Our Co-Ministers

Barbara and Bill Hamilton-Holway were called by our congregation as our co-ministers in 1996. Before coming to our congregation, they served as co-ministers in Salt Lake City, Utah. During this time, they helped expand Unitarian Universalism by serving as Organizing Ministers for congregations forming in Ogden and Park City.

Barbara is a graduate of Starr King School for the Ministry. Before ministry, she did graduate work in literature and for a decade she was a high school English teacher. Barbara also was a teacher as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Fiji Islands. She is grateful for her years parenting her now grown children Sarah and Ben. Walking, blue skies, sunshine, poetry, friends and family refresh her spirits. Barbara wants her ministry to encourage people to be true to themselves, to be who they can be, and to increase the odds on justice and love.

Bill graduated from Meadville/Lombard Theological School and the University of Chicago Divinity School. After graduation, he served as minister of congregations in Texas and worked for the Unitarian Universalist Association in Boston as Director of the Extension Department. During college a significant decision for Bill was registering as a Conscientious Objector. Bill's family roots in Unitarian Universalism go back many generations. His grandparents were founders of All Souls Unitarian Church is Tulsa and his parents are founders of Hope Unitarian Church in Tulsa. Unitarian Universalism is in his blood. Family, genealogical research, reading, writing, travel, and hiking are among his great loves.

 

 

Barbara and Bill like collaboration and team ministry and are grateful to work with the excellent staff and the good congregation of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley.

Our Family Minister

Laura Bogle

Laura is excited to contribute to this community of hope by building compassionate connections which allow us all to learn and grow together. Laura began her path to ministry after several years as a field organizer for a national economic justice organization. She graduated in May 2010 with a Masters of Divinity from Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, and has a BA in Peace and Global Studies from Earlham College. Laura just completed a full-time parish internship at Mt. Diablo UU Church in Walnut Creek, CA. One of her favorite experiences there was leading the Rites of Passage program for 7th graders and their parents.

She has served as an intern chaplain at San Francisco General Hospital, a seminarian organizer on health care reform for the UU Legislative Ministry of California, a member of the Racial Justice Advocacy Group at PSR, and a Board member of the Bay Area Coalition of Welcoming of Congregations.

Laura was born and raised in the mountains of East Tennessee, and lived for much of her adult life in Washington, DC. She currently lives in Oakland with her long-time partner and spouse Katie. She enjoys hiking in the bay area parks, tutoring a 2nd grader at her neighborhood school, eating at farmers markets, running around Lake Merritt, and reading poetry and mystery novels.