Welcome Rev. Cara Davis, our new Bridge Minister!
In 2000, Cara left parish ministry to work full time at Construct Inc in Great Barrington. Together with volunteers and partner organizations from the community and a dynamic Board of Directors, Cara developed an emergency fund for those unstable with their housing, a transitional shelter and a number of affordable housing units in the southern Berkshires. Lee Congregational Church has been a generous supporter of Construct since the 80’s, and a major donor in the development of a supportive housing project, Genesis House, for those who are chronically unhoused and want a new start.
After retiring from Construct six years ago, Cara returned part time to the parish. Her first short term ministry was here in Lee as Sabbatical Minister for three months, followed by an 8-month Bridge Ministry at First Congregation Church, Great Barrington. More recently she served as Designated Term Minister for three years at First Church of Christ, Congregational in Pittsfield, with a focus on helping the congregation navigate the sale of their church building, explore consolidation and create a new UCC presence in Pittsfield with members of South Congregational Church. These two churches are now under one roof and in the final stages of closing the old and founding a new church together.
Cara is a contemplative pray-er who not only practices contemplative disciplines but would love others to join her. She is committed to action for economic, racial, and environmental justice, and is in constant wonderment at the natural world around us and beauty of the Berkshires. She loves to take long walks, cleaning up the highways and byways of road trash as she goes. On behalf of the Berkshire Association, Cara serves on the Executive Board and is the chair of the Unified Fitness Review Committee for Massachusetts. She has volunteered at the food pantry at South Congregational and is on leave from the board of Cathedral of the Beloved in Pittsfield, hoping to return to that board in the next year. She also serves on the board of the Montessori School of the Berkshires.
Cara delights in her three children (Kiel, Kehr and Bryn), their partners, seven grandchildren, and her extended families – the Davises here in the Berkshires and the Barketts scattered across the US. Cara lives in Great Barrington with two obnoxious but loving dogs, Sula and Pi.