Our Ministers
Rev. Charlie Ortman, Senior Minister
 For me, ministry is working collaboratively with colleagues and congregants to promote ever greater opportunities for transformation - individually, in the community, and in the world. Ministry is promoting the possibilities and probabilities of goodness in what often seems like a broken world. The efforts of my ministry to individuals promote a sense of spiritual wholeness and healing while establishing connections to the world around us and to those in it. Reaching out beyond ourselves and our homes, the strength of the religious community is where I find the greatest hope for working cooperatively and sustainably with other like minded persons in helping and healing our communities and our world.
Rev. Judy Tomlinson, Associate Minister
 I
was born in South Jersey but because my father worked for oil refineries,
our family began to move around the world when I was two years old.
As a child, I lived in Indonesia, the Phillippines, California and
Panama. I graduated from Coco Solo High School in the Canal Zone
and began college at Christian fundamentalist school, Wheaton College
in Wheaton, IL. In my second year I left to get married and moved
to Southern California. My husband and I had a gardening business
for ten years that supported our volunteer work at the Unitarian
Church of Orange County in Anaheim, CA as well as the Anti Nuclear
and Freedom of Information movements. It was at UCOC that I became
a Unitarian Universalist and an active religious educator.
For three years I was Co-Director of de Benneville Pines Unitarian
Universalist Camp and Conference Center. I served the Orange Coast
Unitarian Universalist Church from 1989-1992 and the Unitarian Universalist
Community Church of Santa Monica from 1992-2000 as Director of Religious
Education. I began my preparation for the ministry in the Modified
Residency Program at Meadville/Lombard Theological School. In 1996
I transferred to a school closer to home. Upon graduating from Claremont
School of Theology and passing the Fellowship Committee, I moved
to Montclair, NJ to begin my ministry. Happily I was called, ordained
and installed this year.
Our Affiliated Community Ministers
Rev. Gordon Clay Bailey
 Gordon
Clay Bailey was born in Harlem’s Sydenham Hospital. He is the
third child of Joseph A. Bailey and Helen A. Gordon (Bailey). He
attended public and private schools in Manhattan and graduated from
The University of the District of Columbia, Washington D. C. with
a BA in Anthropology and Sociology.
Rev. Bailey has worked as a Group-Home Supervisor, Child Advocate
and Recreation Director for Catholic Charities. Additionally, he
served as a Vocational and Career Counselor for Job Corps while
pursuing his graduate studies in Counseling at SUNY Oneonta. He
attended Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC and earned
his Masters of Divinity there. He has been a Chaplain Resident at
Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore and a Supervisory
Resident for Clinical Pastoral Education at Saint Johns Episcopal
Hospital in Far Rockaway, New York.
Gordon has served congregations in Los Angeles, CA, Washington,
DC, Utica, NY, Oneonta, NY, Garden City, NY, and New York, NY. He
is a certified Pastoral Counselor with the College of Pastoral Supervision
and Psychotherapy and a trainee at the Harlem Family Institute where
he is currently pursuing his Psychotherapy certification. He also
has a small practice in Counseling, Coaching and Consulting individuals
and families.
Rev. Bailey lives in Harlem and is the father of three children,
Jennifer, Devin and Ethan and has one granddaughter, Kai Bailey.
He now serves Harlem Hospital Center as its Associate Director of
Pastoral Care and coordinates a Clinical Pastoral Education program.
Rev. Linda Goonewardene
 Linda
was born in Watford, England to parents with German, British, and
Sri Lankan heritages. She grew up in Ottawa, Canada as a product
of public schooling, public libraries, Brownies, Girl Guides, and
the United Church of Canada.
Linda has undergraduate degrees from Carleton University (Psychology
& Sociology) and McMaster University (Sociology). She has worked
in volunteer administration with non-profit agencies serving women
in conflict with the law, and children and adolescents with mental
health issues.
In moving to the United States, Linda connected with the UU Church
of Greater Lansing in Michigan. She has been a UU for 24 years.
After moving to New Jersey and becoming a stay-at-home parent, Linda
was a lay leader with the First Unitarian Society of Plainfield.
She graduated from Drew University with a Masters in Divinity, while
serving as a chaplain-in-training with a Quaker retirement home.
In 2002, she started working with Integrity House, a non-profit
agency dedicated to empowering people with substance abuse problems.
Linda has worked in the Education Department, and with the long-term
residential treatment programs with women, adolescent males, and
presently with men. She is a Licensed Clinical Alcohol and Drug
Counselor.
Linda lives and works in Secaucus, NJ with her partner, David Barker.
She is the parent of Sarah and Maxwell Mellies. Linda is passionate
about healing, wholeness, thinking globally and acting locally,
and the power of creativity to bring meaning and justice to our
planet.
Rev. Jacqueline C. Lahey
 Jackie
is a native New Yorker who grew up on Long Island, where she went
to the beach every day in the summers of her childhood. She graduated
from The College of William and Mary in Virginia, then served four
years on active duty as an officer in the U.S. Army, with duty stations
in South Korea and San Antonio, TX. She worked for non-profit organizations
in San Francisco and New York City, and earned her Master of Divinity
degree from Union Theological Seminary. She was ordained as a Unitarian
Universalist minister in 1998 at the Community Church of New York
in Manhattan.
After graduation from Seminary, she served as an ecumenical chaplain
at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ,
as a hospice chaplain with Odyssey Healthcare in Edison, NJ, and
as coordinator for the New Jersey Unitarian Universalist Network
for Promise the Children, which was based in our own UU Congregation
at Montclair. She now works as a hospice chaplain for Compassionate
Care Hospice, providing pastoral care to terminally ill patients
in their homes and in nursing homes throughout Bergen and Passaic
Counties.
She is married to Scott Lahey, and they have two children, Patrick
and Margaret, who are enthusiastic participants in the RE program
here at UUCM. They live in Maplewood, and enjoy the Jersey Shore
as a family as frequently as their schedules allow.
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