Town of Ulster congregation gets new minister
The Rev. Dr. Leonisa Ardizzone is the new minister of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Catskills.
Ardizzone, 50, began her tenure at the congregation, located at 320 Sawkill road, on Sept. 1. She succeeds the Rev. Erica Baron, who was the minister of the congregation for six years and left in June to pursue other endeavors.
Ardizzone was born in New York City and raised in a working-class suburb of New Jersey. A Roman Catholic, she left the church in her early 20s, thus beginning “a ‘seekers journey’ for my spiritual home,” Ardizzone said in a letter to congregants. Buddhism, science’ and nature all inform her theology, but Unitarian Universalism is the faith home she found 13 years ago.
Prior to becoming a minister, Ardizzone was a science and “peace educator” for 27 years. She earned a bachelor’s in biology from Ithaca College, a master’s in science education from Western Washington University, a doctorate in international educational development with a specialization in peace education from Columbia University’s Teachers College, anda master of divinity, with a focus on inter-religious engagement from Union Theological Seminary.
Ardizzone completed her chaplaincy training at Marymount Manhattan College and New York-Presbyterian Hospital and served as the intern minister at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Poughkeepsie from 20172019. She was ordained on April 7.
Ardizzone is also a jazz vocalist who plays many instruments and leads her own quartet, the Leonisa Ardizzone Quartet, which recently released its third album, “All in Good Time.”
She is an adjunct assistant professor at Vassar College, where she is providing coverage for a sabbatical leave in the Department of Education.
Services at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Catskills take place Sundays at 10:30 a.m.
For more information, call (845) 331-2884, or visit the congregation’s website at www.uucatskills.org or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/UUCatskills/.