The Rev’d Kate Brady McKenna (she/her)
Kate has been minister with Bury Unitarian Church since November 2016.
She studied for the ministry at Harris Manchester College, Oxford, and holds an MA in Pastoral Theology from Heythrop College, University of London.
Prior to moving to Bury she lived and worked in Norwich (for twenty years within sight of the shrine of Julian of Norwich, a particular hero of hers). She was raised by a Quaker father and an Anglican mother (her mother later taking to Quakerism). As a child she experienced many different churches, many of them frankly rather strange: she can still remember the words to a hymn about robins and sparrows.
She first discovered Unitarianism on a trip to see friends in Massachusetts, and immediately realised that she had found what she needed: a place to celebrate her faith in God and her love of Jesus, without needing to subscribe to doctrines or to say things with which she wasn’t fully comfortable.
She was a member of the Octagon Unitarian Chapel, Norwich, for sixteen years, and began leading worship there in 2006 prior to realising that she was being called to ministry.
Her passions are inclusivity, justice, fairness, and compassion. Theologically she is a follower of the human man Jesus of Nazareth, and is passionate about marking the Pagan wheel of the year. She takes inspiration from multiple sources, and loves God, to whom she never ascribes a gender.
She lives in Elton with her spouse, Adrian, and their miniature Schnauzer, Paddie. She is a proud and active member of the LGBTQIA+ community.
Kate is a fan of the purple hymn book, Laurie Lee, labyrinths, amusement arcades, Elinor M Brent Dyer’s Chalet School books, the Psalms, Candy Crush, Bournemouth, Cumbria, and bread and butter.
