She Leads | She Preaches | She Advocates
When the Covenant Ministerium gathered for their annual meeting last month, three pastors were honored for their leadership: Rev. Ruby Varghese received the “She Leads” award, Rev. Tamara Fore‑Ravelo was named “She Preaches,” and Rev. Marti Burger earned “She Advocates.” Launched in 2020, the Women in Leadership awards Women in Leadership Awards were created to honor and celebrate the gift of women leaders, preachers, and advocates to the whole body of Christ.
She Leads: Rev. Ruby Varghese
With more than eighteen years in Covenant ministry, beginning starting in the Pacific Northwest Conference, Ruby Varghese has persevered through “closed doors” yet she continues to answer God’s call. She recalls, “I pursued other things, and God just kept calling me back. It’s been quite a journey.” Mentored by both women and men across the denomination, Ruby says her experience of authentic leadership grew out of learning to “take up space and be seen as my most authentic self.” Raised in “very white, male‑centric spaces,” she originally thought she had to mimic others’ styles. Over time, she “found the courage to be who I am,” celebrating a uniqueness that comes with being one of the Covenant’s few South Asian pastors. And although she describes herself as “a fairly quiet person” who dislikes the spotlight, she says she receives the “She Leads” award with a mix of validation and gratitude—and all the more meaningful shared alongside two peers she deeply respects.
She Preaches: Rev. Tamara Fore‑Ravelo
As the first Indigenous woman ordained in the Covenant, Tamara Fore‑Ravelo views preaching as inseparable from personal story. “When I think about preaching, coming from my context, it really means to preach from your life,” she says, noting that without the gospel she and many on her reservation would have died. In her community, which experienced high teen pregnancy rates, trauma, and under‑graduation, Tamara helped her family by “going dumpster diving in the middle of the night so that my sisters and other family members could have food and toiletries so we could go to school clean.” Driving her forward was the hope in the gospel that she held onto through every hardship. Although people in her life kept trying to convince her to set her sights for herself a lower, she studied at community college, then went on to earn a bachelor’s degree, an MBA, and an MDiv from Yale Divinity School. She affirms that she still “holds on to the Word that’s been preached to me.” She seeks to preach “with conviction and authority,” proclaiming God as “a healer, a chain breaker, one who restores, who renews, who revives us.”
She Advocates: Rev. Marti Burger
Marti Burger’s gift for advocacy began when she was in eighth grade and her family, who moved every year for her father’s work as in chemical sales, landed in St. Paul. The family was invited to First Covenant Church, where they found a home. “Norbert Johnson was the pastor, Fran Anderson was the youth pastor, and they were two important people in my life’s journey of coming to faith,” she remembers. Today, as director of vocational and spiritual development, Marti oversees Lily grants and leadership programs with the Serve Clergy team. Early on, she realized large events like CHIC (now Unite) depended on more than a single organizer’s gifts. “I needed people…with gifts beyond what they were doing in the church. And so I would partner with people, saying, ‘I see this gift in you,’” she explains. True advocacy, she adds, involves inviting others to the table. “I have had privilege, and I could either keep it to myself or share it with others and invite them to the table,” reflecting on learning from people like Debbie Blue, Cecilia Williams, Dominique Gilliard, and Kevin Farmer, who asked, “Who isn’t at the table, and what can we do about that?” She says receiving the “She Advocates” award reminds her how “much God has done through my partnership with others.”
These awards highlight not only individual callings but also the community of support that shapes them. Through “She Leads,” “She Preaches,” and “She Advocates,” the Covenant celebrates women whose courage, conviction, and collaboration strengthen the church’s body and mission.
