Organizer ~ Educator ~ Musician ~ Minister
Welcome, beloveds!
My name is Rev. Ranwa Hammamy (they/them), and I am an ordained minister in Full Fellowship serving the Unitarian Universalist tradition.
I have served in a number of capacities - in religious education, congregational ministry, hospital and community chaplaincy, and most recently as a faith-rooted community organizer at local, statewide, and national levels.
My name is Rev. Ranwa Hammamy (they/them), and I am an ordained minister in Full Fellowship serving the Unitarian Universalist tradition.
I have served in a number of capacities - in religious education, congregational ministry, hospital and community chaplaincy, and most recently as a faith-rooted community organizer at local, statewide, and national levels.
Whatever “form” my ministry takes, one thing remains constant - there is a fierce love at its center.
A Muslim and SWANA Unitarian Universalism
I am a proud "Third Culture Kid." Raised by Muslim parents who immigrated from the "Middle East" to the US as graduate students, I often experienced a sense of being "both and neither" American and Arab. My cultural and religious backgrounds are deeply rooted in the richly diverse and often misunderstood Islamic traditions that shaped my family's countries of origin. 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. My childhood summers were often spent visiting family in Egypt and Lebanon - my parents' homelands - and I also draw upon my SWANA (Southwest Asian & North African), or "Arab/Middle Eastern," cultural heritage to fuel my commitment to faithful community and collective liberation.
Called to Advocacy
Leading the interfaith contingent during the 2020 uprisings to end police violence against black lives (Oakland, CA).
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. 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.
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.
Called to Ministry
Protesting with interfaith leaders at the US-Mexico border against unjust immigration policies (December 2018)
After receiving my MPH, I enrolled 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. I was welcomed into Full Fellowship in 2023.
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. I was welcomed into Full Fellowship in 2023.
Called to Community
As 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.
Mobilizing with Unitarian Universalists & community partners in Georgia for the "Claiming Our Power" Utility Justice Campaign (June 2025)
Songleading at an interfaith action in San Francisco to demand elected representatives call for a ceasefire in Gaza (December 2023)
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Facilitating a training at the UU Justice Ministry of California's Summer Leadership Summit (August 2019)
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Called to Authenticity
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 parent of both a toddler and three cats, all of whom receive ample cuddles and treats from myself and my spouse. And I am a playful, "reverently irreverent" being. I believe in the necessity of imagination, creativity, and joy for our resistance and survival, for it is in those moments 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, justice, and abundant love.
I look forward to sharing more of my story - and learning some of yours, as well! - as we journey together in faith, justice, and abundant love.