I have been an ordained parish minister since 2001. I bring to Murray the skills you might expect such as preaching, teaching, pastoral care, and congregational leadership. I am in fellowship with the Unitarian Universalist Association and am serving as Murray’s Contract to Call Minister.

While the majority of my experience comes from serving United Church of Christ churches, I am much more at home in the Unitarian Universalist Association. I have always believed that Jesus’s teachings were primarily ethical and that he was first and foremost a humanist.

In 1997 I learned about Buddhist meditation and mystical prayer. Since then, I established a daily practice and have learned to sit directly with that greater wholeness beyond description.  I belong to a Zen sangha and lead a contemplative prayer group of my own. I am currently completing a book on the subject.

I also believe that all long-standing religious traditions shine a unique light on the truth of the divine mystery. One tradition alone cannot suffice. When I was studying world religions as a religious studies major at the University of Colorado at Boulder, I studied religions of indigenous peoples, Hinduism, the world view of pre-Christian Northern Europe, Ancient Greek and Roman religions, Buddhism and Islam. No one expresses the profound spiritual connection to the natural world better than native peoples. No one articulates a theophany better than Hindu peoples. The early legends and world views of Northern and Southern Europe still shape our culture and we could still benefit by knowing more. No one tackles the problem of suffering and deleterious brain wiring with more clarity than Buddhism. There is no better poet of the divine than the great Islamic mystics such as Rumi or Hafiz. I also bring a strong understanding of the many historical trends that shaped Western Civilization and US history. This knowledge was developed further in my Master of Divinity degree from Andover Newton Theological School.

I was raised in a hand-built home without electricity on the foot of Mt. Monadnock because my parents were so deeply inspired by the work of Emerson and Thoreau. While I attended public school, my parents read to us every night, not only all the Newberry Award Medal books but also snippets from their own philosophical heroes, many of whom were foundational to Unitarianism.

I first became acquainted with Murray when I moved to Attleboro to Serve the Second Congregational church of Attleboro, UCC. In my twelve-year tenure there, I lead that Church to become Open and Affirming. I was also one of the founders alongside Gretchen Weise, Rev. Cheryle Harris, and Rabi Elyse Wechterman of the Greater Attleboro Interfaith Network. Together we brought the police department to community discussion groups we organized to listen to the issues around this topic and helped raise money to better educate the department. In my numerous discussions with your previous minister, I started to feel that perhaps I would be much happier with the Unitarian Universalists.

A deep calling is sometimes a dream or a vision revealed in a sudden flash of insight. Many sacred texts from around the world are filled with such testimonies. However, in my life the deeper calling is more like being able to finally name the path I had been traveling; I feel like I have been traveling the path to your church for a long time now.

As your Contract to Call minister for Murray, my task is to do interim work for your church, but at the end of my contract, I can apply for your settled position.

My wife Kat and I live in Attleboro where we raised our three children Owen (27) River (23) and Brynn (19).  Kat works for the Sturdy Health Foundation. We are a big swim family and are also passionate about sailing.

Rev. F. Vernon Wright V