Minister. Activist. Musician. Educator.
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Greetings and welcome, beloveds!
My name is Rev. Ranwa Hammamy (they/she), and I am an ordained and fellowshipped minister serving the Unitarian Universalist tradition. Raised by Muslim parents who immigrated to and met in the US as graduate students, my religious background is deeply rooted in the richly diverse and often misunderstood Islamic traditions. While my journey with my Muslim religious identity contained empowering ups and painful downs, I have come to embrace the liberationist strands woven throughout the traditions, and integrate them into my identity and ministry, identifying publicly as a Unitarian Universalist-Muslim. |
Raised in the suburbs of Maryland, I was blessed with a public school education that was well-funded, inclusive of the arts, and academically rigorous. My childhood summers were often spent visiting family in Egypt and Lebanon - my parents' homelands - and I draw upon my "Arab/Middle Eastern" cultural heritage to fuel my commitment to community and liberation. The economic and educational privileges I experienced in my childhood are not lost on me, and I recognize the ways in which they have granted me access to opportunities others in our world are too often and unjustly denied.
I attended St. Mary's College of Maryland for my undergraduate studies, and received my B.A. in Psychology, with a minor in Vocal Performance. While there, I found myself called to serve in a profession that supported individuals as they navigating significant transitions and institutions, opting to enroll in a master's program in College Student Personnel at the University of Maryland, College Park.
While at the University of Maryland, I worked in the Student Legal Aid Office, supervising the Student Defender Program that provided advocate support and services to students who were being charged with various academic or conduct violations. It was this experience of witnessing cultural biases and injustices against often marginalized students, combined with the Bush Administration's attempts to eradicate S-CHIP (State Child Health Insurance Program) that redirected my call of support and navigation into health education and advocacy. After some discernment, I transferred to the University of Maryland's School of Public Health, and received my MPH in Community Health Education.
My studies and professional experiences led me to begin studying at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, as a member of their Toll Scholars Public Interest Program. The move to Philadelphia came with major life transitions as well, including my eventual membership with the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia! As I attended services and became more involved in the community, first as part of its choir, then its justice and membership ministries, and eventually serving on its Board, I found myself doing some deep healing around religion and its role in the world that I didn't realize I needed to engage. It was during a significant health crisis in my second semester of law school that I took a leave of absence and began the discernment about what my relationship to my faith - and its relationship to the world - was truly calling me to do and become.
After some time, I opted to leave law school and begin my pursuit of an M.Div at Union Theological Seminary in New York, with the intention of becoming an ordained & fellowshipped Unitarian Universalist minister. It was while I was at Union, surrounded by a community of students, faculty, and alumni, that I began to weave together the many seemingly-disconnected threads of my being and calling. There, surrounded by scholars, activists, organizers, and educators all rooted in a deep commitment to theologies of liberation and love, the pathway of my ministry began to take shape.
Since graduating from Union in 2015, I have engaged in various forms congregational and community ministry. I was welcomed into Preliminary Fellowship in June of 2016, and ordained by the Mt. Diablo UU Church in Walnut Creek, CA in December of 2016.
In additional remaining an affiliated community minister with the Mt. Diablo UU Church, I have served as a chaplain in both hospital and community settings. In January of 2019, I accepted the invitation to serve as the Executive Director of the Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry of California, our faith tradition's largest "UU State Action Network," helping to educate, organize, and mobilize UUs around the state in alignment with our values. In August of 2021, I left my position at UUJMCA to support our broader association's justice and organizing ministries, and am now serving as the Congregational Justice Organizer on the Side with Love Organizing Strategy Team at the Unitarian Universalist Association. I continue to engage in critical organizing ministries with our faith because I believe it is our responsibility and promise to this world to heal the harms of the past and present, and create a more prophetic, thriving, and loving future for all.
While a commitment to our collective liberation is a core aspect of my identity and ministry, there are other aspects of my self that inevitably show up! I am someone who will break into song at any given moment - as a trained vocalist and song leader, I have been known to improvise hymn parodies, write a quick song chant for a movement moment, or break out a lyric that I feel fits the mood. I'm a proud pet parent to three cats and two guinea pigs, who receive ample cuddles and treats from myself and my spouse. And I am a playful, sometimes irreverent being. I believe in the necessity of play, creativity, and joy for our resistance and survival, for it is in those moment when we feel the lightness of our spirit, do we truly remember what it is we are fighting for.
I look forward to sharing more of my story - and learning some of yours, as well! - as we journey together in faith and justice.
I attended St. Mary's College of Maryland for my undergraduate studies, and received my B.A. in Psychology, with a minor in Vocal Performance. While there, I found myself called to serve in a profession that supported individuals as they navigating significant transitions and institutions, opting to enroll in a master's program in College Student Personnel at the University of Maryland, College Park.
While at the University of Maryland, I worked in the Student Legal Aid Office, supervising the Student Defender Program that provided advocate support and services to students who were being charged with various academic or conduct violations. It was this experience of witnessing cultural biases and injustices against often marginalized students, combined with the Bush Administration's attempts to eradicate S-CHIP (State Child Health Insurance Program) that redirected my call of support and navigation into health education and advocacy. After some discernment, I transferred to the University of Maryland's School of Public Health, and received my MPH in Community Health Education.
My studies and professional experiences led me to begin studying at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, as a member of their Toll Scholars Public Interest Program. The move to Philadelphia came with major life transitions as well, including my eventual membership with the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia! As I attended services and became more involved in the community, first as part of its choir, then its justice and membership ministries, and eventually serving on its Board, I found myself doing some deep healing around religion and its role in the world that I didn't realize I needed to engage. It was during a significant health crisis in my second semester of law school that I took a leave of absence and began the discernment about what my relationship to my faith - and its relationship to the world - was truly calling me to do and become.
After some time, I opted to leave law school and begin my pursuit of an M.Div at Union Theological Seminary in New York, with the intention of becoming an ordained & fellowshipped Unitarian Universalist minister. It was while I was at Union, surrounded by a community of students, faculty, and alumni, that I began to weave together the many seemingly-disconnected threads of my being and calling. There, surrounded by scholars, activists, organizers, and educators all rooted in a deep commitment to theologies of liberation and love, the pathway of my ministry began to take shape.
Since graduating from Union in 2015, I have engaged in various forms congregational and community ministry. I was welcomed into Preliminary Fellowship in June of 2016, and ordained by the Mt. Diablo UU Church in Walnut Creek, CA in December of 2016.
In additional remaining an affiliated community minister with the Mt. Diablo UU Church, I have served as a chaplain in both hospital and community settings. In January of 2019, I accepted the invitation to serve as the Executive Director of the Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry of California, our faith tradition's largest "UU State Action Network," helping to educate, organize, and mobilize UUs around the state in alignment with our values. In August of 2021, I left my position at UUJMCA to support our broader association's justice and organizing ministries, and am now serving as the Congregational Justice Organizer on the Side with Love Organizing Strategy Team at the Unitarian Universalist Association. I continue to engage in critical organizing ministries with our faith because I believe it is our responsibility and promise to this world to heal the harms of the past and present, and create a more prophetic, thriving, and loving future for all.
While a commitment to our collective liberation is a core aspect of my identity and ministry, there are other aspects of my self that inevitably show up! I am someone who will break into song at any given moment - as a trained vocalist and song leader, I have been known to improvise hymn parodies, write a quick song chant for a movement moment, or break out a lyric that I feel fits the mood. I'm a proud pet parent to three cats and two guinea pigs, who receive ample cuddles and treats from myself and my spouse. And I am a playful, sometimes irreverent being. I believe in the necessity of play, creativity, and joy for our resistance and survival, for it is in those moment when we feel the lightness of our spirit, do we truly remember what it is we are fighting for.
I look forward to sharing more of my story - and learning some of yours, as well! - as we journey together in faith and justice.
With Fellow Members of the 2015-2016 DRUUMM Steering Committee
