{"id":1722,"date":"2015-06-08T15:25:28","date_gmt":"2015-06-08T19:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/demo.uuatheme.org\/?page_id=1722"},"modified":"2024-05-09T10:05:48","modified_gmt":"2024-05-09T17:05:48","slug":"our-minister-and-staff","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/about-us\/our-minister-and-staff\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Minister"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-6938 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/A270461-1-scaled-e1690487715530-420x522.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"276\" height=\"343\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/A270461-1-scaled-e1690487715530-420x522.jpg 420w, https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/A270461-1-scaled-e1690487715530-824x1024.jpg 824w, https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/A270461-1-scaled-e1690487715530-768x954.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/A270461-1-scaled-e1690487715530-1237x1536.jpg 1237w, https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/A270461-1-scaled-e1690487715530-1649x2048.jpg 1649w, https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/A270461-1-scaled-e1690487715530.jpg 1875w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 276px) 100vw, 276px\" \/><\/h3>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Reverend Anthony Mtuaswa Johnson\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">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 \u201cNew Medinah,\u201d an African American Islamic Village now celebrating over 30 years in existence in southern Mississippi. Grandson of Sam \u201cLookum\u201d Johnson, so named for his seeming ability to look through his opponent\u2019s playing cards.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">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 \u201cMultikulti\u201d 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\u2019s organization dedicated to honoring the Sacred Masculine and is a former United States Army Signal Corps Captain.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mtuaswa has played ping-pong with Ted Koppel, produced PSA\u2019s with Ruby Dee, Ed Asner, and Mary Chapin Carpenter, utilized his media production <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">skills from Bud-Lite television commercials to the Peabody Award winning Tiananmen Square. As a Computer Animation producer for IBM, The New <\/span>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<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-7174 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Reverend_Anthony_Mtuaswa_Johnson_5-420x373.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"266\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Reverend_Anthony_Mtuaswa_Johnson_5-420x373.jpeg 420w, https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Reverend_Anthony_Mtuaswa_Johnson_5-768x683.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Reverend_Anthony_Mtuaswa_Johnson_5.jpeg 930w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>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; \u201cThe 1999 From Whence We Came Awards\u201d, hosted by Blair Underwood and Lynn Whitfield, featuring Nancy Wilson and the Mighty O\u2019Jays, which aired to over fifty-million homes.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recognized as a Master Poet by his peers, Anthony has performed sold-out performances of his one-man show entitled \u201cSpirit Talk\u201d, a one-hour b<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">lend of original poetry and music sprinkled with anci<\/span>ent and modern wisdom. His CD, entitled Spirit talk, is <i>\u201cSpoken Word for the Rest of Us, That Speaks to the Best in Each of us\u201d<\/i>. Mtuaswa, is also a Practicing Diviner and student in the Dagara spiritual tradition of Burkina Faso, West Africa, as taught by Malidoma Some\u2019, one of the world\u2019s most famous shamans, whom some refer to as the real Wakanda. He is author of the book of Poetry entitled \u201cWhat If God Is A Woman?\u201d and is an avid Tai-Chi Practitioner. A Husband, Father, Grandfather, Uncle, Friend and Brother, his autobiography, \u201cTap Dancing On A Razor Blade, A Brother\u2019s Tale,\u201d is slated to be released in the Spring of 2024.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His ministry is dedicated to Removing Unconscious Debris from the Soil of the Soul.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Reverend Anthony may be contacted directly at <strong><a href=\"mailto:minister@sedonauu.org\">minister@sedonauu.org<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Minister&#8217;s Messages<\/h3>\n<ul class=\"lcp_catlist\" id=\"lcp_instance_0\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/minister\/may-2025\/\">May 2025<\/a><div class=\"lcp_excerpt\">Our Living Garden\n<\/div><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/minister\/april-2025\/\">April 2025<\/a><div class=\"lcp_excerpt\">Awakening to Possibility\n<\/div><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/minister\/march-2025\/\">March 2025<\/a><div class=\"lcp_excerpt\">Embracing Change, Renewal and Interconnection\n<\/div><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/minister\/feb-2025\/\">Feb 2025<\/a><div class=\"lcp_excerpt\">Reflections: Love, Justice, and Renewal\n<\/div><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/minister\/jan-2025\/\">Jan 2025<\/a><div class=\"lcp_excerpt\">The Meaning of January\n<\/div><\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reverend Anthony Mtuaswa Johnson\u00a0 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 \u201cNew Medinah,\u201d an African American Islamic Village now celebrating over 30 years in existence in southern Mississippi. Grandson of Sam &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/about-us\/our-minister-and-staff\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Our Minister<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1705,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1722","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1722"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8154,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1722\/revisions\/8154"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}