Rev. Isabel Call — or Pastor Isabel — is a lifelong Unitarian Universalist originally from Knoxville, Tennessee.  She has also lived in the Midwest, Pacific Northwest, California, and Indonesia. Pastor Isa’s ministry grew out of her work as a development economist.  She now understands herself as a spiritual leader who holds worthiness, rather than scarcity, as the motivating principle.

Pastor Isabel has been with us since October 2021. We celebrated her installation as our first called minister in May 2024. She was ordained in spring 2021 by the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbus, Ohio, where she served as the Assistant Minister for Pastoral Care.  She completed her ministerial internship in Spokane, Washington, and her Master of Divinity at Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley, California.  Along her winding path to join us in Manhattan, Isabel provided residential support to people recovering from housing and mental health instability in Seattle and taught English in multiple settings in urban Indonesia.  She heard her call to ministry while completing doctoral work in development economics, investigating small-scale farmers’ vulnerability to climate change in Kenya.  She began to see how the struggles of the poorest members of the human community were interlinked with the lifestyles and livelihoods of Americans, and so she chose to return home to be a part of our transformation.

As a minister within a faith community that values community engagement, Pastor Isabel is proud to describe herself as a Community Economist.  She believes that UU congregations can be the hub of a renewed economy as we show up with our gifts, learn how to interact in love, and regularly rededicate ourselves to sharing with the larger world.