OUR || CHURCH Ministers & Staff Minister Bios
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Meet our Ministers Bill, as he prefers to be called, is probably best known for his service as President of the Unitarian Universalist Association (2001-2009). His tenure was marked by strong public witness for social justice and support for marginalized communities, commitments he continues here in Portland. Bill’s commitment to liberal religion dates to his teenage years, when he was an active member of the First Unitarian Church of Cincinnati, Ohio. He served as the president of Liberal Religious Youth, the continental Unitarian Universalist (UU) youth organization. He had a successful career in the corporate world and ran his own business in the housing field. In later years he returned to Cincinnati and served his home church as a lay leader until he answered the call to ministry in 1992. After completing his Master of Divinity degree at Starr King School for the Ministry in 1995, Bill joined the UUA staff where he served until he was elected to the Presidency. Bill earned his B.A. from Harvard in 1968 and also holds honorary doctorates from Tufts University and Meadville/Lombard Theological School. During his years of service to the denomination (“a seventeen year detour,” as he describes it), Bill never lost his goal of being a pastor to a congregation. “My service at First Church fulfills my calling to ministry. I am finally able to preach to congregants whose stories I know, whose children I’ve dedicated and whose elders I have memorialized.” Bill was the first African American to lead any traditionally white denomination, and was named one of the ten most influential Black religious leaders in the US in both 2005 and 2006. He and his wife Maria have four adult children, and one grandchild, William Rider Sinkford, born in July 2008. Hear Rev. Sinkford speak out on a variety of issues.
Disrud hails from Wisconsin and was raised in the Lutheran tradition. He graduated from Marquette University with a B.A. degree in Journalism and Philosophy. His first career was as an editor at the Duluth, Minnesota, News-Tribune. During that time he became involved with union organizing and was an officer for the local Newspaper Guild. It was also during this chapter that he became a Unitarian Universalist and discerned a call to ministry. Rev. Disrud is a graduate of Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley, California. He received his Master of Divinity degree in 1995, and currently serves on the Board of Trustees at Starr King. He served as Chair of the Board from 2007-2011. Prior to that position, he served as the President of the school’s Graduates Association. In 2003 Rev. Disrud completed an intensive course of study in spiritual direction at the Mercy Center in Burlingame, California.  Rev. Kate Lore, Social Justice MinisterRev. Kate Lore was called to serve as the Social Justice Minister of Portland’s First Unitarian Church in 2007. Prior to that she directed the social justice program at First Unitarian Church from 1998 – 2007 and the community outreach program at First United Methodist Church of Portland from 1992-1998. During this time she helped open two shelters for homeless families, the Goose Hollow Family Shelter; and Thirteen Salmon Family Center. These shelters work collaboratively under the name Portland Homeless Family Solutions, providing 24-hour case and social services to Portland's homeless families. Kate's goal as the Social Justice Minister is to inspire, educate and mobilize congregants to make the world a better place. She shares Michael Dyson's belief that "social justice is what love looks like when it speaks in public." Whether she is preaching, moderating a community forum, leading a march or facilitating a class or retreat, her aim is to harness love's wisdom to build connections between peoples and earth and to overcome systems of oppression. Issues most near and dear to her heart include: economic justice, peace, environmental sustainability, international relations and dismantling systems of oppression (e.g., racism, classism, sexism, homophobia and able-ism). Rev. Lore is a currently a member of the Unitarian Universalist Minister’s Association for the Pacific Northwest District, where she chairs the Program Committee. In 2011 she was also elected onto the Board of Trustees for the Pacific Northwest Unitarian Universalist Association. In addition, she is a member of the Albina Ministerial Alliance for Justice & Police Reform (AMACJPR) Steering Committee. She has two published essays: “A People So Bold” (Skinner House Books) and "Urban Discipleship" (a publication by the Veatch Foundation). Kate has received two community awards recognizing her leadership and dedication in helping to address and end homelessness in our community: 1) Multnomah County's Cecil Smith Community Award; and 2) Portland's Coordinating Committee to End Homelessness (CCEH) Achievement Award.
Mr. Slegers received his undergraduate degree from Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon where he was recognized in May of 2007 as an outstanding graduate. He attended Union Theological Seminary, School of Sacred Music in New York City where he received the Master of Sacred Music degree. While in New York he sang and conducted in various New York churches. He has completed further study in conducting with Dr. Rodney Eichenberger and has also taught music in all levels of music education, including both Pacific University and Reed College. Mr. Slegers was a commissioner/compiler for the Unitarian Universalist hymnbook, Singing the Living Tradition, published by Beacon Press. For the past nineteen years he has served as church music consultant to Unitarian Universalist congregations continent-wide. Choirs from the church under Mr. Slegers’ direction toured Eastern Europe in 1990, the Seattle area in 1999 and Cuba in 2003. This unprecedented Cuba tour was captured in an award-winning documentary, “What We’re Asking for is Peace.” Mr. Slegers and his choirs were selected to provide choral music for Services of the Living Tradition at General Assemblies for the Unitarian Universalist Association in Spokane, WA and Calgary, Canada and Portland. In March of 2006 Mr. Slegers’ Chamber Choir, featuring the finest singers at the Portland Unitarian Church, were selected to give a concert at the American Choral Directors Association’s NW Regional Convention. Later that year a touring choir from the Portland Unitarian Church under Mark Slegers’ direction returned to Eastern Europe for a reunion tour.
Rev. Dr. Marilyn Sewell is the Minister Emerita of the First Unitarian Church of Portland, where she served for 17 years as senior minister before retiring in June 2009. Marilyn is the editor of several anthologies, including two volumes of women's poetry on spiritual themes, Cries of the Spirit and Claiming the Spirit Within. She has recently published A Little Book on Forgiveness and A Little Book on Prayer, and continues to pursue her writing here in Portland. Marilyn is currently the subject of a full-length documentary film, Raw Faith. You can also listen to her radio program: www.rawfaithradio.com |
Amy Beltaine, 
