An important part of the CUA ministerial ordination and education program is a mentorship with an experienced minister in the CUA. All students in our program will be assigned such a person as their liaison to the Ordination Committee. The liaison will report to the committee about your progress in the program, helping the committee ultimately decide whether to recommend you to the CUA Board of Directors for ordination. The liaison will develop a relationship with you through phone calls or in-person meetings. This relationship may include a more or less extensive mentorship aspect depending on the ministerial experience of the applicant.

If you are a layperson with no experience in ministry, your mentor/liaison will make sure that you have an opportunity to discuss all the things you need to know and be ready for as you prepare for pastoral responsibilities. If you have some ministerial experience, the mentorship will likely focus on helping you develop knowledge and skills in areas you still need to work on. If you have extensive experience, your relationship with your liaison will be driven primarily by your own questions and areas of interest where discussions with a colleague in the Christian Universalist clergy could be helpful.

List of Mentors/Liaisons:

Applicants for CUA ordination may select their top three choices for a mentor/liaison from the list below, by indicating this on their application form. We cannot guarantee that all applicants will be able to receive their first choice, but we will assign to you one of your top choices.

• Rev. Kalen Fristad, who has been a United Methodist minister for over 30 years and currently leads three churches in Iowa. He is also the author of a 2003 book, Destined for Salvation: God's Promise to Save Everyone. Rev. Fristad spent three years traveling across America speaking at numerous churches to share the message of God's plan of salvation for all people. He is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the CUA.
  
  
  
• Rev. Lillie Mae Henley, the pastor of Universalist National Memorial Church in Washington, D.C., one of only a handful of churches in the Unitarian Universalist Association with a Christian emphasis. This historic church was built in the early 1900's as the national cathedral for the Universalist Church of America, a major Christian denomination, and it remains a Christian Universalist congregation today. Rev. Henley pastored three other churches before coming to UNMC, and has a strong record of building growth in the communities she has served, including city-center urban settings. She is the Secretary of the CUA and the Chair of the Ordination Committee.
  
  
  
• Rhett Ellis, a former pastor from Mobile, Alabama, who has 14 years experience leading Baptist churches in the area, and currently spreads the Gospel of universal salvation in Christian coffeeshops. He is the author of five spiritual-themed books and owns his own publishing company, Sparkling Bay Books. He has also served as a youth minister, taught at a junior college, and worked as a newspaper reporter. He is the Vice Chair of the CUA.
  
  
  
• Dr. G. A. Roach, who is the pastor of an independent evangelical church in Amarillo, Texas, and serves as a full-time hospital chaplain. His background was in the Southern Baptist tradition. Dr. Roach holds Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry (Preaching / Biblical Studies) degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is a CUA Board member.
  
  
  
• Marquis D. Hunt, the founder and Spiritual Director of the LifeXchange, Center for Truth and Inner Peace, an innovative spiritual initiative fostering disciplines of love, relationship and creativity based in Little Rock, Arkansas. He is a life coach, musician and recording artist, and former church pastor. He has traveled extensively as a conference speaker as well as doing seminars in New Thought Christianity, artistic innovations and prophetic communication. Marquis Hunt considers himself a professional listener and sacred activist, using music, poetry, and prophetically streaming conversations to ignite new and fresh perspectives on living a life of love. He embraces each conversation with unique presence and speaks of God and Humanity with compelling tenderness. He is a CUA Board member.
  
  
  

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