About

The Rev. Dr. Marilyn Sewell is an accomplished Unitarian minister, writer, activist, and spiritual leader. Dr. Sewell recently retired after serving 17 years as the Senior Minister of the First Unitarian Church of Portland, Oregon.

Raised as a Catholic and Southern Baptist, Marilyn Sewell worked as an English teacher, a psychotherapist, and a television personality before becoming ordained as a Unitarian Universalist Minister in 1986.  She has since become a noted figure in the Unitarian movement, known for her dynamic speaking, her writing, and her teaching. She is frequently sought out by the media for interviews on various spiritual and social justice issues.

Dr. Sewell has studied broadly and has master's degrees in English literature, social work, and divinity, plus a Ph.D. in Theology and Literature from the Graduate Theological Union and the University of California at Berkeley, California.

She is the editor of two celebrated books of women's poetry: the award-winning Cries of the Spirit, 1991 (one of Library Journal's "best books of the year") and a companion volume Claiming the Spirit Within, a Sourcebook of Women's Poetry, 1996. In June of 1998, a collection of her sermons, Wanting Wholeness, Being Broken, was published. The summer of 2001 saw the release of Resurrecting Grace: Remembering Catholic Childhoods, her edited collection of memoirs by people who grew up Catholic, including a moving essay of her own. Breaking Free: Women of Spirit at Midlife and Beyond is a collection of powerful, often daring essays by women reflecting on the spiritual growth in the second half of their lives. Again, Dr. Sewell has contributed a piece, both personally revealing and emotionally moving. Her latest publications are A Little Book on Forgiveness and A Little Book on Prayer.