The Ministry Team at UUCA

To view the covenant that the Co-Executive Ministers have created as of August 2020, please click HERE.

Reverend John T. Crestwell, Jr

Minister

Email: jcrestwell@uuannapolis.org

Rev. John T. Crestwell, Jr. is a called minister and Executive at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis.  He began his ministry in Anne Arundel in 2009, and before that was minister of Davies Memorial UU in Camp Springs, MD.  

He was the founder and lead organizer of UUCA’s AWAKE Ministries, an innovative approach to worship and small groups where he sought and successfully broadened the emotional, racial, and intercultural competencies of children and adults through contemporary worship, music, mentoring, life coaching, and community service.

Rev. John was the Officiant at the memorial service honoring the late Wendi Winters who died in the Capital Gazette shooting.  She was a longtime member of his congregation and in the Anne Arundel County Community.

Rev. John is the Vice-chair of the AA County Executive’s Interfaith Advisory Council, member of the Anne Arundel Connecting Together (ACT) Strategy Team, mentor with the UUA’s Commissioned Lay Ministry, member of the UUA President’s Council, and on the Intramural Review Board (IRB) under the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.  He formerly served on boards for Hospice of the Chesapeake, the Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry of Maryland (UULM-MD), where he was briefly the Director of Outreach; and on boards for United Methodist Reporter Communications in Dallas, Texas, and the UU Church of the Larger Fellowship (CLF).

Previously, Rev. John was an affiliated faculty professor at the UU seminary, Meadville Lombard Theological in Chicago; and also an adjunct professor at Potomac College in Washington, DC, teaching Comparative Religion, African American History, and Public Speaking.

He is author of the books, Conversations: The Hidden Truth That Keeps The World From Being At Peace, published in 2001; The Charge of the Chalice published in 2007, which tells the story of his first UU congregation’s growth in racial diversity, and You Were Made for so Much More: Interfaith Lessons to Transform our World, in 2016. Rev. John is also a contributing author in several Skinner House publications.

Prior to ministry, John worked in marketing and advertising and was an entrepreneur. He received a BA in Mass Media Arts from Hampton University and a Masters in Theology from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC.  

Rev. Crestwell was the Sunday Morning Worship leader/speaker at the 2012 UUA General Assembly in Phoenix, Arizona where he delivered a sermon to over 4,000 people.  Rev. John is a mentor, singer, spiritual teacher, social justice advocate, and coach.  He is married and has 5 grown children.

Reverend Anastassia Zinke

Minister

Email: azinke@uuannapolis.org

Dear UUCA,

I am so honored and delighted to be called as your minister with co-equal standing to Rev. John Crestwell. It isn’t lost on me that this is a historic moment: you have your first “senior” minister who is African American; your first “senior” as well as a settled minister who is a woman; the first time UUCA is engaging in formal co-equal ministry; the first time in Unitarian Universalism that this type of shared ministry is created by one new minister joining an already settled minister. As Rev. Fred told me, this is another moment when UUCA is the trailblazer congregation for our larger faith. 

That acknowledged, to me this moment seems more intimate than historic. I appreciated our open, heartfelt conversations last week. The large, present hope that was so palpable and joyous; as well as the trust you demonstrated in talking about your frustrations and pain points. This is the ministry that drew me in: relational. I, too, am looking forward to the future we will create together, in *covenant*. There will still be a period when I am settling in, but your ministerial transition period is almost finished and the next chapter shall begin. 

 I begin with you on August 1. In the meantime, I will be working to have a good goodbye with my current congregation and to help my family and children move and adjust to our life in D.C. and Annapolis. While my UUCA email, azinke@uuannapolis.org, will remain active, I will not be responding to any emails, though I will read them in August. I will be in periodic correspondence with Rev. John and the staff so that we can begin work smoothly once I start. 

Thanks so much for this great joy and opportunity.  

Yours in ministry,

 Rev. Anastassia Zinke

www.anastassiaz.wordpress.com 

To schedule an appointment with Rev. Anastassia Zinke, click HERE.

To view more information about Rev. Anastassia Zinke’s ministerial record, please click HERE. 

 

Reverend Dr. Fred Muir

Minister Emeritus

Rev. Dr. Fred Muir retired in December 2017 after 34 years at UUCA.  He grew up in Oak Park, Illinois. He holds a     Master of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary (NY) and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Wesley Theological Seminary (DC). He began his parish ministry over thirty years ago by serving a congregation in a small town in Maine. Since 1984, he served the Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis. He is the author of five books: A Reason for Hope: Liberation Theology Confronts a Liberal Faith; Heretics’ Faith: A Vocabulary for Religious Liberals; and Maglipay Universalist: The Unitarian Universalist Church of the Philippines; The Whole World Kin: Darwin and the Spirit of Liberal Religion; and Turning Point: Essays on a New Unitarian Universalism. He is co-editor of and contributing essayist to The Safe Congregation Handbook: Nurturing Healthy Boundaries in Our Faith Communities. He has also contributed essays to: Redeeming Time: Endowing Your Church with the Power of Covenant; With Purpose and Principle: Essays about the Seven Principles of Unitarian Universalism; and Creating Safe Congregations: Toward an Ethic of Right Relations

In 1989 he published “Annapolis On the Bay: Camelot or Crisis? (Housing and Community by Race and Population, 1950-1988)”. Fred served on the Annapolis Human Relations Commission for four years. He frequently testifies and witnesses in support of anti-racism, an end to discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation, and leads and supports his faith community and others who seek to “affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of all people with justice, equity, and compassion.” Since 2001, Fred has given considerable effort to working for interfaith understanding among Christians, Jews, and Muslims. In 2007 he was honored with the Martin Luther King Peacemaker award “for substantial and sustained leadership in furthering the cause of social justice in our community”.

He has done extensive work for the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) on sexual misconduct and safe congregations. He is a board member of the Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry of MD. He has been a co-facilitator of the Empowerment Workshop for the Department of Faith in Action, UUA. He has served on the UUA’s Joseph Priestley District’s anti-racism team and also the South-East Regional Sub-committee on [Ministerial] Candidacy. Until recently, he was the vice-president of the UU Partner Church Council and now is a member of the UUA International Advisory Committee. 

He formerly served on the UU Minister’s Association (UUMA) Executive Committee with the portfolio of Good Offices. In 2012, Fred was chosen to deliver the UUMA Berry Street Lecture at the UUA General Assembly in Phoenix, Arizona.  In retirement, he is serving as the Acting Director of the Office of International Relations of the UUA. 

Fred is the UUPCC Interim Executive Director until August 1, 2021.

He is married to Karen, who is a retired social studies teacher for AACPS.  They have two adult children, Kristina and Andrew, who attended Georgetown East Elementary, Annapolis Middle, and Annapolis Senior High.