Impact in Words
Baptism by Fire
Rev D’s intro to CCUU was “baptism by fire.” Immediately after joining us, we had a parishioner with a family crisis that she took charge of without missing a beat. Her pastoral care of this family made a huge impact on them, and (I believe) safely steered them back on course. While the whole CCUU was helpful to their healing process, Rev. D was wholly committed to being there (physically and spiritually) to get them through an inconceivable tragedy.
Debbie
Congregant
Countryside Church UU
Mover and Shaker
My family moved across the country, on a leap of faith, having viewed a handful of Rev. Denise’s services on YouTube. Rev. D brings awesome energy to her ministry. She’s a mover and a shaker and gets folks [literally] up and moving as much as able. She has gently nudged our congregation toward the clearer, more progressive, path it needed.
Marta
Congregant
Countryside Church UU
Respectful Collaborator
Rev. Denise is a respectful collaborator who brings great ideas to the table as well as honoring the gifts and expertise of those with whom she works. Her greatest strengths lie in her motivational preaching and worship creation, her tenacious and holistic leading of stewardship, her unpretentious personality, and a conspicuous calling to the ministry.
Ruben Piirainen
Music Director
Unitarian Universalist Church West
Seeing Greatness
Rev. Denise sees the potential in each person and motivates individuals to grow into the greatness that she already sees in them. Rev. Cawley has boosted my confidence to help me grow into a Religious Educator. Coming from a family full of ministers, I have been impressed with her balance of genuine warmth with professionalism.
Marta
Religious Exploration Manager
Countryside Church UU
Facing Tragedy
Reverend Denise offered pastoral care and helped me navigate the plethora of emotions and thoughts I was experiencing in the wake of my son’s death and during my daughter’s hospitalization. She brought me homemade food and sat with me in the hospital as we discussed and planned my son’s service. Rev. D believed in me and reminded me of my strengths when I have been laden with doubts and anxiety.
Chelsie
Congregant
Countryside Church UU
Inclusionary Atmosphere
Rev. Denise offers a welcoming inclusionary atmosphere benefiting visitors and longtime congregants. Of note is her enthusiasm related to stewardship efforts. She organized membership participation meetings, shared new information, organized personal reflections presented by members who spoke about their experiences and relationship to the church. Rev. D is forward thinking, creative and well informed.
Joy
Interim Search Team Member
Countryside Church UU
Fresh Perspective
With our Membership Committee meetings, Rev. Denise has provided ideas and perspectives that are new to me and others. I like the result and freedom of thinking outside the box. The review and resurrection of this committee have been essential to the increase in membership we want and need to support CCUU going into the future.
Susan Auld
Fellowship Committee Trustee & Congregant
Countryside Church UU
A Gift to Our Congregation
As an interim minister, Rev. D has provided care, consideration, and thoughtful leadership. Her sermons are deep, challenging, and often funny. She impels her audience to go deeper, to think, and to be courageous in their spiritual exploration. My children simply love her, especially since she engages all ages in service.
Natalie
Congregant, Youth Advisor
Countryside Church UU
Change Agent
Honest, sincere, and caring are the three adjectives I would use to describe Rev. Denise Cawley. Rev. D has the ability to connect with people … she is a “change agent” and a leader.
George
Congregant
Countryside Church UU
Inspires Young Adults to Lead
I learned so much from you during your interim ministry and grew so much more than I thought possible. Through “shaking things up,” our family has fundamentally changed in how we view ourselves as UUs and part of the CCUU community.
You also sparked a HUGE flame in the young adults, who are flourishing. The change you fostered with love is growing. During your ministry, I have never felt more loved while working through hard times.
Elizabeth
Congregant
Countryside Church UU
A Compelling Force
Rev D has been a compelling force in dragging CCUU into the future (and current times). She has led us to focus on social justice and is endlessly trying to teach us to recognize our position in the greater UU faith and its community. She has opened my eyes (and I am sure those of others) to the wealth of resources the UUA offers, and how to access and use them.
Debbie
Congregant
Countryside Church UU
Above and Beyond
Rev. Denise has gone above and beyond expectations when confronted with difficult situations and difficult people. She has shown a keen interest in all aspects of pastoral care, including getting directly involved in death and dying situations. Rev. D tries to mediate and/or resolve conflicts with a direct approach that is usually very successful.
Ken B.
Lay/Care Ministry Coordinator & Congregant
Countryside Church UU
Collaborative Leader
I can say without doubt I have not met anyone more intense, genuine, courageous, intelligent, fearless and so incredibly dedicated to Radical Love than the ministry of The Reverend Denise Cawley.
RevD was clear she was not the Sunday Show and wanted our engaged involvement in Church Worship. In our Beltane celebration, to my delight, RevD wanted the team to do the entire service. Talk about Radical!! She trusted me and the team offering suggestions. RevD taught me that We Are this Church!
Kathy B
Lay leader, EarthSpirit Team
UUCW
Getting Unstuck
Rev. Denise is inclusive, democratic in her planning and implementation, and empathetic. She has a long view of her goals and is able to multi-task, coordinate and listen to others as we sometimes struggle with process or get stuck with process.
Susan Auld
Adult Learning Committee, Trustee & Congregant
Countryside Church UU
Facing Fundraising Challenges
UUCW was fortunate to have Rev. Denise’s management of our pledge drive in a very challenging year. She recognized our success relied on a new transparency regarding uses of pledged money, and congregational engagement and communication. To introduce these new ideas and healthier practices must have taken some amount of bravery, but the church is much better for it.
Ruben Piirainen
Music Director
Unitarian Universalist Church West
Collaboration and Grace
I, personally, had to work through a miscommunication with Rev D on a service, I had come to understand exactly where she was coming from and we, together, resolved the issue. I am grateful to her for her patience and tact during that time, especially considering all the other balls she had up in the air at the time.
Lois
Worship Chair
Countryside Church UU
Magical Abilities to Move Through Conflict
One of her strengths is an almost magical ability to negotiate moments of change in meetings and in the congregation. The liminal space as she calls it. She is very skilled in negotiating the variety of conflicting feelings. She emphasized the journey and the process, and we moved forward with open minds.
Jerome
Board Member
Chair Interim Committee
Truly Loves Children
RevD’s services helped truly bring the children of the congregation INTO the congregation. Her delight in whimsy – such as bringing in real merpeople – to tell compelling spiritual stories for water communion was infectious. She’s also a strong believer in providing a safe place for children to explore challenging topics from loss to spirituality to gender identity to social and environmental justice activism…(Our children) KNOW they are loved, important, and even as children, capable of “scheming for good” (one of my favorite RevD phrases) to create a more just, equitable, and caring society.
Van Orden Family
Countryside Church UU
Competent Professional with Solid Boundaries
Rev. Denise is the most competent colleague I have met in my forty-six years of ministry in the area of innovative and experimental approaches to ministry. Her worship skills are exceptional. Her classes and programs have been well attended and praised. Everyone appreciates her aesthetic guidance, and she clearly has the soul of an artist. In her role as Interim Minister, she has helped the congregation understand itself better using tools that go beyond what I’ve seen other Interim Ministers use. In addition to congregational timelines, etc. she has used story-telling and graphics to help us understand our own congregation. She has done a superb job…I detect no area of meaningful deficit but suspect she may not yet understand how good she is at all this.
The Rev. C. Scot Giles
D.Min, BCC, DNGH
Affiliated Community Minister
Countryside Church
No Gasp Zone
In addition to her art and self-awareness, her strengths include her ability to engage in hard conversations. I’ve been in UU churches where the words God or amen would evoke a gasp. Rev. D can discuss those feelings as she sees UUs becoming more inclusive, less “gaspy,” more willing to invite more into than exclude from the faith. She can discuss the future of the faith without any pedantic arguing.
She can keep things simple enough that my mind can hold on to important meaning. She asks, “Do you want to be right or in relationship” (i.e. in community)? And when conflicts might be about to emerge, she will often repeat the question. Do we need to carve this on the lintel above the church door? Yes, I’d say so.
Scott L.
Tea With RevD aficionado, Congregant
UU Church of Washington County, Hillsboro, OR
Perceiving the Unspoken Needs
Stewardship members were reviewing the Pledge Drive that was just concluding (prior to RevD’s tenure with us). It was a lively conversation, open to what went well and what fell short and how to improve it next year. But despite weeks of hard work coordinating, strategizing, pivoting, and actively monitoring the drive, we had not reached our goal. One of us started to express a feeling of personal failure, which I believe we all shared to some degree. Immediately, Rev D stopped the discussion and asked us to back up, pause, and take in her affirmation that we truly had done all we could. She also reminded us that we were only one piece in a larger community that faces this challenge and responsibility. She spoke directly to the one who’d voiced the self-doubt, providing a spontaneous, very meaningful moment of pastoral care in an otherwise routine business agenda.
I have been on Stewardship for over 10 years, and I can’t recall any previous moment in which the minister intervened in a meeting with such awareness and care. This is not to fault of the previous minister, but rather to note that what struck me was RevD both perceiving the unspoken need and seeing the occasion of that moment to drop everything and minister to someone. As volunteers who give up time, we at UUCW tend to interact in meetings as “all business,” getting through an agenda, solving problems, and looking to next steps. Rev D interrupted this behavior, getting us to stop and notice how we were feeling, to create a sharing community in a tense moment. She slowed down the process, checked in, and held the focus until we felt seen and heard and could move on again. I love that Rev D practices her ministry so fluidly; it is not compartmentalized. I think this is key to understanding and appreciating one of her strengths.
Lynn K.
Stewardship Team, Trustee
Unitarian Universalist Congregation West
Brookfield, WI
