Nancy McDonald Ladd

Nancy McDonald Ladd has served as Senior Minister at River Road Unitarian Universalist Congregation since 2012. Passionate about preaching, liturgy, and social justice, her first commitment is the building of relationships that sustain and challenge us to grow braver in the face of brokenness and loss. Using her background in community organizing, pastoral ministry, and worship design, her goal is to equip colleagues and lay leaders to do the work that is uniquely theirs to do in the congregation and in the world. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with her husband and two children.

From Nancy McDonald Ladd

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Editors Manish Mishra-Marzetti and Nancy McDonald Ladd and contributors explore how to foster and nourish diverse and authentic leadership within congregations—to not just exist but to succeed.

Book | By Manish Mishra-Marzetti, Nancy McDonald Ladd | From inSpirit: The UU Book and Gift Shop
Tagged as: Community, Diversity, Faith, Justice, Leadership, Social Justice

If God’s name is love, then God compels us to resist the fall to sinful violence by pushing back with muscular resolve against the social structures that confine our capacity to care. A universalist God for a tragic era is not a gauzy, hymn-singing force of personal devotion that draws us...

Quote | By Nancy McDonald Ladd | February 29, 2020 | From WorshipWeb
Tagged as: 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), Anti-Oppression, Commitment, God, Living Our Faith, Purpose, Responsibility, Universalism

General Assembly 2019 Event 228 Program Description For generations, liberal pulpits have rung with grand sermons about progress “onward and upward forever,” yet our people struggle to make sense of both their own suffering and enduring injustice all around us. What resilience lies beyond our...

Video | By Nancy McDonald Ladd | July 2, 2019 | From GA Presentations
Tagged as: Online GA, General Assembly

To work for justice, religious liberals should let perfectionism go.

Feature | By Nancy McDonald Ladd | March 1, 2019 | From UU World
Tagged as: Commitment, Identity, Justice, UU Theology, Anti-Oppression

With humor and humanity, Nancy McDonald Ladd calls religious progressives to greater authenticity and truth-telling rather than mere optimism.

Book | By Nancy McDonald Ladd | From Skinner House Books
Tagged as: Culture, Leadership, Unitarian Universalism

When we say, "Save the rainforest," we don’t mean that we cease to honor the mighty cedars or the reaching pines. We mean that one particular piece of a deeply sacred whole is more at risk than others, and that this risk, this threat, is worthy of our very bravest actions. So it is with black...

Quote | By Nancy McDonald Ladd | April 9, 2018 | From WorshipWeb
Tagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, Activism, Anti-Oppression, Commitment, Humanism, Race/Ethnicity, Secular, Wholeness

I truly do not care if a god ever hears me when I pray, but praying together with others is among the most transformative work that I do.

By Nancy McDonald Ladd | February 15, 2017 | From Spirit
Tagged as: Spiritual Practice

This reading is an excerpt of the sermon delivered by Rev. Nancy McDonald Ladd on Sunday morning at General Assembly 2016. For as long as two or more have gathered in the name of the spirit, those two or more have fought some fake fights. You remember, perhaps, the classic wedding reading from...

Reading | By Nancy McDonald Ladd | October 19, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
Tagged as: Anger, Christianity, Community, Compromise, Conflict, Conscience, Purpose, Relationships, Secular, Self-Respect, Seven Principles, Unitarian Universalism, Unity, Wholeness

The second edition of this classic UU text includes revisions and new chapters on multicultural worship, multigenerational worship, and new models of services for contemporary practices.

Book | By Wayne B. Arnason, Kathleen Rolenz, Nancy McDonald Ladd | From Skinner House Books
Tagged as: UU Theology, Worship

Black lives matter, because you do not have to be ‘good enough’ to deserve basic human rights.

Reflection | By Nancy McDonald Ladd | March 17, 2015 | From UU World
Tagged as: Justice, UU Theology, Personal Inspiration, Social Justice

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