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Community Minister - Rev. Sue Videen
I started out life as an Episcopalian, swore never to have anything more to do with organized religion in my twenties, thought better of this in my thirties, tried being an Episcopalian again but gave up after two years, and finally moved down the street to Eliot Chapel in 1982. I have been there, happily so, ever since.
There is a route for pilgrims on the Japanese island of Shikoku that seems an apt metaphor for the course of my life. The pilgrimage is circular. You start walking somewhere along the circle; anywhere will do. And you just keep walking, passing this or that holy site along the way, until you start seeing the same places all over again. But you realize, too, that nothing you see seems the same. You see everything with new eyes made more sensitive by all those earlier experiences on the way.
I earned a Ph.D. in Japanese language and literature in the seventies. I planned to teach somewhere, write a book...and I did those things without ever finding a full-time, tenure-track job. Meanwhile, I had become more and more drawn to spiritual matters and wanted to do something that would heal others-in a way that prowess in classical Japanese verb conjugations would never achieve. I entered Eden Theological Seminary in 1991, graduated in 1996, and was ordained a Unitarian Universalist community minister at Eliot Chapel in 1998. Now I work as a chaplain at St. Louis University Hospital and Barnes-Jewish Hospital. The funny thing, though, is that my life has come full circle. For several years, I taught Japanese at Webster Groves High School!
I think the early Unitarians in this country had a good idea. They chose people from within their own midst to be ordained and act as leaders. I see my hospital ministry as a form of outreach on behalf of Eliot Chapel. Long before ordination, I was doing ministry, reaching out to the Chapel's shut-ins, organizing food donations for the needy, and calling on the sick.
Now, after seminary and two CPE residencies, I have a whole lot more training to do the same kinds of things at a much deeper level of commitment.
Eliot Chapel was, is, and ever shall be my spiritual home. I enjoy being asked to preach an occasional sermon, lead worship once in a while, and perform a wedding or two each month. And now, teaching teenagers about a different culture, I feel as though I have been blessed with a whole new ministry promoting peace and understanding.
Rev. Videen may be contacted at .