Rev. Beverly Waring
Photo/submitted
By Sue Wambolt, Contributing Writer
Westborough – Ministry is a third career for Reverend Beverly Waring, 57, who holds an undergraduate degree in computer science and a master’s in social work. After working as a software engineer for a dozen years followed by over 15 years working with the homeless, the addicted, the mentally ill, the abused, and the terminally ill and dying, Waring decided to take a different path. Today, she is the residing minister at the Unitarian Universalist Congregational Society of Westborough (UUCSW).
“Ministry combines and utilizes several areas of skill and interests into one satisfying career,” she said. “It combines my love for learning and teaching, my passion for social justice, managerial and financial experience, skills empowering people and pastoral care, an ability to think analytically and problem-solve, my deep sense of spirituality and the value I place on right-relations and inter-connectedness.”
Waring received a Master of Divinity from Andover Newton Theological School in Newton in May 2009. She was jointly ordained on May 23, 2010 by the UUSCW – where she did her internship from September 2007 to June 2009 – and her home congregation, First Parish of Sudbury Unitarian Universalist.
In addition to preaching on Sundays, Waring also provides pastoral care, teaches some adult religious education classes and workshops, participates in many UUCSW committee meetings and activities, meets regularly with the Westborough interfaith clergy group and engages with the wider community through Facebook, the church website, and Twitter. She also meets regularly with the church youth group, engages as much as possible with the children’s religious education program and works with staff and congregational leaders in areas of budgeting and fundraising – always striving to keep the values and principles of Unitarian Universalism in the forefront.
When not preaching or preparing for sermons, Waring is an avid reader and enjoys doing puzzles of any kind (jigsaw, Sudoku, logic, and crossword). She also enjoys watching mysteries on TV (such as “Sherlock Holmes” and “Masterpiece Theater”) as well as watching football – she is an “unapologetic Buffalo Bills fan.” Other favorites include live theater and geocaching.
Waring views children, youth and adults as both teachers and learners, as both prophets and visionaries. Accordingly, she hopes to develop a generation of leaders, within and beyond her congregation who can take with them into the world the values that Unitarian Universalists embrace.
“My wish for this congregation is that they recognize and realize their potential to make positive change a reality in Westborough, in the wider community and in the world. I honestly believe that living a life of integrity, humility and compassion is contagious. I know that by living our faith, working together, and honoring our diversity, we can indeed live up to that potential,” Waring shared. “It is with excitement and a vision of what can be that I embark on this next part of the journey with this congregation.”
Waring lives in Marlborough with her wife, Donna Scalcione, and their two dogs.
To learn more about UUCSW, visit http://uucsw.org.
