<p><strong>Rev. Allyson Sawtell</strong> (she/her) is a retired UCC clergyperson, part-time rabble-rouser, and a volunteer in a progressive United Church of Christ congregation in the unceded lands of the Ute, Arapaho, and Cheyenne (Denver, Colorado).</p><p>A graduate of Andover Newton Theological School formerly in the Boston area (Massachusetts tribe), she served as co-pastor with her spouse in churches in rural and small-city Iowa, worked in various faith-based social service nonprofits in Denver, as well as in a youth and vocation program at a local seminary. </p><p><br></p><p>She writes liturgies and poetry for her website Not Ordinary Church (allyson.revsawtell.org). She and her spouse are the proud parents of a young-adult son, who also lives in Denver.</p><p><br></p><p><em>"I am a person with deep passions, callings, pullings-at-my-spirit that I can't ignore. I am passionate about care for and with Creation, about racial and gender/orientation inequality and justice. And about our connectedness to each other and all things. I believe that life is hot-wired for community, for connection. And we humans have forgotten that, and we are destroying ourselves and "our common home" as a result. And because I feel so strongly about these things, I find myself called to write, to help us return to that sense of community, to help us look at ourselves and the world in a different way."</em></p>