Meet our sabbatical minister!

Greetings and SalUUtations!

I’m so pleased to begin my time as UUCPA’s Sabbatical Minister! I’m grateful to Rev. Amy and the sabbatical search team for their confidence in me, and very much look forward to getting to know many of you as our time together unfolds. For the moment, however, I’d like to offer some very brief introductory background on myself.

I grew up in St. Paul, MN, third in a family of four boys. My college educator parents moonlighted as musicians in a liberal Lutheran church in Minneapolis, and though the theology never took I still appreciate the community this provided. With dad the choir director and mom the accompanist/ organist I also appreciated music early, and it remains one of my staple soul-foods. I’ve also been steadily active in sports and the outdoors.

After college I left the Twin Cities to attend a graduate program in Oakland, CA, led by innovative spiritual thinker/teacher Matthew Fox, with whom some of you may be familiar. That experience profoundly expanded my cultural and spiritual perspectives, which moved me to do further grad work in mass media at San Francisco State.

For some years I worked in various facets of the media field, which included moves to Washington D.C. and Los Angeles. In LA I got married (later amicably divorced) and became a dad to a terrific daughter (now 23) and son (20), the latter of whom is now a junior at Cal. (Apologies to any Big Game Cardinal fans.) But workwise I eventually decided to switch gears. 

This ultimately led me to attend UU seminary, and upon graduating in 2014 I became the contract minister of the Santa Clarita Valley UUs in northern LA County. I subsequently served the Humboldt UU Fellowship in far northern California from 2021-22 as a contract minister, then as Interim minister in Duluth, MN this past year.

While being back in my home state has been good, at least for now I wanted to return to a major California metropolis. So I was delighted when UUCPA appeared on the radar!

There’s obviously more to share, and I’ll do so during some of my early worship services with you (where you’ll also hear much more about my spiritual perspectives!), and in other ways. Yet I hope this brief overview provides an initial personal sense of me.

Again I look forward to getting acquainted, to doing some good work together, and enjoying lots of fun and laughter along the way.

Many Blessings,

Rev. Peter Farriday