Email:  RevStephanie@FirstChurchBoston.org

The Rev. Dr. Stephanie May strives to foster meaningful religious community within and beyond the walls of First Church Boston. Committed to an understanding of religious and spiritual life that remains rooted in the past while embracing the challenges and opportunities of the contemporary moment, Rev. Stephanie has a strong interest in the interplay of religion and society.

Prior to becoming ordained as a Unitarian Universalist minister in 2014, Rev. Stephanie earned a doctorate from Harvard Divinity School in Religion, Gender, and Culture. Her dissertation critically explored the rhetoric of home in feminist and postcolonial discourses. While at Harvard, she served multiple years as the Managing Editor of the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. Following graduation in 2012, she taught courses at Brandeis University and Boston College. Currently she is the Lecturer in Unitarian Universalist Polity at Harvard Divinity School. Rev. Stephanie also completed a Master of Divinity at Princeton Theological Seminary (2002), winning the Religion and Society Fellowship for her master’s thesis on single parents and social change. In 1993, Rev. Stephanie received a BA in Philosophy from Wheaton College (IL). 

From 2014 to mid-2023, Rev. Stephanie served as Minister of First Parish in Wayland where she was a leader in the Wayland Interfaith Leaders Association, a founding member of MetroWest Climate Solutions, and a driving force in the creation of the Lydia Maria Child Fund for Social Justice. 

As an academic, Rev. Stephanie has served as co-chair for the Women and Religion section of the American Academy of Religion, President of UU Collegium, and founding Co-President of the newly reorganized Unitarian Universalist Studies Network.

When not in her study, you might find Rev. Stephanie on a road trip camping or on the river kayaking. Raised in Michigan, Rev. Stephanie has called the Boston area her home for more than twenty years.  

To contact Rev. Stephanie, please email RevStephanie@firstchurchboston.org to set up a time to connect in-person, online, or by phone. Please note she is offline Mondays and Fridays for rest and study.