Welcome to this website for the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Santa Fe. I’m so pleased that you are taking the time to explore our congregation. Finding a faith community can be quite an adventure. Let me assure this is a good one – lovely people, strong values, open hearts and lots of creativity, energy and enthusiasm.

I grew up in southern Minnesota, the oldest child of a physician and an artist, graduated from St. Olaf College with degrees in art and English, added a teaching certification from the University of Minnesota, and taught elementary school art for a couple of years. Craving a job where I could talk about art as a tool for making meaning I started a master’s degree in Aesthetics and Critical Theory at the University of Texas at Dallas. I ended up transferring to Harvard Divinity School when I realized that ministry was  a better setting for me to help people of all ages reflect on how  we might live meaningful and rewarding lives.

While I am a new comer in Santa Fe, having been called to the congregation in May of 2011 and arriving here in August, I have been serving as a UU minister for sixteen years. I served UU congregations in Weymouth, Swampscott and Cambridge, MA immediately following my graduation from Harvard Divinity school in 1995. I was called to the First UU Church in Houston TX in the spring of 1998 and I served there happily for almost  ten years. Most recently I served for three years as the interim at the UU congregation of Duluth, Minnesota at the tip of Lake Superior.

My husband, Nathaniel  Marriner, and I have been married for twelve years. Nathaniel is a cabinet maker and furniture builder who recently “retooled” as a physical therapist’s assistant and is working in that capacity at Casa Real and the Santa Fe Care Center. We are the proud parents of eight year old twins. Our current family projects are exploring the bike trails near our home, learning what will grow here and adding chickens to our family menagerie.

As a spiritual humanist whose religious experiences are deeply rooted  in the natural world I am thrilled to be living a part of the world that is both beautiful and ecologically savvy. As a parent and a gardener, a community member and a minister I believe that congregations exist to help people  grow our souls and practice the arts of community so we may transform our culture and help heal our planet.

If you have questions that aren’t answered on the website – or if you would like a conversation, I can be reached  by email at minister@uusantafe.org and by phone at 982-9674.

I look forward to meeting you in church sometime soon!

Blessings, Gail