Barbara W. ten Hove
Jaco B. ten Hove
Married in 1990, Barbara Wells ten Hove and Jaco B. ten Hove are what’s known as a "clergy couple" team (sharing one full-time position at Paint Branch since 1999), although they each had separate and successful ministries before beginning their collaboration.
Jaco was born in Madison, WI, in 1951 but raised in Ridgewood, NJ, where he began attending the Ridgewood Unitarian Society around age six. He became extremely active as a leader in Liberal Religious Youth (LRY), the forerunner of today's UU youth program. His nine summers on staff at UU Homestead Camp in NY State were also very formative.
After graduation from high school (1969) came a lot of traveling and living in Denver for most of the 1970s, where he capitalized on his driving and mechanical skills to earn a living. In 1979, he returned to New Jersey to finish college, as valedictorian of Ramapo College with a 1982 degree in Contemporary Arts and a minor in Musicology. He then explored being a commercial artist and journalist but discovered that ministry was his calling, especially the craft of community-building.
In 1984 he began at Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley, CA, from which he received a Master of Divinity degree in 1988. After an internship in Sacramento, CA, he was called to serve the Edmonds, WA, UU Church just north of Seattle. In his ten-year ministry there (1988-98) he helped the church expand and improve their facility, double their budget and increase both community spirit and what he has come to call the "pan-generational" experience (across all generations). He led the local chapter of the Interfaith Alliance and was long-time treasurer and registrar of the UU Ministers Association's Chapter of the Pacific Northwest District.
Jaco was on the 1990 curriculum team that authored the influential Religious Education Renaissance Module (a professional training program) called "Ministry With Youth," and led the program once a year for the rest of that decade. He also served for five years (1998-2003) on the Steering Council of the UU Men's Network, including the last two years as president. He co-chaired the (mid-Atlantic) Joseph Priestley District’s UU Young Adult Ministries Task Force in 2000-01, and continues to be the logistics scribe for the Harper’s Ferry (WV) UU Ministerial Study Group.
Barbara was raised primarily in the Virginia suburbs of DC where her father, John Wells, was a Unitarian Universalist minister. She is a graduate of George Mason University and received her theological education at Meadville/Lombard Theological School in Chicago, IL.
After graduation in 1985, she accepted a position as Associate Minister at the East Shore Unitarian Church in Bellevue, WA, just east of Seattle. In 1990, she was asked to help form the Woodinville UU Church just up the road from Bellevue in a growing Seattle suburb. During her years in the Pacific Northwest she became one of the founding members of the WA State Interfaith Alliance, an organization designed to help counter the religious right. She served on the board and chaired the Peace Task Force of the church council of Greater Seattle. She also served on two Pacific Northwest District Committees and their Board of Trustees. She also has served on the Nominating Committee for the UUA .
Prior to starting their co-ministry at Paint Branch, Barbara and Jaco served during the 1998-99 year as interim senior co-ministers of the 400-member Jefferson Unitarian Church in Golden, CO, just west of Denver.
Since arriving at Paint Branch in 1999, they have been involved in the creation of numerous programs at the church including Worship Associates, Enrichment Hour, Spirituality and Creativity Circles, plus a variety of other less visible institutional developments. Together they served a two-year term as co-convenors of the UU Clergy Couples Association and have co-presented theme talks at numerous UU summer camps and conferences (especially their program called "Building F.A.I.T.H. in Community").
At General Assembly 2001 they were awarded the "Donna DiSciullo Award for Young Adult and Campus Ministry," which declared them "the epitome of what it means to be Young Adult allies." They also receive continued acclaim for their 2003 publication of "Articulating Your UU Faith: A Five-Session Course," which is already in a second printing by the UUA.
And in June 2007, after four years of work, Barbara earned her Doctor of Ministry degree (affectionately called a D.Min.") from Meadville Lombard Theological School, with a concentration on "Creating Quality Worship in UU Congregations." A book publishing effort is in negotiation.
They live happily in Greenbelt, MD, with one car and no children by choice. In that community, they have become very active and well known participants in the Greenbelt Interfaith Leadership Association.
To learn more about our ministers, read the sermons that they have given at PBUUC and columns that they have written for PBUUC's Branches newsletter.
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