Why Starr King Matters

Dear Beloved Community,

Welcome to The President’s Porch—a space where I’ll share monthly reflections, stories, and conversations that matter to the heart of our shared work. And today, I want to begin with a question that grounds me each morning as I take on this sacred role: Why does Starr King matter?

In my first few months as President, I’ve been sitting with this question deeply—sometimes on literal porches, sometimes in Zoom rooms, sometimes while reading late at night, reflecting on the swirl of news and need in our world.

We are living in a time of immense challenge. The headlines remind us daily of what’s at stake—growing political division, persistent injustice, environmental collapse, and rising distrust in institutions and one another. These struggles aren’t new, but in today’s hyperconnected world, they feel more intimate. They show up at our dinner tables, in our congregations, and across our social feeds. We feel them in our bones. The distance between the personal and the political is razor-thin.

And yet, in the midst of all this, I hold a quiet but persistent belief:
We still have a choice.

We can choose hope. We can choose truth. We can choose each other.

Our ancestors—those who marched, ministered, taught, prayed, resisted, and reimagined—have shown us the way. They didn’t wait for the world to be safe before they acted. They responded to the brokenness around them with fierce compassion and bold conviction. And now, that torch has been passed to us.

This is why Starr King matters.

Starr King School for the Ministry is more than a graduate school. It is a sacred trust. A prophetic space. A community where spiritual depth and social transformation walk hand in hand. We educate and form leaders who will not only preach from pulpits, but challenge oppressive systems, build inclusive communities, and love the world forward.

Rooted in the legacy of Thomas Starr King—a Unitarian and Universalist abolitionist who spoke out against slavery, fought for religious pluralism, and held a vision of human dignity for all—we carry that call forward today. His was not a ministry of comfort, but of courage. And that is the spirit we continue to nurture here.

In these early days of my presidency, I’ve had the joy of encountering our history and our people—students and alumni from all over the world, staff and faculty whose devotion shines brightly, and donors, board members, and community partners who give from a place of deep faith and fierce love. I was delighted to learn that even in its earliest years, Starr King welcomed a diverse student body: seekers from Japan, China, India—and across the U.S. This was never just a school for one type of leader. It has always been a global, justice-rooted, multi-religious movement.

History, as we know, has a way of circling back. But we are not helpless. We are heirs to a legacy of liberation—and builders of its future. Through the wisdom of our ancestors and the values they embodied—light, love, justice, and hope—we find our way forward.

So, from my “porch” to yours, I offer this reflection as a call to stay engaged. To remember who we are. To root ourselves again in the mission that defines us:

To educate people for Unitarian Universalist ministry and for progressive religious leadership in society.

That means welcoming the full spectrum of human experience. It means embracing multireligiosity not as branding, but as a sacred practice of honoring every person’s path. It means modeling what it looks like to live in community with integrity, curiosity, courage, and care.

In a world shaped by fear, Starr King dares to shape lives grounded in faith, purpose, and prophetic imagination.

This is why we matter.

Thank you for walking with me. I look forward to many more porch conversations in the months to come. May we continue to reflect, reconnect, and recommit—to each other and to the liberating future we are called to co-create.

With gratitude and resolve,
Dr. Stephanie L. Krusemark