rev. aisha ansano

Hi! I’m Rev. Aisha Ansano, a Unitarian Universalist minister living in the Boston area. My call is to serve as a prophetic and pastoral presence to those seeking community and connection. I believes there is room at the table for everyone, and seeks to literally make that true by creating space for people to worship together over a meal. Currently, that means that I am working on planting a dinner church, building a community that sustains each other in body and in spirit by gathering over a meal together.

I am the affiliated community minister at First Parish in Malden, which means that I am not on staff, but am in relationship with the congregation, and I preach and participate in worship regularly.

I serve on the board of the Church of the Larger Fellowship, our UU congregation without walls that seeks to serve those on the margins, as well as on the UU Funding Program’s Panel for UU Social Responsibility. I also serve as a Program Leader for the UU College of Social Justice, leading immersion learning journeys and workshops.

My theology is deeply based in relationship, community, and connection. There is something divine and holy to be found in the spaces and connections between people. I believe that we are all yearning for spaces where we can be together and connect deeply, and where we can be loved as our full selves. Some days I deeply believe in God, other days I’m not so sure. What I do believe in every day is the power of relationship, community, and connection to change lives and the world.

I was born on the Caribbean island of Curaçao and lived there until the age of 10, when my family moved to Durham, North Carolina. I attended Stanford University and graduated in 2012 with a degree in Religious Studies. My honors thesis, "'Finding That Right Place Where I Fit': Hybrid Identities of Young American Muslim Women," examined how young American Muslim women build and negotiate their identities as both American and Muslim.

My spiritual path has been a winding one. I was baptized in a Lutheran church at age 6, received First Communion in the Catholic church at age 8, was confirmed in the Methodist church at age 13, and received into the Episcopal church at age 16. In college, I got deeply involved in interfaith work. I identified for a long time as spiritual but not religious, wanting to think about big questions in community but not subscribe to the theological systems to which I had been exposed.

I ended up at Harvard Divinity School, planning for it to be a stop on the way to a PhD. While at HDS, I fell in love with ministry with all its forms, and discovered Unitarian Universalism. I am eternally grateful to the Harvard Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Students for allowing me to find my home among them.

I completed my ministerial internship at First Church in Boston, under the supervision of Rev. Stephen Kendrick. I was ordained in April 2018 by First Parish Unitarian Universalist of Arlington, MA, the first UU church were I was a member, and where I spent three years working with the youth group, who taught me a lot about community and welcome.

There is so much more I could say about who I am and what I do, but I’d rather do that in conversation - so feel free to reach out!