Pastor

Rev. Catherine Rolling, Acting Pastor

Born in Appalachia near the family farm, raised in the Mohawk Valley of upstate New York, and nurtured in Oregon with many intermittent years at the Jersey shore and in Seattle and Portland (25 of those years in the nursery business in the Pacific Northwest), Catherine Rolling developed a reverence for the beauty of the earth and a fundamental belief that it should be cared for and shared.  Within her theology is recognition that we are best nurtured in the place where we belong—the place we call sacred and know God—and that it is important that all in the neighborhood called Earth can have this belonging.

Catherine turned to justice during the protests of the 60’s and continued her learning at Ainsworth United Church of Christ and at Marylhurst University studying interfaith issues, writing about white privilege, and performing  civil rights movement songs with “Four Justice”.  She was a member of the Oregon New Sanctuary Movement and Jubilee and worked in environmental ministries with Oregon Interfaith Power and Light at Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon until joining the UCC national Justice and Witness Ministries staff as Environmental Justice Program Assistant in November 2008.  While in Cleveland she developed the Environmental Ministries web presence, coordinated and integrated eco-justice and environmental justice initiatives, liaised with the UCC Environment and Energy Task Force, participated in the Gulf Coast Initiative, the Multicultural and Multiracial group, the poverty initiative and represented JWM-Cleveland on the National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Working Group.

Catherine believes that this planet gifted by God for all beings is in peril because many humans think they can have anything they want with no consequences.  Spoiling our nest is the outcome of this sin.  We must return to only our fair share, so that all can have what they need to flourish.  The work of Christianity is to love our neighbor.

Catherine joyfully accepted a call to serve God among the people of Glade Church as their acting minister on October 15, 2010.  Her favorite phrase these days is “whoohoo” in response to hearing and receiving God’s call to this wonderful church located in the land of her heart.