Beginning in 2016, EqUUal Access sponsors a contest for sermons related to disability. Sermon Contest Entry Information

Sermon Contest Winners

2023 Sermon Contest Winner: Rev. Jennifer D. Alviar

The Art of Language to Liberate & Empower (text)

The Art of Language to Liberate… (video)

About the 2023 Carolyn Cartland Sermon Award Winner

Rev. Jennifer DeBusk Alviar is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister whose unique call is to expand the welcome table of hospitality, inclusion and liberation. To this end, she cultivates positive relationships with community organizations and diverse faith traditions actively engaged in the healing work of bridge-building and social change. Rev. Alviar received her Master of Divinity degree at Starr King School for Ministry in Berkeley, California. She currently lives with her family on the indigenous land of the Duwamish people known as Seattle, Washington.

2022 Sermon Contest Winner: Rev. Molly Housh Gordon

Disability Theology for This Moment

About the 2022 Carolyn Cartland Sermon Award Winner

The Rev. Molly Housh Gordon serves the warm and wonderful Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbia, Missouri, where she is grateful to join in a shared ministry aspiring to courageous love, radical welcome, and deep connection. She is also a passionate community organizer and a writer pursuing a Doctor of Ministry degree in Creative Writing and Public Theology. Molly is particularly grateful to be in relationship with amazing disability justice advocates in her community who are changing the world with their work and who deeply inform her preaching and ministry.

2021 Sermon Contest Winner:
Rowan Van Ness

Intersections & Interdependence

About the 2021 Carolyn Cartland Sermon Award Winner

Rowan Van Ness is a Credentialed Religious Educator (Associates Level) and Candidate for Unitarian Universalist Ministry. She earned her Master of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School in May 2021 and will be the ministerial intern at the First UU Society of Burlington, VT in 2021-2022. She has previously served as the Director of Lifespan Religious Education at the First UU Society in Newton, MA, a co-founder of the Lucy Stone Cooperative and UU Community Cooperatives, and an Environmental Justice Program Associate with the UU Ministry for Earth. Rowan loves running a poetry group (on Zoom) for older adults at Hebrew SeniorLife in Boston, growing as many vegetables on her balcony as possible, and hiking with her girlfriend on weekends.

2020 Sermon Contest Winner: Elizabeth Foster

When God Closes a Door, He Opens a Skylight (Text)

About the 2020 EqUUal Access Sermon Award Winner

Elizabeth Foster is a Unitarian Universalist seminarian at the Boston University School of Theology. Before attending seminary, she directed religious education programs at UU congregations in Philadelphia and Boston. She is the founder and president of the BU Cross-Disability Club, and also sits on the Executive Board of the Riders Transit Access Group for the MBTA. She holds an M.S. in Nonprofit Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania and spent several years working for and volunteering with community nonprofits on issues of education. In her spare time, she co-organizes Boston Does Broadway, a series of community singalongs benefitting local charities, and enjoys waltzing and spending time with her adorable cat, Jade.

2019 Sermon Contest Winner: Amanda Schuber

The Call — Mental Health Advocacy

About the 2019 EqUUal Access Sermon Award Winner

Amanda Schuber has been a UU for 26 years, serving in various capacities at the UU Church of Tuscaloosa, AL as a former Director of Religious Education and Social Action Coordinator, and for two years at UUA headquarters in Boston as the Administrator of the Office of Congregational Fundraising. She has also served as a board member for numerous UU
organizations. She and her family are currently members of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Huntsville; where she serves as the Office Manger. Amanda is in her second year of the Masters of Divinity at Starr King School for the Ministry; she focused on Oppression Studies while studying at the University of Alabama, and is an advocate for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and
transgender rights along with spending many years leading workshops on accessibility and diversity. In her “spare” time she travels the country working with UU congregations as a Beyond Categorical Thinking Facilitator, assisting congregations in examining biases in the
ministerial search process.

2018 Sermon Contest Winner: Rev. Joanna Lubkin

The Spoon Blessing

About the 2018 EqUUal Access Sermon Award Winner

Rev. Joanna Lubkin is the Unitarian Universalist Chaplain at Wellesley College and is an affiliated community minister at Arlington Street Church in Boston, MA. She studied at Hebrew College Rabbinical School before finishing her Masters of Divinity at Andover Newton Theological School. Prior to ministry, Joanna earned a Masters in Public Administration and Nonprofit Management at Clark University and trained as a community organizer with JOIN for Justice. Her passions include singing harmonies, the spirituality of living with chronic illness, and perusing independent bookstores.

2017 Sermon Contest Winner: Kimberley Jackson

Disability, Identity, and the Circle of Life

About the 2017 EqUUal Access Sermon Award Winner

Dr. Jackson grew up in New Jersey and went to college at Rutgers University, where she graduated with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering. She attended medical school at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, School of Osteopathic Medicine, from which she graduated a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine in 2008. After medical school, Dr. Jackson specialized in family medicine and practiced in Pueblo until 2012, when symptoms of Ehlers Danlos Syndrome forced her to leave practice.

She moved to Denver in 2013, where she is now using her experience as a physician and a person with a disability to work on health policy issues in Colorado. Dr. Jackson helped to create a workshop about disability for medical providers, and has been to over a dozen clinics around the state to facilitate trainings. She serves on two committees for Colorado Medicaid: she is the vice chair of the Pharmacy and Therapeutics committee, and was appointed by Governor Hickenlooper to the State Medical Assistance and Services Advisory Council. Dr. Jackson is also a board member of the Phamaly theater company for people with disabilities, and of the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition.

In her spare time, Dr. Jackson enjoys writing and teaching faith formation and religious education at the First Universalist Church of Denver. If she can get her health to start cooperating a bit more, she is hoping to attend seminary at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver and to become a Unitarian Universalist minister.

2016 Sermon Contest Winner: Monterey Buchanan

The Disability Come to Jesus Talk

About the 2016 EqUUal Access Sermon Award Winner

Monterey Buchanan was raised in the First Unitarian Church of Denver, where she still attends as a member of the 20s and 30s group. As a teen she was active in the church youth group, cooking meals for homeless teens at Urban Peak shelter, and participated in youth services. During an off-campus semester in New York City, Monterey studied playwriting and began to write in support of positive disability portrayals in media with the help of her program director and Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts. Monterey is very grateful for the opportunity to merge faith and writing about disability rights, the support of her family and friends, and to EqUUal Access for encouraging conversations about disability at a time when the discussion is more important than ever.