St. Paul Unitarian Universalist minister Rob Eller-Isaacs dies at 70
Rob Eller-Isaacs, a co-minister of Unity Church Unitarian in St. Paul believed that everyone should have a spiritual practice, some daily ritual to center them. He often helped parishioners cultivate their own and many consider this one of the greatest gifts they’ve received from the Eller-Isaacs ministry. As a Unitarian Universalist minister, Eller-Isaacs’ own spiritual practice included singing, memorizing poetry, doing Tai Chi, reading, journaling and praying.
Eller-Isaacs, who had been diagnosed with cancer, died recently at the age of 70.
He could sing hundreds of songs across genres and religious traditions by heart.
“When you’re standing in the sanctuary at Unity Church and the whole congregation is singing, you could hear his voice for better or worse above everyone else in the sanctuary,” said his daughter, Hannah Franco-Isaacs. “And every time it would happen, I would look at whoever I was at church with and be like, ‘can you hear that?’ … I’d make eye contact with someone else participating in the service who was standing quite close to him and they’d start laughing.”
Eller-Isaacs was born in Chicago. on Nov. 7, 1951. He served as the co-minister of Unity Church Unitarian in St. Paul for more than 20 years alongside his wife, Janne Eller-Isaacs. In February he was diagnosed with metastasized bile duct cancer and he passed away on July 23.
As a child, he was a founding member of the Chicago Children’s Choir, a group that now has thousands of members. It inspired his lifelong love of singing and commitment to multiculturalism. This and other Unitarian Universalist groups gave him a sense of ministerial calling while he was still just an adolescent.
He never got his bachelor degree, instead spending his collegiate years traveling to places like the World Peace Conference in India. In his early twenties, he got his Masters of Divinity from Starr King School for the Ministry, a Unitarian Universalist graduate school. Unitarian Universalism is a religion that forgoes dogma, embraces an all-inclusive spirituality and has a strong legacy of social justice work.
“He really deeply believed that there are no other people’s children,” Franco-Isaacs said, “that you love everyone as if they were your own.”
Jen Crow, a senior minister at First Universalist Church of Minneapolis, knew Eller-Isaacs for more than 20 years. She said the notion that there are no other people’s children was central to his ministry. “That was a guiding phrase he would use in a lot of his speeches or sermons. Just that we are all responsible for each other, that there’s not some separation and if we can learn to have the same kind of love we have for our kids or for someone who’s dear to us for everyone, then that will change our hearts and change our actions.”
Janne Eller-Isaacs described her husband as someone who believed in the promise of a multicultural world and constantly had his heart broken by the imperfections of our own.
“He believed in the intersection of social justice and spiritual development as inexorably connected. He thought it was a real flaw in ministry that people were like ‘I’m an activist minister’ or ‘I dwell in the life of the Spirit.’ It was like no, you have to do both.”
Rob was a leading figure in the national Unitarian Universalist community, serving for two years as president of the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association. Before the couple began ministry in St. Paul, they served in Oakland, Calif., for almost 20 years. There, Rob was a founding chairperson of the Oakland Commission on Homelessness. In Minnesota, he continued to serve the unhoused in his role as co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign Minnesota. Racial justice was central to his ministry and he was instrumental in securing $5 million funding for Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism.
In 2017, the Unitarian Universalist church commissioned an audit to address institutional racism and a lack of diversity in church membership and leadership. Eller-Isaacs welcomed the criticism, saying “that means not shrinking when I’m afraid I’m going to be called a racist, patriarchal, old minister.”
His wife described him as fiercely devoted to his family. The two retired to Portland, Ore., in June of 2021. She said, “He was really, really looking forward to retirement. He would light up when the grandchildren would come into our home.”
A Portland service will take place at 3 p.m. on Sep. 10 at the First Unitarian Church of Portland and the St. Paul service will take place at 3 p.m. on Sep. 17 at Unity Church Unitarian. Both services will be live streamed and information will be shared to Eller-Isaacs’ CaringBridge site.
