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November 10, 2020


Resurrection Family,

I am pleased to introduce you to two professionals who will be providing interim support for our programming and pastoral care at Resurrection. Dr. Carla Sherrell and Rev. Denise Junious will be joining us on a part-time contract basis possibly through Easter. I am thankful for their expertise and their willingness. They already know our congregation and some of you know them as well. Dr. Carla will focus on our programming and justice offerings and Rev. Denise will focus on pastoral care. Their church emails will be DrCarla@ResurrectionMCC.org and RevDenise@ResurrectionMCC.org.

Their very brief bios are below. Both of them have authored so much and been so engaged in communities in so many ways that I decided to not include comprehensive bios now, but just enough to get us started together. While we still are meeting online for programming and for much pastoral care, this means creatively using Zoom and other methods to stay connected and to keep deepening our discipleship.

The next two Sundays, each of them will be preaching for us: Dr. Carla on November 15 and Rev. Denise on November 22. Also, Dr. Carla will begin this Wednesday, November 11, for a 5-week book series from 7:00 - 8:30 pm with God and the Pandemic by N.T. Wright. Register to attend here to receive the Zoom link.

With anticipation,

Rev. Troy
Rev. Troy Treash
Senior Pastor
281-254-8050
Dr. Carla Sherrell has been a social justice leader for over 30 years as a consultant, speaker, facilitator, educator, and facilitator, and now as a clergy intern at MCC of Washington, D.C. The focus of her work is co-creating and developing seamless embodied practices of love and justice in churches and broader communities within and across our personal, family, and social group identities and locations. Dr. Carla will be writing curriculum, scheduling, supporting, and facilitating book studies and other educational programming experiences here at RMCC. She is looking forward to joining in and contributing to the RMCC community.

Dr. Carla was raised in a Black, Church of Christ in the mid-western United States that taught the love of God. With the realization of being a same-gender loving woman, she left that community rather than participating in the “don’t ask, don’t tell” culture embedded in its policies and practices. Becoming a Black educator, counselor, and consultant working in oppressive systems over many years in secular environments, it is justice that was the impetus for her return to spiritual practice, Christianity, and the call to ministry. “I began to understand that the ground of, and model for, my justice work is the love of the Creator as embodied in the person and ministry of Jesus. Engaging and living the work of justice is an on-going call to rigorous love that courageously interrogates, resists, and transforms injustice on personal and institutional levels.”

Dr. Carla holds a Doctor of Education degree in Leadership and Change with a focus on structural inequality and diversity. She has presented on anti-oppression and justice at numerous conferences and at K-12 and post-secondary schools throughout the United States. Dr. Carla is an Assistant Professor in the Naropa University Graduate School of Counseling and Psychology, Somatic Counseling Department where her work focuses on embedding justice in all aspects of counselor/psychotherapist education and practice, as well as throughout university structures, policies, practices, and procedures.
Rev. Denise Junious is a spiritual director, life coach, author, and consultant. Her career spans more than twenty years as a management professional in the areas of healthcare, education, and financial services. Denise’s lifelong commitment is to promote spiritually healthy communities. She is a long-time member of Resurrection MCC and resides in Sugar Land, Texas. Denise earned a Master of Divinity from Houston Graduate School of Theology, a Graduate Level Certificate in Spiritual Direction, a Master of Science in Management, In 2015, Denise became Rev. Denise and was ordained as a clergy member of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC).

For MCC, Rev. Denise became a founding member of the People of African Descent Advisory Council responsible for helping increase MCC’s cross-cultural competencies and remove obstacles related to inclusion and supporting individuals to contribute and participate fully in MCC’s global ministries. She chaired the MCC Task Force on Race and Gender whose task was to determine the extent to which race and gender inequities existed within the general conference of MCC.

With RMCC, Rev. Denise has been a longstanding member of the Gospel Ensemble since 1998 and founded one of our community drumming circles hosted at Resurrection MCC. She has facilitated the "We See You: Standing in Solidarity" support group for individuals who had experienced sexual abuse and violence as children, and were re-traumatized from political events. She facilitated a group discussion series called “Reclaiming Compassion and Ending Microaggressions with the purpose of helping ministry leaders to understand the impact of microaggression and violence in the church. And she led RMCC in a church-wide conversation on Spiritual Leadership in a Multicultural World and explored the intersection of leadership and ministry in global religions. Currently, Rev. Denise represents RMCC on the Faith Leaders Coalition of Greater Houston, an organization committed to religious diversity, cultural respect, and advocacy.