The Reverend Dr. Terrlyn L. Curry Avery has served as the Pastor of MLK Community Presbyterian Church since 2018. Prior to serving in this capacity, she served as Interim Pastor/Head of Staff at St Andrew Presbyterian Church in Groton, Connecticut as well as the Pastor at the Elmont Presbyterian Church in Elmont, NY.
Dr. Curry Avery believes strongly that we are all divinely created and loved unconditionally. Her mantra is that we are all the manifestation of God and must embody the Christ that lives within us. She teaches that “We aren’t simply playing church. We are the church.” To that end, she expresses the importance of showing the love of God to all of humanity, advocating for social justice, and evaluating our actions based on our status as God’s children. She also champions individuals to live to their fullest potential and manifest their greatness in order to help others to manifest the greatness within them.
In her work both as an ordained minister and as a licensed psychologist, Dr. Curry Avery is well aware that embodying Christ and manifesting the God within is not always easy, particularly when individuals have been wounded, even more so when those wounds are grounded in religion. She has observed how religion has served as both a healing balm and as an instrument of wounding for many individuals. These wounds range from rejecting all connections with God to self-hatred to remaining in abusive relationships to refusing medical intervention to a belief that “MY” religion is the only religion of moral authority.
Dr. Curry Avery’s mission is to help heal religious wounds through teaching individuals to recognize the impact of these wounds on a personal level (e.g., depression, poor self-worth, unhealthy lifestyles, and toxic relationships) as well as on the broader society (e.g., violence, hate, discrimination, and hostility). Facilitating the healing process requires an understanding of the complexities of religious convictions and its relationships to one’s psychological and emotional development. Dr. Curry Avery consistently teaches the importance of healing all wounds, spiritual, mental, psychological, and social in order to shine the light of God into the world.
Dr. Curry Avery holds a doctorate in clinical psychology from Hofstra University and a Masters of Divinity from Yale University. She also has a Masters of Arts in psychology from American University and a Bachelor of Science in psychology from Howard University. She is the founder of Sacred Intelligence, LLC, whose mission is to help people manifest their greatness by connecting with their internal sacred source. She is the author of Sacred Intelligence: The Essence of Sacred, Selfish and Shared Relationships. Dr. Curry Avery was also the host of the Public Access Show: Sacred Intelligence TV with Your Host Dr. Terrlyn L. Curry Avery. Rev. Curry Avery published her best-selling second book, Dismantling Racism: Healing Separation From the Inside Out, in April 2022.
Dr. Curry Avery lives in Connecticut with her family and a rambunctious dog.
To read an excerpt from her book, Sacred Intelligence: The Essence of Sacred, Selfish and Shared Relationships, click here.
To view her TEDx New Bedford talk (2017), Wounded by Religion: Healed by the Sacred, click here.
To read an excerpt from her best seller book (2022), Dismantling Racism: Healing Separation from the Inside Out, click here.
To hear her preach, join us on Sunday mornings at 10 AM.