queer folks have been distanced from, even starved of, spaces for sacred ritual and meaning making. At the same time, religious communities have been impoverished by the absence of these queer prophetic voices that illuminate new ways of knowing and understanding the Sacred. These nearly three-dozen podcast conversations, first aired between 2019 and 2021, are an invitation for growth and deepening for both queer and religious communities.

For more information, explore the following links: WMPG

Spiritual services of all kinds, designed with you, for you. Naming, re-naming, commitment, wedding, and memorial services to suit your needs. With a varied background in spiritual work, I can offer many options. I work with people to make sure they have a service that is special to them. Ordained at One Spirit Interfaith Seminary (NYC) 2008. Contact: interfaithchap@gmail.com

I’m a practiced preacher, and I’ve spoken at churches, schools, conferences, government agencies, and more. These are some topics of interest to me – an incomplete list of items that are hardly discrete:

• Spiritual creative writing

• Eco-spiritual writing

• LGBTQ justice and affirmation

• God the creative, God the child, God the healer, God the friend

• Queer Christianity

• Asian American identity formation

For more information, explore the following links: Website.