Staff
Rev. Dottie Yunger, Pastor
Pastor Dottie joined Solomons United Methodist Church as the lead pastor in July 2016. Prior to joining SUMC, she was the associate pastor at Metropolitan Memorial UMC in Washington, DC, a multi-site Methodist congregation with two churches and a mission center. She received her Master of Divinity and Master of Theological Studies from Wesley Theological Seminary.Additionally, she has served as the lead pastor for the St Luke’s Mission Center and mission ministries, an organization consisting of two transitional shelters, a three-acre urban farm, and campus kitchen which recovers 5,000 pounds of food to serve as 2,000 meals a month, to community members who are food-insecure.
Solomons is a perfect location for Pastor Dottie as she is also a marine biologist. She previously served as the Executive Director of Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake, an interfaith environmental organization in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.
Pastor Dottie has worked for the Smithsonian Institution, Discovery Channel, and the National Aquarium. She has studied ecosystem modeling and sea turtle conservation, mostly in warm, sunny climates. A public advocate for the watershed and its communities, she was also the Anacostia Riverkeeper.
She received a Bachelor of Science in marine science from the University of Maryland (fear the turtle). During her Master studies, her thesis was on environmental justice themes in the Hebrew Bible, comparing that to environmental justice issues in the Anacostia Watershed.
Recently selected for Earthkeepers, a ministry of the United Methodist Church, Pastor Dottie is a missionary who cares for and looks after the environment. As one of 40 inaugural Earthkeepers, she was commissioned in November 2016 in Atlanta, at the new home of the General Board of Global Ministries, to assist in building a three-acre farm in a ‘food desert’ in Washington, DC. The urban farm will raise produce and protein in an aquaponic environment to help control pollution and storm water run-off into the Anacostia River.
Link to video: Earthkeeper Pastor Saves Turtles
Pastor Dottie and her husband Philip call Solomons Island their home. She can be reached by emailing solomonsumchurch@gmail.com.
Roberta Bordash, Church Administratorsolomonsumchurch@gmail.com
In addition to her many other administrative duties, Roberta coordinates Children’s Sunday School, More Tasty Blessings, and our Food Pantry.