Deb Kotte, CLM

Since 2009, Deb has served our congregation by leading services, supporting members through her expertise as a licensed social worker and performing special ceremonies.

REV. BETH MARSHALL

As a life-long Unitarian Universalist, I can trace my path to ministry back to growing up in a small, lay-led fellowship.  

Seminary began at John Carroll University in Shaker Hts., with a detour through Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and finally was completed at Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago.  More than one person suggested that perhaps it was more of a “Gradual Degree” than a “Graduate Degree,   but I have no regrets.  Taking classes part-time in the evenings, allowed me to be home with my two children.

Since ordination in 2003, I have served First Universalist Church in Southold, New York; the UU Church of Blanchard Valley in Findlay, Ohio and most recently , First Unitarian Church in  Toledo, Ohio.   

My theological roots are unabashedly secular humanist.   Today I simply call myself a Unitarian Universalist.  In the course of any given liturgical year, I draw upon modern works of poetry, fiction, non-fiction and science,   as well as ancient readings from all the faith traditions.  If anything, I pull a bit more from modern Buddhists. Does this make me a UU Buddhist?  No, but it recognizes that for those particular services I have found supporting wisdom within the Buddhist tradition.

My husband, Tony Wilgus, and I have made our home in Oberlin, Ohio.  Tony recently finished teaching Social Work at the University of Findlay, and is now focusing his time on writing, consulting, and serving on the Board of Healthy Congregations. Between the two of us, we are parents to five grown children and grandparents to six grandchildren, who live across the country in five states and three different time zones.