Contact info:
Office: 610-631-0280; Cell: 484-264-7680
Email: minister@tpuuf.org

Bryant Bossler Brown was ordained and installed as the settled minister of Thomas Paine Unitarian Universalist Fellowship on Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009.

The Rev. Bryant B. Brown

Rev. Brown was approved unanimously by the congregation on Sunday, June 7. He began his full-time settled ministry with Thomas Paine on Sept. 1.

The following was his message to the congregation in the November 2009 TP Beacon newsletter:

Now it is official: I am The Reverend Bryant Brown. Thanks to you of Thomas Paine Unitarian Universalist Fellowship ordaining me as your minister, “Rev.” can now be put before my name on order of service covers and the sign on Ridge Pike and my business cards. It is OK for me to wear a stole. The peculiarities of the United States tax code pertaining to the ordained clergy now apply to me. I suspect my letters to elected officials will be read differently.

How very human to conceive of an ordination ceremony. I am not remarkably different than I was on the Seventeenth of October. I don’t know much more. How I write and present sermons is not much different. My feelings for you and the other people in my life are the same. And yet, there is a change.

When couples come to me to discuss their wedding plans I ask, “Why are you doing this? What will change if you are married?” It is not often easy for them to express, but there is this idea that standing in front of our families and friends and all the Universe and saying “This one” is important. It does make a difference to us, and apparently to the world, when we declare a committed relationship right out loud.

Signing the membership book is taking on a shared commitment to everyone else in the Fellowship. Members take on a responsibility for our common wellbeing, a commitment to sharing our time, talent, treasure, and especially emotion. It is a different level of trust than just attending services and events. Ordination is important to me, and apparently, wonderfully, to you of the Fellowship too. We have stood before each other and created something that did not exist before October 18, 2009. There is a relationship that is different from, deeper than that created when you voted to call me to be your minister, or signed a letter of
agreement with me, or allowed me to lead Sunday services.

I suspect you feel a different relationship to me than you have had previously. I know I feel a more profound, meaningful—maybe mysterious is the word—connection to this congregation than I have felt in my previous experiences in ministry.

It is good to be with you. It is good to be your minister. Thank you.

You can hear one of the two services Bryant led during his candidating week here (May 31, 2009). His Sunday sermons are gathered here.

Bryant, of Bethlehem, Pa., has been a UU for 35 years.

He has been a very active member of six UU congregations in Vermont, Rhode Island, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Germany, and held the UU banner high at “nondenominational” gatherings in Nigeria. He has also worked as a chaplain at a regional trauma hospital in Bethlehem and at a behavioral health center in Sellersville, Pa.

Bryant attended Moravian seminary in Bethlehem, and received credits from the UU Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley, California. His first master’s degree is in Educational Technology from Lehigh University. His undergraduate degree from the University of Delaware is in Geology. As he says, the path is not the most direct.

His previous career includes civilian work for the Department of Defense in Germany (10 years); and a year working for a subcontractor in the building of an aluminum smelter in Nigeria; radio news director; audio-visual coordinator for a public school district; newspaper reporter; and educational technologies administrator for Pennsylvania’s largest vocational-technical high school.

Most recently he served as intern and Summer Minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis, Maryland.

On why he wanted to be minister at Thomas Paine:

If I had to pick a single word for what attracts me to Thomas Paine Unitarian Universalist Fellowship it would be “growth.” Some churches are enthused about growth; some are more, shall we say, ambiguous. TPUUF clearly lists growth – its own and the UU movement’s – among its primary goals. I find that exciting and important.

Unitarian Universalism is important to individuals. In every congregation I have been associated with, in New UU classes I have led, at most gatherings of Unitarian Universalists, I hear people telling of how they have come to be UUs. Theirs are stories of joy; of finding, after searching, what had been missing in their spiritual path; of finding the people share their values and value their thoughts and experience; of being able to be honest about what they believe.

In my work as a chaplain, with other ministers, and as a student at a Christian seminary I have learned that our faith has a unique, life-affirming message that can enrich people’s lives. That message needs to be more present and clearly heard in the religious conversation.

Our accepting, inclusive faith is important to the human race. In our world, in its history and the day’s news, we see the effects of exclusive practice in the name of religion. The success of pluralism in the United States, thanks in large part to the (Thomas-Paine-influenced) Unitarian and Universalist founders, points to the importance of UU Principles beyond our congregations and their members.

When my wife, Maggie, and I were looking for a faith community, friends invited us to their “really neat” church. It was a small Unitarian Universalist congregation. That began our joyous story of finding ourselves religiously among Unitarian Universalists and of realizing the importance to individual faith of a community. We are so very thankful to those friends, and that that church existed.

I am among the founders of the UU Fellowship of Frankfurt, Germany – I count that and active membership in other Unitarian Universalist congregations among my efforts at inviting others to share in the joy of this really neat faith.

Being a part of the growth of TPUUF is another way I want to be part of expanding the presence of Unitarian Universalism in our lives and in our world. That all the elements of fulltime, professionally led ministry are seen as key parts of TPUUF’s growth points to where my experience, education, and enthusiasms can continue to be valuable.