I grew up in Southern California, where my immediate and extended families have lived since my great-grandfather came down from Canada during the Great Depression and met my great-grandmother in Los Angeles. Both she and my mother were Christian Science/New Thought practitioners, and church was central to life growing up. My brother, sister, and I rarely missed either Wednesday or Sunday services, but from an early age I was uncomfortable with how we practiced religion. Simply, I never believed in the religion’s faith-healing promises of a personal God who is more available to some than others. I followed the faith principally because our church life also formed the core of my family’s social life. It was our community. Between church youth group, summer camps, and twice-weekly worship services, religion touched every aspect of my life.
Leaving that faith, which had provided me a community for so long, was difficult, but when I discovered the Transcendentalists in a literature class, I saw a direction in which to head. Happily, my Cindy (we met at a Christian Science college), was on board with this change and we began attending our first of several Unitarian Universalist churches. We are currently members of the open and affirming United Church of Christ.
I entered seminary (Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago) in 2002, in large part a response to 9-11. I was questioning a career that had me reporting on the sidelines and longed to be more connected spiritually to the world and involved with social justice. After receiving my Masters of Divinity degree, for 12 years I served congreagations in Texas and Illinois before hearing a call to military chaplaincy. After high school I had served the Air Force for seven years as an enlisted member, and after a gap of two decades re-joined the Air Force in 2018 as a chaplain. In 2023, after facing a disability that left me unable to continue my active-duty service, I left the military a second time.
Ministry was actually a second career. My first was as a writer and editor. As I refocus my vocation on spiritual direction, I also return to a passion for writing.
My interests outside the ministry include music (trombone, guitar, and voice) and flying light airplanes. For more than 20 years I played with the Chicago-based, punk-rock inspired, transformational marching band Environmental Encroachment. I have played “serious” music with the “Gateway to the West” Air National Guard Swing Band, the Solano Winds, Benicia’s Jazz Gorilla, Japan’s Okinawa Community Band, and currently the Verona Area Wind Ensemble. I also serve the Civil Air Patrol/Air Force Auxiliary as the Wing Chaplain for Wisconsin.
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