.

>>> UU Lifetime Achievement Award Nominations due by March 31 >>>

Pastoral Biographies

 

Reverend David Carl Olson, Minister

Rev. David Carl Olson is an engaging speaker, a winner of sermon prizes in history and social justice, a theme speaker at conferences and frequent keynote speaker for groups engaged in the struggle for social change.Olson founded, with others, two congregation-based community organizations in Boston, Massachusetts and Flint, Michigan, and has served on the national steering committees of the UU Latino/a Networking Association and the US-Cuba Sisters Cities Association.

Olson's first career was in theater where he was an actor, singer, vocal coach, and producing director of Little Flags Theater in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and where he made frequent guest appearances on other stages throughout New England. He has appeared in talking books published by Houghton Mifflin Company, and in an American Public Radio special.

Olson sees that the world is a place of great possibility, but the public square can be a place for conflict and pain. Communities of faith can creatively mediate that pain and celebrate those possibilities. Together, we can move from "the world as it is" to "the world our faith calls us to create."

 

Reverend Dale Lantz, Community Minister

 

Community Minister Dale Lantz earned a Master of Divinity Degree from Methodist Theological School in Ohio and received final fellowship from the Ministerial Fellowship Committee of the UUA in 2002. He earned a Master of Social Work degree from Delaware State in 1992. He recently retired after working for 11 1/2 years as a hospice chaplain. He is currently the Vice President of the Unitarian Universalist Association’s “Society for Community Ministers.”  

 

 

Dr. Michael Franch, Affiliate Minister
 

Affiliate Minister Mike Franch has been involved with our church since 1984 after serving as Leader (minister) of the Baltimore Ethical Society for nine years. At First Unitarian, Mike performs weddings/unions, memorial services, and is available for other pastoral needs. He coordinates our Book Discussion Group, helps plan the Winter and Spring Celebration services, and is active in the Religious Education program. In 2007 he retired from his day job as health policy analyst in the Medicaid Program of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Mike earned his Ph.D. in history at the University of Maryland. His articles on Baltimore history have appeared in the Maryland Historical Magazine, The Sun Magazine, and in the book, Maryland: Unity in Diversity. He also speaks on historical and cultural issues for the Maryland Humanities Council and is active in the Baltimore Folk Music Society.

 

Reverend Harry Woosley, Affiliate Minister


The congregation of The First Unitarian Church of Baltimore commissioned Harry Woosley as Affiliate Minister for the Deaf on May 2, 2004. We believe that our church made history as the first UU church to commission a minister for the deaf. Originally ordained in a Christian denomination, Rev. Woosley recently retired from a career working with the deaf/AIDS population, most recently with the Family Service Foundation. His UU commissioning is formal recognition of his already active deaf ministry. He has also served on the Board of Trustees of our church.