Rev. Sharon Moon

Rev. Moon was ordained in the Montreal-Ottawa Conference of the United Church in 1985. She holds a Master of Divinity from Queen's Theological College as well as a teaching certificate and an Honours Bachelor of Arts Degree in History and French. Ministry is her third career, having taught high school in Ontario and Africa in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and having been self-employed as a potter from 1972 to 1982. This latter period coincided with her being at home with her children and was the time when she felt her call to ministry. Rev. Moon is married to Rev. Howard Clark and together they have a blended family of adult children who live in Ontario.

Rev. Moon has served for seventeen years as the minister at First United in Ottawa, during which time her congregation has grown from about forty members to over 400 people, with an average Sunday attendance of 180 people. In her own words: "we have grown to be a vibrant, spirit-filled, justice-making community". Rev. Moon has found time to continue to educate herself over the years. Recent courses and workshops she has attended include, Leading Change in the Congregation, Managing the Medium Size Congregation, Congregation as a Healthy Family System and two workshops on Story Telling. She has offered numerous workshops on such topics as Family Violence, Mission Planning, Praying with Scripture and Therapeutic Touch, and has led many courses outside of her church at Queen's University and the United Theological College, to name but a few. She has worked over the years at the National, Conference and Presbytery levels of the church, and has supervised students. Her work outside of the church has included service on the AIDS Interfaith Council, Project Ploughshares Ottawa, and a Faith Partners Advocacy Committee. She also finds time to write, and, in addition to several articles, has written a book entitled: The Healing Oasis: Guided Meditations for Mind, Body and Spirit, which is now in its second printing. Rev. Moon is bilingual. In her spare time she spends time with family and friends. She loves to garden and to lose herself in a good murder mystery.

Rev. Moon was drawn to our Congregation because she is curious about our desire to grow. She was impressed with our sense of outreach and mission. Her top priorities at Cedar Park would be worship, pastoral care and spiritual growth. She told us that she is in ministry because she doesn't have a choice to do anything else, God calls her to ministry. Worship is at her core. She believes that the United Church Creed speaks most fully as her statement of faith, "we are not alone, we live in God's world…"