Please plan to attend worship this Sunday, August 13th for Brookmeade’s final pastoral transition for what we hope is a very long while: releasing the bridge pastor, and welcoming Pastor Liz as our new settled pastor! Please join us for a special service as we welcome Liz. The service will also feature a Blessing of the “Backpacks” where we will recognize and bless students of all ages who are beginning a new year, as well as their educators, administrators, and support staff. If you have a student in your family, bring them to church Sunday so we can help them celebrate the start of this new chapter. A Potluck Lunch will follow the service at 11:30 am. Bring family, friends, and your favorite culinary delight for a great time of UCC fellowship and celebration!
MEET OUR NEW PASTOR!
Rev. Liz DeWeese (She/Her) Becoming Anti-racist
“Welcome to Brookmeade Congregational Church UCC, we are so glad you found us, because we’ve been preparing for the time when you would give us a try. My name is Rev. Liz DeWeese, but people call me Pastor Liz, Pastor, or just Liz. (I’m good with what makes you comfortable.) I love being a minister because I love getting to know people and supporting them in their lives; I love bringing a challenge to the status quo understanding of the Bible; I love watching people learn that there is more than one way of understanding God, and God’s Word, and God’s hope for creation; I love living into and teaching through my actions that God is love (and not just because the Bible says so, but because our experience of God says so). I am excited to serve Brookmeade Congregational Church UCC! I am excited to see what God is doing here, growing a message of love for all, sharing an invitation to spread that love, and making room for all who want to join, to have a seat and a voice at the table which in our tradition, Christ spreads for all.
Here are some things you can learn about me: I was born and raised all over the South (North Carolina, Texas, Georgia, and Kentucky). My dad is a Retired Ordained Minister with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). This all means I was raised with good manners, eating fried okra, and boiled peanuts, and I know Barbeque that would make you slap your mama (if you’re not from the South, don’t slap your mama, that’s just a saying). It also means I know what you mean when you say, “Well, bless your heart.” Knowing all that, you have to know I must have a rebellious streak if as a woman raised in the church in the South, I answered a call to ministry, and now am serving a church that is unapologetically Progressive in its theology and its practice of social justice. I earned my Bachelor of Arts degree in Peace Studies with an emphasis in Social Justice with a minor in Religious Studies in 1998 from Chapman University in Orange, CA (no, we don’t claim John Eastman). I earned my Master of Divinity in 2003 from Lexington Theological Seminary in Lexington, Kentucky. I was ordained by the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Kentucky, (a full communion partner with the United Church of Christ) on June 8, 2003, at Frist Christian Church (DOC), Madisonville, Kentucky. I have served churches and church camps and regional committees and women’s retreats in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Arizona, and now Tennessee. I am the mother of two amazing young people in high school and middle school, and I am so proud to be their mother. On May 20, 2000, I married my college sweetheart Rev. Don DeWeese; we loved hard and championed social justice, and we served the church. On July 6, 2023, Don died unexpectedly, and we are still learning a new way of life.
I am super excited to be the new pastor at Brookmeade Congregational Church UCC! I would love to help you understand why this church is my hope for the future of God’s love in the world, and the spread of good news for all who will receive it. Feel free to reach out to our office and I will be happy to introduce you.”
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