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The Reverend Bonnie Vegiard is Program Minister at Eliot Chapel. Her primary focus is on supporting and developing the overall program of the congregation, including lifespan religious growth and learning opportunities, and religious support targeted to specific groups, i.e. familes, elders, singles, etc.
Rev. Vegiard may be contacted at .
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| Call to Ministry | Ministry | Education | |
Childhood and Young Adulthood
I was raised as a small-town Missouri girl in Fulton, MO with several siblings and a Preacher for a father. My dad moved from parish ministry to hospital chaplaincy when I was young, and my mother worked in nursing and hospital administration. My extended family still lives in mid-Missouri.
When I was 8 years old, I was diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease called Macular Degeneration. This disease is common in older adults, but very rare in young people. The degenerative process was so slow, however, that I adjusted year to year and kept up a full activity schedule, from a strong academic program (Honors student, graduated Valedictorian), to sports, to music and voice lessons. My disability is sometimes a struggle, usually with frustration about not having ready access to print or the ability to drive. I use computer adaptations to read and research, as well as books from the Library for the Blind. I hire drivers for professional travel. Standard mobility is not a problem. Because only my central vision is affected, most people do not know I have any disability unless I explain the situation to them.
My family has always emphasized the perspectives of openness and acceptance. My father's religious perspective would be called universalist in his emphasis on a loving God accessible to all. In spite of his commitment to ministry, he let all of us children find our own way religiously. As a result, I was not involved in any church from about the age of 14 until I found a Unitarian Universalist congregation at the age of 22. My father actually recommended the congregation to me.
I received a B.A. and M.A. in English and Creative writing (1988 and 1991 respectively) from the University of Missouri at Columbia. My plan had been to pursue a Ph.D. in literature; however, my new-found religious home gave me other ideas. I was so excited to be able to view religion from the free and open UU perspective that I knew I needed to follow this enthusiasm.
Seminary and Growing Family
I chose Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago because it is a specifically UU theological school with ties to a whole consortium of seminaries surrounding the University of Chicago. At Meadville Lombard, I met and married Daniel O'Connell, another student. During our third year of school we moved to Rochester, New York for our internships. We finished with one final year in Chicago, living in nearby Hobart IN, where I served as a full-time Student Minister for a small congregation.
Our small family moved to Connecticut in 1996 to take up the call of two separate congregations in West Redding and Woodbury CT. During our six years of ministry there we were also engaged in raising two children. Life balance is always difficult with two ministries and two children, yet I am proud of both my accomplishments in ministry and of my wonderful children.
The Search for Meaning: My Call to Ministry
I had never considered becoming a minister when I was growing up. Even though my father was a parish minister, and I was always the show-off Preacher's Kid in Sunday School, I don't recall that it even entered my mind that I too could become a minister. No doubt this lack of inspiration was because there were no women minister role models in the Southern Baptist denomination, where I was raised. My dream was to become a writer; I wrote my first children's story at the age of seven, and kept up my interest in reading and writing fiction through my Masters degree in English and Creative Writing in 1991.
My interest in religion waned as a teenager, and that combined with my father's conversion to a more liberal Christian tradition and his effort to let his children choose for themselves, led to a slow withdrawal from church on my part. By the time I started college, I was thoroughly agnostic and at times atheistic. For the remainder of my college years, and my Masters degree, I developed an interest in philosophy, history, feminism, and social justice. The question of religion did come back in my life, in the form of an invitation to the Unitarian Universalist church. For me, all the interests I had been developing felt as though they came together in this liberal, reasoned, socially conscious and spiritually growing community. I felt immediately at home.
Being a member of the church gave me a chance to think more deeply about the meaning behind my commitment to feminism, anti-violence, social activism, and personal growth. Slowly the search for personal growth began to seem too shallow to me, too individualistic. I began to see the importance of connecting personal growth with a community that seeks the truth. I wanted to change more than just myself.
My seminary training and past six years of ministry have confirmed my calling to ministry. Many people are able to pay attention to deeper meaning only in very limited spare time, after making a living and running a household. My profession calls me to take time to consider meaning questions in life, and then to lead the way for others who do not have the time to focus on meaning as much as I do. It is my job to make the path a little easier for those in my congregation, and for anyone who seeks truth and meaning.
Because of the importance of searching for meaning in community, and because I believe so strongly in our Unitarian Universalist approach to this search, I am very interested in institution-building and church growth in my ministry. Our Association has too long believed that people interested in liberal religion would find us; it is important that we show the world that we have something we believe in, and something to share. Unitarian Universalism has been liberating for me; I believe it can be for many others who simply do not know about us.
Only gentle and constant pouring of love into the world can combat the hate and fear that so many people express today in forms of violence and abuse. I do not expect to change the tide in the world toward total understanding and good will, but I am committed to doing what I can do.
The Unitarian Universalist ministry is a place where I believe I can put these ideals into practice. It is the best place I have found for me to both pursue my search and to engage in community, to be with others and to affect the larger whole. In ministry, even in the midst of the utter complexity of human nature, I look toward a more meaningful life for myself and for the whole.
Ministry
Program Minister, Eliot Unitarian Chapel, Kirkwood MO, August 2002 - Present
Received Final Fellowship from the Ministerial Fellowship Committee, Feb. 2000
Parish Minister, Mattatuck UU Society, Woodbury CT, 1997-2002; Began as Extension Minister in Jan 1997, called as Settled Minister May 1999
Ordination, First Universalist Church of Rochester, Nov. 1996
Student Minister, (full-time) First Unitarian Church of Hobart, IN, Sept. 1995-June 1996
Parish Internship, First Universalist Church of Rochester, NY, Feb. 1995-Aug.1995
District Internship, St. Lawrence District Office, Sept. 1994-Feb. 1995
Clinical Pastoral Education, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago, IL, Summer 1994
Education
M.Div., Meadville Lombard Theological School, 1996;
M.A., University of Missouri, Literature/Creative Writing, 1991
B.A., University of Missouri, English, 1988