Rev. Amy Zucker Morgenstern

It’s a joy to serve with you all this year (2026-27) in our innovative hybrid/remote ministry. “Hybrid” means I live in San Francisco and come to East Wenatchee every couple of months, with the in-between ministry being carried out via Zoom and phone. “Remote” means that for six months beginning in mid-December or January, I will be living in Valencia, Spain, before returning home. 

I am a humanist with a deep spiritual life, an atheist who nevertheless prays for the people I care about, and a middling Buddhist. That is to say, my philosophy is Buddhist, but my meditation practice is almost nil. My most important spiritual practice is making art. And the natural world, with its beauty, complexity, and mystery, brings me to my knees in sheer gratitude and wonder.

I grew up in a Conservative Jewish family in Connecticut, and drifted away in my late teens, when I stopped believing in God. Several years later, I made the connection with Unitarian Universalism, joined a congregation, and applied to seminary. My M.Div. degree is from Harvard Divinity School; I already had a B.A. in religion (also studio art) and an M.A. in religion. I’m currently, if slowly, moving toward a D.Min. in Theology and the Arts at United Theological School of the Twin Cities.

I’ve served with our congregations in Middlebury, VT; Rutland, VT; Palo Alto, CA (for 22 years); and Santa Rosa, CA. Along the way, I’ve written a couple dozen Adult Religious Education programs, published some essays and artwork, won some preaching awards, served on a bunch of committees for the wider UU world, and learned far more from the folks in my congregations than any number of degree-granting institutions could ever teach me. Some years ago, I articulated my vision for the congregation I served with at the time, and it still guides me.

Sermons clearly don’t entirely scratch my writing itch, because I also maintain a biweekly religion-advice column, Ask Isabel: Advice for the Spiritually Perplexed or Vexed, and a very sporadic blog, Sermons in Stones, where I also post a lot of my art. Along with making art (mostly drawing, painting, or collage), I love to read (mysteries, sci-fi, general fiction, science), cook, go to art museums, watch movies, listen to podcasts, play word games and puzzles, knit, and most of all, spend time with my family and friends. I volunteer in my local community by monitoring for ICE at an elementary school’s pickup time and accompanying asylum seekers and other people in the immigration system to their hearings. I’m also a volunteer with Freedom Insight, an organization dedicated to ending human trafficking. An unrealized dream is to make public art, such as a mural. I gotta get on that.

I live with my wife of 20+ years, who worked for the State of California in the field of energy policy and is now retired, and our cat, Luna, who has always been retired. Our daughter is in college in the Netherlands, which is the inspiration for our spending six months in Europe. My father died in 2024, but my mother is alive and well in southern California, my sister likewise in New Orleans, and four nieces and nephews call four different states home.

I prefer to be called simply “Amy,” though I will answer to “Rev. Amy” if you are more comfortable using something a little more formal. My pronouns are she/her/etc. or they/them/etc.

Please reach out to me as readily as if I were down the street. My e-mail address is minister@cascadeuu.org, and my phone number is in every e-mail I send. You can also schedule a time to meet with me via my Calendly.

Blessings,
Amy