TV SHOW GUEST. 12.16.2013 UPLIFTING A NATION FROM SPIRITUAL BANKRUPTCY. Rev. Dr. Melanie Miller, Sojourners, United Church of Christ, Charlottesville, VA:
The Rev. Dr. Melanie Miller has a long history of social justice advocacy. She has coordinated numerous poverty housing trips, in cooperation with Bridges to Community, to Nicaragua in order for area youth to explore economic justice issues. She has also helped to coordinate two trips to Kenya; one to engage in environmental justice with the Green Belt Movement and Wangari Maathai, 2004’s Nobel Peace Prize winner; and one to engage in economic justice issues in the Kibera slum outside of Nairobi.
Melanie is an advocate and a community leader in women’s reproductive justice. She served on Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic’s Board of Directors as Co-Chair. She also served on the Clergy Advisory Board for New York State Family Planning Advocates. Melanie also served as the United Nations non-governmental organization representative for the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.
Rev. Melanie Miller joined Sojourners, UCC, in 2011, after serving The Church in the Highlands, White Plains, NY. Melanie has also worked in the field of immigration law, before which she served, for seven years, at the First Congregational Church of Chappaqua as their Associate Minister for Families. Before coming to New York, Melanie served several small, rural churches in Maine and was a hospice chaplain.
Melanie received her undergraduate degree from the University of Maine, Orono and her Master of Divinity from Bangor Theological Seminary. Melanie completed her Doctor of Ministry degree in Pastoral Counseling from Drew University. Her dissertation explores issues of sexual justice and the challenges of healthy sexual development in faith communities.
Melanie is a farm girl from Nebraska, where she preached her first sermons to her father’s cows.