The Reverend Charlotte Lehmann

The search committee and the UUFB board are pleased to announce that our new minister, Reverend Charlotte Lehmann, will join us on August 1st. Our search posting in the UUA search attracted more interest this year than in previous years and we were thrilled to match with a top applicant.

Rev. Charlotte, who uses they/them pronouns, was hired on a 3-year contract to serve as the minister of UUFB. This contract has an option to call them as our settled minister. Because this is a contract ministry, Rev. Charlotte was hired by a vote of the Board, rather than a vote of the Fellowship  The search committee reviewed their application materials, met with Rev. Charlotte in virtual interviews, contacted references, and hosted them for a weekend visit in March. A recommendation to hire Rev. Charlotte was made to the board after we matched with them in the UUA process.

Meet Reverend Charlotte Lehmann.

The Reverend Charlotte Lehmann is a native Minnesotan who has lived in several states in New England, starting with their undergraduate education at Mount Holyoke College in Western Massachusetts, a graduate degree – also in Geological Science – from UMAINE, as well as employment in education (outdoor education, high school math and science, and college/university settings), research, and industry, including in Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, and South Carolina. They also experienced an Antarctic summer in the Dry Valleys as a research field assistant.

Following a physical healing experience in 2003, they acknowledged a call to ministry and enrolled for an initial semester at Lancaster Theological Seminary, later earning the M.Div. degree from Meadville Lombard Theological School. Reverend Charlotte completed two ministerial internships (at DuPage UU Church in Naperville, IL and at the UU Congregation of Binghamton in New York) and Clinical Pastoral Education units at the University of Chicago Medical Center and Worcester Medical Center (in Massachusetts), while simultaneously work and studying. They spent two years as the Director of Children’s Religious Education at First Church in Belmont, Massachusetts (2014-16) and then, once in Preliminary Fellowship, two years (2016-18) as the Interim Minister at the UU Church of Tallahassee in Florida. During which time, Reverend Charlotte was ordained in 2017 by the First Universalist Church of Auburn, Maine. In 2016, they went on a UU Partner Church trip to Transylvania.

Reverend Charlotte pursued a settled ministry in 2018 and was called to the congregation of Bull Run Unitarian Universalists in Manassas, Virginia, where they were installed in early 2019, and served until 2024. They traveled with UUs on a history pilgrimage to sites in Poland of interest to us in 2023.

Reverend Charlotte is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Minister’s Association (UUMA) and has served the Chesapeake UUMA Chapter as its Treasurer for 7 years. They are also a member of the Liberal Religious Educators Association (LREDA) and the Association of UU Music Ministries (AUUMM).

In their free time, Rev. Charlotte enjoys travel, including to New Zealand, Peru, Northern Europe and the Bristish Isles; a myriad of outdoor activities such as gardening, hiking and walking; attending arts, cultural and history events; and reading books they pick up from Little Free Libraries.