Rev. Wendy Vander Hart

REV. WENDY VANDER HART

United Church of Christ

Melrose, MA

I was born into the church with a preacher father and director of music mother. It was into the Reformed Church of America that I grew as a Christian, a denomination that only started to ordain women when I finished at Hope College in 1985. Andover Newton Theological School was the next stop on what I thought would be a career of teaching. But I was blessed to find Church of the Covenant in Boston with the kind of extravagant welcome I never thought possible.

I felt the call to ministry working with the children of Covenant and was completely out within the safe walls of that church.
I was ordained in 1989.

The search process for my first call to First Congregational Church in Reading, MA, however, was a “don’t ask, don’t tell” experience. So was my second call to Melrose Highlands Congregational Church, UCC.

But through a painful divorce and the joy of finding love again, the people of Melrose UCC came by the busload to my wedding to my spouse, Joanne. Though our church voted for Marriage Equality in 2005, I long for the day when they will take the next step of becoming Open and Affirming!

 

This stole was given in celebration of the United Church of Christ's 50th Anniversary, and for the refuge that the UCC has offered for so many GLBT clergy.