Rev. Witko was ordained on November 5, 2005, at Sayville Congregational UCC in Sayville, NY by the Suffolk Association of the New York Conference of the UCC. She joined the UCC as a lay-person in the spring of 1988, becoming a member of the Sayville Church at that time. Formerly Lutheran, and then Methodist, Ellen remembers thinking that if she could have invented a denomination on her own, it would have looked just like the UCC. Ellen loves the diversity, in every way, that is the United Church of Christ. She loves that we are bound by covenant, that we are a church of “firsts”, and that all people are welcome.