AUBURN, ME – The First Universalist Church of Auburn, will hold its  annual Water Communion ceremony on Sunday, September 7 @10am. The Rev. DC Fortune, who began leading worship at Auburn UU on August 10, will preside over this annual event.

During this traditional UU service, participants gather in Auburn UU’s historic sanctuary and share small vials of water to symbolize their travels- geographic, spiritual, or both. The water is purified and used for a communal blessing. Afterward, refreshments will be offered at Coffee Hour.

“We are excited to start this new chapter with Rev. Fortune” says Angela Foss, president of the Auburn UU Board of Directors. “He will ‘be present’ in the life of the congregation and also in the larger community,” Foss notes, “to craft meaningful worship, support staff and programming like Music and Religious Exploration, and serve as a clear voice for Unitarian Universalism in the Lewiston-Auburn region.”

Foss notes, “Rev. Fortune brings experience and skills that reflect and support the essential elements of our mission: ‘Rooted in the sacred, strengthened by our diversity, we equip ourselves to minister through the transformative power of love.’”

Maine Roots

Rev. Fortune grew up in Windsor, Maine. A graduate of Erskine Academy, he attended the University of Maine at Farmington, where he founded one of the earliest gay/straight alliances for students at UMF.

Fortune first found Unitarian Universalism in the early 1990s at the UU Church in Waterville, and has also attended congregations in Portland, Ellsworth, and Belfast, where he was ordained in 2015. Rev. Fortune trained for ministry at Bangor Theological Seminary and Andover Newton Theological School in Boston, where he graduated in 2014. He served an internship in Fremont, California and has served congregations in suburban Saint Louis, southern New Jersey and central Pennsylvania.

Serving the Unitarian Universalist denomination at the national level, Rev. Fortune is a member of the Ministerial Fellowship Committee and the General Assembly Planning Committee.

Rev. Fortune has been active in progressive and queer politics since the 1980s and is passionate about social justice work. Before becoming a minister, he worked as a newspaper reporter, a radio disc jockey, a bus driver, and a variety of jobs in construction. For fun, he enjoys forging knives and swords, as well as trout fishing in brooks and streams.

To learn more about Rev. Fortune and Auburn UU visit www.auburnuu.org or call 207-783-0461. Sunday worship is held in person at 10 a.m. at 169 Pleasant Street (across from Dairy Joy), as well as over Zoom. Parking; accessible.

Rev. DC Fortune will lead Auburn UU’s ingathering on Sept. 7.