About Sharon
Sharon Delgado is an ordained United Methodist minister, author, activist, and public theologian who leads seminars and workshops, preaches, and speaks before spiritual communities and secular audiences on issues related to globalization, climate change, economic and environmental justice, and peacemaking, while pointing in the direction of deep spirituality and love in action. By demonstrating the link between spirituality and social action, she offers a spiritual perspective and inspires action toward personal and social transformation
Sharon is a founding director of Earth Justice Ministries, an interfaith organization working for peace, justice, and restoration of the community of life. Sharon is Convener of Fossil Free UMC, which advocates for the United Methodist Church to divest from fossil fuels. She is a member of the Coordinating Committee of the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement, which works across United Methodist denomination to coordinate actions related to creation justice.
Sharon is author of Shaking the Gates of Hell (2007, 2020), Love in a Time of Climate Change (2017) and The Cross in the Midst of Creation (2022). An updated Second Edition of Love in a Time of Climate Change will be released in the spring of 2025. The book is a Wesleyan approach to climate change and climate justice, which uses scripture, tradition, reason, and experience to explore these issues. In her books, Sharon names the invisible powers that influence human behavior and that are embodied in today’s domination system, and points in the direction of resistance and transformation.
Sharon lives in Nevada City, California, with her husband, poet Guarionex Delgado, and enjoys walking with him in the woods and playing with their grandchildren. She loves to dance.
PREVIOUS PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Sharon Delgado has been advocating for peace, justice, and the environment for over forty years. In 1979 she was employed as an organizer for the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign. She is a speaker, teacher, workshop leader, organizer, and nonviolent action practitioner.
After her ordination in1991, Sharon was pastor of Newcastle United Methodist Church. From 1993-1999 she was pastor of Santa Cruz First United Methodist Church. In 1996 she and her husband Guarionex Delgado founded Earth Justice Ministries, and she served as Executive Director until 2019. Throughout the 1990s she was the Environmental Justice Coordinator of the California-Nevada Conference of the United Methodist Church, then Chair of the Conference Board of Church and Society. Sharon was a presenter at many environmental justice conferences for the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society and the National Council of Churches. She wrote educational and worship materials on climate change for both organizations.
Sharon joined the staff at the Resource Center for Nonviolence in Santa Cruz and served there from 2001- 2005. In 2002 she was awarded the Bishop Leontyne Kelly Peace with Justice Award from the California-Nevada Methodist Federation for Social Action. She was Executive Director of Earth Justice Ministries until 2019 and continues to serve on the Board.
EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE
Sharon earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Social Science, with a concentration in Peace/War Studies, from California State University in Sacramento. She earned a Master of Divinity Degree and a Master of Arts Degree in Religion and Society, with a focus on environmental ethics, from Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley. Sharon has engaged in independent study over the years, synthesizing material from many fields, both secular and religious, and learning through her activism. She regularly attends, teaches, and participates in conferences, workshops, and seminars. She is a Climate Reality Presenter, trained by Al Gore. In 2010 she underwent a 30-week intensive study and practice of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, at Mercy Center in Auburn, California. She has had an ongoing contemplative prayer practice for decades.
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
- Convener of Fossil Free UMC.
- Member of the Coordinating Committee of the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement.
- Clergy member of the California-Nevada Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.
- Former Chair and founding member of the California-Nevada Climate Justice Ministries Task Force.
- Founding director of Earth Justice Ministries.
- Climate Reality Project Presenter, trained by former Vice President Al Gore.
- Toastmasters International: Distinguished Toastmaster Award.