Nicole Lamarche is a minister in the United Church of Christ, a spiritual creative and a faith-based organizer and community leader. She currently serves as Pastor of Community United Church of Christ in Boulder, CO.
A dreamer and a doer, a partner and a parent, a lifelong member of the United Church of Christ, and ordained minister since 2005. She served two congregations in Massachusetts before co-creating what is now called Urban Sanctuary San Jose.
Committed to building a just world for all beyond the walls of sacred spaces, Nicole was a member of the Interfaith Tent at Occupy Oakland as part of Occupy Wall Street. In San Jose, she supported efforts to ban fracking in California and was a member of People Acting in Community Together working on the movement for Black Lives, the Rapid Response Network, Night Walk and more.
She is currently a co-conspirator with the Colorado Poor People’s Campaign and a member of the Faith Leaders Caucus of Boulder County with Together Colorado.
- Devoted Dreamer
- Spiritual Leader
- Prophetic Preacher
- Prayerful Pastor
- Religious Innovator
Nicole also works closely with Colorado Faith Communities United to End Gun Violence, GreenFaith and more. Nicole is dedicated to fresh expressions of spirituality and loves the church as a place for each person to be seen, to belong and to be actively engaged in building a just world for all creation.
She’s served churches in New England, before co-founding a congregation of progressive Christians, agnostics, spiritual independents and other people of conscience in Silicon Valley, now called Urban Sanctuary San Jose. She is dedicated to fresh expressions of spirituality, the search for meaning and religious community.
Nicole earned a BA in International Studies from the University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ. In 2003, she won the title of Miss California and went on to earn Fourth Runner-up at Miss America. In 2005, Nicole earned her Master of Divinity and a MA in Theology with a focus on Feminist and Process Thought from the Pacific School of Religion and the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA.
“People with power will use their position to convince us to vote against our own interests and to mistrust the margins and the voices that are not centered, but that doesn’t mean the ones on the sidelines are wrong. When any leader of any political party or group claims that their policies are especially blessed by God, beware. We should celebrate any politician that is willing to become unelectable for the sake of a Higher Love!”
– Rev. Nicole Lamarche