Reverend Allison Barrett
I am an Ordained Unitarian Universalist Minister who has found my Calling in parish, hospital and campus ministry settings and also in a ministry of words – writing and crafting worship and rites of passage. I love to help and to use the gifts are brought to life in me for the benefit of others. I have another website that contains some of this lifework – please feel free to explore it for more of my story. www.allisonbarrett.ca
In my personal life, I am blessed to be essentially a happy person, but it’s also true that I am intimately “acquainted with grief.” Through the losses of all my biological children before they walked this earth, my eldest sister and soulmate Joanie, my best friend and Maid of Honour Jennifer and then, in 2017, my incredibly beloved and wonderful husband Peter, it seems as if life has given me a practicum in all those courses on ministry to the bereaved I had to take in theological school!
After ministering to others for more than 25 years and then experiencing these losses myself, I decided to try and turn some of that suffering into learning – for myself and others. I believe that pain can become redemptive if you use it help others. This website grew out of that belief.
As I write, it’s been roughly five years since Peter died. It’s been a long journey with many stumbles along the way, but I can feel in my heart that I am no longer in the same painful place I was at the beginning or even in the middle. Grief is always with you, it has no end, but from this vantage point I can look back and say that neither does Love.
Love is forever, and the love you shared with the one you lost will also be with you forever.
If one thing I have written or shared helps you or makes you feel less alone, I am grateful.
Allison