Renee U. Garrett, Biographical Sketch
Renee Garrett grew up along a meandering river surrounded by orchards and vineyards outside of Lodi, California. She rode her horse and occasionally roped a calf. She was very athletic and, in college, was co-captain of the first women’s basketball team from her school to go to the AIAW (Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women) National Tournament (the predecessor to the NCAA for women collegiate athletes) though she majored in philosophy and graduated summa cum laude from California State University, Fresno.
Raised at the First Congregational Church, she had allowed herself to think about ordained ministry, in spite of the fact that she had only once met a woman minister at a church camp when she was a child. In time, she became convinced that this was God’s own call to and her home church agreed. She attended Andover Newton Theological School in Newton, Massachusetts and as a student, she served churches in Walpole and Weston, Massachusetts where her primary ministry was with children, junior and senior high school aged youth of the parish and community. She earned her Master of Divinity degree in May of 1977 graduating cum laude. She was ordained to the Christian Ministry at her home church in Lodi, California in August that same year; the first woman to be ordained in that community.
She began her ordained ministry as an associate minister at Dane Street Congregational Church in Beverly, Massachusetts alongside her husband, Rex, who was also called to that shared position. Later, she served as Associate Minister at two churches in California, the First Congregational Church of San Rafael and the Mill Valley United Methodist Church.
In the fall of 1986, Garrett filled a "temporary" position at All Souls to cover the area of education. On March 29, 1987, she was formally called to ministry at All Souls as the Minister of Christian Nurture. A position of her own crafting, it was grown and changed over the years. She chose the name for her position from a small tract by the Rev. Horace Bushnell. Bushnell, writing in the 19th century, held that it was possible for a child to be raised in such a way—nurtured as a Christian—so as never to remember a time when she or he was not a Christian. Robert Edwards characterizes Bushnell’s Christian Nurture in this way:
[It was] “a manifesto reasserting the Gospel right of children to a childhood that in many evangelical New England circles had been all but stolen away . . . Its appeal for good family communication; the sense of outrage against child abuse . . . ; the stress on the ‘art of growth in the long run,’ coupled with insights into the psychology of infancy; and the need for early encouragement of a child’s spirit . . . represents Bushnell’s farsighted understanding of childhood as not merely preparation for life, but as an integral part of life.” [Robert L. Edwards, Of Singular Genius, Of Singular Grace: A Biography of Horace Bushnell, Cleveland, Ohio: The Pilgrim Press, 1992, pp. 91-92.]
Just as Bushnell’s theory of ministry to children and youth was best demonstrated in his own attitude toward his own children [see Edwards, op. cit, p. 93-94], Garrett spent 17 years educating her sons (home schooling as it is sometimes somewhat ambiguously called). Her teaching was thorough, taking her students through music and the arts, the sciences and mathematics, geography and history, philosophy and theology, grammar, spelling, writing, logic and athletics.
In the meantime, at church she was developing parenting classes for adults and curricula for Life-Long Learning and for the broad educational programs of the church. Her primary focus has remained on the spiritual lives and developing Christian faith of children and youth, though she is thoroughly involved in the pastoral care and nurture of adults in the congregation, as well. She teaches the high school class and leads the junior high youth group.
During her years of service at All Souls, Garrett has moved a rather modest Sunday School program of our downtown church into a program that includes almost 200 enrolled students. She has expanded the Christian education program to include adult education offerings both on Sundays and during the week. She leads high school 
students in regular prayer times and various retreats and overnights, and oversees the confirmation process for ninth graders (that includes adult mentors for each confirmand). With the help from volunteers, she constructed a labyrinth that is used for teaching spiritual discipline during the Lenten and Advent seasons, and leads an Easter vigil each year for youth. She participates in the sacramental work of the church, counsels both youth and adults, and preaches (on infrequent occasions because she doesn’t want to take time away from her teaching).
Mission has been an organizing center for the broader educational work in which she has engaged (and by which she has engaged the entire church). Intergenerational mission trips, both foreign and domestic, are opportunities for spiritual teaching and spiritual growth. She develops written materials for spiritual discernment and growth for each person going on any mission trip. The trips themselves are challenging, with participants working in building projects, medical clinics and various teaching ministries, but the spiritual dimensions of the time together are always the central matters.
Garrett’s life long interest in sports is also a natural “in” with youth and adults alike. Early on, she thought she might become a coach. She officiated at basketball games, is an earnest cyclist and is easily at home in sports settings of all kinds. She makes pastoral calls at soccer games, basketball tournaments, on the baseball diamond, at track and field meets and the field hockey side-lines.
In 2004, Garrett was applied for and received a grant from the Louisville Institute for a Sabbatical which she broke into multiple parts to fulfill her hopes with least disruption to her pastoral work. After preparation at Louisville, she was in residence at The Telling Place, a Storytelling center in Scotland where she studied methods of storytelling to enhance her pastoral work and her writing. Story telling is one of her primary ways of communicating the Gospel to young and old, and she has become quite well-known for her original “Uncle Sol” stories. While in Scotland, she toured Celtic sites and visited Holy Island (Lindisfarne) in the north of England. She continued her Sabbatical with time spent at Eastport, Maine where she wrote and edited many stories for publication. The book finally came to like in 2010 as One Man's Roses--Tales from Uncle Sol's Neighborhood.
In 2005, she presented an academic paper on Celtic Christian spirituality and its relevance to pastoral ministry to the Bangor Pastor-Theologian Group that meets at Husson College. She works for ecumenical cooperation and 
conversation in matters that affect the lives of our young, and has served on committees for both broad and particular educational institutions. She was a program leader for Going The Distance: Teens and Adults Joining Hands, Healing Souls at Bangor Theological Seminary. She has organized and produced a number of musicals: Godspell, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and Amahl and the Night Visitors, as well as the annual Christmas pageant. She had responsibility for the praise band, Ascension, and contemporary worship services. She developed and administered the MTD (Moving Toward Discipleship) program which included an Alpha course and a full curriculum of adult education programs. MTD is now Tuesday Nights Together (TNT) at All Souls, still under Garrett’s leadership and guidance.
She has primary responsibility for the ASSIST-JC (All Souls Students In Service to Jesus Christ) program which coordinates various mission programs of the church and undertakes missions to communities in Honduras and to Eastport, Maine. Her preparation for mission work in Honduras is always careful and thorough. She continues in educational and training programs, in language study and in research and through various modes of writing to enhance the mission work of the congregation.
Garrett is responsible for the Scouting programs at All Souls. She serves as the liaison between Troop 10, Cub Pack 10 and the church. Her sons are all Eagle Scouts. She works with the Scout committees for Troop 10 and with the Explorer Post 210 sponsored by the church.
She was a leader in Maine Outdoor Ministries and was Dean at Pilgrim Lodge from 1994-98. She was nominated in 2005 for an Excellence in Teaching Award in the United Church of Christ.
She has taught generations of All Soul students this benediction which, in her honor, was set to music by Beth van Dyk, Music Director and Organist at the First Congregational Church of Ellsworth, Maine and often sung by the choirs of All Souls:
May the Lord go before you to guide you,
Beside you to guard you,
Above you to bless you,
Beneath you to uphold you,
And behind you to forgive you,
Now and always. Amen.