Testimonials

Denise’s gifts as a minister are grounded in her prior professional work in communications, political advocacy, and management. She has been able to transfer her skills in working with organizations that range from the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender and HIV Project in New York City and the Salvation Army to her visions for what the church, and what ministry, can and must be at this moment in history.

Denise has already helped the congregation in many areas, including expanding worship practices, supporting pastoral care initiatives and has even inspired our Board to reimagine what life-long religious education integration could provide for our community by appointing a Task Force within weeks of her preaching on the topic. Denise assisted the finance, archive and endowment committees to launch a joint capital campaign that raised in excess of $38,000 in less than six weeks – far exceeding even the ambitious goal set by the committees. As a result, I entrusted her with providing the sermon to launch our annual stewardship campaign just this last month.

Denise possesses gifts in leadership, education, and art. For more than twenty years, she has worked tirelessly advocating for LGBTQ youth and adults with an impressive portfolio of leadership, education, and witness. Denise’s experiences range from running her own business to providing LGBTQ training to the Salvation Army. An artist, Denise excels at bringing beauty into the world through a variety of media that includes drawing, fabric dyeing, and creation of liturgical items among other talents. Denise easily connects with people. Denise built a Transgender ministry with special attention to issues of race, class, violence, access, and within our faith movement, at the request of the congregation she was serving. Spiritual practice plays an important role in her program—it is a project that pays attention to the spiritual dynamics of social justice work. Informing her work is the Commission on Institutional Change’s assessments of Unitarian Universalism. Denise seeks to create a more inclusive faith. In addition, Denise has completed more than the required one CPE unit to cultivate the pastoral care skills needed to accompany and minister to the oppressed and marginalized.

Denise has a strong public ministry. She is a systems thinker, capable of seeing the larger picture, and of understanding the places pressure can be applied to make change.

“Denise is an organizer. She sees things that need doing in community and gathers the people to get it done. There were plenty of official and unofficial class/ school projects that had her fingerprints all over them. She wouldn’t just organize with the usual suspects either. She looks around to see who needs to be pulled in and does it respectfully. She’s a natural collaborator. And is a lot of fun to work with. Her sense of humor comes through – she has an inner joy that shines.

Denise is thoughtful, passionate, and clear about her vocation. In our conversations, I’ve seen insightful reflection on the work of ministry, the state and future of our faith, power and privilege and social change, sabbath and art and healing, and congregational systems. Among colleagues, she is deeply supportive, compassionate, and caring. As a student, she is inquisitive and ambitious. As a preacher, my congregation found her engaging, provocative, and creative. Members raved to me about her sermons, her radical and thoughtful analysis, and her liturgical creativity. She took the opportunity and my encouragement, as a summer preacher, to try out themes, ideas, and practices.

“Denise Cawley has an impressive resume, but even more impressive are her abilities to reach people with a message of healing.

“I think Denise’s character is best summed up by the “mission” we both live by and laugh about: Scheming for Good. The end goal is always for a positive change – even if a little scheming (or let’s call it strategizing) is involved. I don’t mean this in a negative way at all – it does no good to have a goal if you don’t have a plan to get there and cannot bring stakeholders along with the plan. She has the strength of character to choose the right goals, has the integrity to stick to those goals when others are trying to twist or dilute them, and has the skills to get the work done… What Denise Cawley has gone through would have broken a lot of people; she should not be underestimated.

All because of Denise’s leadership, we now have all ages worship, religious education for ALL ages, with children in our services. Adults and youth are learning about UU history and social justice – all working together at incorporating ritual into our services. We are all sharing joys, concerns, doing activities and worshiping together – due to Denise’s guidance and her subtle way of helping us to do the work we all want to do. She doesn’t do the work for us – she helps us find the resources, making it fun and joyful. We now have a shared leadership model in the pulpit. More people are involved in both RE and Worship than ever. Denise single handedly inspired, encouraged, and helped us find the resources to accomplish our goals which ultimately changed the style of Worship and RE for what may be years to come at BCCUU.
Following her sermon on “The Death of Sunday School” the congregation was revved up with members coming up to me to talk about how to implement new ideas. Denise does it in such a way, we don’t feel shamed but instead feel excited. Things happen when Denise is around.

I wanted to comment that she did a wonderful job today facilitating a potentially difficult public conversation. She was very well prepared, coordinated well with Rev. Erik and was very skillful in fielding some challenging questions and comments. She was able to honor the person's perspective and still show up for the larger truth. It helped make me feel more confident in Bradford's ability to journey together.
Denise has filled in beautifully with unexpected absences of guest speaker and the RE Director, doing a wonderful job in both roles. Her confidence is very reassuring to others. I see Denise as a thought leader in a larger congregation. She holds the big picture, has a great handle on the mission and can raise positive energy.

Denise has brought her pastoral care skills to work with members of the congregations in acute as well as more deliberate situations. She has reached out and offered care to all in need, including the elderly, homeless and the marginalized. She works effectively with the congregation's existing Pastoral Care Companions. She tailors her method of communicating to the preferences of those in need including extended texting, social media apps and face-to-face meetings. Her professional experiences allow her to be comfortable in extreme situations. She readily makes herself available to those in need. She maintains appropriate boundaries while providing comfort and counsel.
Denise goes out of her way to include material sources from marginalized people (disabled, people of color, LGBTQ+, poor, immigrants and more) to remind us of our opportunities to welcome all.
Denise embraces fundraising and her messages around that have been the most effective I've seen in 13 years in this congregation.

In Worship Arts meetings, Denise balances listening and contributing in a way that makes her part of the team. Denise was able to call our attention to issues around how our congregation welcomes visitors and deals with boundaries in a manner that sparked discussion and led to personal reflection without being accusatory or shaming. Denise responds to local events in a constructive manner, recently co-authoring an article in the local newspaper addressing sexual harassment in the school district. Our congregation is regularly in the news because she reaches out into the community. She communicates in all media, including the church Facebook site, in a timely and engaging manner. Her reach is far beyond our church and into other communities and even to people who haven’t been to our church in years. Some decide to visit for the first time because of the messages Denise shares. Denise is always fully present and focused regardless of the situation. Her contributions to our 150th Anniversary celebration, our stewardship drive, and the religious education program have all been beyond anything that could have been expected.

Blessings on you, Pastor Cawley!
In the 18 months that you have shared yourself with us I have found your worship services to be well-organized and thoroughly prepared. You speak your prayers and sermons from prepared texts, but do so with strong evidence of hours of practice instead of appearing to be out-right reading them.
I am grateful for your work in leading us toward becoming a congregation that is informed about and welcoming of all gender expressions. This is completely new learning for me. I have known trans people, but did not understand anything about non-binary identities. It is thanks to you and your teaching that I at least know the last word in the previous sentence should be plural. Ain't I evolved, huh?
You have been warm and friendly to all of us. You will be missed.

I’ve had the pleasure to work with Denise Cawley on our Pastoral Care Committee. She brings new light, compassion and ideas which made our team stronger. She spent time with some of our church families that needed it the most. Always speaks with love, openness to all.
Denise also took charge of our Transgender program and help workshops which drew many people from not only our congregation, but from the community at large. These workshops were so deeply beneficial and taught us more than we thought we knew.
I very much enjoy her preaching on the pulpit. She expresses with her whole being and her meditations bring a sense of calmness and humanness. She’s a great listener and truly cares about people. Denise is a gifted artist which she shares in her ministry. Our congregation has benefited from her asking us to draw, fill in her handouts and writing our thoughts on paper. When we have completed our papers or assignments, we then can bring them home to guide us with continuing our spiritual practices in the comfort of our home. I find this extremely beneficial to grow along spiritual lines.