Celebrating the Life of Rev. Dr. Kenneth Torquil MacLean

Saturday, Sept. 21, 2:30 PM

Join us for a special Celebration of Life service honoring our beloved Minister Emeritus, Rev. Ken MacLean. The service will feature reflections from Revs. John Buehrens, Marlin Lavanhar, John Gibbons, and other cherished colleagues and friends. This gathering will be a time to remember and celebrate Ken’s profound impact on our community and the larger world. The service will also be live streamed on our YouTube channel.

A few words about Rev. Ken MacLean’s legacy:

The Reverend MacLean’s ministry to Unitarian Universalism spanned 54 years. He was known to many as a preacher, teacher, pastor, prophet, husband, father, partner, organizer, advocate, and institution-builder. He ministered to his colleagues, congregations, and the wider community, establishing and strengthening the organizations and associations that will sustain Unitarianism/Universalism/Unitarian Universalism in the US and around the world for generations to come.

A graduate of Brown University and Harvard Divinity School, Ken was ordained and fellowshipped in 1960. His journey in ministry began with the Rosalind and West Roxbury Churches where he successfully reunited these two historic congregations. In 1964, he was called to the Tennessee Valley UU Church in Knoxville, where he helped establish the first chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in that state. In 1972, he was called to Cedar Lane, one of the largest congregations in the UUA. Here, he served faithfully for 20 years before becoming Minister Emeritus. In 1999, he took up the mantle of ministry again to serve the Church of the Desert in Rancho Mirage, California, and in his eleven-year ministry, he led them to build a beautiful new church home. He also spent many memorable summers as a visiting preacher for the Unitarian Universalist Church in North Hatley, Quebec. 

The Reverend MacLean was the founder and organizer of the Senior Ministers of Large Unitarian Universalist Congregations (SMOLUUC), which to this day supports the ministers and ministries of our Association’s largest congregations. As president of the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association (UUMA), he was instrumental in helping establish the Office of Church Staff Finances to help churches and ministers address questions of salary, health care, pensions, and equitable compensation. He also established a foundation grant to supplement the income of retired ministers and their spouses who were living on less than $10,000 a year and helped the Liberal Religious Educators Association (LREDA) to support the ordination of ministers of religious education. 

He served two terms on the Board of Trustees of the Unitarian Universalist Association during which time he established the UUA's Task Force on AIDS and the Holdeen India Program. He also served on the board of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC), and for five years, worked as the Special Assistant to the UUA President for International and Interfaith Affairs under President John Buehrens. In this role, he worked to strengthen our heritage worldwide and helped organize the founding meeting of the International Council of Unitarian Universalists (ICUU). 

On behalf of our Association, he traveled to and lent his support to our international partners in the Philippines, India, Japan, New Zealand, Hungary, Romania, Canada, the United Kingdom, and beyond. He also helped our co-religionists and others battling discrimination, deprivation, or dictatorships. In Prague, he worked for many years to rescue the church of the Rev. Dr. Norbert Capek from those who had seized illegal control of it. 

He was known among his colleagues, as a pastor of pastors. For decades, he mentored young ministers who have gone on to serve our faith well – here and in other countries.

He was the recipient of many accolades and recognitions over his ministry and was awarded the highest honor of our faith in 2014: Distinguished Service to the Cause of Unitarian Universalism Award.

His gift of fifty-four years of ministry in Unitarian Universalism will live on in each person, institution, and congregation he touched. He will be sorely missed.