Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, Louisiana, United States
Marilyn Sewell's undergraduate training was at Louisiana Polytechnic Institute (now Louisiana Tech University), where she graduated with an English education major in 1962.
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States
Marilyn Sewell received a Master of Arts in English from the University of Arkansas in 1965.
Starr King School for the Ministry, Berkeley, California, United States
Sewell began to train for the ministry in 1983 at the Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley, California receiving her Master of Divinity in 1987.
Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California, United States
Sewell remained at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley to study for a Doctor of Philosophy in theology and the arts which she received in 1991.
Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, Louisiana, United States
Marilyn Sewell's undergraduate training was at Louisiana Polytechnic Institute (now Louisiana Tech University), where she graduated with an English education major in 1962.
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States
Marilyn Sewell received a Master of Arts in English from the University of Arkansas in 1965.
Starr King School for the Ministry, Berkeley, California, United States
Sewell began to train for the ministry in 1983 at the Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley, California receiving her Master of Divinity in 1987.
Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California, United States
Sewell remained at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley to study for a Doctor of Philosophy in theology and the arts which she received in 1991.
(Brimming over with the inspirational words and thoughts o...)
Brimming over with the inspirational words and thoughts of some of our finest writers, Cries of the Spirit is a beautiful sourcebook of poetry and prose in praise of life and all that it entails. Here women's voices fill the age-old silence about matters central to their experience-from menstruation, sexual intimacy, and childbirth to caretaking, household rituals, and death. These writings represent a healing vision of the sacred that emerges from the particular consciousness of women-a vision that partakes of the world of earth and flesh. With contributions by Maya Angelou, Julia Alvarez, Margaret Atwood, Hildegard of Bingen, Lucille Clifton, Annie Dillard, Joy Harjo, Erica Jong, Denise Levertov, Audre Lorde, Kathleen Norris, Marge Piercy, Starhawk, Eudora Welty, Alice Walker, and others.
https://www.amazon.com/Cries-Spirit-Marilyn-Sewell/dp/0807068497/?tag=2022091-20
1991
(Edited by best-selling author Marilyn Sewell, this rich a...)
Edited by best-selling author Marilyn Sewell, this rich and diverse anthology of more than 300 poems celebrates the sacredness of women's lives: the experiences that shape them, the relationships that sustain them, and the legacy that they build. In these poems, woman grows old, defy conventions and limits, fall in love and out again, wonder at their own bodies, and sing of the earth and sky. They pray, give birth, and make sense of suffering. As Sewell explains, "Those who write these verses do so out of exquisite courage. They show us how to live."
https://www.amazon.com/Claiming-Spirit-Within-Sourcebook-Womens/dp/0807068357/?tag=2022091-20
1996
(Organized thematically, an entertaining assortment of per...)
Organized thematically, an entertaining assortment of personal reminiscences features contributions from such notable authors as Frank McCourt, Sandra Cisneros, Louise Erdrich, Mary McCarthy, Tobias Wolff, and others who describe their Catholic upbringing and the influence of the Catholic Church on their lives.
https://www.amazon.com/Resurrecting-Grace-Remembering-Catholic-Childhoods/dp/0807012408/?tag=2022091-20
2001
(In twenty-seven personal and daring essays, some of our f...)
In twenty-seven personal and daring essays, some of our finest women writers examine the second half of their lives. They grapple with what age and life have taught them, contemplate their experiences, and reflect on where they have arrived. These are writers who get down and dirty, who have looked at themselves as they are, and at life as it is, to discover not only what time has taken from them but also the powerful gifts that only come with age and experience. Contributors include: Isabel Allende, Maya Angelou, M. F. K. Fisher, China Galland, Vivian Gornick, Germaine Greer, Erica Jong, Audre Lorde, Grace Paley, Alix Kates Shulman, Gloria Steinem, and Terry Tempest Williams. From the Trade Paperback edition.
https://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Free-Spirit-Midlife-Beyond-ebook/dp/B001KQZ7J2/?tag=2022091-20
2004
(For those who have stopped praying, have doubts about pra...)
For those who have stopped praying, have doubts about prayer, or are unsure how best to pray, this book provides down-to-earth suggestions.
https://www.amazon.com/Little-Book-Prayer-Marilyn-Sewell/dp/099610402X/?tag=2022091-20
2014
("Raw Faith: Following the Thread," a literary memoir, is ...)
"Raw Faith: Following the Thread," a literary memoir, is a rare and beautiful book. Not only is the book well crafted, with an intimate style and no wasted words, but like her documentary film of the same name, the memoir is heartful and emotionally moving. Marilyn writes about a universal longing-the longing for love and acceptance, the longing for home. The origin of her own angst is mother loss. Marilyn loses her mother at age 9 when her father snatches her and takes her to live with his parents in a small town in North Louisiana. She doesn't get reacquainted with her mother until she is 33, when her mother is dying of cancer. Having grown up with no real home, she looks for home in the arms of men, in schools and churches, and in marriage. These places serve as a temporary refuge, but for the most part, home eludes her.
https://www.amazon.com/Raw-Faith-Following-Marilyn-Sewell-ebook/dp/B00K372LVQ/?tag=2022091-20
2014
("Forgiveness is our best chance to find at last the peace...)
"Forgiveness is our best chance to find at last the peace of body and soul that we seek," writes the author. "Forgiveness is not a single act, but a way of being."
https://www.amazon.com/Little-Book-Forgiveness-Marilyn-Sewell/dp/0996104038/?tag=2022091-20
2014
(A collection of 33 inspirational sermons divided accordin...)
A collection of 33 inspirational sermons divided according to personal and theological themes. Sections include: Searching for the Holy, Meeting the Day with Courage, Hungering For Connection, The Circle of Being, Seasons of Renewal.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0996104062/?tag=2022091-20
2014
(A collection of short, incisive reflections on life's spi...)
A collection of short, incisive reflections on life's spiritual challenges: 29 topics, including Compassion, Courage, Faith, Fear, Forgiveness, Loss, Love, Prayer, Suffering, Spiritual Journey, and Transformation.
https://www.amazon.com/Little-Book-Reflections-Marilyn-Sewell/dp/0996104046/?tag=2022091-20
2014
(A collection of 36 sermons addressing spiritual growth an...)
A collection of 36 sermons addressing spiritual growth and transformation in 5 thematic sections: Partnering with the Divine, Right Relationship with Others; Becoming What You Were Meant to Be, Courage for the Dark Nights of the Soul, A Faith That Endures.
https://www.amazon.com/Threatened-Resurrection-Book-Sermons-II/dp/0996104054/?tag=2022091-20
2014
Marilyn Sewell was born Marilyn Fulmer on July 9, 1941, in Washington, District of Columbia, United States to the family of Marion and James Fulmer. She grew up in Homer, Louisiana, with her father, an oil field worker, and her paternal grandparents.
Marilyn Sewell's undergraduate training was at Louisiana Polytechnic Institute (now Louisiana Tech University), where she graduated with an English education major in 1962. Then she received a Master of Arts in English from the University of Arkansas in 1965. Sewell began to train for the ministry in 1983 at the Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley, California, and then, after receiving her Master of Divinity in 1987, she remained at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley to study for a Doctor of Philosophy in theology and the arts which she received in 1991.
After careers as an English teacher, a clinical social worker, and a TV on-the-air personality giving advice, Marilyn Sewell went to seminary. After her ordination in 1987, she served as a consulting minister to the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Vallejo, California, and then she was an interim minister at First Unitarian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Sewell was called to the First Unitarian Church in Portland, Oregon, in 1992, a congregation that grew to approximately 1,000 members and 500 children in the church school. She was an active force in the community until her retirement in 2009. In June 2000, she was the preacher for the Unitarian Universalist Association's annual Service of the Living Tradition.
Sewell is perhaps best known for her published anthologies of women's writings. Foremost among these is the award-winning Cries of the Spirit (1991). In the introduction to this sourcebook, Sewell writes, "I hope that Cries of the Sprit will provide a source of nourishment, life-giving bread for a new day, to those women who are exploring their spirituality". In 1996, she edited another sourcebook of women's poetry, Claiming the Spirit Within. In 2001, a collection of memoirs by people who had grown up Catholic was published, titled Resurrecting Grace. She has also published a collection of her sermons, Wanting Wholeness, Being Broken, and most recently, A Little Book on Prayer (2009), A Little Book on Forgiveness (2014), and A Little Book of Reflections (2014).
Sewell serves on the Board and the Executive Committee of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon and is on the Workers’ Rights Board of Jobs with Justice. She is frequently quoted by other speakers and writers and in various publications over a broad spectrum of social and spiritual issues. She currently contributes regularly to Huffington Post. She is one of the poetry editors for the Harvard Divinity Bulletin.
Marilyn Sewell received numerous awards and honors for her spiritual and social work including an honorary doctorate for her justice work from Meadville Lombard Seminary in Chicago. After Sewell retired in 2009, was named Minister Emerita, a social justice lecture was established in her honor.
Sewell's ministry in Portland and the transition from active ministry to retirement was the subject of a documentary film, Raw Faith, which also chronicles her finding love in her life. The film has also become a book by the same name. The film won the Human Spirit Award in April at the Nashville Film Festival. Judges said the documentary "gives us a stunning and candid portrait of the power and value of exploring just who we are and where we're going. We, the viewer, are better for it."
(Organized thematically, an entertaining assortment of per...)
2001(A collection of 36 sermons addressing spiritual growth an...)
2014(Edited by best-selling author Marilyn Sewell, this rich a...)
1996(A collection of short, incisive reflections on life's spi...)
2014(Brimming over with the inspirational words and thoughts o...)
1991(For those who have stopped praying, have doubts about pra...)
2014(In twenty-seven personal and daring essays, some of our f...)
2004("Forgiveness is our best chance to find at last the peace...)
2014(A collection of 33 inspirational sermons divided accordin...)
2014("Raw Faith: Following the Thread," a literary memoir, is ...)
2014Marilyn Sewell left the Catholic Church, the faith of the mother she lost and became a Southern Baptist, the religion of her grandparents. Marilyn distinguished herself in her studies in college and then attempted to find meaning through the conventional role for women of the day, marrying a surgeon and becoming the mother of two sons. She left the marriage when the boys were toddlers. She felt unaccepted at this time by the Southern Baptists, and so she sought out Unitarian Universalism, a liberal religious faith.
Marilyn Sewell expresses ideas and views that in many ways are congruent to the ideals of the Democratic Party.
Marilyn Sewell's justice work is focused on climate change, an issue about which she is passionately concerned. Her desire is to always be open to her next call - id est, whatever way she might bring more love and healing into the world.
Sewell notes that in seminary she was encouraged to "notice and mention." She writes, "Because I am serving a large, urban church, I notice. I notice the bedraggled strangers who camp out on the church steps, the confused and agitated who come in off the street, the lesbians and gay men who have been reviled and even physically attacked and who have sought a safe place of worship at our door, the runaway teenagers who hang out on our block, leaving used needles behind." She attempts to encourage others to pay attention to the stranger affirms the power of relationships and the view that all of life is sacred.
Marilyn Sewell was married to a doctor for six years. During this marriage, she had two sons, Kash and Madison Sewell, and lived for periods in Liverpool, England, and Lexington, Kentucky. She later married an architect George Crandall, after being single for over 30 years. They live on the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon.
