Reverend Anthony Mtuaswa Johnson 

Rev. Anthony Mtuaswa Johnson, Mississippi born, and Chicago bred, is an ordained Unitarian Universalist Minister, speaker, writer, poet, producer, soldier, teacher, mentor and Elder. Son of Abdul Hakim Shareef, founder of “New Medinah,” an African American Islamic Village now celebrating over 30 years in existence in southern Mississippi. Grandson of Sam “Lookum” Johnson, so named for his seeming ability to look through his opponent’s playing cards. 

Anthony is currently serving as Minister at the Sedona Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Sedona, AZ. He is the former Minister of the Humboldt Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Bayside, California and former Assistant Minister/Director of Congregational Life at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Phoenix, Arizona. He served his Internship at the Sedona UU Fellowship in Sedona, Arizona and did his CPE at Banner Medical Center, the sixth busiest trauma center in the country. A former counselor of young Black kids on the south side of Chicago, he has also counseled and taught child soldiers in Liberia, West Africa, and taught communication skills in an Illinois maximum security state prison and to ex-offenders in Atlanta, Georgia. Anthony is the proud founder of “Multikulti” an organization dedicated to Multicultural Anti-Racism Workshops and dialogue between Black and White men. His teaching experience includes the U.S. Army Command and General College, the U.S. Army Disciplinary Barracks, Highland Community College, Pontiac State Prison, Lewis University and Columbia College. He is an Initiated member of The Mankind Project, a men’s organization dedicated to honoring the Sacred Masculine and is a former United States Army Signal Corps Captain. 

Mtuaswa has played ping-pong with Ted Koppel, produced PSA’s with Ruby Dee, Ed Asner, and Mary Chapin Carpenter, utilized his media production skills from Bud-Lite television commercials to the Peabody Award winning Tiananmen Square. As a Computer Animation producer for IBM, The New York International Film Festival recognized his Producer skills for Computer Animation with a Silver Medal. Anthony has also held the position of Director of Production and

Operations for Black Entertainment Television (BET), overseeing the production of all cable programming. As an independent producer he managed the nationally televised one-hour special; “The 1999 From Whence We Came Awards”, hosted by Blair Underwood and Lynn Whitfield, featuring Nancy Wilson and the Mighty O’Jays, which aired to over fifty-million homes.

Recognized as a Master Poet by his peers, Anthony has performed sold-out performances of his one-man show entitled “Spirit Talk”, a one-hour blend of original poetry and music sprinkled with ancient and modern wisdom. His CD, entitled Spirit talk, is “Spoken Word for the Rest of Us, That Speaks to the Best in Each of us”. Mtuaswa, is also a Practicing Diviner and student in the Dagara spiritual tradition of Burkina Faso, West Africa, as taught by Malidoma Some’, one of the world’s most famous shamans, whom some refer to as the real Wakanda. He is author of the book of Poetry entitled “What If God Is A Woman?” and is an avid Tai-Chi Practitioner. A Husband, Father, Grandfather, Uncle, Friend and Brother, his autobiography, “Tap Dancing On A Razor Blade, A Brother’s Tale,” is slated to be released in the Spring of 2024.

His ministry is dedicated to Removing Unconscious Debris from the Soil of the Soul.

Minister’s Messages

• September 2023
  We come to a new Fellowship year, beginning afresh as we flow like smaller streams, bringing our gifts and our uniqueness into the great river of our Beloved Community. From the many, joining as one, we celebrate the strength, love and joy we find together. Each year we come together at summer’s end, together again ...
• May 2023 (from Minister & President)
  It’s been quite a year, and we have much to reflect upon, to celebrate, and to look forward to. Our reflections on our past year will be in the Annual Report. This message is a glimpse into the upcoming year which looks so bright, we’re “gonna hafta to wear shades!”
• April 2023
  “Nine More”
• March 2023
  March 21st marks the third gathering of our UU History Class. In this episode we encounter Unitarian Universalism as it arrives on American shores. Maybe that’s why the following poem showed up, inspired by Francis Ellington Abbot, Cyrus Augustus Bartol, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
• February 2023
  We celebrate and acknowledge the contributions of African-Americans during this month recognized as” Black History Month” with a salute to The Ancestors.
• January 2023
  Welcome to the Year 2023! Let us greet this year with open Arms and Hearts! We celebrated the Winter Season of 2022 by recognizing the Holidays of Christmas, Hanukah, and Kwanzaa. We Unitarian Universalists recognize and honor these Holidays and Holy Days in a Living Tradition that calls us to be aware of changes …
• December 2022
  Greetings and Blessings All, Welcome to our season of Winter Holidays for all and Holy Days for many. During this month we will share messages concerning “Widening The Circle,” an embracing of those who have been systemically excluded. We will remind ourselves of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and reaffirm our belief in and ...
• November 2022 – A Sinner in Winter
  Let this be a message of Gratitude and Appreciation for all that has come so far, and all that is to come, to this Fellowship in our upcoming future. May we defy the esteemed Mr. Eliot and continue to learn from and about one another. In the mean-time and in between time… Be More Than ...
• October 2022 – Laps Have No Gender
  The concerns, the confusion and the chatter around the issue of Gender reverberates in my head this morning. I recall the message of the famous Persian poet Hafiz, who when asked “How does it feel to be a man?” replied “I view Gender as a beautiful animal that people often take for a walk on a ...
• September 2022 – Welcome Forth
  Normally, at the beginning of a new SUUF year we would say Welcome Back! These are not normal times, so I say, Welcome Forth! These are times that, I believe, we are being called forth, not back.
• May 2022 – Minister’s Message
  I received a very special tattoo this morning. My five-year-old grandson and ten-year old grand-daughter were excited to share their tattoo offerings with me this morning. Together, we opened a yellow Easter egg shaped plastic container. Inside were paper tattoos, which when wet, were easily applied. After receiving my blue big-eyed goldfish tattoo, I began ...
• April 2022 – Minister’s Message
  As we all watch the nightly coverage of the horror of the war in Ukraine, I wonder about the concept of war and violence around our world. I also discovered that Ukraine, in fact, is older than Russia. Kyiv (Capital of Ukraine) is 665 years older than Moscow. “Kyiv” was founded in 432 CE, in ...