The Unitarian Universalist Church of Savannah (UUCS) is thrilled to announce the installation of the Rev. Lisa M. Doege as its settled minister. The ceremony will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, October 19, at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Savannah located on 235 Habersham Street. A reception for attendees will take place in Troup Square immediately following her installation. It will include light fare, donated in part by Shuk Mediterranean, as well as specialty chocolates for dessert.  

Clergy from all faiths are welcome and encouraged to join in the ceremony to show their support for Rev. Doege as she leads the local UU community in this new chapter of its growth. Rev. Lisa has been serving the local UU church as its contract pastor since 2022, as the church evaluated its financial position in a post Covid world. The UU Church of Savannah is committed to being a welcoming faith community that exemplifies UU principles which include: Justice, Generosity, Pluralism, Transformation, Equity, and Interdependence; all centered on the core value of LOVE.  

Faith leaders from across the city, including Rabbi Robert Hass, of Congregation Mickve Israel, and from across the country, including UU Association, co-Moderator, Minister Meg Riley, and many others will be sharing special readings, words and reflections on the occasion of Rev. Lisa’s installation. Minister Riley, comments, “Rev. Lisa is one of our movement’s finest preachers and I am delighted to see her settled in the beautiful community of Savannah.”

“In the two years that Reverend Lisa has been with our church on a contractual basis she has provided a leadership style that has been exactly what this congregation needs as we expand beyond the constrictions of Covid and into the future,” says Kevin Ionno, UUCS Trustee at Large. “She possesses practical wisdom which I have seen first-hand in board meetings. Her sermons are sometimes nuanced and probing, sometimes challenging, and always thought provoking. In them she draws upon a rich literary and theological tradition. She is encouraging to the congregational ministries and committees, allowing them wide latitude in their decisions and execution, which has led to several innovative and beneficial results.”

Being UUCS’s settled minister, Doege looks forward to helping the church continue its commitment to the community. She would like to serve a wider variety of people both in the church and to the broader community especially through its participation in JUST (Justice Unites Savannah Together). In collaboration with a diversity of faith communities across the city, JUST identifies key justice issues on which to engage and make requests of local city and county officials. As it has done for many years, UUCS is committed to working with Savannah Pride Center and the MLK Observance Day Association to embrace and empower residents who are often disenfranchised.  

As the newly installed minister, Rev. Lisa says, “I want to say yes to, and support ideas that come from the community.” Indeed, she was initially attracted to UUCS due to its commitment to social justice, and it being a progressive church in “areas where it matters.” A native of Minnesota, her move to Savannah was supported by her interest in seeing and experiencing a new part of the country.

She is an amazing pulpit speaker who brings in sacred writings from Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, and a multitude of other faiths. When she is not preparing for Sunday service, Rev Lisa enjoys spending time with her daughter Lucia, her lab-mix, Nora, and recharging through “hammock time.” 

Rev Lisa attended Harvard Seminary in 1992 and was ordained in 1994. Prior to coming to Savannah, she has served as chaplain and full-time ministers with several UU Congregations across the mid-West.  

She describes her original call to ministry as follows, ”I was called into the Unitarian Universalist ministry as a young teenager when I heard the minister of my family's church describe his understanding of what happens between preacher and congregation on Sunday mornings (in the very early 1980s most ministry was assumed to happen on Sunday mornings), and recognized in that description a role that I could fulfill. He said (or rather, I heard him to say) that he brought his life experience to the creation and offering of the worship service and that individual members of the congregation bring their life experience to their participation in the worship service, and the meeting of the two sets of separate yet simultaneous life experiences. I returned to that description repeatedly as I completed high school and began college, and my clarity that congregational ministry could be a container for my interests, my gifts, my deep grounding in Unitarian Universalism grew.”

To learn more about Rev Doege’s installation, or more information about Unitarian Universalist Principles, please visit www.uusavannah.org or call 912-549-0326.