Our Ministerial Staff

The Reverend Steve J. Crump

Our Senior Minister has chief responsibilities of supervision of the staff along with the ministerial responsibilities of pastoral counseling, conducting worship services, celebrating rites of passage, teaching, preaching, writing, and working in areas of social justice both within the congregation and in community outreach.

The Reverend Dr. Steve J. Crump began his ministry at our church in 1983. He received his M.A. from the University of Chicago Divinity School and Doctorate of Ministry from Meadville-Lombard Theological School in Chicago.

Read his Sermon Archive and newsletter columns Crump's Expressway.

The Reverend Earle Ramsdell

The Rev. Earle R. Ramsdell a retired clergy person is the Volunteer Pastoral Care Advisor at UCBR. Following a career in Pastoral Ministry, Earle served on the staff of Councils of Churches in Rhode Island and Michigan. Then for twenty five years he directed a program in training Pastoral Counselors in Dallas, Texas. More recently, he served for eight years as a member of the South Regional Sub Committee on Candidacy interviewing candidates for ministry in the UUA.

Our Assistant Minister: Nathan A. Ryan

            LSU Grad Returns to Begin Ministry in Baton Rouge

          Nathan Ryan attended the Unitarian Church of Baton Rouge while a student at Louisiana State University from 1998 to 2002.  In August  2012 he returned to Baton Rouge  to begin his ministry  as the church’s  full-time Assistant Minister, joining the  Senior Minister, The Reverend Steve Crump. When he is ordained by the  congregation in ceremonies on February 24 he will make history as the church’s first ordination in its  61 year history.

A  native of Slidell,  Ryan attended the North Shore Unitarian Universalist Society in Lacombe with his family as a child and through his pre-teen years. As a youth he  attended the First Unitarian Universalist Church in New Orleans, where  his  participation in youth activities both locally and regionally provided  a deeper connection to his faith and a  response to the call to ministry. The foundation for ministerial preparation was laid at LSU, where he majored in  psychology,  minored in religious studies, and organized and led the Unitarian Universalist student group.  He  also participated actively  with the  Louisiana Environmental Action Network and the developing Baton Rouge Progressive Network,  which  brought the community radio station  to Baton Rouge.  

Nathan Ryan brings to his ministry a vast range of training and experiences. A credentialed Religious Educator,  he served as Director of Lay Ministry, Religious Education Administrator, and Director of Lifespan Religious Education at Unitarian Universalist churches in Dallas and Cedar Park,  Texas. In 2009 he matriculated at Chicago’s Meadville Lombard Theological Seminary, and in 2011 served a twelve month internship at a Washington, DC area Unitarian Universalist church where he gained experience in all aspects of ministry.  He received the Master of Divinity degree in the summer of 2012.    

 Ryan’s successful candidacy for the position of Assistant Minister came as the culmination of a rigorous search process, conducted over a period of more than a year by a seven-member Board-appointed Search Committee. He received the affirmative vote  for appointment by the Church’s Board of Directors in June 2012, and began his tenure as Assistant Minister on August 1, 2012.

 Ryan joins a roster of ministers who have served the Unitarian Church of Baton Rouge in its long history and transition from a small Fellowship to a large and thriving  congregation. Unlike previous ministers and the current senior minister who were ordained prior to assuming their ministry with the Baton Rouge church, Ryan’s is the first request for ordination, and received  the unanimous vote of the  congregation -  a signal and historic  honor for the church. His forthcoming ordination follows the deeply rooted  Unitarian Universalist  tradition of ordination by the congregation, the only body that has the power to ordain,  enabling full participation in the rights and privileges of ordained clergy in the church and  society at large. It is of no small significance that he returns to his Louisiana roots and to the city of his student days at Louisiana State University, where  he began training for a career in the ministry upon which he now embarks. 

               Rebecca T Cureau, UCBR PR Coordinator