Minister Biography

Rev. Roger Brewin

I'm delighted to be a part of your experience with First Unitarian Church, whether by leading worship services that help center your week, talking with you about our church and its programs, or offering pastoral care. Free and liberal religion such as ours, functions best when individual needs and collective possibilities for service come together in the life of the local congregation. Helping you to identify the first, and to be a creative participant in the second, are my ministerial charge, reflected in the theme of our current church year (my eleventh with this congregation) - Nurture Your Spirit, Help Heal Our World.

To assist in discovering and nurturing your spirit, I have training and experience in several broad areas of pastoral care, including life-decision making, human sexuality and rational emotive counseling, as well as graduate and post-graduate study in Philosophy and Religion. My own spiritual stance is reflected in my national Board member status in the UU Humanists Association, and as the editor of the Journal of Religious Humanism.

To leadership of the church's efforts in healing the world, I bring a longtime background from peace work, reproductive choice and first amendments concerns. I serve the local community on the Mayor's Ministerial Advisory Board, the broader region through a community ministry offering wedding and commitment ceremonies and counseling to under-served couples, and my Profession through the UU Ministers Association Guidelines Review (Clergy Ethics) Committee.

I've been a Unitarian Universalist Parish Minister since receiving my Master of Divinity Degree from United Theological seminary in 1977. Along the way I've served nine UU congregations, and earned a Doctorate of Ministry at Chicago Theological Seminary. In addition to this half time pastorate in Hobart, I serve as a consulting minister at the UU Fellowship in St. Joseph/Benton Harbor, MI.

I live on the south side of Chicago (a little under an hour from the church) with my wife Katherine, an attorney for a major bank, and son Christopher, a senior in Mechanical Engineering at IIT. I relax through theater attendance, train travel and performances as a one-person historical impersonator (Dickens, Darwin and Clarence Darrow).