John Cullinan

I’m a Massachusetts native, and a Midwest transplant. Prior to arriving in Chicago for seminary, I lived in Milwaukee for fourteen years. While there, I earned a BA in Theatre with a minor in Theology from Marquette University. My life after college revolved around hopping from job to job to pay the bills while spending my evenings as an actor, writer, and director in the Milwaukee amateur and semi-professional theatre scene.

Church, however, has always played a large role in my life. I’ve been taking the scenic route towards ministry for almost half my life. My family and I moved to Chicago in 2003 so I could begin seminary. I graduated from Meadville Lombard Theological School in June of 2007. I am in preliminary ministerial fellowship with the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations(UUA).

In 2005-2006, I served a ten month internship at Unity Temple UU Congregation in Oak Park, IL. I also served as their 2006 summer minister.

During the 2006-2007 church year, I served as the part time “MOD” minister for the Lakeshore Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Manitowoc, WI.

I live in Los Alamos, NM with my wife, Jess, and our two children. I am a full time pastor at the Unitarian Universalist congregation there.

My ministry is based upon the belief that there is something ultimate that calls individuals out of the self and towards something greater than the self, and that we come together in community in attempt to draw closer to this ultimate horizon. I remember all too clearly the pain of feeling drawn towards something larger, of praying for direction and feeling as though my prayer was unanswered – not realizing that, as the poet Rumi writes, “The longing you feel is the answer.” My ministry begins in seeking out the seeker, in drawing them into the community, in being a companion to them as they move with us toward the object of our shared longing, and in reminding the gathered community that moving towards the infinite is not a goal that can be achieved, but a process that has no bounds and must continue without ceasing.

I practice a ministry that creates a sense of family, that tells its members you are loved unconditionally – and there’s nothing you can do about it. I practice a ministry that affirms a person’s doubts and uplifts the need for continual critical inquiry into all aspects of life. Finally, I practice a ministry that seeks to free the essential person within. Human beings make many personal compromises to survive in today’s world and are so often wounded by the choices they feel they have to make just in order to get by. I am a Unitarian Universalist minister because I feel called to help people look past the compromises and the wounds to find their essential selves, help them heal, and prepare them to practice this same work in the wider world.