Sunday, April 27: Dr. Elías Ortega to preach at First U

This Sunday, April 27, Dr. Elías Ortega will guest preach at First Universalist Church of Minneapolis. Join us in person at 9 a.m. or 11 a.m., livestreaming at 11 a.m.

Dr. Elías Ortega is reshaping what it means to lead in the spirit of a living Universalism. He’s a knitter. A drummer. A thinker who grew up in Puerto Rico and the Bronx—carrying the memory of colonization and the brilliance of diaspora into classrooms, pulpits, and boardrooms. Now President of Meadville Lombard Theological School, he’s working to make theological education serve the living, not just the legacy.

His scholarship spans religious ethics, critical race theory, and Latinx and Africana studies. He helped lead the UUA’s Commission on Institutional Change, shaping Widening the Circle of Concern—a groundbreaking call to dismantle white supremacy within our faith. He co-founded the Freedom School at Drew University, training organizers in nonviolent direct action. He’s partnered with organizations advocating for migrant justice, juvenile justice, and radical mental health. And he does it all while mentoring students with tenderness, humor, and fierce intellectual generosity.

Whether you’ve followed his work or are meeting him now, you’ll feel it:
a spirit that settles and empowers,
bringing questions to shake the status quo
with a voice that calls us back to our faith’s legacy of love on the move.