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Church Staff Director of Religious Education Marlies Grogg, Program Assistant Ann McDermott, Youth Coordinator Sonny Munoz, Custodian
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Program Minister: Jonalu Johnstone
The Rev. Jonalu Johnstone serves as Program Minister of the church,
devoting herself primarily to Adult Religious Education, Covenant
Groups, and other programmatic aspects, including working with Lifespan
Faith Development. Her commitment is transforming lives to transform
the world. An active covenant group facilitator and former Summer Co-Minister (in 2000), Jonalu joined the staff in 2002. She brings training and enthusiasm for congregational organization and growth, as well as a background in education. As Growth Consultant for the Southwestern UU Conference (SWUUC), she helped small and mid-size congregations from Memphis to Houston to understand and address their particular strengths and challenges. Consulting for the UUA, Jonalu coordinated with the congregations of Dallas and Fort Worth the planning of a Metropolitan Strategy for Growth of Unitarian Universalism, a model that is imitated across the nation. She also served the Channing UU Church in Edmond as Consulting Minister for several years, where she has guided their visioning and long-range planning process. A graduate of Harvard Divinity School and John Haynes Holmes Fellow, Jonalu was ordained in 1993 by the UU Fellowship of Greater Cumberland (MD), the lay-led congregation where she grew into UU leadership and began preaching. For more than six years, Jonalu served as minister of the James Reeb UU Congregation in Madison, Wisconsin, the second congregation she was involved in founding. (As a lay person, she had been a charter member of the Bull Run Unitarian Universalists in Manassas, VA.) At James Reeb, her activities included development and implementation of a Lay Ministry Program; founding of “Coming Out, Coming Together,” an interfaith religious group supporting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people; creating alternative Wednesday evening and early Sunday morning worship; and active participation in the congregation’s Racial Justice Group. She has contributed leadership to various community and UU boards and committees. Her current commitments include President of Interweave Continental, the UU group supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender concerns; membership on the District Religious Education Committee; and Ministerial Settlement Representative for Part-time and Consulting Ministers for the district. Before becoming a minister, Jonalu worked in mental health and special education in Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia, having earned a BS at James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, and an MS at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. Both she and her partner of 21 years, Jane Powell, a social worker and devout long distance hiker, have family in Oklahoma, one of the primary reasons they have settled in Oklahoma City. Raised as a Southern Baptist, Jonalu retains trust in Spirit, in everyone’s ability to read and interpret for him/herself, and in congregational polity. |
