Donna Schaper

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The Rev. Dr. Donna Schaper has been Senior Minister at Judson Memorial Church for five years. Her life goal is to animate spiritual capacity for public ministry. That means orienting individuals to find their power in such a way that they redistribute power and make the world beautiful and fun for all.

Previously in ministry in Chicago, at Yale, in Miami, and Tucson, Schaper has been involved with a series of turn around congregations and a host of social action issues. She was instrumental in the God is Still Speaking Campaign for the UCC and in founding the Open and Affirming Movement in the UCC. In Miami she was rejected for membership in the Coral Gables Garden Club because some feared she would do the same thing she had done at the church, which is to grow it with new members of color, diverse orientations and backgrounds. She is less anti-racist than she is pro color.

Schaper was one of the first women trained by Saul Alinsky in community organizing. She leads a group of community ministers at Judson, mostly seminarians, in learning how to get power for social change. She calls this program “mutual mentoring.” There are 28 graduates, many of whom “hang around” at Judson. Additionally she is active in the New Sanctuary Movement, based in Judson and beyond, which accompanies undocumented immigrants in such a way as to shift the host and guest balance in the United States.

Schaper has written 31 books. Her best selling book is Keeping Sabbath. Her latest book is Sacred Chow. Her favorite book is Grass Roots Gardening: Rituals to Sustain Activists. She is a Slow Food Activist, guerrilla gardener, bike riding, golden retriever raising, cat loving mother of three adults and married to Warren Goldstein, author of the Biography of William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

When the elephants fight, the grass suffers. Schaper lives to build Judson as a grass protecting and grass-liberating place. Her usual language is Christian but she calls herself a post denominational person.