Seeking diversity, UU parish installs a Latina minister, first in 400 years

[Bluebear]

Felicidades to the Reverend and the Congregation! :party:

CAMBRIDGE — First Parish in Cambridge, a Unitarian Universalist church near Harvard Square where six of the university’s presidents were inaugurated, has hired its first Latina minister in its nearly 400-year history.

On Sunday, the congregation voted, 135 to 3, to welcome the Rev. Lilia Cuervo as associate minister, a move that church leaders see as a step toward meeting the predominantly white congregation’s goal of becoming more racially and ethnically diverse.

“We’re expecting her to lead us and challenge us, but the responsibility to change belongs to all of us,’’ said the Rev. Fred Small, the church’s senior minister.

Cuervo, who will start her new job in September, is a 72-year-old native of Colombia who in college aspired to be an astronomer and spent years working as a demographer in South America and the United States before entering the ministry. In addition to English, she is fluent in Spanish and conversant in Portuguese.

“This is really breaking the tradition — it’s big for everybody,’’ she said in a phone interview from her home on Long Island, where she has recently served as a part-time minister and a hospice chaplain. She said she was moved by First Parish’s commitment to become more multicultural.

“I want to help them nurture the dream they have,’’ she said.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/03/30/seeking_diversity_first_parish_installs_a_latina_minister/