This post was written by Josh Leach, seminary intern for UUCSJ.
Hi! My name is Josh Leach and I’m excited to be joining UUCSJ this year as a ministerial intern. I’ll be helping to add to our existing Study Guide and curricular materials, to build a networking platform for our program alums, and to assist with the new SALT program we’re helping to launch in partnership with UU Mass Action. I have a cubicle on the third floor, the walls of which render me invisible to passers-by, but please don’t let that stop you from seeking me out if you need anything or want to chat!
I’m coming to UUCSJ as a part of the “field education” component of my Master of Divinity degree, for which I’m studying at Harvard Divinity School. I hope to pursue a career in ordained UU ministry after I graduate, with a focus on advocacy and public witness. Before coming to HDS, I was a college student at the University of Chicago, where I learned a lot about history and developed a healthy impatience with reality.
The call to ministry was a bit of a foregone conclusion for me, I’m afraid. I was born and raised as a committed UU, and grew up attending services at the Horizon Church in Dallas, TX and the UU Church of Sarasota, FL. Both places taught me to have a strong appreciation for the value and, well, distinctiveness of our religious tradition. Whether I was attending a pagan wedding at Horizon in the heart of Bible-belt Texas, or phone-banking in support of marriage equality with other UUCS folks in the midst of conservative Florida, I learned to take pride early on in the fact that ours is still a community of heretics—and that being such a community takes courage.
I’m thrilled to be sharing the next nine months with everyone at UUCSJ and look forward to working together to put UU values into practice in the world. To paraphrase Monty Python, I hope to be convicted on two counts of heresy this year: heresy by thought and heresy by action!
