Rev. Frances Leigh Deverell was called to the Unitarian Congregation of Saskatoon in 2003. Before that she served in a transition ministry at Don Heights Unitarian Congregation in Toronto. She has her Masters of Divinity from the Vancouver School of Theology and did her internship with the North Shore Unitarian Church in West Vancouver. This follows a 25-year career in Management Training and Organizational Development. Frances is the author of a Practical manual: Training Needs Assessment. She is the author of Finding Common Voice, the Canadian congregational handbook for social responsibility. (see CUC website.) She was a member of the Canadian growth team for the Canadian Unitarian Council. She was Keynote presenter at UCGT (Unitarian Congregations of Greater Toronto) Midwinter Retreat in 2002, and provided pulpit supply, and congregational workshops to small congregations in Southwestern Ontario. Frances was twice the minister-in-residence at Unicamp. She is a passionate Unitarian, and is devoted to building strong religious community in congregations and in our larger movement.

Before going into ministry, Frances came to Unitarianism through the Regina Unitarian Fellowship in 1983. She was also a member of congregations in London, Ontario, and Coquitlam B.C. She grew up in Saskatoon. Her father, Fred Deverell, was a professor of Education at the University of Saskatchewan. Frances has a 21-year old daughter, Karen Abramson, who lives in Vancouver. Her mother, Katherine, is in a seniors’ residence in Victoria. Her brother John is a journalist in Toronto and her brother Peter, a forester in Lillooet, B.C.