Welcome
Sister Souurce, Inc. is pleased to announce our first Guest Blogger, Rev. Karen Hutt. (Please find below a short bio on Rev. Karen). Rev. Karen has a long history as a UU minister, chaplain, social change agent and parent.
Rev. Karen introduces herself by sharing a special worship service from her home congregation, First Universalist Church of Minneapolis, where she has served as Adjunct Minister. The service, held on February 22, 2022, concluded Black History Month. Her homily was titled, Humanism is Black. While Rev. Jen Crow, the Senior Minister at First Universalist Church was away supporting her father in his journey with cancer, the worship team did an outstanding job with Sunday worship as you will witness from the video. They were able to offer a hybrid service with some members participating virtually and others in attendance while practicing social distancing and masking. Glen Thomas Rideout, Director of Worship Arts Ministries, did a fabulous job weaving Baptist hymns into his warm welcome. Rev. Arif Mandani, Associate Minister, offered a beautiful prayer/meditation using the “prophet” Marvin Gaye’s words from his hit song, “What’s Going On.” The pianist, Franco Holder and Rideout fit together like hand in glove, delivering soothing, yet powerfully inspiring music and lyrics. All the elements of worship were coordinated so beautifully and creatively. Rev. Karen’s preaching is inviting, stimulating and thought provoking—as you will witness. I learned so much about Black humanism that I did not know.
While UU liturgy offers a familiar and comforting experience with its call to worship; chalice lighting; prayer/meditation; offertory; homily; and closing words—with hymns woven throughout the service—it is the quality of the worship experience that successfully brings it all together. And that is exactly what I experienced in this worship. But see for yourself!
Click on the link here for the worship service https://sistersouurce.org/humanism-is-black/
Thank you, Rev. Karen, for agreeing to serve as our very first Guest Blogger and for this great introduction!
About Rev. Karen Hutt
Rev. Karen Hutt has been a Unitarian Universalist (UU) minister for twenty-five years. She is a board-certified chaplain and Clinical Pastoral Educator (CPE). She has served UU congregations in Chicago and Minneapolis. Currently she is the VP for Student Formation, Vocation and Innovation at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. She is the editor of The Call to Care, Essays by UU Chaplains (Skinner House Books, 2016). She was a co-founder and co-pastor of Church of the Open Door, a dual-affiliated United Church of Christ/Unitarian Universalist congregation that served Chicago’s Black LGBTQ population from 1997 to 2005. Rev. Hutt went on to serve as a chaplain and Clinical Pastoral Educator in several large hospital systems in both Chicago and Minneapolis. She is widely regarded as one of the most innovative educators in the Clinical Pastoral Education field, and her work has been published in the Journal for Reflective Practice and Supervision. From 2005 to 2014, she also served as the part-time Executive Director of Companions Journeying Together, Inc., an interfaith prison ministry that worked with clients in prisons and jails around the state of Illinois.
She is married to Rev. Ashley Horan, Organizing and Strategy Director for Justice Ministries at the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA). They live in Minneapolis with their three children: Zi, Aspen and Eden.