Randy K. Hammer

Randy is a creative inspirational thinker, writer, poet, Nature photographer, certified naturalist, and retired Congregational (UCC) minister.  For 45 years he has studied the scriptures and spirituality and has read extensively the naturalist writings of Henry David Thoreau, William Bartram, John Muir, John Burroughs, John James Audubon, Aldo Leopold, and others, as well as Nature poets William Wordsworth, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, William Blake, Mary Oliver, and Wendell Berry.

Among Randy’s passions are Nature photography and Nature writing, woodworking, Route 66, visiting America’s national parks. With his family, he has visited all 50 U.S. states; has visited Israel and Jordan, Canada and Mexico, and Nicaragua; and has driven the entire length of Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica Pier.  Seeing a connection between spirituality and the natural world, Randy finds in Nature a sense of the Sacred.

Education and Experience

Doctor of Ministry degree in Congregational Leadership, Meadville Lombard Theological School, 2004

Master of Arts in Literature, Tennessee State University, 1994

Master of Divinity, Memphis Theological Seminary, 1983

Bachelor of Science in Philosophy/Religion and English, 1979

Christian Minister, 1977-2021.  (Ministerial standing in the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches and United Church of Christ)

Certified Naturalist through the Southern Appalachian Naturalist Certification Program through the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.