this should not be seen

It can’t be mere coincidence that the UUCLV congregation voted on Earth Day, April 22, 2007 to call Rev. Gail Collins-Ranadive to be our settled minister. Fast forward one year later, the UUCLV congregation had the opportunity to celebrate Rev. Gail’s Installation Ceremony on May 10, 2008 – a joyous occasion.

One of Rev. Gail’s passions is respect for the natural world. Rev. Gail fell in love with the high desert and red rock country while serving in her first interim minister position at UUCLV. She belongs to the UU Ministry for Earth and is a member of the UU Religious Naturalists.

Rev. Gail’s theology is Transcendentalist, and she is increasingly amazed at how the new cosmology evolving out of quantum physics expands upon the intuitive knowing of Emerson: we the people are indeed the eyes and ears of the universe reflecting upon and celebrating itself.

Rev. Gail sees her role in the emerging new world view as helping to translate these abstract concepts into concrete ways of consciously living our daily lives.

She believes she began to hone these skills when she started writing children’s books and continued with presenting metaphors in her poetry: she has had more than a dozen poems published nationally in literary journals and anthologies. She even wrote her thesis in poetry for her M.A. in Peace Studies. Rev. Gail has had six biographical sketches of famous UUs published in Unitarian Universalism in the Home and copies of her Finding the Voice Inside, which was published by Skinner House Books, can be found in the UUCLV library. She has taught writing as a spiritual tool in UU churches, at General Assembly and for community organizations.

In 1996, Rev. Gail graduated from Starr King School for the Ministry. Bill Sinkford, President of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, was one of her classmates. She was ordained in 1997, in the First Parish (Old Ship) Church, in Hingham MA.

Rev. Gail grew up in New England, in an evangelical church, and always felt drawn to the religious life. She chose nursing as a way to follow “Jesus-as-healer” and then married a physician upon graduation from nursing school. As she contemplated how to rear their children to respect both the Hindu faith of their father’s side of the family and the Christian faith of their mother’s, she discovered Unitarian Universalism, “a religion that sought to embrace the wisdom of all of the traditions.”

Because ours is a faith tradition that believes that revelation is not sealed, that there is always more to be revealed through human awareness, Rev. Gail believes that new insights come not just through such great figures such as Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, but also through us “ordinary folks” whenever we receive glimpses of the sacred, such as being surprised by a rabbit in the yard or startled by a spectacular sunset. These “moments” are gifts, Rev. Gail believes, giving us the sense of being connected to the universe, and she is deeply grateful that our UU tradition is big enough to embrace whatever new concepts evolve through our conscious awareness.

Rev. Gail has 10 years of experience with parish ministry having served 3 years as a part-time minister for one congregation and as full time interim minister for 6 other congregations, including UUCLV 2000/2001. She has had the opportunity to live in different parts of the country and to experience different size congregations, from small to large, as well as congregations in various stages of transition.

To quote Rev. Gail’s experience with UUCLV at the end of her interim year, “Over the course of my interim year with you, I looked and I listened, I hiked and explored, I read everything I could about your desert . . . all in an effort to help YOU appreciate this oasis. And, in the process, fell in love with this place, with its creosote and coyote, rabbit bush and roadrunners, wild mustangs and desert tortoises, all vivid in the clear desert light. Yet, whenever a particular landscape or bioregion grabs our imagination, we become responsible for and to it; it is almost as if we the people are chosen by specific landscapes to be the eyes and ears and voice of the place.”