Rev Nancy Holden

Nancy joined our ministry staff in the fall of 2010.

I graduated from seminary and was ordained in the United Methodist Church in 1985. For the next twenty years I served the UMC in North Dakota as a local church pastor. In 2002 I retired and moved with my husband Doug to River Falls, and we began attending the UU Society of River Falls. Soon after that I started preparing to become a UU minister, and that journey proved truly transformational. At the General Assembly of 2010 in Minneapolis I received Final Fellowship from the UUA Ministerial Fellowship Committee as a Community Minister.

Addiction ministry had been a secondary calling for me since 1978, and that led to the founding in River Falls of the Recovery Network (RN), a nonprofit agency dedicated to support for families affected by the chemical dependency of a loved one. RN qualifies as a community ministry, since it provides spiritual guidance and counseling, so I became what the UUA calls a community minister. Now Recovery Network is affiliated with the UUSRF and the church supports my work in the greater community.

For the past three years I have served as Program Chair for UUSRF, and was also a member of their Welcoming Congregation Task Force. Doug and I officially joined the church in 2008. I now conduct a 12-step group called Adult Children of Alcoholic and Dysfunctional Families that meets in the UUSRF kitchen. We are grateful UUs, happy to be part of UUSRF.